Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history (08/29/04)

Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history

A special yearlong feature focusing on the history of the Ukrainian National Association.

The UNA's 30th Convention opened in Rochester, N.Y., on Monday, May 24, 1982, with 396 delegates, 26 Supreme Assembly members and seven honorary members of the assembly in attendance. The week was proclaimed Ukrainian National Association Week by Rochester Mayor Thomas P. Ryan, and Supreme President John O. Flis, in opening the convention, called on UNA delegates to uphold the spirit of unity and fraternalism.

The highlight of the convention was the major policy address on U.S.-Soviet relations delivered by Vice-President George Bush. He spoke about Soviet repression and referred specifically to the cases of Yuriy Shukhevych, Ivan Svitlychny, Mykola and Raisa Rudenko, and Petro Grigorenko as examples of the Soviets' persecution of human rights activists. "Ukrainians have been singled out for especially harsh treatment by the Soviet government," he stated. "The estimates are that up to half of all Soviet political prisoners may be Ukrainians."

Vice-President Bush went on to explain the U.S. approach toward the USSR as outlined by President Ronald Reagan - an approach based on military balance, economic security, regional stability, arms reduction and dialogue.

Mr. Bush reassured ethnic Americans: "You have not been forgotten." He continued: "We are a nation of immigrants, descended from those who sought a better world. It was they who helped build this nation; we owe it not only to ourselves and to our children to guard our liberty and our democracy zealously, but to them as well. Their spirit lives on. Their dreams live on. The quest for freedom lives on. Meanwhile, as the phrase has it, 'Sche ne vmerla Ukraina.' "

It was Mr. Bush's second appearance at a UNA convention, as he had addressed the 28th Convention in Philadelphia eight years earlier in his capacity as chairman of the Republican National Committee. It was also the second time that a U.S. vice-president had addressed a UNA convention, Supreme Advisor Taras Szmagala, who introduced Mr. Bush, reminded the delegates. Vice-President John Garner had spoken at the 1937 conclave held in Washington.

Other major developments at the convention included the delegates' overwhelming go-ahead vote (295 for, 46 against) concerning a proposed merger of the Ukrainian National Association and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association. The matter would next be voted on at the June convention of the UFA.

Mr. Flis was elected to his second term as supreme president. The convention voted to do away with the elected position of supreme organizer on the UNA Executive Committee, opting instead for a hired position of chief organizer. Convention delegates approved donations totaling $30,000 for national causes, as well as $45,000 for UNA scholarships.

The 1982 convention also marked the premiere of Slavko Nowytski's film "Helm of Destiny," a 58-minute history of Ukrainians in the United States that was commissioned by the association. Mr. Nowytski explained that the goal of his film was to awaken pride and awareness of identity in Ukrainians who have become detached from Ukrainian community life as well as to enable non-Ukrainians to better understand Ukrainians.

Source: "30th UNA Convention opens in Rochester; Flis, Kuropas win primaries; Sochan, Diachuk are re-elected by acclamation," by Roma Sochan Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 30, 1982; "Bush addresses UNA convention's final session; John Flis re-elected; UNA/UFA merger backed," by Roma Sochan Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 6, 1982. The border used for this special feature is reproduced from a UNA membership certificate dating to 1919.

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