Fleet's flagship hosts meeting between Plast group and Ukraine's naval officers (09/23/01)

Fleet's flagship hosts meeting between Plast group and Ukraine's naval officers

by Roma Hadzewycz

SEVASTOPOL, Ukraine - A historic meeting and ceremony bringing together members of the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization and Ukraine's naval fleet took place here aboard the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy, the Hetman Sahaidachnyi, on August 19.

The event was a key component of a special tour of Ukraine, the Black Sea Journey (Chornomorskyi Reis) organized in August by the Black Sea fraternities and sororities of Plast active in both the diaspora and Ukraine. The tour was dubbed "Ahoy, Ukraine."

The meeting marked what is seen as the beginning of cooperative efforts and joint activities involving Plast, or more precisely its Chornomortsi fraternity, and Ukraine's naval forces.

According to Lubomyr Hewko, who as chairman of the Black Sea Council that encompasses the Chornomortsi fraternity and the Chornomorski Khvyli sorority has the title of Morskyi Vovk (Sea Wolf), the first contact between the youth organization and the navy actually took place several years ago when the Chornomortsi funded a prize for a graduate of the Naval Forces Institute officer training program. Presented to a graduate who wrote the best Ukrainian-language academic work, the prize is part of an effort to support the navy's Ukrainianization program.

The meeting aboard the Sahaidachnyi, as well as a subsequent meeting between leaders of the Chornomortsi and Ukrainian naval officers that took place a day later at the Sevastopol Hotel, focused on continuation of maritime traditions and cooperation in various spheres, among them publication of a book of naval terminology, preparation of a video on sea scouting, and promoting interest in both sea scouting and the naval forces.

Participating on behalf of Ukraine's naval forces were Capt. Orest Maruschak, assistant director of the Ukrainian Navy's education administration, and Lt. Vadim Gontcharencow of the Hetman Sahaidachnyi. Also present was Lt. Commander Volodymyr Leschenko of the Slavutych, the Ukrainian fleet's command and control ship, which visited New York last year to participate in the International Naval Review 2000.

Mr. Hewko described the meetings as a "cordial, held in a Ukrainian atmosphere and with Ukrainianization in full view."

The August 19 event also a historic first as it occurred aboard the flagship of the Ukrainian Navy and included a special induction ceremony for a Lviv member of the Chornomorski Khvyli sorority, Roksolana Rakovskyi.

At an informal reception in the captain's dining room, Mr. Hewko spoke of the work of the Black Sea units of Plast and, along with Nestor Kolcio, who heads the senior fraternity of Chornomortsi, presented emblems of the Chornomortsi, their sister unit, the Chornomorski Khvyli, and the Plast sea scouting insignia to the Ukrainian Navy.

Also presented was information about Plast and its sea scouting component, including a 50th anniversary Plast jubilee book from Detroit that contains a special section about the activity of the Chornomortsi and a 1967 issue of the Plast youth magazine Yunak, whose cover bears an illustration of a Ukrainian ship called the Sahaidachnyi and whose contents are devoted to sea scouting.

Ukrainian officers presented the Plast members with a framed photograph of the Hetman Sahaidachnyi bearing a special dedication to Ukrainian scouts, and copies of the magazine of Ukraine's naval forces.

Mr. Hewko explained to the Plast delegation's hosts that the Chornomortsi were authorized by the President of the Ukrainian National Republic in exile, Andrii Livytskyi, to fly the flag of the Ukrainian fleet at the time of Ukraine's domination by the USSR. That same flag, he noted, today flies on the ships of independent Ukraine's Navy.

The Black Sea Journey took its 25 tour participants also to Lviv, Yaremche, Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khersones, Kyiv and many points in between as the group traveled through the countryside by bus.

A special stopover was in Bilohorscha, the town in western Ukraine where Gen. Roman Shukhevych, supreme commander of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), met his death. Today the site is marked by a memorial plaque on the house in which Shukhevych was living at the time and a nearby monument. During a brief ceremony at the monument, the Plast members paid tribute to Shukhevych, who was a member of Plast and its Chornomortsi fraternity, and was known by the pseudonum "Shukh."

In addition, the Plast delegation visited the Sokil Plast camp in the Carpathian mountains and the site of Morskyi Tabir 2001, an island in the Dnipro River 15 kilometers north of Kyiv, where the Chornomortsi and Chornomorski Khvyli held a conference with their Ukrainian counterparts.

The "Ahoy, Ukraine" tour also took in the Kyiv festivities associated with Ukraine's 10th anniversary of independence, most notably the parade down the Khreschatyk, during which tour members met up with Plast members from various parts of Ukraine in order to view the ceremonies together.

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