"Ukrainian-American Citadel": from the pages of UNA history

As part of the yearlong celebration of the 110th anniversary of the Ukrainian National Association, this week The Ukrainian Weekly presents the first in a series of excerpts from "Ukrainian-American Citadel: The First One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian National Association" by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, noted immigration historian, former supreme vice-president of the UNA and today an honorary member of the UNA General Assembly. Dr. Kuropas' history of the UNA was released in 1996 (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs). The excerpts are reprinted in The Weekly with the permission of the author.

Chapter 1

On the Eve

The birth of an ethno-national organization in the United States is often the result of a long and painful gestation period involving many steps and missteps. Such was the case with the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), a fraternal benefit society established by immigrants from Ukraine 100 years ago. The UNA came into being some 25 years after the first immigration from Ukraine began. The groundwork for this fraternal insurance society was laid by a series of events that transpired in Ukraine and the United States before and during this immigration.

The First Immigration

The first wave of immigration of Ukrainians to the United States started in the early 1870s and ended in 1914 with the onset of World War I. Most early immigrants came from one of three regions of Ukraine: Galicia, Bukovyna and Carpatho-Ukraine (Transcarpathia). All three regions had once been part of the great empire of Kyivan Rus'. In the 1870s they were part of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Ukraine's early immigrants did not call themselves "Ukrainian" because Ukraine had not existed as a sovereign and independent nation-state for centuries. Arriving in America, most identified with their home village or province. They called themselves Lemkos, Boykos or Hutsuls. Later, they came to call themselves Rusyns (Ruthenians), an ancient name of the Ukrainian people associated with the first nation-state, Kyivan Rus'.

According to U.S. immigration statistics, some 255,655 Ruthenians arrived on American shores between 1890 and 1914. Of this number, 71 percent were males. The overwhelming majority were either engaged in agricultural pursuits (41 percent) or were listed as laborers (22 percent). Approximately 20 percent were domestic servants, and some 13 percent were women and children with no occupational status. Significantly, only 4 percent of Ukraine's early immigrants were skilled artisans, merchants or professionals. Few Rusyns who came to the United States during this early period could read or write Ukrainian, let alone English.

Rusyns were transformed by their American experience. Some 40 percent either remained or became Rusyns. Approximately 20 percent came to call themselves Russians. The remaining 40 percent became Ukrainians. Two institutions, the Greek-Catholic Church and the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (RNS) played a major role in the metamorphosis of the Rusyns from their old country identity to their new ethnic awareness. To appreciate the dimensions of the transformation process and the monumental hurdles that had to be overcome, it is necessary to examine life in Ukraine just prior to the first mass immigration. ...

Birth of the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz

Shamokin became the birthplace of the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz (RNS), a Rusyn fraternal insurance company that changed its name to the Ukrainian National Association 20 years later. The RNS began with a group of Rusyns disillusioned with the GCU [Greek Catholic Union].

In October 1893, a meeting was held in Father [Gregory] Hrushka's rectory, with Hrushka, Father [Ivan] Konstankevych, Father Teofan Obushkevych of Olyphant, and Father Ambrosii Poliansky of Pittsburgh attending. They discussed the creation of a new Rusyn organization. ...

A discussion followed regarding the site of the founding meeting. Since Shamokin already had four brotherhoods prepared to join and Jersey City but one, it was decided that Shamokin was the better site. February was selected as the best time to meet because it had two holidays, Lincoln's and Washington's birthdays.

Father Poliansky was asked to prepare an article for Svoboda calling for a new Rusyn organization. ...

The two people most responsible for preparing the Shamokin Rusyn community for the historic first meeting of the RNS were Father Konstankevych and Dr. Volodymyr Simenovych, who had recently moved his medical office from Shenandoah. Svoboda carried a lengthy and enthusiastic report of the occasion under the banner headline "It Has Come to Be."

... In the festively decorated Rusyn hall, Father Poliansky from Pittsburgh delivered the keynote address explaining the aims of the Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz and the benefits the Rusyn people in America would derive from it. Theodosij Talpash of Shamokin was elected supreme president of the new organization. Michael Yevchak of Wilkes-Barre was elected supreme vice-president. Father Konstankevych was elected supreme secretary and Ivan Glova of Excelsior was elected supreme treasurer.

All auditors elected at the meeting were priests. They included Fathers Hrushka, Obushkevych, Alexis Toth of Wilkes-Barre and Gabriel Gulovych of Freeland. ...

Ten advisors were elected to the Supreme Assembly including Jacob Dankovsky of Jersey City; Michael Halkovych, Onufriy Murdza, and Michael Adzyma of Mount Carmel; Ivan Hordyshynsky and Oleksiy Shlianta of Mayfield; Yurko Khyliak and Semen Federovsky (the former GCU secretary) of Olyphant; Michael Oslytsky of Pittsburgh; and Dmytro Zynoviak of Centralia, Pa. The meeting decided that all officers would remain in their respective posts until the first RNS convention scheduled for Shamokin on May 30.

The first four brotherhoods to leave the GCU and join the RNS were: the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, founded on January 18, 1885, in Shenandoah; the Brotherhood of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, founded in 1887, in Shamokin; the Brotherhood of St. John the Baptist, founded on October 14, 1886, in Olyphant; and the Brotherhood of St. Nicholas, founded in Pittsburgh in 1888.

One of the first items of business discussed by RNS delegates was a resolution obligating each RNS branch to establish a reading room. According to Svoboda, "Father Toth took it upon himself, in the spirit of true Rusyn generosity, to purchase 2,000 books of all kinds for these reading rooms, while Father Hrushka promised to send a free copy of Svoboda to each reading room in America. This is indeed worthy of commendation."

The article reporting on the founding meeting of the RNS concluded with praise for Father Poliansky's chairmanship of the proceedings and ended with the following plea:

"Dear Brothers! Now that a great number of us have gotten together and founded the association, let us all join it. You must remember that this is for your own good and to your own advantage. You, who had been given up for lost by your brothers in Ukraine, let the world know that we are alive and that here in America the life of the Rusyn community is throbbing with vigor and activity. The most important step forward has been taken. The Ruskyi Narodnyi Soyuz has been founded, and the Rusyn people in America have risen from the dead."

Father Hrushka, a poet, composed a verse to celebrate the birth of the RNS:

Rejoice, Mother Rus'
Your children are not lost!
In America they are reborn
From their graves they have emerged.
Your children have united
The Soyuz they have established
Brotherly love and mutual help
Forever is enshrined
And now dear brothers,
Hurry, do not wait.
To Soyuz together now,
Sign up as one.
And let the world know
That you are Rusyns,
A people and not serfs.
That God is among us,
Crucified for us sinners.
Hold fast to the holy words,
As brothers we shall embrace.
With Soyuz we shall be one!

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, February 22, 2004, No. 8, Vol. LXXII

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