This section features the noteworthy events and people of 2018 that defy easy classification (or could fit under more than one of our Year in Review categories).
• Jaroslaw Martyniuk, Alpine skier, mountain climber, flamenco guitarist, art connoisseur, amateur historian, oenophile and mastermind of a Cold War undercover operation, published his memoirs, “Monte Rosa: Memoirs of an Accidental Spy.” Born as World War II was starting, the path of Mr. Martyniuk’s life led him to DP camps in Germany, then lower-middle-class Chicago. He moved to Paris in 1979 and eventually landed a job with Radio Liberty, specifically with its Soviet Area Audience and Opinion Research (SAAOR) arm, charged with the mission of estimating Soviet citizen media responses to Western radio. Soviet visitors to the West were the primary source of this information; Mr. Martyniuk coordinated and monitored the work of interviewers in several cities. Reviewing the book in our February 11 edition, Myron Kuropas notes: “My favorite takeaway Martyniuk reflection deals with American education: ‘Sadly, the only history taught in schools today is revisionist history infused with misleading postmodernist ideas, poststructuralist theories, insidious cultural relativism, and invidious political correctness.’ ” In a parallel review, Andrew Sorokowski describes the book as equal parts Alpine thriller, travelogue, spy story and cultural-historical meditation.
• Yale University professor and award-winning author Marci Shore, who has spent much of her adult life in Central and Eastern Europe, published “The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution.” The book, reviewed in the March 4 issue of The Weekly, chronicles the stories of activists, soldiers, parents and children, blending their stories with the historian’s reflections on what revolution is and what it means. These individual portraits of revolutionaries are presented against the past, as they understand it – and the future as they hope to make it. In so doing, the author provides a lesson about human solidarity in the world.
• WikiSpiv, a collaborative, editable, digital encyclopedia of Ukrainian songs was launched in January at www.WikiSpiv.com. Created by Daniel Centore, a computer science/computer engineering student at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., the anthology is structured in the style of “Wiki” free-content websites; users can add or edit content. Each songs page offers the words to a common version of the song, the chords to the melody and links to one or more recorded renditions. Mr. Centore graduated from Rensselaer in May 2018, and is currently employed by Facebook as a software engineer; he plans to continue to support and expand the WikiSpiv project.
• On March 14, the students and faculty of St. George Academy (SGA) joined thousands of high school students around the country in a walk-out commemorating the 17 innocent victims of the mass shooting that took place on February 14 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Wearing orange ribbons in solidarity with their peers around the nation and holding signs that read “We remember the victims of the Florida shooting,” students and faculty left the school at approximately 10 a.m., walked down Sixth Street, to Second Avenue and up Seventh Street in a solemn march of remembrance. The students then proceeded into St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church, where they prayed for the victims, shared thoughts and listened to remarks by Principal Andrew Stasiw and guest speaker the Rev. Dr. Ivan Kaszczak.
• Sports giant Adidas, in what was described in one of The Weekly’s editorials as “a malfeasance in marketing,” offered a “Russia Tank Dress” featuring the letters USSR along with the hammer-and-sickle state emblem of the Soviet Union. The dress was described as “celebrating the upcoming World Cup… inspired by 1991 shirts worn by the Soviet Union.” In Ukraine, the Institute of National Remembrance asked Adidas Ukraine not to sell products with symbols of the Communist regime on Ukraine’s territory, pointing out that those symbols are banned in Ukraine under a law condemning the Communist and Nazi totalitarian regimes. The Ukrainian Crisis Media Center in May launched a media campaign, publishing daily reminders criticizing Adidas, claiming it would continue “until Adidas shuts down the USSR clothing line and … makes a public apology.” Although the dress is currently not easily found by searching the Adidas website, no public apology was ever issued to the thousands of individuals and families affected by the genocidal Soviet regime.
Misha Lytvynyuk Photography
The Chumak Way team in Ottawa with Ukraine’s Ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko (right). On August 14 the group completed the Canadian leg of its 10,0000-kilometer transcontinental tour aimed at raising awareness of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. The team of 10 cycling enthusiasts and war veterans called their project “Chumak Way – Cycle U.S. & Canada for Peace.”
• A group of nine cyclists from Ukraine – three of whom are Donbas war veterans – rode coast-to-coast across North America to raise awareness of Ukraine and the war, riding some 10,000 kilometers (6,000 miles) and visiting 400 towns in North America. Their odyssey was called the “Chumak Way – Cycle U.S. & Canada for Peace,” and could be followed on the Facebook page by that name. Cyclist Kostiantyn Samchuk told The Weekly that their “purpose is to promote Ukraine. It’s about uniting Ukraine and Ukrainians around the world. …to connect them and show that there is strength in unity.” The group began its trek in Los Angeles in May, finished in Washington in August, and had 15 major cities on its cross-continental itinerary: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Chicago, Detroit, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Boston, New York and Washington.
