10 countries represented at scholarly conference on Ukrainian diaspora (07/02/06)

10 countries represented at scholarly conference on Ukrainian diaspora

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

NIZHYN, Ukraine - After an initial boost from Ukrainian studies leaders in Canada, the Center for Humanitarian Cooperation with the Ukrainian Diaspora in Nizhyn is host to an annual diaspora conference that is growing in popularity every year.

The June 21-24 conference at Hohol State Pedagogical University drew 106 participants - 20 more than last year, said the center's director, Stanislav Ponomarevskyi, with scholars representing 10 countries, including a nine-member delegation from Canada.

"Last year's conference was rather successful and we had a good response," he said. "So participants began to invite others, and word spread that way."

Dr. Roman Yereniuk raised financing for last year's conference from various Ukrainian studies departments in Canada, including his own Center for Ukrainian Canadian Studies at the University of Manitoba.

This year, the Canadian Embassy in Ukraine and Princess Larissa Scherbatowa of New York City provided the necessary funds, Mr. Ponomarevskyi said.

Ukraine's Ministry of Education, which provides funding for the center, wasn't able to finance the conference, he said.

All three diaspora centers at Ukrainian universities hosted international academic conferences this year.

The diaspora center at Lviv Polytechnic University holds its conference every two years, the center at the National University of Ostroh Academy every two years and the center in Nizhyn hosts its conference annually.

Each diaspora center has its own niche, and the Center for Humanitarian Cooperation is continuing to build upon its emphasis on the eastern diaspora in the Russian Federation and former Soviet republics.

During the past year, the center began publishing a semiannual publication devoted to Ukrainian Saturday and Sunday school teachers, Nash Ukrayinskyi Dim, in order to support such efforts currently gaining momentum in the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

"In the Western world, all the necessary textbooks are being published, as well as magazines and newspapers," Mr. Ponomarevskyi said. "In the eastern Diaspora, nothing exists. People are left torn away from Ukraine. Our task is to help them maintain their ties."

More than 20 Ukrainian Saturday and Sunday school teachers, attended this year's conference, a majority from the Russian Federation, Mr. Ponomarevskyi said.

Activity is growing so strongly there that Mr. Ponomarevskyi is planning to visit Ukrainian communities in the Tatarstan and Bashkortostan autonomous republics in September.

Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, boasts the only government institutions in the Russian Federation where students are able to study the Ukrainian language and literature, he said.

The center also worked with Ukrainians in Tatarstan to discover and publish for the first time government records documenting the two years in 1913 and 1914 that Mykhailo Hrushevsky spent there, Mr. Ponomarevskyi said.

During the September trip, Mr. Ponomarevskyi will join the Ukrainian community in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan, to place a plaque honoring Hrushevsky.

Though not in attendance, Princess Scherbatowa provided financing and suggested the conference's name, "Ukrainian Diaspora: Historical Inquiries, Emigration Phenomena, Cultural-Artistic Gains and Functioning of Academic Institutions."

Princess Scherbatowa is the daughter of Prince Aleksei Scherbatow, who ruled several estates in the Sumy and Kharkiv oblasts at the time of the Russian Empire until the Communist Revolution forced his family to flee to the West, Mr. Ponomarevskyi said.

She submitted a paper, "Prince Aleksei Pavlovych Scherbatow's (1910-2003) Concept for a Rebirth of Aristocracy in the Nation-Inheritors of the Russian Empire," which was read by a local teacher, Tetiana Kahitina.

Among those attending the conference from Canada were Dr. John Lehr of the University of Winnipeg and Natalia Aponyuk of the University of Manitoba, who delivered the lecture, "Maintaining Ukrainian Identity in Manitoba"; Luba Zuk of McGill University, who delivered the lecture, "Ukrainian Presence in the Musical World of North America; student Oleksander Kondrashov of the University of Manitoba who delivered the lecture "Reasons for Ukrainian Immigration to Winnipeg"; and teacher Iryna Konstantiuk of the University of Manitoba, who delivered the lecture, "Why do Canadian Students Choose Ukrainian Courses in Ukraine."

National Deputy Hennadii Udovenko of the Our Ukraine bloc spoke at the conference on the current political situation in Ukraine.

That same day, his bloc joined forces with the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Socialist Party of Ukraine in forming Ukraine's first parliamentary coalition government.

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