EDITORIAL: Svoboda's unparalleled record (06/28/98)

EDITORIAL

Svoboda's unparalleled record

Just five years ago, Svoboda marked the centennial of its birth. Now readers of that official publication of the Ukrainian National Association will no longer be receiving what was prestigiously known as "the oldest and largest continuously published Ukrainian-language daily in the world."

As of July 1, the Svoboda daily is no more. The reasons for its demise are complex. The easiest way to explain the decrease in its frequency from a daily (published five times per week) to a weekly is to simply cite the decision made by the recently concluded 34th Regular Convention of the Ukrainian National Association. It was claimed that the main financial drain on the UNA were its publications; that due to financial considerations the UNA could no longer sustain a daily. Clearly, however, that is not the full story...

Could it be that the UNA has relinquished its role as the leading organization in the Ukrainian community on this continent? Or is it that our community no longer sees the need for a daily newspaper, despite the fact that there is a new wave of immigrants to this country, not to mention an independent Ukraine? Have we disguised a shift in our priorities as basic fiscal responsibility and debased what was once a far-reaching contribution to the commonweal? We will leave that for readers to ponder, for scholars to analyze.

As Svoboda stands on the threshold of a new beginning, it is appropriate for us to take a look back at that newspaper's unparalleled record of service.

From its very inception on September 15, 1893, Svoboda was a builder and initiator. As one former editor-in-chief, Anthony Dragan, wrote: "In the beginning was the word." Indeed, already in its fourth issue, Svoboda, which billed itself as the people's newspaper, called for the establishment of a national organization to serve as the protector and benefactor of our community. Less than four months later the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (which later became the Ukrainskyi Narodnyi Soyuz) was born.

Svoboda also was an enlightener. It promoted education among the people , encouraged their political involvement in American life and raised their national consciousness. It was Svoboda, according to immigration historian Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, that forged the Ukrainian national identity in America.

The paper was a crusader as well. It promoted Ukrainian national aspirations and fought for Ukraine's independence, revealed the truth about the Great Famine, spoke out for displaced persons following World War II and defended the independence newly regained during this decade. It spearheaded the campaigns for a Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington and the establishment of Ukrainian studies at Harvard University, and it was an advocate for repressed and persecuted Ukrainian activists for human, national and religious rights.

And, as our communities lost their geographic cohesiveness, Svoboda became our network. It kept us in touch with one another. It kept us informed about developments both in Ukraine and in our diaspora, as well as closer to home. It gave us a forum to share our achievements and losses, our good news and bad.

Svoboda Editor-in-Chief Zenon Snylyk, who retired last week after 18 years in that position and 18 years prior to that as editor of The Ukrainian Weekly, understood full well the great import of the Svoboda daily. He knew that Svoboda's role was to serve the community and the Ukrainian nation, and that these were his "imperatives" as its editor-in-chief. He knew that the Ukrainian-language daily was a fraternal benefit crucial to the UNA's very identity as a fraternal organization, that Svoboda was the its public countenance, that in the eyes of the public Svoboda and the UNA were one and the same. He also knew what his illustrious predecessors knew: that through Svoboda the UNA supported our community and our nation.

As the Svoboda daily completes its last press run on June 30, we express our heartfelt thanks for all that it has done and bid it adieu. As the Svoboda weekly appears, marking a new phase in the life of this proud newspaper, we wish our sister publication well. May it flourish into the next century as it continues to serve its readers and the Ukrainian nation worldwide.