The 1980s (02/20/94)

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 1980s

The decade began on a sour note, with the UNA withdrawing from the Ukrainian Congress Committee because of domination of the Right and helping establish the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council. ...

Throughout the 1980s, the UNA went on the offensive with a number of initiatives aimed at informing both the Ukrainian and the American public about the true nature of the calumny being penetrated against the Ukrainian people, as the Soviet Union intensified its defamation campaign against the Ukrainian community in the free world, resurrecting charges of anti-Semitism and Nazism which were so successfully applied in the 1930s and 1940s. ... A UNA office was eventually established in Washington and charged with the responsibility of defending Ukrainian American interests. ...

Perhaps the single most significant contribution of the UNA in the struggle to promulgate the Ukrainian agenda during the 1980s, was the role "Batko Soyuz" played in educating the American public about the Great Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine, publishing a special issue of The Ukrainian Weekly, a monograph on the subject and financing Dr. Robert Conquest's book, "The Harvest of Sorrow." ...

The UNA also paid more attention to senior citizens with the construction of seniors' housing at Soyuzivka. ...

Illustrations Published:

1985: The Ukrainian National Association sponsored several Washington receptions for members of the U.S. Congress and administration officials. The photos above, from the 1985 reception on Capitol Hill, show (photo on left) Rep. Dan Mica with Supreme Advisor Taras Maksymowich (right), and (photo on right) Sen. Spark Matsunaga being welcomed by (from left) Supreme Vice-Presidentess Gloria Paschen, Supreme President John O. Flis and Supreme Vice-President Myron B. Kuropas.
1988: The Ukrainian National Association opened its Washington Office on July 1, 1988. Seen above, in a photo taken soon thereafter, are Eugene Iwanciw (left), director, John Kun, assistant director, and Maria Lischak, administrative assistant.
1989: Employees of Soyuzivka, the UNA's Catskill resort, at one of their reunions.
1992: The Association of UNA Seniors meets annually at Soyuzivka. Above, the 1992 convention is addressed by Ambassador Viktor Batiouk, then Ukraine's envoy to the United Nations. To his left is the seniors' president, Gene Woloshyn.

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