Turning the pages back January 13, 1991 (01/14/96)

Turning the pages back

January 13, 1991

Five years ago, on January 13, 1991, The Ukrainian Weekly sent its first staffer to Kyiv to serve as the full-time correspondent of the Ukrainian National Association's Press Bureau.

Associate Editor Marta Kolomayets arrived in the Ukrainian capital that day on a multiple entry/exit visa obtained with the assistance of the Information Department at the Ukrainian SSR Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Her arrival was the culmination of a resolution passed at the 1990 UNA Convention that urged the Supreme Executive Committee to look into opening a news bureau in Kyyiv and/or Lviv. Our efforts to establish the bureau began in earnest in October 1990 when a UNA delegation (composed of Supreme President Ulana Diachuk, Supreme Secretary Walter Sochan, and Supreme Advisors Eugene Iwanciw and Roma Hadzewycz) attending the second congress of Rukh met with officials of the Foreign Ministry. Several months of dealing with red tape followed. But, in the end, our efforts bore fruit.

During the first five months of the bureau's existence, our first Kyiv correspondent lived and worked out of a hotel room. Today, the bureau has a permanent address as the UNA, our publisher, has purchased an apartment off the Khreshchatyk, Kyiv's main boulevard. (Another apartment is rented to house the bureau's full-time correspondent.)

The Kyiv Press Bureau's first year was an exciting one for any journalist covering Ukraine. First came the attempted coup in Moscow, which was followed by the Ukrainian Parliament's August 24, 1991, declaration of Ukraine's independence and the December 1, 1991, referendum on independence and the first presidential election. All of this was preceded by the August 1991 visit to Kyiv of President George Bush and his now infamous "Chicken Kiev" speech.

In succeeding years the bureau has covered everything from nukes to the rebirth of Ukrainian Churches, from the work of the Parliament to the baby-selling scandal that has rocked the Lviv region, from visits by U.S. presidents and other officials to relations with Russia.

During the first five years of its existence, the Kyiv Press Bureau demonstrated over and over that the UNA's decision to establish a press presence was wise and farfighted. The bureau's staffers during that time - Marta Kolomayets, Chrystyna Lapychak, Khristina Lew and Roman Woronowycz - have all served admirably, providing our readers with invaluable information direct from Ukraine.

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