The Ukrainian Weekly (https://www.ukrweekly.com/uwwp/author/andrew-sorokowski/page/5/)
Not long ago I received an e-mail from a historian in Ukraine asking for a photograph of my grandfather. The scholar was writing a history of the town of Dobromyl. A few days later he asked for a photo of my grandfather’s elder brother. These requests compelled me to go through some old photos and digital copies. I had neglected what I’d call the first rule of preservation: label each picture with the names of the persons depicted.
Being Ukrainian has never been easy. It’s especially difficult in a time of rapid political change. We Ukrainian Americans find ourselves in the midst of a most unusual election campaign. On the global level, Ukraine is in an awkward position. These national and international predicaments are related.
WASHINGTON – Over 50 people gathered on Sunday, June 12, at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington to hear internationally known Ukrainian political commentator and essayist Mykola Riabchuk. Sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and delivered in Ukrainian, his lecture was titled “What is Left of ‘Two Ukraines’? New Divisions and New Connections in Ukrainian Society, 2014-2016.”
The event was chaired by Bohdana Urbanovych, who heads the District of Columbia chapter of the Shevchenko Scientific Society. Citing a variety of statistics, Mr. Riabchuk demonstrated that the stereotypical conception of “two Ukraines” – one patriotic and pro-Western, the other Russian and pro-Soviet – is misleading. For one thing, the “other” Ukraine does not have a Russian identity, but rather a different kind of Ukrainian identity. For another, the balance has changed in recent years, so that the patriotic and pro-Western portion of the population is now dominant.
Not all of us have the time or patience to watch a couple of talking heads on YouTube for close to an hour. It’s faster and more efficient to scan a transcript and pick out anything worth reading. But the recent Uke Tube debate between historian John-Paul Himka and attorney Askold Lozynskyj on “OUN, UPA, Jews and Ukrainians,” dated May 12 and published May 16, is exceptional (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYdEnjconjk). For one thing, these heads talk well. A veteran lecturer, Prof. Himka is articulate and clear.
“Do you have a grandfather?” asked my second-grade classmate Gillian as we walked up the dusty track to the horse corral. “Yes,” I replied. “He’s retired.”
“You mean he’s dead?”
“No…”
Recent experience has confirmed my childhood understanding that retirement is not the same thing as death. Though some may find it comparable. The very notion of retirement was born of the modern social welfare systems developed in Europe and later in the United States.
It was one of my most alarming experiences. It was 1990 or 1991, and I was in Moscow. It was cold, damp and grey. My colleagues and I had been wandering along the Arbat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a throng of children with two or three adults.
The other day, my old friend Prof. Dr. Dr. (he has two doctorates) Ilarion Khvalko-Yerundovych was poking along Second Avenue when, just as he was about to cross East Seventh Street, he saw his acquaintance Pani Kvasniuk advancing down the sidewalk. Her grey hair was tied up in a bun, and her plump figure was wrapped in a glossy green raincoat that made her look like a cucumber. “What brings you to town?” he asked. “I haven’t seen you in ages.”
“Oh, it’s a 40th birthday party for my second cousin’s daughter-in-law,” she muttered. “Dreadful creature.”
“I take it you don’t care for her?” said Prof. Dr. Dr. Khvalko-Yerundovych.
“Religion, Nation, and Secularization in Ukraine,” Edited by Martin Schulze Wessel and Frank E. Sysyn. Edmonton and Toronto: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 2015. xi +174 pages. Index. Paperback, ISBN 978-1-894865-38-8.
If you haven’t ever been in this situation, you may be soon. You are preparing for a holiday meal. It seems appropriate to pronounce a prayer before all your guests sit down. You feel a bit awkward about it. Prayers before meals are the sort of thing that priestly families do, and Evangelicals, but it may not have been the custom in your family.
As he lay dying in their Miami Beach condominium, my uncle kept asking his wife when they would go home. Home, of course, meant Ukraine. Perhaps he meant specifically the apartment they had bought in Lviv, where he would never live. Or perhaps he meant something more general – “home” not just as a place, but as a milieu, an atmosphere, a sensation of familial well-being. He had known little of that.