The publication “Vasyl Mudry. The Art of the Possible: A Democrat in the Era of Dictatorships and Totalitarianism”, in 3 volumes, was presented for the first time at the Via Carpatia International Forum in Lviv. And last week, the trilogy edited by Ola Hnatiuk was presented in Warsaw during a debate on the threat of totalitarianism and the importance of democracy. The event brought together leading Polish and Ukrainian historians, journalists, publicists and politicians.
The three volumes of the publication contain documents, photographs, memories, letters, materials about the outstanding Ukrainian – Vasyl Mudry – one of the key figures of Ukrainian political and public life of the interwar period (1893–1966). He was a deputy and vice-speaker of the Polish Sejm, editor-in-chief of the newspaper “Dilo” and co-founder and chairman of UNDO.
This is the tenth book in the series “Ukraine. Europe: 1921–1939”, published by the publishing house of the Ukrainian Catholic University. The afterword to the edition has 140 pages.
Vasyl Mudryi was an opponent of the “Sovietization” of Galicia and understood the danger of the Soviet regime for Ukrainians. It is significant that the NKVD started two forms on Vasyl Mudry at once – in the 1930s and after the war: they were also found in the archives.
“Only democracy can preserve peace for us. And Vasyl Mudryi wrote about this in the last century. But unfortunately, he was not heard then either in Poland or in Ukraine. That is why this book has such a pessimistic title – “The Art of the Possible”, – People’s Deputy of Ukraine Mykola Kniazhytskyi emphasized in his speech during the presentation.
The guests of the event were also well-known figures: Polish journalist and dissident – Adam Michnik, researcher in the field of Ukrainian studies, translator Ola Hnatiuk, member of the Supervisory Board of the NGO All-Ukrainian Democratic Forum Larysa Kniazhytska, public figure, journalist of Ukrainian origin – Myroslav Cheh.
