Overview of Activities of Ukrainian National Councils of 1948–1957 in the Light of Archival Sources (for Fonds of TsDAZU)

The purpose of the article is to cover the history and stages of development and activity of the Ukrainian National Council (UNRada) as a preparliament in the structure of the State Center of the UNRada in exile. Research methods. The research is based on general scientifi c methods of analysis and historicism. In order to cover more widely the activities of the Executive Body of the UNRada (EB of UNRada) in the international arena as a government, which acted together with the Presidium of the UNRada between its sessions and carried out a number of events, aimed at implementing the state policy on the liberation aspirations of the Ukrainian people, the principles of systematization and objectivity were used. Scientifi c novelty. Based on the documents of the Central State Archives of Foreign Archival Ucrainica (TsDAZU) and published sources, a brief overview of the main stages of the UNRada's activity is presented and the methods of its work as a representative body in a special format – the pre-parliament – are revealed. Emphasis was placed on the principled position of the UNRada and the leadership on the unconditional observance of the positions of the sovereignty of the Ukrainian nation in relations with the American Committee for Liberation from Bolshevism (ACBB). Attention is paid to the participation of the UNRada in international politics, in particular in the activities of the League for the Liberation of the Peoples of the USSR, or so-called the Paris Bloc, in order to oppose the Soviet Union in its expansionist and colonialist policies; the attempts of the UNRada to take part in the structures of European international organizations, in particular the Eastern European bloc of independent states, which in the future would become an integral part of a broader format - the United Europe. The conclusions state that the State Centre of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the UNRada as its component testifi ed to the continuity of the state-building process of Ukraine, pointing to their representative function in foreign policy and emphasizing the signifi cant role of the UNRada in consolidating of political forces of Ukrainian emigration. It is also noted that the documents of the fonds of the TsDAZU on this issue make it possible to clarify certain details of the activities of the State Center of the UNRada's; allow a new look at the processes that have great historical signifi cance.