Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth

Union of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth (Союз української націоналістичної молоді; Soiuz ukrainskoi natsionalistychnoi molodi, or СУНМ; SUNM). A co-ordinating body for Ukrainian nationalist youth groups in Galicia, formed in 1926 out of the Group of Ukrainian Nationalist Youth. SUNM sought to activate Ukrainians (particularly youths) in the nationalist cause. The union had its greatest strength in Lviv (with headquarters in the Academic Gymnasium of Lviv), although its members frequently toured villages with plays, public lectures, concerts, and the like. The union quickly assumed a leading role in the Ukrainian nationalist movement and became one of the founding members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, after the establishment of which, in 1929, SUNM disbanded. The union published the newspaper Smoloskypy in 1927–8. Leading SUNM figures included Osyp Bodnarovych, I. Habrusevych, Stepan Lenkavsky, Bohdan Kravtsiv, Stepan Okhrymovych, and Mykhailo Dobriansky-Demkovych.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]