Documents and Archive Materials of “Plast Detachment ‘Chervona Kalyna’, New York, 1925–2006”

The Plast detachment “Chervona Kalyna” was founded in 1925 in the city of Stryi (now Lviv region) by the members of the 5th youth kuren named after Kniaz Yaroslav Osmomysl, who were students of the local gymnasium. In 1928, the name of the kuren was changed to the Plast detachment “Chervona Kalyna”. From September 1930, when the Polish government officially banned the Ukrainian Plast until the beginning of World War II, members of the detachment operated underground, often under the threat of death or imprisonment. During the war, more than half of its members died with weapons in their hands in the ranks of the UPA, in the NKVD torture chambers, or in the fascist concent­ration camps. Those who survived, before the moscow invasion of 1944, left their native land and were forced to emigrate, ending up in displacement camps in Germany and Austria (1945–1950), and later, the majority moved to Ameri­ca. Thus, from 1950, the detachment’s headquarters were located in New York. Its members took an active part in the creation of Plast in the USA. Settlements of the Plast detachment «Chervona Kalyna» operated in Australia, Aust­ria, Argentina, England, Canada, Germany, and France. The organization’s goal was to promote the liberation of Ukraine from russian occupiers. After the declaration of independence of Ukraine in 1991, it revived its activities in Stryi. Three generations of scouts created the archive of the detachment. It was founded in 1946 in Germany, as during the Polish rule, the detachment was prohibited, and it was only abroad that it became possible to start writing the history of its organization. The formation of the archive lasted until the end of 2006. On February 25, 2007, the archive of the Plast detachment “Chervona Ka­lyna” (New York, 1925–2006) was transferred for permanent storage to the Manuscript department of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Uk­raine in Lviv. The archival holdings include books, periodicals, and serials published by the Plast detachment “Chervona Kalyna” during 1947–2006. Until now, this archive, both as a complete documentary mass and individual groups of its documents, has not been the subject of separate research. The paper, for the first time, considers its structure and composition, providing a general characteristic. Keywords: Plast, Plast detachment “Chervona Kalyna”, archival holdings, Manuscript Department of Vasyl Stefanyk National Scientific Library of Uk­raine in Lviv.