Our Notes & References

Striking propaganda postcard by the Ukrainian Youth Association, published in the USA for the Anti-Communist Youth Manifestation in New York, September 30, 1951, in the midst of “the national crusade against domestic communism” (Schrecker) powered by Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. Showing an imaginary flag of the “Russian-Bolshevik Communist Empire of U.S.S.R.” with the symbols of the two-headed crowned eagle and hammer and sickle broadly crossed out, the postcard sees the Soviet Union as being mostly Russian, and the same coloniser and exploiter of Ukraine as was the Russian Empire.

The Ukrainian Youth Association [Spilka Ukrainskoi Molodi], known by the acronym SUM, was founded by Mykola Pavlushkov in 1925 to engage the youth in support of the struggle of the Ukrainian people for liberation and the formation of an independent democratic Ukrainian state. It became most active after the Second World War among the Ukrainians who refused to return to their homeland under the Soviet regime. The SUM US branch began its work in 1949, and by 1952, the association existed in 14 countries. It is still active today in Ukraine and worldwide.

Bibliography

Ellen Schrecker, “The Growth of the Anti-Communist Network” // The Age of McCarthyism: a Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martin’s Press, 1994.