Turning the pages back... September 28, 1886 (09/28/97)

Turning the pages back...

September 28, 1886

Mykyta Mandryka was born in Kyiv on September 28, 1886. During the brief revival of Ukrainian independence early in this century, he served as a member of the Central Rada, then traveled abroad as a diplomat of the Ukrainian National Republic, stationed in the Far East, Turkey, Bulgaria and finally Prague.

There he attended the Ukrainian Free University, earning a doctorate in law (1925), serving as a lecturer in international law and publishing studies of national minority rights in international law and a history of consular law. While in the Czech capital, he joined an anti-Soviet faction of the Ukrainian Party of Socialist Revolutionaries led by Mykyta Shapoval. In 1928 the party leadership sent Dr. Mandryka to Canada to undertake organizational work.

Backed by the Winnipeg-based Ukrainian National Home, Dr. Mandryka embarked on an extensive, yearlong speaking tour, laying the groundwork for the Union of Ukrainian Community Centers in Canada and the Ukrainian Labor Association. Dr. Mandryka helped establish and edited the newspaper Pravda i Volia (Truth and Freedom) and organized a Ukrainian educational-economic conference in Winnipeg. In the 1930s, he became active in the Prosvita Reading Room, edited and wrote a number of its publications, and in 1936 was involved in the launching of the second English-language Ukrainian Canadian publication, the monthly Ukrainian Review.

Dr. Mandryka also continued to be politically active, particularly in the Ukrainian National Council (also known as the Ukrainian Central Council of Canada), which served to unite those organizations, such as the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League, the Brotherhood of Ukrainian Catholics, the Ukrainian National Federation and the United Hetman Organization, whose anti-Bolshevik positions were peaking in the aftermath of the 1932-1933 famine. This was the precursor organization to the Ukrainian Canadian Committee (set up in 1940 to urge Ukrainians to join the war effort), which Dr. Mandryka helped to organize. He was closely involved in the debates over the UCC's formation and purpose and also served on its first presidium.

Dr. Mandryka was also president of the Ukrainian Free Academy of Sciences in Canada (1970-1973) and wrote a history of Ukrainian Canadian literature (published 1968). He died in Winnipeg on August 20, 1979.

Sources: "Mandryka, Mykyta," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vol. 3 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993); Michael H. Marunchak, "The Ukrainian Canadians" (Winnipeg: Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Canada, 1982).

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