Ukrainian Historical Association celebrates its 35th anniversary (07/09/00)

Ukrainian Historical Association celebrates its 35th anniversary

by Lavrentia Turkewicz

NEW YORK - The Ukrainian Art and Literary Club of New York (UALC) on April 7 inaugurated its 2000 season in the spring with a lecture titled "In the Service of Clio: Past, Present and Future," celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Ukrainian Historical Association.

Dr. Lubomyr Wynar, president of the Ukrainian Historical Association (UHA) and editor-in-chief of Ukrainskyi Istoryk (Ukrainian Historian), delivered the lecture, also honoring the memory of the late Prof. Oleksander Ohloblyn, outstanding Ukrainian historian and first president of the association, on the 100th anniversary of his birth.

In a brief introduction, Yaroslava Gerulak, president of the Ukrainian Art and Literary Club, said that, in contrast to the other muses who symbolize the various kinds of arts and literature, Clio represents history, the function of which is to record chronologically all aspects of the human condition. A historical memory is the outcome of historical knowledge, without which no nation can survive as a separate entity.

Fortunately, the UHA has been prolific in its documentative scholarship. Ukrainskyi Istoryk, founded by Dr. Wynar in 1963, eventually became the official UHA journal. Dr. Wynar also stated that the UHA has published more than 100 that have appeared in Ukraine and in the West, both in Ukrainian and English.

Ever since its inception in 1965, one of the objectives of the UHA has been correcting the record of Ukrainian history, both in archives as in the media.

The problem of methodology as applied in Ukrainian historiography has always been a concern of the UHA.

Prof. Wynar explained that the main task in today's Ukrainian historiography is the establishment of a new scheme based on an updated version of Hrushevsky's model of Ukrainian history, which objectively presents the historical development of the Ukrainian nation, both in its periods of independence and at times of domination by foreign states. In the application of the new, synthetic approach to historical analysis, the history of Ukraine is viewed in the context of the world historical process.

As an affiliated member of the American Historical Association, the activities and publications of the UHA are widely recognized. Greetings from universities and scholarly institutions in Ukraine praised the UHA in the role it has played in the renaissance of Ukrainian scholarly historiography in Ukraine.

First established in the United States, the UHA spread to Canada, Europe and finally Ukraine where, after the 1990 Congress of the International Association of Ukrainian Studies, branches of the Mykhailo Hrushevsky Ukrainian Historical Association soon mushroomed in Kyiv, Lviv, Dnipropetrovske, Chernivtsi, Odesa, Drohobych, Kharkiv, Ostroh, Uzhhorod and other cities. Their existence as independent bodies in cooperation with universities is a factor that greatly strengthens the influence of the UHA on current historical scholarship in Ukraine.

For this reason, the First International Congress of Ukrainian Historians, which took place at the University of Chernivtsi in May, will provide the first opportunity for historians from various countries to discuss the current state of Ukrainian historical scholarship and the future tasks of Ukrainian historiography on the threshold of the new millennium. With the UHA as the main initiator, the congress is organized in cooperation with various scholarly institutions and universities in Ukraine and the diaspora.

Dr. Wynar stressed that the First International Congress of Ukrainian Historians is essential as a precedent in preparation for the International Congress of Historians, which will be held in Oslo, Sweden, this coming fall. Participation of the UHA in this forum will help bring Ukrainian historiography out of isolation and include it into world historiography.

The Mayana Gallery provided space for an exhibit of UHA publications, which were set up for examination and purchase, and for a historically significant representation - two portrait photographs of the eminent historians Mykhailo Hrushevsky and Oleksander Ohloblyn.

On the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the UHA, an action for the formation of Friends of the Ukrainian Historical Association has been initiated. Tax-exempt contributions, made out to the Ukrainian Historical Association, may be mailed to: Ukrainian Historical Association Publication Fund, P.O. Box 312, Kent, OH 44240.

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