Turning the pages back... October 6, 1933 (10/05/03)

Turning the pages back...

October 6, 1933

On October 6, 1933, the first issue of The Ukrainian Weekly (or more properly the Ukrainian Weekly since the "the" was not then part of the newspaper's name) rolled off the presses at the Svoboda print shop as a supplement to the 40-year-old Ukrainian-language daily newspaper Svoboda.

The lead editorial noted that the four-page English-language tabloid was not the first venture of its kind sponsored by the Ukrainian National Association, then, as now, the largest Ukrainian fraternal organization. For it was the UNA that during the previous seven years had published The Ukrainian Juvenile Magazine; in addition, it had on occasion published English-language sections in Svoboda. And therein were the clues to the reason The Ukrainian Weekly was initiated.

Since the mid-1920s, the UNA leadership was becoming increasingly concerned with the younger generation: how to maintain its interest in the Ukrainian American community and how to prevent this generation from becoming completely assimilated into the American milieu. As early as 1925, certain UNA members had proposed that what was needed was an English-language publication for the younger generation; in the late 20s some even suggested that Svoboda be published 50-50 in Ukrainian and English.

Then came the influence of current events in the 1930s: the Polish pacification campaign directed at Ukrainians living under its rule and the brutal work of Joseph Stalin in Ukraine, the man-made famine. Svoboda published articles about both on its pages, but it wanted to tell the truth about the sufferings of Ukrainians to the general public. Thus, it began publishing selected articles in the English language, which would be accessible to fellow Americans. Finally, the UNA convention in 1933 voted to begin publishing an English-language Ukrainian Weekly.

And thus The Weekly was born with a dual mission: to keep Ukrainian American youth involved in the Ukrainian community and to tell the world the truth about Ukraine.

In its inaugural issue the newspaper wrote about the famine: "A series of mass meetings are being held by the Ukrainians throughout America and Canada, protesting against the barbaric attempts of the Bolshevik regime to deliberately starve out and depopulate the Ukrainian people in Ukraine. The purpose of this intentional starvation by the Bolsheviks is to forever quell the Ukrainian struggle for freedom." The Weekly continued: The Soviets have been deliberately "carrying out of Ukraine practically all of the grain and other foodstuffs, with the result that over 5 million Ukrainians have died over the past year from starvation."

The article went on to note that the Soviets had forbidden leading Western correspondents to enter Ukraine, and that foreign aid to the starving population was not permitted. Meanwhile, "appeals are being made to the U.S. government not to recognize this Communistic dictatorship, as it is founded upon principles that are contrary to all rules of humanity and civilization," noted The Weekly.

And so it went. The Weekly continued to publish any information it could obtain about the ravages of the famine. It also continued to insist, albeit unsuccessfully, that the United States should not extend diplomatic recognition to the USSR. In addition, there was the matter of the continuing Polish reign of terror on Western Ukrainian lands, demands for autonomy by Ukrainians in Czecho-Slovakia and proclamation of a Carpatho-Ukrainian state, the plight of Ukrainians in Rumania, and Hitler's designs on Ukraine.

It was a turbulent time for a neophyte weekly newspaper ...

Source: "The Thirties: A neophyte newspaper and the Great Famine," by Roma Hadzewycz, "The Ukrainian Weekly 2000," Volume I, 1933-1969. Parsippany, N.J.: The Ukrainian Weekly, 2000.

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