MYROSLAV PROKOP’S ARCHIVE IN THE FUNDS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF MANUSCRIPTS OF VASYL STEFANYK NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC LIBRARY OF UKRAINE IN LVIV

Abstract

The article considers the main content and issue-based characteristics of the archive of Myroslav Prokop (1913–2003) – a well-known public and political activist, publicist, a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council.
The author attempted to outline the archive on its thematic and issue-based principle, to highlight the main features and to illustrate its importance for researchers of the history of the National Liberation Movement and the Ukrainian Diaspora. The archive is stored in the Department of Manuscripts of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Ukraine in Lviv where it was transferred by a famous Ukrainian philanthropist O. Antonovych in 2009. The archive includes biographical materials; articles, M. Prokop’s reviews and reports; correspondence, which chronologically covers the period from 1946 to 2001; information about the organizations a member of which the founder was. It also includes materials about other people, in particular not only about prominent representatives of foreign Ukrainians but also famous Ukrainian politicians of the 1990s.
The creation of the archive is at the final stage, and it is divided into several thematic and issue-based units. The major part of the archive consists of the founder’s fiction and scholarly materials, however, it has fewer numbers of personal documents (biographical materials). Studies of Myroslav Prokop’s social and political activity constitute an important part of the archive. They are represented by documents about the functioning of the institutions, organizations and institutes with which M. Prokop cooperated. Also, materials about Shevchenko Scientific Society’s activity in the US and M. Prokop’s cooperation with this scientific organization are valuable. Some documents which are preserved in the archive (in particular, about the Ukrainian Republican Party) affirm close ties with various Ukrainian political forces following Ukraine’s declaration of independence. After introducing the archive into scholarly circulation, it will be useful for those who are interested in learning about the life of the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA after the Second World War.