FACES AND PLACES: "Taras Bulba" is 100! (09/17/00)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

"Taras Bulba" is 100!

On October 1, my father, "Taras Bulba," will celebrate his 100th birthday.

I began associating Taras Bulba with my father when I was very young. Dad would tell me stories about the heroic exploits of Taras Bulba and his merry band of Kozaks who fought the Tatars, the Poles, the Russians and anyone else who wanted to take away their freedom in Ukraine. For me, the Kozaks were super-heroes who loved children, built carousels at the Sitch, and preserved Ukrainian traditions, especially the Ukrainian language. In my imagination, my father became Taras Bulba.

Stephen Kuropas was born in Selyska, a town near Peremyshl, on October 1, 1900. His mother died when he was 4. His father eventually remarried but died when Dad was 12. He now had two brothers, three sisters and two half-sisters. It was his sisters who raised him. A bright young man, my dad eventually completed the gymnasium in Peremyshl.

When the first world war broke out, Stephen Kuropas was drafted into the Austrian army along with one of his uncles. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian army, Dad joined the Galician Ukrainian Army and fought the Poles. When the war ended, he found himself in the newly created republic of Czecho-Slovakia, undoubtedly one of the most progressive new states to emerge between the two world wars. Ukrainian veterans in the new nation were offered an opportunity to attend Charles University. Dad completed a degree in agricultural engineering and worked for a time on a dairy farm in Liechtenstein. Later he returned to his home town, then under Polish rule.

Soon after his return he was drafted into the Polish army. Following his discharge he became active in the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO). Believing that Ukraine had little future under Polish rule, he emigrated to the United States. He was 27 years old.

Dad had a distant cousin in Grand Rapids, Mich., and that's where he settled first. His cousin, who still considered himself a Rusyn, helped him find a job, but Dad believed he could do better in a bigger city and he moved to Chicago.

Since he didn't know the language employment as an agronomist was out of the question. His first job in Chicago was in a restaurant where he worked as a dishwasher for a dollar a day plus meals. The salary was just enough to pay for his room in a flop-house. To save money, he later decided to sleep in telephone booths.

Dad eventually discovered Chicago's Ukrainian community and settled in the area. He held a variety of different jobs, including sorter of severed cattle heads in the stockyards and chocolate tub stirrer in a candy factory. By a stroke of sheer luck, he ran into Frank V. Martinek, his former company commander in the Austrian army, who offered Dad a position with the Standard Oil Co. as a manager- trainee. He worked at a number of service stations throughout Chicago before he finally received his own station at Chicago Avenue and Orleans Street. He remained with the company for over 40 years.

Soon after settling in the Ukrainian community, Dad helped organize the Chicago chapter of UVO. When Col. Evhen Konovalets first visited Chicago in 1929, Dad was part of the welcoming committee. He is very proud of a picture showing him sitting next to Col. Konovalets, chairman of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), during a rally at the Chopin School. Dad was a founding member of the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODVU), an OUN affiliate established at the request of Col. Konovalets. Various members of the OUN Provid (Leadership) visited our home during the 1930s; some, like Col. Roman Shushko, even lived with us for a time.

Dad loved to write, and became the assistant editor of Ukrayina, a Chicago newspaper edited by the legendary Chicago community activist Dr. Volodymyr Simenovych. Many unsalaried young men and women were hired to seek new subscribers on a part-time basis with remuneration based on the number of new readers enrolled. One of the most successful salespersons was one Antoinette Mehal who became Mrs. Stephen Kuropas at St. Nicholas Church (now cathedral) on October 24, 1931. I was born on November 15, 1932.

By the late 1930s, ODVU was the most powerful political organization in the non-Communist Ukrainian camp.

In 1937, 11 members of ODVU were elected to the Supreme Assembly of the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), among them my dad who became a UNA auditor. The activities of both the UNA and ODVU were anathema to the Communists who were gaining in popularity during the Depression and infiltrating American institutions at an alarming rate. The Communists accused the UNA and ODVU of being "Nazi-controlled" and both organizations were investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1939. Once America went to war with the Axis, the FBI ordered the bank accounts of ODVU leaders frozen. My father was told not to leave town without FBI permission. It was not until 1943 that ODVU and the UNA were exonerated.

After the war, Dad sponsored over 200 displaced persons - some of whom lived in our home for a time. He found jobs and apartments for those who settled in Chicago.

Dad continued his activities with the UNA and ODVU. He authored many articles in Svoboda as well as a popular (and controversial) column titled "The Chicago Chronicle" for many years. He was elected UNA supreme vice-president in 1962 and occupied the post until 1970.

Despite his work with Standard Oil, Dad was always drawn to gentleman farming. During the 1940s he purchased a 60-acre farm in Michigan where my sister, Vera, and I spent many a pleasant summer. He sold the farm and later purchased a 220-acre farm in Wisconsin where his five grandchildren spent weekends. Today, there are 10 great-grandchildren in the Kuropas clan.

The UNA and ODVU are sponsoring a banquet-reception in Dad's honor at 1 p.m. Sunday, October 1, at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Chicago's Ukrainian Village. Tickets to the reception, which includes a luncheon, are $10 and will be available at the door for those who wish to meet "Taras Bulba" and honor a truly outstanding Ukrainian American patriot. (For reservations call Oresta Jarymowych, 773-384-6400.)

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

| Home Page |