1983: A LOOK BACK: Meanwhile, at The Weekly (12/25/83)

1983: A LOOK BACK

Meanwhile, at The Weekly

1983 was a productive if somewhat strenuous year at The Weekly. We turned a sprightly 50 this year, but there was little time for fanfare, what with the famine anniversary, special issues, the WCFU and the like.

There were some important milestones. Awilda Arzola, our invaluable typesetter and morale booster, marked her third anniversary of thankless toil. The only Puerto Rican member of UNA Branch 25, she continued to be an indispensable asset to our staff. It was also the year that our paste-up person, Hilary Zarycky, left to find himself in Rome. There was some talk that he would return a bishop, but last we heard, he was searching for himself in the seedier underbelly of the Eternal City.

We must also note that John Flis, supreme president of our publisher, the UNA, was pictured alongside Ronald Reagan in a photo published in the April issue of MAD magazine. The caption should have read supreme president meets supreme president-to-be.

1983 was also the summer of Mykhailo Bociurkiw, the peripatetic Canadian summer intern who literally traversed the Northeast in search of a story. Trouble was, he used somebody else's car. In more ways than one we got a lot of mileage out of Bociurkiw. When he wasn't out making enemies, he filed an impressive number of good stories.

As far as the staff itself was concerned, Associate Editor George B. Zarycky was inconsolable after hitting his 30th birthday in June. He bounced back briefly after we let him cover this Year's Miss Soyuzivka pageant. Assistant Editor Marta Kolomayets, relieved of her coffee responsibilities by young Bociurkiw, represented The Weekly at a 50th anniversary celebration sponsored by the UNA District Committee in Chicago, where it seemed she spent as much time as at her desk. For Editor Roma Hadzewycz, who last year had something of an identity crisis, nature provided a re-sounding and dramatic reaffirmation of gender, but more on that in about four months, give or take a few weeks.

In a more serious vein, the bulk of our labors focused on the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ukraine. In March, we put together a special issue on this tragic event. Over 20,000 additional copies were ordered by our readers, and the edition went to four printings. We also edited an 88-page booklet on the famine that will soon be mailed to subscribers. In addition, we put out our annual scholarship issue as well as a 50th anniversary issue.

But, if our exhaustive coverage of the October 2 famine commemorations in Washington and of the WCFU caused a stir, it was nothing like the sensation caused by our uncoverage of sultry actress Kelly Danyluk (September 25) and muscleman John Hnatyschak (October 30.) The picture of the statuesque and scantity-clad Ms. Danyluk certainly raised eyebrows and prompted one reader to request a copy of the photo, while Mr. Hnatyschak's bulging biceps and washboard stomach moved one reader to write that her elderly aunt felt so rejuvenated by the picture that she threw away her medicine. Clearly, the combination of cheesecake and beefcake sells papers.

This year's Weekly also showcased some new features, including a column providing 1930s Svoboda accounts of the famine and a page devoted to current media reports on famine-related subjects. The "Dissident profile" feature became "Dissident sketch" to spotlight lesser-known dissidents about whom there is little information. The UNA page was reorganized as "The Ukrainian National Association forum." We also included a "From our pages" column to mark our 50th anniversary.

Of course The Weekly retained most of its regular features such as Helen Smindak's "Panorama," Ihor Stelmach's "Pro hockey update" and Roman Sawycky's "Sounds and views." Dr. Roman Solchanyk also continued to provide first-rate reports on Soviet reality.

Also noteworthy this year were articles contributed by Dr. James Mace, who wrote on the famine; Marco Carynnyk, who provided interviews with Malcolm Muggeridge and Prof. Robert Sullivant as well as an article on The New York Times and the famine; Dr. Robert Conquest and Dana Galrymple, who also wrote on the famine; Dr. Frank Sysyn on the Orthodox Church; Dr. Jaroslaw Padoch on the 110th anniversary of the Shevchenko Scientific Society; Nestor Olesnycky on the Kungys case and denaturalization; Andriy Bilyk, who contributed a column on effective media relations; Christine Demkowych on the Kozaks and the liberation of Vienna; Ivan Hvat on the Ukrainian Catholic Church in Ukraine; Dr. Bohdan Cymbalisty on community matters; Lydia Demjanjuk on the Office of Special Investigations and its tactics; the Rev. Thomas Sayuk on community divisiveness; and Dr. Myron Kuropas, who wrote about the famine, the Ukrainian community in America, the history of Svoboda and The Weekly and the efforts of Ukrainian Americans to help displaced persons after World War II.

To these and others who have contributed to helping us make The Weekly informative and interesting, a heartfelt thanks.

As another year comes to a close and we reiterate our commitment to provide the community with a window on itself, we also ask our readers to recommit themselves to The Weekly. We don't mean only in terms of subscriptions, although we certainly appreciate them. We need other types of feedback: letters, comments, articles, photos. The three of us need your input to help us become even better.

On that note, we wish one and all a very Merry Christmas and a healthy and prosperous new year.

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