2001: THE YEAR IN REVIEW: Noteworthy in Y2K+1: events, people, etc. (01/06/02)

2001: THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Noteworthy in Y2K+1: events, people, etc.

Noteworthy: that's the category we've created for all those notable events and people that stood out as relevant and significant stories of the past year but did not fit neatly into any of the other categories in this special year-in-review issue.

Prof. Roman Yereniuk conducted his "Survey of the Top 100 Ukrainian Heroes and Heroines" in preparation for the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Ukraine's independence. Forty-three percent of the 886 respondents were born in Ukraine, 41 percent were born in Canada, and the rest hailed from various other countries. The survey, completed via newspapers in North America, including The Ukrainian Weekly, was not scientific, but it did elicit some very interesting responses.

Indeed, some of the top 10 heroes/heroines were surprising figures, reflecting, no doubt, the personal interests of the survey participants, as each survey form allowed for the nomination of three people each in seven fields of endeavor. Thus, 21 individuals could potentially be nominated by each respondent.

The top vote-getters were as follows: 1. Taras Shevchenko, (1814-1861), most prominent Ukrainian national literary figure, poet and artist; 2. Mykhailo Hrushevsky (1866-1934), distinguished Ukrainian historian, academic, political leader, publicist and writer; 3. Ivan Franko (1856-1916), writer, scholar, publicist, and political and civic leader; 4. Lesia Ukrainka (1871-1913), distinguished poet, playwright and translator; 5. Volodymyr the Great (956-1015), grand prince, unifier and organizer of the Kyivan state and introducer of Christianity as the state religion; 6. Andrey Sheptytsky (1865-1944), Ukrainian Catholic metropolitan and Church leader, as well as major cultural, educational and civic figure; 7. Serhii Bubka (1964-), world-renowned pole-vaulter, winner of the 1988 Olympic gold medal and 35-time world record holder; 8. Petro Mohyla, (1597-1647), Ukrainian Orthodox metropolitan and major Church leader as well as educational, cultural and social activist, named a saint; 9. Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (1595-1657), military and political leader (hetman) and founder of the Ukrainian Hetman state; and, finally, Oksana Baiul, (1975- ), renowned figure skater and winner of the Olympic gold medal in 1992.

Less controversial was the list of top 10 generated when each voter was allowed to submit only one name for the title of single most important person in the history of Ukraine. Not surprisingly, Taras Shevchenko headed up the list. He was followed by: Volodymyr the Great; Mykhailo Hrushevsky; Vyacheslav Chornovil (1938-1999), literary critic, journalist, leading dissident and political figure, as well as member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Monitoring Group; Mstyslav Skrypnyk (1898-1993), metropolitan and patriarch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Bohdan Khmelnytskyi; Josyf Slipyi (1892-1984), Ukrainian Catholic patriarch and cardinal; Ivan Franko; Leonid Kravchuk (1934- ), first president of Ukraine after its modern independence; and Stefan Bandera (1909-1959), nationalist, politician and ideologue of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.

In October 1985, a Ukrainian sailor named Myroslav Medvid dove off the Soviet freighter Marshal Koniev in the port of New Orleans, seeking political asylum in the United States. Although the United States ultimately sent him back to the Soviet Union, the Rev. Myroslav Medvid, ordained a priest of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in 1990, returned to the United States almost 16 years after his initial quest for asylum on the invitation of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA).

Mr. Medvid met on January 30 with Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who had supported his cause by issuing a subpoena for Mr. Medvid to appear before the Senate Agricultural Committee, which the senator then chaired. He also met with former Pennsylvania Rep. Dan Ritter, and visited the Ukrainian communities in Philadelphia, Newark, New York, Chicago, Cleveland and Buffalo, as well as the Ukrainian Catholic diocese in Stamford, Conn.

President George W. Bush nominated Paula J. Dobriansky, an American of Ukrainian descent, for the position of undersecretary of state for global affairs on March 12. The Senate confirmed the nomination, putting Ms. Dobriansky at the helm of the office that coordinates U.S. foreign relations on a variety of global issues, including democracy, human rights and labor; environment, oceans and science; narcotics control and law enforcement; population refugees and migration; and women's issues.

Later, President Bush also appointed Ms. Dobriansky coordinator of Tibetan issues. The position was created by Congress to promote dialogue between the Chinese government in Beijing and the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, and to protect Tibetan identity. The Chinese government has long expressed displeasure with the relationship between the United States and the Dalai Lama.

Nicholas Krawciw, major general, U.S. Army (retired), was honored at the 2001 Leadership Conference, held on October 19-21, with The Washington Group Award for his efforts in promoting closer U.S.-Ukraine military ties. Gen. Krawciw is currently the president of the Dupuy Institute, a military history research center in MacLean, Va., and a consultant on Ukraine in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, International Security Policy (OASD-ISP).

Over his 31 years of military service, Gen. Krawciw saw diverse assignments, from combat in Vietnam to a post as the senior U.S. observer and chief operations officer with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in and around Israel during the period of the Yom Kippur War. He amassed a long list of decorations over the years, including the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Army Distinguished Service Medal, three awards of the Silver Star, a Distinguished Flying Cross, two Legion of Merit awards, four Bronze Stars (two for valor), and a Purple Heart.

