Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history (03/21/04)

Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history

A special yearlong feature focusing on the history of the Ukrainian National Association.

The Rusyn National Association's 1902 convention in Jersey City, N.J., was the venue for a final showdown between Magyarophile and Russophile elements with the fraternal society who opposed its Ukrainian character.

The battle began at the outset of the convention, the organization's ninth, with the presence of V. Hladyk, editor of the Russophile Pravda, which spread false information about the fraternal society in order to undermine its prestige. Convention delegates decided to throw Mr. Hladyk out of the convention and passed a resolution calling for the exclusion of every member whose actions were detrimental to the Ukrainian community in the United States.

During the course of the convention delegates divided into two camps. The Russophiles, who demanded that the RNS be called "Russian" in English, that Svoboda be printed in Church Slavonic and that the UNA break with "radicals, socialists and anarchists." Some of the statements carried messages like: "Hold counsel for the good of the Russian people, not the radical priests who abandoned their fathers' faith and nationality, nor for their stupid Ukraine..."

Ultimately, the pro-Ukrainian orientation emerged victorious, thus laying the groundwork for a new course in the development of what was to become the Ukrainian National Association.

Source: "Ukrainian National Association: Its Past and Present, (1894-1964)," by Anthony Dragan (translated from the original Ukrainian by Zenon Snylyk). Jersey City, N.J.: Svoboda Press, 1964. The border featured in this special feature is reproduced from a UNA membership certificate dating to 1919.

| Home Page |