World War II in Ukraine: Provincial Press of Ukraine under
German Occupation (cities of Uman' and Ivankov)
By Vladimir Danilenko,
Director of the State Archive
of the Kiev Oblast’
The State Archive of the Kiev Oblast’ (GAKO) stores the following: The
collection (fond) FR-2033 Publishing House of the newspaper ”Umanskii golos” run
by the Gebietskommissariat of the town of Uman’, Kiev province, containing 6 del
(1941-1943); and the fond FR-2330 Editorial Office of the newspaper “Ivankovskie
vesti”, the town of Ivankov, Kiev province, containing 6 del (1941-1943).
The 1941-1945 period in Ukraine was that of a military-political confrontation
between the two totalitarian systems – one of the Nazis and the other of the
Bolsheviks. The press of the occupation period had its own part to play. The
development and running of the German and Ukrainian press and publishing were
made the responsibility of the German publishing and printing society in Ukraine
(VDТU, based in Lutsk), which incorporated a number of relevant societies. With a
view to rebuild the Ukrainian newspaper and printing industry, the society founded
the Press Society in Ukraine, which was in charge of all newly created local
publishers, printing facilities and other similar businesses and held the exclusive right
to guide them in the matters of publishing and logistics. Besides, the central society
provided those businesses with newsprint, ink and other consumables. By the start of
1943, they reinstated 140 printing facilities, which printed 75 newspapers in
Ukrainian and Russian. The job of “Society of Consumer Press in Ukraine” was to
turn out posters, cards, forms and other printed matter for the authorities.
A magazine of information called “Ukrainian Press Service” was intended for
the Ukrainian press and published in Berlin during the war. It had a supplement,
“Soviet Press Reader.” The publication was regarded as substantive and well edited.
Besides, there was a “Press and Photo Service of Ukraine’s Propaganda Department”
operating in Kiev and there were special sections in Wehrmacht units that prepared
for the press information of military nature. Newspapers in German intended for
German armed forces were published around Ukraine in Lutsk, Kiev,
Dnepropetrovsk, Kherson, Vinnitsa, Poltava, Nikolaev and Krivoi Rog. The
OUN/UPA [Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists/Ukrainian Insurgent Army] also
had its own publications, which it also funded. Soviet newspapers (including those
published by the partisans) also appeared in Ukraine during the war.
All in all, upward of 500 periodicals (almanacs, news bulletins, newspapers
and magazines) were published during the occupation period; more than 200 of them
were published under the sponsorship of the occupation authorities.
Popularity of the periodicals was steadily growing as was their print run
because they hired the finest researchers and writers. They constantly printed useful
farming and veterinary hints, traditional cures for various diseases, stories, poems,
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humor, cartoons, and things of interests for adults and children, etc. Much attention
was paid to factual material and the course of military operations.
Documents included in this collection offer the researcher the possibility to
read what the provincial press wrote about during the war.
The Publishing House of the newspaper “Umanskii golos” was active during
the period of Nazi occupation of
Uman’, presumably from September 1941 to
March (Uman’ was occupied 26.07.1941 and liberated 10.03.1944). The publishing
house incorporated the newspaper and its printing shop. The newspaper was
published by the Uman’ City Council and mainly carried documents of informational
nature and promoted the Nazi “new order.” Its first issue is dated 1 September 1941.
It appeared 2 times a week in 6,500 copies and was read by almost 180,000 people.
The collection has one chronologically arranged opis’. It remained in the secret
stacks until it was declassified 20.12.1995.
The collection includes proofs and separate issues of “Umanskii golos” that
carry news items and articles about the course of military operations on the Eastern
Front and on other theaters of military operations (it had the following headings
“From the Fuhrer’s Headquarters,” “War News.”) The reports brought news about the
fighting near Moscow, the capture of Kharkov and Kremenchug, and the fighting in
Donbass. There were also analytical articles: “Military Operations Outside Red
Moscow,” “Ukraine under Red Moscow,” “Two Patriotic Wars” comparing the war
of 1812 and of 1941, clearly not in favor of the latter), “The Triple Alliance Stays
Unchanged” (Germany, Italy and Japan), “Why the Germans are Certain of Victory
in the East,” etc. Among the published documents are government statements in
German and Ukrainian; directives issued by the Reichskommissar of Ukraine;
resolutions issued by the Uman City Council of 17 October 1941 “On the
Introduction of State Taxes.” Separate sections of the ruling dealt with “a tax
applicable to Jews” to be levied by each Gebietskommissar, special terms of paying
the wages to Jewish employees, banning the Jews from getting jobs at all commercial
public outlets: stores, hotels and canteens. The heading “Ukrainian Life” brought
news about the appointment of two new bishops, the restoration of cultural life: the
production by the local city stage company of Kvitko-Osnov’ianenko’s comedy
“Svatannia na Honcharivtse,” a Musical comedy called “Kolombina,” about the start
of a new school year in Uman and around it, and the organization of schools in Kiev.