Ukrainian American World War II Flight Nurse Evelyn Kowalchuk was honored in Bedford, Va., at the D-Day Memorial dedication on June 6, attended by President George W. Bush. A native of Newark, N.J., U.S. Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Kowalchuk served 37 years ago in the 818th Medical Evac Transport Squadron, logging numerous missions tending the wounded as they were evacuated to English hospitals from the beaches at Normandy.

Mrs. Kowalchuk said of the wounded soldiers they picked up, "They were scared. They didn't cry ... they were just glad to be on an American plane. There was this one time I let a young soldier, who was bleeding to death, just rest his head in my lap while I sang him an old Ukrainian lullaby. He just needed to feel that closeness."

In a commentary by Andrew Stuttaford published on May 15, the National Review Online, reprinted with permission in The Ukrainian Weekly, challenged The New York Times to remove Walter Duranty from its honor roll of Pulitzer Prize winners. Walter Duranty was a correspondent for the Times who reported on the situation in Stalin's Soviet Union, praising the Stalinist regime and denying the existence of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933. While his work has been discredited and The New York Times itself has acknowledged that Duranty's writing was "some of the worst reporting to appear in the newspaper," he remains on the annual list of Pulitzer Prize winners published by the newspaper.
Twenty-two-year-old Connecticut-born Joseph Sywenkyj's photographs of Chornobyl's aftereffects were prominently displayed at the United Nations 10th Conference on "Health and the Environment" as an emotional reminder of the world's worst civilian nuclear disaster.

The Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF) sent Mr. Sywenkyj, a summer intern, to capture on film the reality of the hospitals and orphanages affected by Chornobyl. Said Mr. Sywenkyj, "No matter what their condition, the minute I showed up it was something new for them. Something interesting. I think it broke up the monotony of their everyday routine. In general, most of the people were flattered and really happy about it. They felt as though someone was paying attention to them."

