Ukraine honors Zyla with presidential award (10/15/00)

Ukraine honors Zyla with presidential award

WASHINGTON - In accordance with a decree issued by the president of Ukraine, Prof. Wolodymyr T. Zyla was awarded the Order of Merit, Third Degree, for his selfless work for the good of Ukraine, the high level of his political activity and his numerous scholarly studies in the fields of philology and literature.

The formal presentation of the presidential award occurred during a special ceremony held on June 13 in Washington at the Embassy of Ukraine. Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Kostyantyn Gryshchenko presented the medal.

Accepting the award, Dr. Zyla stated: "During my political life I did everything possible to see to it that the Ukrainian nation was visible on the spiritual map of the world. I used every possible opportunity, every seemingly insignificant incident to tell that world that Ukraine lives, it continues to fight for its independence and does not accept its enslavement."

Dr. Zyla, 81, professor emeritus of literature at Texas Tech University, was a minister of the Ukrainian National Republic-in-exile, serving as minister of culture and education in 1986-1990, and as minister of foreign affairs in 990-1992. His knowledge of six languages as well as his academic credentials were definite plusses as he traveled around the world representing Ukraine's government-in-exile.

Interviewed recently by the Avalanche-Journal of Lubbock, Texas, his current hometown, he said: "I cannot say I destroyed the Soviet Union, but I did a little bit. I gave the tone to the people that the Soviet Union is not a country that should exist. That was a prison, a slaughter house. Fifty million people [killed] - can you imagine? It's unbelievable what they did."

Dr. Zyla told the newspaper: "I was against the Soviet Union - I was against the communists, That is why I left my own country [after World War II]. I cannot stand, you see, these people who killed 50 million people, if not more."

During his tenure as foreign minister of the Ukrainian National Republic, Prof. Zyla met with numerous American and Ukrainian leaders, as well as Polish government officials. After the Ukrainian Parliament proclaimed the country's independence on August 24, 1991 - which was overwhelmingly reaffirmed by a nationwide referendum on December 1, 1991- Prof. Zyla was the first to raise the issue of transferring the UNR's mandate to represent the Ukrainian nation to the leaders of newly independent Ukraine.

He was present in Kyiv in August 1992 when that became reality during the first anniversary celebrations of the adoption of the Act of Declaration of Ukraine's Independence. At that time the Ukrainian National Republic's government-in-exile, headed by Mykola Plawiuk, presented its charter, i.e., its mandate to represent the interests of the Ukrainian nation, to the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Leonid Kravchuk.

The ceremony took place on August 22, 1992, during a special session of Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada held at the Ukraina Palace with the participation of numerous guests from the Ukrainian diaspora. Among them was a literary scholar and political activist from Texas who might well have been the proudest participant of this historic event.

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