Information on the thesis

The  thesis  is  dedicated  to  a  comprehensive  study  of  Ukrainian  Free  Cossacks
movement in Ukraine and in emigration (1919 – 1993 years). The historiography and the
source base of the problem are studied. The features of the activities of organizations of
the Free Cossacks and its forces on the final stage of the Ukrainian revolution in 1919 –
1923 years are shown. The place of the Free Cossacks movement in the development of
the  UNR  Army  and  its  influence  on  such  phenomena  as  «ataman»  and  «guerrilla»  was
found. The activity of the Free Cossacks organizations and groups during the development
of the insurgent-partisan movement of the 1919 – 1923 years was analyzed. The role and
place of the Free Cossacks’ organizations activity in the Ukrainian military emigration in
the interwar period was studied. The number of emigrants “second wave” of the Ukrainian
emigration was determined.
The organizational and legal structures, the ideology and directions of the activity of
the various Cossack organizations in Europe and Ukraine between the two World Wars
were  examined.  The  essence,  character  and  ideology  of  the  Russian  Free  Cossacks
movement and its relations to the Ukrainian emigration were found out. The orientations
of  the  Cossacks’  nationalist  movement  foreign  policy  in  1927  –  1939  years  were
characterized. The reasons of conflict between the Ukrainian nationalists Cossacks with
Free Cossacks at the territory of Volyn were shown. The Nazi Germany’s plans according
the usage of immigration Cossacks organizations in the Second World War were studied
and their relation to those plans was depicted. The causes of the cooperation  of the Soviet
citizens with the Nazi regime were displayed. The attempts to use the Cossacks units on
the  side  of  Nazi  Germany  in  1941  –  1945  years  at  the  territory  of  Ukraine  and  other
European  countries  were  analyzed.  The  attempts  of  General  A.Vlasov  to  subdue  the
Ukrainian collaborationist units were examined.
The peculiarities of activity of the Free Cossacks movement after the World War II
were considered. The organizational and legal structure, the ideology and directions of the
activity of organizations of the Ukrainian Free Cossacks in the second half of the twentieth
century were disclosed. The further destiny of the movement of the nationalist Cossacks
was studied. The activity of the modern organizations of Free Cossacks in Ukraine and
abroad at the beginning of the XXI century was investigated.

Keywords: The Ukrainian Free Cossacks movement, the UNR Army, the insurgent-
partisan movement, the Ukrainian military emigration, the Cossack collaborationist units,
the movement of the Cossacks-nationalists, the «third wave» of Ukrainian emigration.