UKRAINIAN CANADIAN COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES IN INFORMATION AND ANALYTICAL MATERIALS OF THE KGB OF THE UKRAINIAN SSR

Abstract

The aim of the research is to analyze the activities of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (UCC) which attracted chief focus of the Committee of State Security (KGB) of the Ukrainian SSR and are accordingly reflected in its information and analytical materials. The research methodology is defined by an interdisciplinary approach and is based on general scientific and special scientific methods, first of all, retrospection and historical comparison. The scientific novelty of the research is that on the basis of declassified documents of the Soviet secret services the problems of the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, which were of most interest to the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, have been determined. The intelligence obtained information about the UCC’s plans and initiatives was used in campaigns against the Canadian Ukrainians to “disintegrate” the Ukrainian Diaspora. The Conclusions. The UCC’s activities, aimed not only at preserving Ukraine’s cultural heritage overseas but also at uniting emigrants around the idea of liberating Ukraine and representing the world, contradicted the official Soviet ideology and undermined Moscow’s propaganda efforts. As a result, the UCC’s activities came to the forefront of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR, whose staff recorded key moments of its actions in the form of information and analytical materials. The greatest interest of the KGB, which had unconditional practical significance, was caused by: the history of the UCC and its structural development; resolutions adopted at congresses; international campaigns (for example, related to systematic human rights violations in the Ukrainian SSR, honoring the victims of the Holodomor of 1932 – 1933, etc.); the participation of the Canadian politicians in the UCC’s activities (any support for the Canadian Ukrainians by the government or individual politicians was seen as cooperation with Western intelligence services); existing differences and measures to discredit the organization. Taking into consideration the fact that the UCC consisted of more than three dozen organizations, the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR was interested in deepening the differences between them, and thus complicating the activities of the UCC. The Soviet special services carried out operations to spread disinformation or the so-called “profitable” material in Canada, trying to cause a split among the Canadian Ukrainians, to create the atmosphere of mistrust and mutual suspicion. The KGB’s “active measures” were designed to minimize the effects of the UCC’s anti-Soviet measures. The perspective direction of the research is the study of the peculiarities of the work of the KGB of the Ukrainian SSR with foreign agents and the conduct of special operations aimed at “disintegrating” the Diaspora.

Key words: Diaspora, Ukrainian Canadian Committee, Committee for State Security (KGB), information and analytical materials, discrediting.