Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history (06/20/04)

Highlights from the UNA's 110-year history

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

Harrisburg, Pa., was the site of the 20th Convention of the Ukrainian National Association, held at a time of world cataclysm. Convening on May 12 through 17, 1941, the convention was attended by 415 delegates.

In his opening remarks, UNA Supreme President Nicholas Murashko recalled the 14th Convention as held in the same city 24 years ago, "also at a time of suffering and human tragedy." He went on to state: "Now, as then, we share in the suffering of our brothers and sisters in the old country, who are not even allowed to speak in their own defense... It is therefore our duty to speak out in behalf of the enslaved Ukrainian people... We believe that they will break the chains that bind them, that the day is near when the Ukrainian people will be free of any oppression - be it Russian, German or Hungarian - and that Ukrainian Americans will live to see the day when the bright rays of hope and faith in the great future of a free and democratic Ukraine will reach our shores from Kyiv."

Despite the adverse wartime conditions, UNA members had grown to 38,167, while total assets reached $5,926,167.04.

Convention reports referred to the UNA's initiative in calling a joint conference with three other Ukrainian fraternal societies, the Ukrainian Workingmen's Association, the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics in America and the Ukrainian National Aid Association, at which all four decided that Americans of Ukrainian descent needed to stand united in defense of the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian cause. As a result, the First Congress of Ukrainian Americans was held in Washington in May 1940. It was that assembly that gave birth to the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA).

Other highlights of reports included a reference to the publication in 1939 of Michael Hrushevsky's "History of Ukraine" in the English language. It was also noted that the UNA had organized many sports clubs and athletic teams, among them 28 baseball teams, 21 basketball teams and 33 bowling teams - all in the process of fulfilling a resolution from the previous UNA convention.

Among convention decisions was one directing the UNA Supreme Assembly "to purchase a spacious farm with appropriate facilities for kindergartens, a home for the aged and space for athletic meets of all kinds." It was a decision that would have a far-reaching effect in later years.

As well the convention decided to raise the UNA appropriation to The Ukrainian Weekly from $475 per month to $600.

As regards the election of UNA officers, Mr. Murashko was re-elected to a fourth term as supreme president.

Source: "Ukrainian National Associa-tion: 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.

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