ANNIVERSARY REVIEW: EDITORIAL: Six decades (10/10/93)

ANNIVERSARY REVIEW

EDITORIAL

Six decades

Born of the needs of a new generation of Ukrainian Americans and the mission of telling the world about the Great Famine in Ukraine that had already decimated the populace, The Ukrainian Weekly published its inaugural issue 60 years ago, on October 6, 1933.

It appeared as a four-page tabloid-format supplement to the Friday edition of Svoboda, the 40-year-old Ukrainian-language daily newspaper published by the Ukrainian National Association. The UNA, it should be noted, was a fraternal organization founded in 1894 to cater to the needs of recently arrived Ukrainian immigrants to this country and their progeny. Thus, it was no surprise that the UNA, heeding the voice of its membership and the counsel of Svoboda Editor-in-Chief Dr. Luke Myshuha, took the initiative in providing for the needs of a new generation.

In its wisdom, the UNA decided to publish a special newspaper "dedicated to the needs and interests of young Americans of Ukrainian descent." And, it saw that this English-language newspaper, prepared by the young Stephen Shumeyko - truly a remarkable staff of one, would serve also as a source of information for non-Ukrainians on Ukraine and Ukrainians at a turning point in world history. An artificial famine was raging in Ukraine, the Roosevelt administration was preparing to grant diplomatic recognition to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and Hitler had come to power in Germany. World cataclysm would soon follow.

For the Ukrainian community in America it was a time of much-needed reassessment and a time when unity was sorely needed in the face of the destruction of the Ukrainian nation and the annihilation of the centuries-old Ukrainian heritage. It was time also to "reclaim" American youths of Ukrainian ancestry who had become alienated from the older generation and were on the verge of assimilation.

Editor Shumeyko saw the new paper's role vis-a-vis Ukrainian American youths as "inculcat(ing) them with the idea that as Americans of Ukrainian descent they are duty-bound to help their kinsmen in foreign-occupied and oppressed Ukraine to win the national freedom for which they have been fighting and sacrificing for so many years."

He saw The Weekly as a newspaper of record. Thus, in the first year of the paper's existence he published documentation about the Great Famine of 1932-1933, and memoranda and protests regarding recognition of the USSR. During Mr. Shumeyko's tenure, and that of his successors, The Weekly has continued in that very important role.

Its accomplishments since 1933 are many. It told the world the truth about the famine when that truth was not being told, for one reason or another, by many a Western journalist. It gave subjugated Ukraine a voice. It defended Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees, and discussed the problems of their adjustment and acceptance by the Ukrainian American community. Like its sister publication, Svoboda, it became a crusader for the erection of a monument to Taras Shevchenko in Washington and for the establishment of three chairs of Ukrainian studies and a Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. It was The Weekly that published news of Ukrainian political prisoners in the Soviet Union and quite often was the first to run English-language translations of their appeals, memoranda and other human and national rights documents.

In 1983, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine - an event in history to which The Weekly, perhaps like no other entity in what used to be called the free world, is so firmly bound - it published a commemorative book and a special issue (tens of thousands of copies of which were distributed throughout the world). It was The Weekly also that pushed most forcefully for establishment of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine.

And, in the 1990s, it was The Weekly that reported first-hand the proclamation of Ukraine's sovereignty, the declaration of its independence, and the affirmation of that independence by an overwhelming 90 percent of voters in the December 1, 1991, referendum on the issue.

The Ukrainian Weekly now has served three generations. With its readers it has grown and matured. Today, it is no longer for youth only, but for all generations. It is for anyone, Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian alike, who is interested in Ukraine and Ukrainians, be he, or she, a scholar, politician, businessperson or journalist. Today The Weekly is received at the offices of all members of the U.S. Congress, and among its readers are leading opinion-shapers and policy-makers.

The Ukrainian Weekly continues to be published by the UNA, but it is independent of its sister-publication, Svoboda. It has a full-time editorial staff of five, including a correspondent in its Kyyiv Press Bureau located in independent Ukraine (something founding editor Stephen Shumeyko could only dream of). In six decades it has expanded the number of its pages sixfold: what used to be a four-page tabloid is now published in editions as large as 24-pages.

The Ukrainian Weekly is what it is today due to decades of dedication and tireless efforts by all its editors and contributors. Each laid the groundwork for his successors and thus promoted the newspaper's development and improvement over the years. Thus, it is fitting that on this 60th anniversary we pay homage to our predecessors and highlight the results of their work in this special section of The Ukrainian Weekly.

Our new flag

Today, on the occasion of The Ukrainian Weekly's 60th anniversary, we unveil a new flag, that is, the nameplate at the top of our front page. May its elegant design reflect the melding of old and new, in recognition of the past on which the present and the future are built. And may it carry us proudly toward the 21st century.

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