Union of Ukrainian Student Organizations under Poland

Union of Ukrainian Student Organizations under Poland (Союз українських студентських організацій під Польщею; Soiuz ukrainskykh studentskykh orhanizatsii pid Polshcheiu, or СУСОП; SUSOP). A semilegal union of Ukrainian student groups in Poland. Active in 1931–9, SUSOP united Ukrainian students from 5 university cities and 65 district sections; the total membership was nearly 2,500, approximately 83 percent of the Ukrainians in postsecondary schools in Poland. SUSOP was formed at a meeting of the Central Student Committee in Lviv in 1931, where it established its plans to undertake cultural-educational work as a means of strengthening the national consciousness of the Ukrainian masses. In 1933 SUSOP assumed a portion of the mandate of the Central Union of Ukrainian Students, and its journal, Students’kyi shliakh, became the official voice of both co-ordinating bodies. Strongly influenced by the temper of the times, SUSOP sought to instill a nationalist spirit in its members. The Polish government retaliated in 1934 with repressive measures: the organization’s first three presidents were arrested, and publication of the SUSOP journal was prohibited (it resumed publication under a new name only in 1938). In 1939 all the delegates to the organization’s Seventh Congress were arrested. Notable members of SUSOP included Volodymyr Yaniv, Dmytro Shtykalo, Rostyslav Voloshyn, and V. Rudko.

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