Turning the pages back... October 25, 1887 (10/25/98)

Turning the pages back...

October 25, 1887

Luke Myshuha was born in Novyi Vytkiv, in Radekhiv county of Galicia, about 40 miles north of Lviv. He studied at the University of Vienna and graduated with a law degree in 1911. In 1915 he joined the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen and acted as a community organizer in Volodymyr Volynskyi, the town just north of his native village, where he set up a local Ukrainian administration after Austrian authority collapsed with the end of the first world war.

In 1918 he was assigned by the government of the Western Ukrainian National Republic (ZUNR), as a commissioner in Radekhiv, and later as a lieutenant in Gen. Symon Petliura's general staff in Kamianets Podilskyi.

In late 1919 he moved to Vienna with the ZUNR administration, which sent him on special diplomatic missions, first to Riga in 1921, and then to the U.S., where he stayed, settling in Washington, in order to set up the ZUNR mission-in-exile and raise funds.

In 1922 Myshuha organized the United Ukrainian Organizations in America, an umbrella organization whose purpose was to promote Ukrainian education in the U.S., assist Ukrainian institutions in Europe and publicize Ukraine's right to independence. As general secretary (1923-1940) he marshalled protest campaigns against the Polish Pacification in Galicia and the genocidal famine in Ukraine of 1932-1933.

In 1926 Myshuha joined the editorial staff of Svoboda and soon after began lobbying for a voice to be given to locally born Ukrainian youth who, he felt, were being left behind by the community.

According to Dr. Myron Kuropas, Myshuha was "one of the few members of the older generation to appreciate the dilemma of the American-born [Ukrainians]." He saw that breaking into the mainstream life of the country was difficult, and saw the establishment of a news vehicle written and edited by the younger generation as paramount. In May 1933 at the UNA's 18th convention, Myshuha drafted the resolution that created The Ukrainian Weekly. Also that year he was made editor-in-chief of Svoboda, a post he held until his death.

In 1940, he was instrumental in getting the leaders of the Ukrainian National Association, the Providence Association, the Ukrainian National Aid Association and the Ukrainian Fraternal Association to set aside their differences and establish the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, which replaced the (United Ukrainian Organization).

Four years later he became one of the principal founders of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, which coordinated efforts in resettling Ukrainian refugees at the end of the second world war, serving as its president in 1953-1955.

Luke Myshuha died in New York City on February 8, 1955.

Sources: "Myshuha, Luka," "United States," "United Ukrainian Organizations in America," Encyclopedia of Ukraine, Vols. 3, 5 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993); The Ukrainian Weekly Archive website.

| Home Page |