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 1900s

The 1904 convention of the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (Shamokin, Pa.) was a truly memorable event in the history of America's Ukrainian community. In many ways it marked the end of an era of ethnonational searching and the beginning of an era of ethnonational development. From that moment on, the RNS was on its way to becoming an organization that was Ukrainian in both mind and spirit. It would take a group known as the American Circle 10 more years, hut the goal was on the horizon. ...

The American Circle was initiated by seven Lviv seminarians, all close personal friends, who vowed to take up their pastoral duties in the U.S. and to organize the Rusyn community along Ukrainian ethnonational lines. ...Politically active in Galicia, Circle members were part of a new generation of Rusyn priests who were sympathetic to the ideals of the Radical Party, a socialist group that included the poet Ivan Franko...

Composed of unusually competent, highly motivated and militant individuals, the American Circle led the Rusyn-Ukrainian fight against Latinization, Russification and Magyarization. Circle members were in the forefront of the struggle to establish an autonomous Ukrainian exarchy in the United States. And it was the American Circle that eventually took control of the RNS, and involved the organization in the establishment of reading rooms, enlightenment societies, cultural enterprises, youth organizations and ethnic heritage schools.

Illustrations Published:

• 1905: UNA Branch 99, the St. Nicholas Brotherhood, based in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., gathered its members, young and old, together for this commemorative photo.

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

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