The tall ship Batkivschyna, a 90-foot schooner that set sail from Kyiv in April 1999 and participated in Op Sail 2000 in New London, Conn., spent the summer touring the United States, visiting Chicago for a celebration of Ukraine's 10th anniversary of independence. Along the way, the ship visited Hartford and New Haven, Conn., and Albany and Utica, N.Y., and then entered the Great Lakes, with stops at Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland Detroit, Bay City, Muskegon and Milwaukee. The Batkivschyna's mission is to raise awareness of Ukraine and to raise funds for the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund (CCRF). Capt. Dmitrii Birioukovitch, his nephew, his wife, and his crew will return to Ukraine after circumnavigating the globe by 2004.
In a solemn commemoration marking the 15th anniversary of the world's worst nuclear disaster, the 10th International Conference on Health and the Environment dedicated April 26 to re-evaluating the medical aftereffects and continuing illnesses that have plagued Ukraine, Russia and Belarus due to the nuclear fallout from Chornobyl. The session included government employees, physicians and scientists in the fields of nuclear energy, cancer research and pediatrics who emphasized the health impact the Chornobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe has had and will continue to have for future generations.
"Thousands of Roads," an autobiographical account of the life of Maria Savchyn Pyskir, who lived under the pseudonym Marichka during World War II, was published this year. The book tells the story of Marichka's involvement with the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and her marriage to Orlan, an UPA leader. At one point, Marichka was forced to jump out a window and abandon her son to escape enemy capture. According to the book, Marichka defiantly told KGB interrogators, "You wish you had people who would dedicate themselves to communism the way we dedicated ourselves to our cause."
"Enough," a children's book by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch was released in March 2001 in the United States. The book describes how a fictional girl rescues her village from starvation and the predations of the great Dictator who has tried to extort all of their food. In this children's representation of the Great Famine of 1932-1933, the heroine's faith and goodness triumph in the end.
The Narbut Prize is awarded every year by the Ukrainian Philatelic and Numismatic Society for the best Ukrainian stamp or souvenir sheet design. The prize is named after Heorhiy Narbut, the famous graphic artist of the early 20th century who designed some of Ukraine's first stamps and banknotes. This year's winner is a souvenir sheet by Kateryna Shtanko called "Wildflowers of Ukraine." In 2002, one of the past winners will be selected as the best Ukrainian stamp or souvenir sheet of the past 10 years.
Myroslaw Smorodsky was honored on January 10 by the International Lawyers' Fund of Ukraine, which presented him with its Honorary Gold Medal Award. Working in conjunction with a number of other legal representatives, Mr. Smorodsky presented cases on behalf of Nazi victims from several Eastern European nations, among others, Ukraine, Poland and Belarus. The legal action resulted in settlements with Germany and Austria that will distribute approximately $1 billion among surviving Ukrainian victims of Nazi forced/slave labor. Through their success, Mr. Smorodsky and his colleagues were able to garner incontestible evidence, that a variety of different peoples suffered under Nazi oppression.
John Hynansky, entrepreneur and philanthropist, received the Recognition Award at the 22nd annual banquet of the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC) held on February 24. In 1993 Mr. Hynansky facilitated the purchase of the Consulate building in New York City when the Ukrainian government was not in a position to do so. He has also funded Ukrainian orphanages and children's hospitals, donated an ambulance to the city of Lviv, and provided police cars for many regions of Ukraine, to name just a few of his philanthropic acts. Mr. Hynansky is a supporter of the Ukrainian American and Canadian communities as well, donating money to the Ukrainian Sports Federation of the U.S.A. and Canada (USCAK), The Ukrainian Museum and the Shevchenko Scientific Society, among others.
Philadelphians paid tribute to one of their own, the late Dr. Alexander B. Chernyk, a surgeon and philanthropist, by dedicating a memorial plaque and the Alexander B. Chernyk Gallery at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Cetner. The ceremony took place on September 29.
In Watervliet, an upstate New York City located near Albany, the Ukrainian American Citizens' Club recently honored two pioneers, the late John and Eva Urban, who were instrumental in establishing community life there. A memorial plaque recognizing their achievements was presented on November 3 to family members Ann Urban and Pauline (Urban) Bruggeman, with her husband, Warren.
The Ukrainian Graduates of Detroit and Windsor selected Volodymyr Shesiuk to be the recipient on November 4 of the 2001 Ukrainian of the Year Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the Ukrainian community and culture. Maestro Shesiuk, formerly the conductor of the Lviv Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, the Lviv Opera and Ballet Theater, and the National Opera and Ballet Theater in Kyrgyzstan, as well as the conductor-in-residence of the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, has served the Ukrainian community as choir director of the St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church Choir in Warren, Mich. He has conducted multiple concerts with Ukrainian artists, including one titled "Chornobyl Remembered."
Judge Bohdan A. Futey of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, was honored on November 24 by the Ukrainian technologtical Society as the Pittsburgh professionals' 2001 Ukrainian of the Year. The award recognized Judge Futey's work in helping to develop the governmental structures of independent Ukraine, specifically its judicial branch.
"Cossacks - European Wars," a historical real-time strategy computer game, was released for sale in the United States on March 30. Play takes place among combat units and peasants from 16 European nations, including Ukraine, Poland and Russia, each with unique national units, buildings, characteristics and fighting abilities. Players can send the speedy Sich Kozak cavalry, waving their flashy sabres, up hills and through forests to capture an enemy iron mine, or they can place units of pikemen or musketeers in fighting formations such as lines or squares, led by their own commander and drummer. The game contains five historic campaigns, including the Ukrainian Independence War (1648-1657), as well as smaller scenarios.
On February 25 the City of Chicago celebrated 10 years of the Chicago-Kyiv sister cities relationship at a luncheon fund-raiser aimed at the purchase of computers and basic electronic equipment for Chicago's sister schools in Kyiv. The Chicago Sister Cities International Program was created by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley to promote economic development and exchanges in the spheres of culture, education, medicine, technology, environment and social service for the benefit of the sister cities abroad and the City of Chicago.
The U.S.-Ukraine Foundation celebrated its 10th anniversary by establishing an Endownment Fund, which was made possible by a generous $25,000 gift from long-time USUF supporter Murray Senkus of North Carolina.
The third oldest Ukrainian business in the U.S., Kobasniuk Travel Inc., established by Stephan Kowbasniuk and his wife Stephanie Starzynska Kowbasniuk, closed this year in March after 80 years. Vera Kowbasniuk Shumeyko, who became CEO in 1953, continued to provide travel services, processed 15,000 displaced persons' applications after World War II, and initiated group tours to Ukraine in 1960.
Zenia Mucha, New York Governor Pataki's communications director and key political adviser, in February took on the post of senior vice-president for communications for the ABC Broadcast Group and the ABC Television Network. Ms. Mucha became involved in politics in 1980 as a volunteer in Sen. Alphonse D'Amato's first campaign for the U.S. Senate. She earned a reputation in state government as a tough-talking, take-no prisoners advocate for Gov. Pataki.
"Jeopardy" host Alex Trebek, pictured with "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" host Regis Philbin on the January 27-February 2 cover of TV Guide, was touted as No. 4 in the Guide's selection of "Hosts We Love the Most" and the show was listed as No. 2 of "The 50 Greatest Game Shows of all Time." The sauve, all-business demeanor of the Candadian-born Mr. Trebek, whose father is Ukrainian, is credited with keeping him as host since 1984.
The biggest quiz show prize in network television history is the $2.18 million won on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" by a Michigan man who correctly identified Ukrainian Ihor (Igor) Sikorsky as the inventor of the first mass-produced helocopter. The story was reported in June.
A children's operetta from Lviv, "The Brave Rooster," composed by Maestro Bohdan Yaniwsky, charmed a packed audience at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center (UECC) on June 9-10. It featured 23 talented youngsters ranging in age from 3 to 18 from the Philadelphia area. The theme of the fable of the operetta was the triumph of Good over Evil, acted out by a barnyard cast of characters.

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