Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history (09/05/04)

Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history

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

The Ukrainian National Association convened its 31st Convention in Dearborn, Mich., just outside of Detroit on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26, 1986, with 329 delegates and 31 members and honorary members of the Supreme Assembly participating.

The incumbent, John O. Flis, was elected to his third term as supreme president in a close race with Joseph Lesawyer, a former supreme president. The vote was 197 for Mr. Flis and 157 for Mr. Lesawyer.

Among notable convention decisions was the delegates' approval of a separate budget and office for the UNA's Canadian operations, as well as the adoption of an amendment to the UNA By-Laws which gave the Supreme Assembly authority to establish a board of directors for the UNA in Canada that "will conduct UNA activities under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Executive Committee."

A major highlight was discussion of the UNA's plan to open a Washington office of its Ukrainian Heritage Defense Committee, whose goal was to preserve the Ukrainian American identity and protect the Ukrainian heritage. Addressing the delegates, Nadia Komarnycky McConnell, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Legislative Affairs at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), noted that the Ukrainian heritage is threatened by "ignorance, disinformation and Russification."

The UNA's Washington office, she noted, would be able to track issues such as the use of Soviet evidence in the case of John Demjanjuk, who was being prosecuted by the Office of Special Investigations (OSI); the investigation of the case of Myroslav Medvid, the Ukrainian sailor who jumped ship in New Orleans only to be returned to Soviet authorities; developments in regard to the Chornobyl nuclear accident that happened just over a month before the UNA convention began; as well as human rights issues, information related to the Great Famine of 1932-1933, the upcoming Millennium of Christianity in Rus'-Ukraine and the victimization of Ukrainians during World War II.

"It is proper for the largest and oldest Ukrainian organization to have a presence in Washington," Ms. McConnell emphasized. The office, she said could work with the Ukrainian National Information Service, which is the Washington office of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, as well as with other ethnic organizations on issues of mutual concern.

Delegates also heard a report on the ongoing negotiations with the Ukrainian Fraternal Association regarding a merger with the UNA, after which they overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for further steps toward a merger.

The convention was addressed by U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense William H. Taft IV, who said that "Ukrainians and Americans both stand as an obstacle to the Kremlin's path toward subjugating free people around the globe." He spoke of Ukraine as "the home of people whose resistance to Soviet domination reached heroic proportions" - a reference to the millions who perished in the Great Famine. The deputy secretary also spoke about U.S. defense issues and the efforts of the administration of President Ronald Reagan to bolster the country's defense.

During the convention's final day, May 30, delegates approved resolutions which directed the newly elected Supreme Assembly to: request the U.S. and Canada to pressure the Soviet government to open channels of assistance to victims of the Chornobyl nuclear accident and to help establish direct contacts with evacuees; demand that the U.S. and Canadian governments, respectively, investigate the work of the OSI and the Deschenes Commission as regards the use of Soviet-supplied evidence in cases against persons suspected of crimes during World War II; insist that the Helsinki Commission investigate the Medvid case; and engage the services of a professional demographer to conduct a study of UNA membership and the entire Ukrainian community in the U.S. and Canada to determine potential sources of new membership.

Source: "31st UNA Convention opens in Dearborn; Flis leads Lesawyer in close race for supreme president," by Roma Sochan Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 1, 1986; "31st UNA Convention concludes with re-election of Flis; Deputy defense secretary addresses UNA delegates," by Roma Sochan Hadzewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 8, 1986. The border used for this special feature is reproduced from a UNA membership certificate dating to 1919.

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