Bahrianyi, Ivan

Chomu ia ne khochu vertatys' do SSSR? [Why I Do Not Want to Return to the USSR?]

Winnipeg, Canada: Nakladom Komitetu Ukraintsiv Kanady, 1946. Item #1533

38, [2] pages. Small softcover pamphlet (approx. 11.5 × 15.5 cm). Text in Ukrainian. Original printed wrappers, blue lettering. Ownership marks and institutional stamps. Small creases to wrappers, else very good.

First edition of Ivan Bahrianyi’s celebrated pamphlet, written in exile in 1946. Framed as a personal declaration, the work denounces forced repatriation of displaced Ukrainians and exposes Soviet terror: mass arrests, NKVD torture, collectivization, famine, and the destruction of Ukrainian culture and intelligentsia. Addressed both to Western authorities and to fellow émigrés, Bahrianyi’s testimony combines autobiography with political accusation, presenting the USSR as a system of enslavement and genocide. The pamphlet quickly circulated in multiple European languages, becoming one of the most widely read Ukrainian anti-Soviet texts of the immediate postwar period.

Price: $150.00