Detailed Information on Publication Record

Ukrainian emigration to the Czech lands in the interwar era had mainly political causes. A significant majority of the first generation of immigrants later took advantage of the opportunity to return to their homeland, where many of them subsequently became victims of communist persecution. Between the wars, a network of Ukrainian educational and cultural facilities was established in Bohemia and Moravia with the support of the state. The life of Ukrainian emigrants developed essentially independently of the activities of the Ruthenian and Ukrainian communities in the east of the country. The Nazi occupation regime tried to win the support of the Ukrainians against the USSR. The reputation of Ukraine and the Ukrainians in the eyes of the Czech public was damaged by armed clashes with the Bandera troops after World War II. The advent of communism led to the destruction of the remnants of interwar Ukrainian institutions. However, the state support of the research on the life and institutions of the then USSR enabled the development of ethnographic and linguistic research on Ukraine. Under the conditions of the Communist regime, there was also a certain extent of convergence of the remnants of the interwar emigration with East Slovak Ukrainians and Ruthenians in the cultural field. However, the full renewal and development of the minority‘s public life were achieved after 1989. The fall of the USSR also meant intensive economic emigration from Ukraine to the Czech Republic. The results of a sociological survey on photographs by Jindřich Štreit from the environment of the current Ukrainian community show a high degree of integration of Ukrainians in the Czech lands and their mostly positive acceptance by the majority society.