1992: A LOOK BACK: We mourn their passing... (12/27/92)

1992: A LOOK BACK

We mourn their passing...

During 1992, the Ukrainian community mourned the passing of notable leaders and activists, artists and writers, both in the diaspora and in Ukraine. Among them were the following:

Daria Rebet, 79, leading member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), who was arrested by Polish and German authorities for her political activities; co-founder of the Supreme Ukrainian Liberation Council (UHVR) and member of the External Representation of UHVR; head of OUN Political Council; co-founder of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations - Munich, January 5.
Dr. Alexander Ohloblyn, 92, leading historian of Ukraine; professor at Kiev and Odessa universities and, upon emigrating, professor at the Ukrainian Free University, the Ukrainian Orthodox Theological Academy and the Ukrainian Studies Institute at Harvard University; editor of the history sections in Entsyklopedia Ukrainoznavstva and Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopaedia; longtime president of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U.S., honorary president of the Ukrainian Historical Society and honorary member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society - Ludlow, Mass., February 16.
Dr. Mykhailo Snihurovych, 77, community leader and activist; graduate of the Ukrainian Free University in Prague; mayor of Chortkiv in 1942-1944; upon emigrating to the U.S., active in the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), serving as UCCA vice-president, and in the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), serving as UNA New England District Committee chairman - New Haven, Conn., March 29.
Ivan Sokulsky, 51, poet, political prisoner and one of the first national and human-rights advocates in Dnipropetrovske; a member of the "Shestydesiatnyky" literary generation, who was arrested in 1980 for co-founding the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and sentenced to labor camps in Mordovia and Perm and at the notorious prison in Kazan; a founding member of the Ukrainian Republican Party and editor of the independent journal Porohy - Dnipropetrovske, Ukraine, June 22.
Volodymyr Maniak, 57, noted journalist, writer and co-president of Memorial, a society established in 1989 to combat neo-Stalinism, promote democracy and human rights, and provide aid to former political prisoners, which, under Mr. Maniak's direction, was reorganized as the All-Ukrainian Association of Researchers of the Genocidal Famine of 1932-1933; compiler and editor of the 1990 commemorative monograph "Famine 33" - in a bus accident en route from Tomashivka, Chernihiv oblast, to Kiev, June 23.
Ignatius Billinsky, 74, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America; upon returning to the U.S. from Ukraine in 1947, co-founder and president of the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, and a leading member of the Ukrainian Liberation Front; editor of the newspaper America; founding member and general secretary of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians (WCFU); holder of key positions in the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations, the National Captive Nations Committee, the World Anti-Communist League, and the WCFU Famine Commission - Philadelphia, August 4.
Petro Mehyk, 93, artist, art educator and editor; founding member of the Ukrainian Art Association Spokiy in Warsaw and active member of the Ukrainian Art Association in Lviv; upon emigrating to the U.S., founder in 1952 of the Ukrainian Art Studio in Philadelphia which operated until 1984; founding member of the Ukrainian Artists' Association and editor of the art journal Notatky Mystetstva (1963-1990) - Philadelphia, August 26.
Millicent Fenwick, 82, congresswoman from New Jersey, who served four terms in the House of Representatives between 1975 and 1983; introduced the resolution that created the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission); a tireless and effective proponent of human rights, especially vigilant in defending individual cases of political prisoners, among them many Ukrainians - New Jersey, September 17.
Ostap Tarnawsky, 74, writer and journalist, president of the Ukrainian Writers Association Slovo, a member of International PEN; author of five collections of poetry, a book of short stories and books of essays as well as numerous translations into Ukrainian of English, American, German and Polish poets; his last large-scale work was a translation of Shakespeare's sonnets - Philadelphia, September 19.
Edward Kozak (EKO), 90, painter, illustrator, writer, satirist and editor; studied at the Vienna Art School and the Novakivsky School of Art in Lviv; a witty catalyst in Lviv's art circles, longtime editor of satirical periodicals as well as children's magazines both in Ukraine and in the United States; founder of the magazine Lys Mykyta in 1948, which offered satirical commentary on the social, religious and political scene of the Ukrainian diaspora; a painter, known for his Ukrainian motifs as well as caricatures and cartoons, who exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada - Warren, Mich., September 22.
Mykhailo Moroz, 88, renowned Ukrainian artist whose paintings, mostly landscapes and portraits, were closely tied to the Expressionist tradition; a student at the Novakivsky Art School in Lviv, Ukraine, and at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers and l'Academie Julian in Paris; after emigrating to the U.S., he exhibited extensively in the U.S., Canada and Europe; his last retrospective exhibit was at The Ukrainian Museum in New York in 1990; recipient of many awards (among them Prix de Paris, Galeries Raymond Duncan, 1961; and the Gold Medal, Academia Italia delle Arti e del Lavoro, Parma, 1980); Mr. Moroz's paintings are in the state museums in Lviv and Kiev, the Ukrainian Museum in Rome, The White House, as well as in many private collections throughout the world - Staten Island, N.Y., September 27.
Ivan Svitlychny, 63, renowned literary critic, translator, poet, dissident and human-rights activist; graduate of the University of Kharkiv, editor of the journal Radianske Literaturoznavstvo; dismissed from his position at the Institute of Literature of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences and first arrested in 1965 for having smuggled abroad the poetry and diary of Vasyl Symonenko; upon his release, active in the circulation of samvydav and in the defense of dissidents such as Vasyl Stus; arrested once more in 1972, and sentenced to seven years' hard labor and five years' internal exile, serving his terms in camps in Mordovia, Perm and the Urals, where he fell seriously ill; upon his release in 1984, he returned to Kiev permanently crippled; named a member of International PEN in 1976 and included on Amnesty International's list of prisoners of conscience throughout the 1970s and 1980s; Mr. Svitlychny is closely identified with the Shestydesiatnyky writers of the 1960s; in the late 1980s some of his works and articles about him began to appear in the Soviet press - Kiev, October 25.
Heorhiy Mayboroda, 79, renowned Ukrainian composer and former head of the Ukrainian Composer's Union; recipient of the Taras Shevchenko Prize in 1963; a graduate and later professor at the Kiev Conservatory; his symphonic compositions have been characterized as monumental, marked by heroic and patriotic themes; among his best known compositions are the operas "Mylana," "Arsenal," "Taras Shevchenko" and "Yaroslav Mudryi" and the symphony "Hutsul Rhapsody"; composer also of symphonic poems, concertos, choral works, variations on Ukrainian folk songs as well as musical scores for films - Kiev, December 7.

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