The page reserved for literature carried poems, short stories, funny ditties, proverbs
and sayings many of which criticized the Soviet government and Stalin (“Stalin’s
Constitution is mere prostitution – it promises heaven but rips you off”), a send-up of
the poem about the Communist party written by Pavlo Tychina, Soviet Ukrainian
poet, etc. There are also orders to the publishing house staff concerning production
routines and personnel. For example, Order No. 36 issued 11.11.1943 designates
“Zatkheev to take the place of the printing shop chief at P.I. Petrov’s printing
establishment who has left.” According to other sources, a clandestine-patriotic group
led by P.I. Petrov was active at the printing establishment during the occupation, and
its members were subsequently arrested and executed. There are announcements
about the launching of a search for prisoners of war, accounting documents, lists of
the publishing house employees, a directive issued by the chief of the Kiev General
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District and by the Gebietscommissar of Uman’ about the appointment of the
publishing house director and the newspaper editor, etc.
The documents are in Russian and German.
FR-2330 holds documents of the “Ivankovskie vesti” office documents. The
newspaper was publishing throughout the occupation of Ivankov between August
1941 and November 1943. as the organ of the Ivankov Gebietskommissariat (Ivankov
was occupied 23.08.1941 and liberated 11.11.1943.) It covered world news, the
situation at the fronts, in Ukraine, around Ivankov, directives issued by the local
authorities, and it also it promoted the German “new order.” The first issue of the
newspaper is dated 1 October 1942, its circulation was 5,000, and it had a readership
of almost 85,000.
The collection has one opis’ with no coherent structure. The collection was in
the secret stacks until it was declassified 09.12.1996.
The bulk of the documents in the collection are materials of the Berlin-based
press center and the Service of Ukrainian Correspondence based in the city of Rovno,
which contain informational articles of military, political, economic, cultural,
religious and general-knowledge nature, as well as poetry, satirical articles, cartoons,
etc. Among them are reports about the battles at Stalingrad, the Kursk Bulge, Lake
Ladoga, in the Caucasus, Kuban’, North Africa, China, on the Pacific, air battles
between German and English air forces, naval combats and so on. A number of
articles criticized Soviet realities and Stalin as a person: “The New Tricks of the
Kremlin Murderer” (delo 1, pp. 1-3), “Under the Banner of Dmitrii Donskoi” (delo 3,
p. 214), “The End of Marshal Tukhachevskii” (delo 2, Vol. ІІ, pp. 59, 65); a series of
articles under the general headline “Dzhugashvili” revealed the unknown pages of
Stalin’s biography and his criminal and terrorist past.
An article headlined “Vinnitsa: a City of Tears” and a number of other articles
deal with the executions by the NKVD of tens of thousands of Ukrainian workers and
peasants during the prewar years and mass graves of the Stalin terror victims in the
city park.
Materials about the mass execution by Soviet Chekists of Polish military
officers in the Katyn forest (Belorussia). A number of anti-Semitic articles: “A Yid is
an Enemy,” etc, which speak of the domination of Jews on a world scale. Some of the
articles interpret the revolutionary changes in Russia as a Jewish coup staged with
support of American capital, blame the NKVD crimes on Jews (mass executions of
Ukrainians in Vinnitsa) and portray the Second World War as a war unleashed by the
Jews in order to exploit the German people and other European peoples and as
Germany’s struggle against “Judeo-Bolshevism.” The articles headlined “Today’s
Germany,” “Berlin: A View from Outside,” “Germany: A Country of Health
Resorts,” “German Football. Sports during the War” presenting a positive view of life
in Germany. Materials about rebuilding the economic and cultural life in Ukraine:
“Normal Living Returns to Kharkov,” “Cottage Industries Grow on Wide Scale
(Dnepropetrovsk),” “In Chernigov,” “Gardening in Ukraine,” “Transport Institute in
Dnepropetrovsk,” “School for Tractor Drivers in Cherkassy,” “Furniture Factory in
Zolotonosha,” “New Tractors,” “Health Protection,” “Industrial Plant,” etc. Articles:
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“Voltaire,” “The Painter Goya,” “One Hundred Years of the Morse Code,” “Olga
Kosach’s Reminiscences of Her Sister, Lesia Ukrainka,” “Ukrainian Theater in
Dnepropetrovsk,” the fables “The Sparrow and the Eagle,” “The Two Philosophers;”
“Spring is Here” (from the traditional calendar of months); “Ukrainian Girls in
German Households,” etc.
The documents are in Ukrainian and German.