THE UKRAINIAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION'S FIRST CENTURY

The history of the Ukrainian National Association is documented in a new book by Dr. Myron Kuropas, "Ukrainian Citadel: The First Hundred Years of The Ukrainian National Association," to be published by The University of Toronto Press. In this special 12-page pullout section of The Weekly, prepared on the occasion of our publisher's centennial, we offer excerpts from Dr. Kuropas' pre-publication manuscript, reprinted with permission from the author. (Please note that the Ukrainian National Association (UNA) was known as the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (RNS) for the first 20 years of its existence.)

The 1890s

From its founding in 1894 to its centennial in 1994, the UNA and the Ukrainian community have been one. They are still inseparable. What happens to the Ukrainian community happens to the UNA. And what is good for the UNA has usually been good for the community.

Those Rusyns who laid the foundation for what was later to become the Ukrainian National Association were people of vision and high moral standards. They saw what needed to be done to improve life in the fledgling Rusyn community and they did it. Given the sordid quality of life among Ukraine's early immigrants, especially in the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania, and the competition which existed from older, more established fraternal societies, the very fact that an organization such as the RNS was established at all is in some ways a miracle...

Although the primary goal of the RNS was to provide burial expenses for members and their families, the organization was also committed to national enlightenment and personal growth. From its inception, the RNS emphasized national pride, collective resistance to exploitation and economic mobility through education. The RNS, more than any other single institution in the United States, transformed the Rusyn peasant into a Ukrainian patriot.

In many Rusyn communities, the creation of a local mutual aid society often preceded the establishment of a church building committee. ...

As with most organizations, internal strife was inevitable, especially when the membership consisted of people from various regions of Ukraine. Led by influential priests with different ethnonational orientations, Rusyn fraternals soon became political battlegrounds...

Rusyn fraternals functioning as "immigrant schools," within which the membership learned to develop and operate democratic institutions, was another early theme of fraternal life. Led by enlightened leaders determined to demonstrate to the American world that Rusyns understood and appreciated the democratic process...

Illustrations Published:

• 1893: The Rev. Hryhoriy Hrushka, editor-in-chief of Svoboda, called for the establishment of a fraternal organization uniting Ukrainians in the United States. Here the first editor of Svoboda and founding father of the UNA is depicted in a sculpture.
  
  
• 1894: Theodosiy Talpash became the first supreme president of the UNA at the first regular convention held May 30, 1894, in Shamokin.
  
  
• 1897: The Svoboda staff: the Rev. Stefan Makar (seated), editor, with printers (from left) Denys Pyrch, Denys Murdza and Vasyl Fekula.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 20, 1994, No. 8, Vol. LXII

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