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The article is devoted to the attempt to comprehensively analyze the features of the Lemko cultural diplomacy during 1940–1980s, when, in the conditions of their own statehood absence, there was left the only opportunity for the Lemko’s ethnic identity promotion abroad. It has been found out that the coordinating center for the Lemko organization cultural activities on the American continent was carried out by the Research Institute of Lemkivshchyna in America in 1976. The analysis has convincingly demonstrated the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy, which was implemented by representatives of the Lemko organizations in the United States and Canada. Its purpose was to promote the history and culture of the Rusyn-Ukrainians in the Western world, as well as protect the values of ethnic uniqueness and Ukrainian unity from the communist propaganda media attacks. The diversity of practicies used by the Lemkos comprised the following: the publishing activity of the scientific and cultural (the collection of works by B. I. Antonych, the Lemkivshchyna magazine, the two-volume encyclopedic edition «Lemkivshchyna: earth-people-history-culture») and propaganda (for example, a series of the English-language publications aimed at informing the Western world about the Lemkos forced eviction from their native lands during the first post-war years) content, museum activity (first of all, the Ukrainian Lemko Museum in Stanford), picketing of diplomatic establishments in Poland and the Soviet Union with a massive media involvement. The abovementioned activity made it possible to preserve the cultural identity of the Lemko migrants in a globalized Western world and establish their unity with the Ukrainians. The prospective continuation of this research presents the need for a holistic study of the XXth century foreign Ukrainians cultural diplomacy phenomenon. |
