1989: A LOOK BACK: Noteworthy events and people (12/31/89)

1989: A LOOK BACK

Noteworthy events and people

In this section we annually list all those noteworthy events and people that defy classification under the other headings of our year-end review of events.

Thus, among the events of 1989 that should be noted are the following.

The Ukrainian Museum-Archives of Cleveland on January 10 released full-size reproductions of the Third Universal, the Ukrainian National Republic's proclamation of the same individual freedoms found in the American Bill of Rights and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man. The document is unique in that it was published in four languages: Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and Yiddish, in recognition of the national minorities within Ukraine.
The Ohio Boychoir, directed by Alexander Musichuk, journeyed for the first time to Ukraine with a new Ukrainian repertoire in June. The choir has been invited for a return tour in 1991.
A group of 14 Canadian Ukrainian high-school students primarily from the Toronto area journeyed to Lviv in July for a joint summer program with their peers from the Minor Academy of Sciences (Mala Akademiya Nauk). Next year, the Lviv students are to pay a visit to their newfound friends in Canada.
A trio of bandurists from the West - Pavlo Pysarenko and Julian Kytasty of the United States and Victor Mishalow of Australia - toured Ukraine for 10 weeks in the fall. Earlier, in the summertime, Messrs. Kytasty and Pysarenko had gone on a 10-day concert tour of Ukraine.
The Chervona Ruta Music Festival in Soviet Ukraine dedicated exclusively to Ukrainian music, was held in Chernivtsi, western Ukraine, on September 19-23. Held on the 10th anniversary of the death of noted composer Volodymyr Ivasiuk, in his home town, the festival also included competitions in the musical genres of pop, rock and ballads. Some 200 bands and individual singers from Ukraine, Eastern Europe and the West performed at the festival - among them Darka and Slavko (U.S.), bandurists Julian Kytasty, Pavlo Pysarenko (U.S.) and Victor Mishalow (Australia), and Luba Bilash and the Solovey band (both of Canada). A pivotal role was played by the Toronto-based Kobza International, which was one of the festival's sponsors.
The appearance of three speakers from Ukraine - Mykola Horbal of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union, Volodymyr Yavorivsky, newly elected member of the USSR Congress of People's Deputies and chairman of the Kiev regional branch of Rukh, and Sviatoslav Dudko of the ecological association Zelenyi Svit - made The Washington Group's 1989 Leadership Conference devoted to an assessment of developments in Ukraine a major event. The conference was held October 7-8.
The International PEN Club, meeting at its 54th congress on September 22-29 in Toronto, voted to admit a Ukrainian chapter based in Kiev. The chapter includes members of the official Ukrainian Writers' Union. Another group of Ukrainian writers, those belonging to the Ukrainian Association of Independent Creative Intelligentsia, had requested membership in PEN as the organization's Ukrainian chapter. Among the unofficial writers are nine honorary members of PEN previously persecuted for their writings.
Ukrainian students in Poland on October 14 held their first postwar political demonstration in Gdansk in support of increased freedom in Ukraine. The students also founded the Association of Ukrainian Independent Youth and elected a five-member governing council.

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Individuals, too, made headlines during 1989. Among them were the following.

Dr. Richard Hanusey of Philadelphia was named by Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey and Lt. Gov. Mark Singel to represent the Ukrainian community on the newly restructured Pennsylvania Heritage Affairs Commission.
Dr. Lubomyr Kuzmak, surgeon at St. Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, N.J., was recognized for "humanitarian services to the Ukrainian community" by Americans for Human Rights in Ukraine on March 12. Among his patients were Marko Ruban, formerly of Ukraine, Rostyk Cylupa of Poland, the late Gen. Petro Grigorenko, former Soviet political prisoner.
Dr. Volodymyr Mokry, a literary historian of Ukrainian background and professor at Krakow's famed Jagiellonian University, successfully ran as a Solidarity candidate for the Polish Parliament (Sejm) from Gorzow Wielkopolski in western Poland, on June 4. He later visited the United States on the invitation of the Shevchenko Scientific Society participating in Taras Shevchenko jubilee celebrations in Washington.
Dr. Mykola Mushinka, a specialist in Ukrainian folklore from Presov, Czechoslovakia, visited North America in late summer. Among his stopovers was the Erast and Lydia Huculak Chair of Ukrainian Culture and Ethnography at the University of Alberta.
Chicago attorney Julian Kulas, best known as the lawyer of Walter Polovchak, the "littlest defector," received the U.S. Army's Meritorious Service Medal, one of its most significant peacetime awards. Mr. Kulas, a colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve, was cited for directing his unit in "providing the Defense Intelligence Agency with strategic intelligence research on Soviet ground forces."
Michael Metrinko, the Ukrainian American diplomat who was among the American hostages held for 444 days in Iran, was named in August to serve as consul general of the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israel. Previously, Mr. Metrinko served at the U.S. Consulate in Krakow, Poland, and as deputy director of the State Department's Office of Northern Gulf Affairs, dealing with Iran and Iraq.
Roman Hnatyshyn, former member of Canada's Parliament and former minister of science and technology, minister of energy, and minister of justice and attorney general, was named by Queen Elizabeth II as governor-general of Canada. He is the first Ukrainian Canadian to be named the throne's representative in Canada and will serve as head of state for the next five years beginning in January 1990.
Paul Plishka, renowned bass of the Metropolitan Opera, sang the title role in Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" in his debut performance in Ukraine, at the Kiev Opera in late September.
Illinois State Sen. Walter W. Dudycz of Chicago held a news conference on Sunday, December 17, announcing his Republican candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives from the 11th Congressional District.