Housing issue of Ukrainian emigration in inter-war Czechoslovakia (1920s)

Abstract

The purpose of the article is a comprehensive analysis of those forms of solving the housing issue (the provision of free social housing by the czechoslovak leadership, its permission to rent and purchase housing), which were inherent in the Czechoslovak Republic and which were offered to Ukrainian political refugees who found shelter in this country in the 1920s after the defeat of the national liberation struggle of 1917–1921. Research methodology. It is based on a combination of general historical methods and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of sociocultural adaptation. Among the main research methods are problem-historical, comparative, specific-historical, and source analysis. Scientific novelty is the consideration of the Ukrainian emigration housing issue in the context of the temporary nature of the 'Russian relief action'. Conclusions. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian political emigration failed to resolve the housing issue. Firstly, this was explained by the 'Russian relief action' itself. The leadership of the CzSR did not hide its hopes for a quick change in the political regime in Ukraine; it was convinced that the political Ukrainian opposition, which had found refuge in Czechoslovakia, 'if not today, then tomorrow' would return, come to power and play a major role in the revival of the new Ukraine, reconstructing and europeanizing it. Secondly, Ukrainian political refugees had to reckon with the lack of finances as such, and, therefore, rely exclusively on temporary social free housing. Thirdly, it was not necessary to discount the numerous attempts by the USSR to morally decompose Ukrainian political emigration in the interwar Czechoslovakia by exploiting the non-monolithic nature of its political platform (the povorotnytstvo of 1925-1926). And fourthly, the closure of the Czechoslovak labor market for 'non-Czechs' and the gradual normalization of Czechoslovak-Soviet relations in the late 1920s contributed to the failure to resolve the Ukrainian emigration housing issue. Ukrainian political exiles quickly left temporary social free housing, looked for work (worked and studied with scholarships) to rent a room or apartment. Only a small proportion of Ukrainian emigrants managed to purchase their own housing.