Cultural and Propaganda Activities of Ukrainian Nationalists in Occupied Kremenchuk, Poltava Region (1941–1943)

Abstract

The article analyses the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in the state-building processes of the Ukrainian people during World War II, with a special emphasis on the activities of its cells in the city of Kremenchuk, Poltava region. In the context of the modern Russia-Ukraine war and the rethinking of historical memory, the study of the regional specifics of the resistance movement in Eastern Ukraine acquires special significance. The purpose of the study is to analyze the cultural and propaganda activities of OUN cells in occupied Kremenchuk. The authors examine the mechanisms of using legal institutions — the periodical press, the museum, and educational structures — as instruments for countering totalitarian propaganda and forming national consciousness in a region that had been under prolonged Soviet ideological influence. The methodological basis of the research includes a comprehensive content analysis of the occupation newspaper «Dniprovska Khvylia» combined with the study of memoirs and archival documents of the Soviet special services. The article reconstructs the strategies of “soft power” used by the nationalist underground. The study highlights the biographies and activities of key local figures — Dmytro Barkovsky, director of the Kremenchuk Local Lore Museum, and Mykhailo Shchepansky, editor of the «Dniprovska Khvylia». It is established that OUN activity in the city was not limited to political agitation but focused on the “cultural front”: the return of the Ukrainian language to public administration, the popularization of national symbols, and the restoration of historical memory. Special attention is paid to the underground’s rescue mission, specifically the network involving military translators for liberating prisoners of war through the fabrication of documents. The novelty of the research lies in introducing littleknown facts about the interaction between the OUN and the local intelligentsia into scientific circulation. The authors conclude that despite brutal repressions by the Nazi administration in 1942, the cultural and educational activities of nationalists in Kremenchuk succeeded in laying the spiritual foundations for the revival of Ukrainian identity on the Left Bank.