EDITORIAL: Svoboda is 110! (09/14/03)

EDITORIAL

Svoboda is 110!

September 15 marks the 110th anniversary of our sister publication, the Ukrainian-language newspaper Svoboda. Our older sister - 40 years and 21 days our senior - has celebrated this birthday by publishing a special issue. We join in that special celebration with this week's editorial and "Turning the pages back..."

Svoboda has now served four waves of Ukrainian immigration to this country. This remarkable Ukrainian-language newspaper has touched six generations; it has led the community for 11 decades. No other Ukrainian publication in the world can claim such longevity. And, through the years - whether as a biweekly, a weekly, or a daily, and now once again a weekly - the paper has stayed true to its founding mission "to serve as the people's newspaper."

Its longevity is tangible evidence of a phenomenal commitment on the part of its staff, both past and present; its magnanimous publisher, the Ukrainian National Association; and its readers, who are loyal to the core. For many decades all three groups have worked together, molding and shaping Svoboda to meet each succeeding generation's needs.

Svoboda's role in our community has been that of a crusader - indeed, the late Svoboda Editor-in-Chief Anthony Dragan described it as a "crusading newspaper." ("hazeta khrestonosnykh pokhodiv"). The longtime editor-in-chief noted: "It was indeed a true beacon of light in the prevailing darkness of hopelessness and despair among Ukrainian immigrants in America." These immigrants; who began arriving beginning around 1880 in the United States from the western Ukrainian regions of Zakarpattia and Halychyna, settled mainly in the coal mining areas of Pennsylvania. "Mostly illiterate and ignorant, they were exploited and even persecuted," Dragan wrote. With the arrival in the United States of Father Ivan Voliansky, the community of immigrants began to organize around the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and community life grew.

It was these early Ukrainians for whom Svoboda was established. The paper aimed to lift them up, to offer them advice, to educate them and to keep them in touch with their Ukrainian roots, while at the same time guiding them toward becoming good Americans in their adopted country. In other words, Svoboda strove to care for these immigrants in a very real way. And that was only its first crusade.

Afterwards came promoting Ukraine's independence, disseminating information about the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933, focusing attention on the plight of Ukraine during World War II, providing assistance to displaced persons, leading the campaign for the Shevchenko monument in Washington, pushing for the establishment of Ukrainian studies at Harvard, defending Soviet political prisoners and championing newly independent Ukraine. And that's only a partial list!

Incredibly, Svoboda's lifespan encompasses the 19th, the 20th and now the 21st centuries - a period during which the world has undergone several radical transformations. Through it all, Svoboda continued to be the people's newspaper.

Long may our dear sister Svoboda serve succeeding generations. And let the commitment to the people - its readers, our community and the Ukrainian nation - that it has exhibited during its first 110 years continue to be its raison d'être. Mnohaya Lita!

| Home Page |