"Ukrainian-American Citadel": from the pages of UNA history (Chapter 11) (01/30/05)

"Ukrainian-American Citadel": from the pages of UNA history

Following is part of a series of excerpts from "Ukrainian-American Citadel: The First 100 Years of the Ukrainian National Association," by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, published in 1996 by East European Monographs of Boulder, Colo. The excerpts are reprinted with the permission of the author.

The book is available from the author for $25, plus $2.50 shipping, by writing to: Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, 107 Ilehamwood Drive, DeKalb, IL 60115. Also available is a newly released Ukrainian edition of the book; price: $25 (including shipping).

Chapter 11

The Defense of Human and Ethnic Rights

In 1969, tragedy struck the Ukrainian community of Yugoslavia and the UNA responded. An earthquake struck the town of Banja Luka, where some 2,000 Ukrainians resided, causing great damage to life and property. A letter from Archbishop Gabriel Bukatko pleading for assistance was published in Svoboda on January 9 under the headline "Give Assistance to Your Brothers in Yugoslavia."

Supreme President Joseph Lesawyer, who was also the national vice-president of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee (an organization headed by UNA Supreme Auditor Walter Gallan) traveled to Yugoslavia in January where he met with various officials including Archbishop Bukatko and U.S. Ambassador William Leonhart, covering an area of some 100 kilometers in radius to assess the damage. "While the victims are in urgent need of food, clothing and footwear," The Ukrainian Weekly reported on January 31, "the problem of housing looms as one of equal importance to assure a return to normalcy. Homes, schools, churches, hospitals, must be rebuilt in view of the almost complete destruction wrought by the earthquake that hit the region in two waves on October 27-28." Soon after the UNA president's return, a storage warehouse was opened in Jersey City where clothing was sent for delivery to Banja Luka. At the same time, the UUARC announced that a fund-raising drive was being established to raise $100,000 for relief to the stricken area.

In an editorial that concluded with a call for volunteer help at the Jersey City warehouse, The Ukrainian Weekly wrote:

"Now that the relief effort for Ukrainians in Yugoslavia has assumed streamlined and efficient forms, what is needed most is volunteer help. ... The response of our community here and in Canada has been most commendable, attesting both to the deep-seated concern of our people for their brothers in need and to the wholly remarkable ability to rally in times of disaster. ... Charitable and purely humanitarian action has enhanced considerably the image of our community in the eyes of many people - from Washington to Belgrade. The obvious corollary is that it is precisely that kind of effort, non-political in nature, that goes a long way in furthering our cause. The analogy could well be extended to other fields - cultural, scholarly, athletic, to name but a few - where positive response and constructive action do more politically than politics itself."

UNA volunteers from Jersey City and Bayonne came to the assistance of Marian Kots, the warehouse director, and on February 28, The Ukrainian Weekly reported that 170 crates with some 68,000 pounds of clothing, footwear and other items had been loaded onto a Yugoslavian transport ship and were on their way to needy Ukrainians. According to The Ukrainian Weekly, truckloads of goods were sent from Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, Newark, Passaic, Perth Amboy, Jersey City, Syracuse, Staten Island, Amsterdam and Utica, N.Y., and Somerville, N.J. ...

Sen. [William] Brock's mention of Leonid Pliusch and Valentyn Moroz at the convention banquet was no accident. By 1974, the UNA was heavily involved in the human rights crusade being waged by dissidents and political prisoners in Ukraine. The crusade got under way in 1972, when over 100 intellectuals in Ukraine were arrested for their protest regarding human rights abuses in Ukraine. The arrests triggered widespread protests around the world. In mid-January, when the news first reached the United States, both Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly published a series of editorials calling on Ukrainians in the free world to protest the arrests. At a meeting in February 1972, the UNA supreme executive allocated $5,000 for human rights actions. Financial contributions by the UNA and its members mushroomed during the remainder of the decade.

On January 19, 1974, The Ukrainian Weekly carried a banner headline sponsored by the executive boards of SUSTA, headed by Eugene Iwanciw, and TUSM, headed by Askold Lozynsky; to all Ukrainian businesses asking them to close down on January 22, 1974, in commemoration of the human-rights crusade. On March 23, 1974, The Ukrainian Weekly carried a front-page story titled "UNA tells international agencies of readiness to finance emigration of Pliusch, Moroz, others," which printed letters sent by Supreme President Lesawyer to the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the International Red Cross and the International League for the Rights of Man "pledging the association's readiness to underwrite the costs of their emigration from the USSR and subsequent medical costs."

The crusade gained momentum after the 1974 UNA convention, prompting a Soviet Ukrainian writer in Literaturna Ukraina, published in Kyiv, to denounce the Ukrainian fraternal for encouraging Ukrainian "traitors" to work against their people. The June 22 issue of The Ukrainian Weekly carried the headline "Free Valentyn Moroz - Free Leonid Pliusch - Free Political Prisoners!"

The front page also featured large sketches of Moroz and Pliushch, as well as photos of dissidents Vyacheslav Chornovil, Ivan Svitlychny, Sviatoslav Karavansky and Nadia Svitlychna. The lead story called on all UNA members and others to attend the national manifestation in defense of human rights in Ukraine and the protest march to the Soviet Embassy. Scheduled for June 27 in Washington, D.C., both events were sponsored by the UCCA.

The same issue carried a list of 70 Ukrainian intellectuals arrested by the KGB and a description of their "crimes." A long editorial titled "Thus We Shall Fight" was also included in the special issue.

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