From the History of the Support of the Opposition Movement in the Ukrainian SSR by the Foreign Centers of the Oun in the 1970s

Based on numerous factual materials, much of which has been introduced to scientific use for the first time, the authors attempted to characterize the ways in which foreign OUN centers established contacts with the opposition movement in the Ukrainian SSR in order to provide it with material, moral, and ideological support, as well as to obtain materials and information about the persecution of dissidents and human rights violations from its representatives, which were banned by communist censorship, for use in anti-Soviet propaganda. The article shows that tourist travel became an extremely important channel of contact between the OUN's foreign centers and the opposition intelligentsia in the Ukrainian SSR. For example, in 1970–1972, about 200 thousand foreign tourists visited the republic. Of these, 10,000 were of Ukrainian origin. The number of the latter was constantly growing. In 1973 there were already 4,873, in 1974 – 5,743, and in 1975 – 6,626. Now relying on the creative intelligentsia and the younger generation-"humanitarians and intellectuals" – Ukrainian organizations abroad contributed to the development and strengthening of dissidence in Ukraine, bringing the time of its independence closer. The KGB authorities, in turn, hindered these contacts in every way possible, making great efforts to discredit foreign OUN organizations and individuals opposed to the Soviet regime in the Ukrainian SSR.