The purpose of the study is to discover and analyze the shadow side of the biography of the famous historical publicist Élie (Il’ko) Borschak (1894–1959), namely his activities in France as a supporter of the Ukrainian Soviet statehood. The study of documents conserved in archives of the French and Soviet state security services (as well as of the part of Borschak's personal correspondence, which is involved into scientific circulation for the first time), is dedicated to the political activity of this emigrant and to his leadership of the Union of Ukrainian Citizens in France and of the newspaper Les Nouvelles Ukrainiennes. In addition to the resources of three French and four Ukrainian archives, an important source of this research was the political journalism of Borschak, who was an ideological follower of the National Bolshevik leader M. Skrypnyk and fierce critic of the Petliura movement, the governments of Poland, Romania and Great Britain. The particular attention is paid to Borshak's ties with the Foreign Department of the Soviet Joint State Political Directorate; the financing of its activities by the Soviet regime and the mode of his life in Paris; his relation to the assassination of Simon Petliura and his participation in the press coverage of Schwarzbard trial. Then the author examines the circumstances and motives that prompted Borshak to stop political activity based on the Ukrainian-Bolshevik identity of a hybrid type.

The article was prepared within the framework of the research program of the Faculty of Humanities of Ukrainian catholic university.