A Dream That Came True! (06/27/04)

ARAS SHEVCHENKO IN WASHINGTON: 1964-2004

The Ukrainian Weekly, July 3, 1964

A Dream That Came True!

The erection and unveiling of the Monument to Taras Shevchenko in Washington, D.C., undoubtedly belongs to the greatest deeds and feats ever accomplished by the Ukrainian emigration in this country.

June 27, 1964, will ever remain a day of great national and cultural triumph of the Ukrainian people no matter where they may live. For on that day a great dream came true: the statue in honor of Ukraine's Poet Laureate and national hero Taras Shevchenko had been unveiled by one of America's greatest living heroes and statesmen - former President Dwight D. Eisenhower!

The unveiling of the statue represents not only the great triumph of the Ukrainian emigration in the United States, but it underscores also the triumph of the Ukrainian national ideal and justice. When the project for the erection of the monument was conceived some four years ago, there were many skeptical voices against it; when in the fall of 1963 the enemies of Ukrainian freedom tried to subvert the project, there were some who thought that the undertaking was far beyond the strength and power of the Ukrainian community in this country.

Yet the principles of justice and equity have prevailed, despite the seemingly insurmountable difficulties. The final triumph of the Shevchenko monument is to the credit not only of the Shevchenko Memorial Committee of America and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, but above all to the vast majority of the Ukrainian American community which supported the project morally and materially; it is also a credit to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Government and the people at large who understood the great international significance of the project and gave it full support, despite the diversionary and disruptive tactics which were used by a few to destroy this noble undertaking.

What the project and its final completion mean to all of us, is best expressed by a historic article, reproduced elsewhere, written by Dr. Frederik Brown Harris, Chaplain of the U.S. Senate, which summarizes cogently and brilliantly the essence of the importance of the Shevchenko statue in Washington. [See page 15 of this issue.]

EDITOR'S NOTE: Reproduced on these pages of The Ukrainian Weekly are original news stories and commentaries related to the historic unveiling of the Taras Shevchenko monument in Washington on June 27, 1964. Readers will note that articles are reproduced from both the June 27, 1964, combined issue of Svoboda and The Ukrainian Weekly (then a supplement to Svoboda), which was published as a special bilingual Washington edition of Svoboda, as well as from the July 3, 1964, issue of The Weekly. NB: Spellings, capitalizations and style in the stories in this section appear as they did in 1964.

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