PROMETHEAN LEAGUE: RESISTANCE TO SOVIET EXPANSION IN EASTERN EUROPE (1926–1939)

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Abstract

This article examines the history of the Prometheus Movement as a multiethnic intellectual and political front of resistance formed in Eastern Europe during the 1920s–1930s against the ideological and geopolitical expansion of the Soviet Union. Established on the basis of Poland’s strategic foreign policy principles, the movement brought together émigré representatives of the non-Russian peoples of the USSR within a common anti-Soviet platform. The study analyzes the history of the movement’s formation, its political and philosophical foundations, publishing activities, its role in the information and propaganda struggle against Soviet rule, its activities in the field of cultural diplomacy, and its structural limitations. In addition, the article examines the imprint left by the movement on the political memory of Eastern Europe and its echoes in the post-Soviet period. Through the political activities of émigrés from Turkic peoples led by Mustafa Shokay, the study analyzes their place and role in the development and formation of Sovietology as an academic field. Based on historiographical and source-based analyses, the article concludes that the Prometheus Front was not only a historical phenomenon but also a lasting forum for debates surrounding issues of identity, sovereignty, and intellectual resistance. A factual analysis of the history of the anti-Soviet struggle waged by political émigrés from Turkic peoples in Eastern Europe brings new content to this topic.