• To mark the 25th anniversary of her work helping Ukrainian orphans, Ukrainian Canadian realtor and community activist Ruslana Wrzesnewskyj of Toronto completed a 56-day, 650-kilometer (404-mile) trek from Kyiv to the Carpathian Mountain town of Vorokhta. Ms. Wrzesnewskyj set out from Andriyivskyi Uzviv in Kyiv on June 11, and on August 4 entered Vorokhta, where her Toronto-based charitable organization Help us Help the Children regularly holds camps for socially vulnerable and at-risk children. During her trek, Ms. Wrzesnewskyj visited nine orphanages, many of which have received material assistance from Help us Help the Children, to conduct site visits. Ms. Wrzesnewskyj noted that “reform must start soon… there should be programs to keep children with their families as opposed to just dumping them in the orphanages.” She added that Canada’s foster care model would be a good fit for Ukraine.
• Continuing a decades-old tradition, a new Miss Soyuzivka was crowned on August 11 during the Saturday evening zabava (dance). Miss Soyuzivka 2019 is Anastasiya Kaspruk, a pharmacy student at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Ms. Kaspruk was a member of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans as well as several Ukrainian dance ensembles, and had spent several weeks at Soyuzivka that summer as a camp counselor at the Roma Pryma Bohachevska Dance Camp. Also crowned were first runner-up Alexandra Lemekha, an accounting major at Western New England University in Massachusetts, and second runner-up Olena Hrynovets, a theater major at Ulster County Community College in Stone Ridge, N.Y.
• On September 9, Ukrainian National Women’s League of America President Marianna Zajac was presented with the Patriarchal certificate (hramota), the highest recognition awarded by Patriarch Sviatoslav of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church, for the UNWLA’s support of 21 (out of a total of 78) seminarians at the Three Holy Hierarchs Spiritual Seminary in Kyiv. The young men are from eastern Ukraine and entered the seminary with financial challenges; after ordination they will be returning to their home territories. Patriarch Sviatoslav has described the Three Holy Hierarchs Seminary as being critical for the future of the UGCC in the war-affected areas. On September 10, Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate awarded Ms. Zajac the order of the Holy Great Martyr Barbara for the UNWLA’s commitment to “the revival of spirituality in Ukraine.” The patriarch thanked the UNWLA for its continued dedication to Ukrainians of all walks of life.
Russ Chelak
At the Ukrainian Institute of America on September 20, with the newly unveiled trilingual plaque honoring Raphael Lemkin, the “father of the Genocide Convention” who described the Holodomor as “a classic example of Soviet genocide,” (from left) are: sculptor Oleh Lesiuk, UIA President Dr. Daniel Swistel, playwright Catherine Filloux and Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation.
• On September 20, at the Ukrainian Institute of America (UIA) a multi-lingual – English, Ukrainian, Hebrew, Yiddish – plaque commissioned by the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and the UIA was unveiled honoring Dr. Raphael Lemkin, the “father of the U.N. Genocide Convention.” The unveiling date was chosen because exactly 65 years earlier, on September 20, 1953, at the Manhattan Center on West 34th Street, Dr. Lemkin gave an impassioned speech about the Holodomor of 1932-1933, calling it a calculated Soviet attempt to destroy Ukrainian identity and the entire Ukrainian nation, adding that this was not simply a horrendous mass murder, but a genocide – part of the Soviets’ larger plan to get rid of the “Ukrainian problem.” Dr. Lemkin, a lawyer and internationally renowned jurist who devoted his life to the study of crimes violating international law, collected troves of relevant documents and coined the term “genocide,” becoming an expert in crimes against humanity and an influential advisor at the Nuremberg Trials and later at the United Nations, where the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted in 1948.
• U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), co-founder and co-chair of the Senate Ukraine Caucus and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, received the Order of St. Volodymyr from Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyivan Patriarchate, during the latter’s visit to Washington in September. The medal was given in recognition of Sen. Portman’s leadership and continuous support of Ukraine. Thanking Patriarch Filaret, Sen. Portman said he was “deeply honored” to receive the award, promising he would “continue to do everything I can to help the Ukrainians defend themselves and maintain their territorial integrity.” Sen. Portman received the Order of Merit from President Petro Poroshenko earlier in 2018, and the Shevchenko Freedom Award from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in 2016.
• Lubow Wolynetz, curator and archival librarian at the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford, was presented with the Order of Princess Olha, 3rd degree, by President Petro Poroshenko on September 25 at a ceremony at the Ukrainian Institute of America in New York. The Order of Princess Olha is a Ukrainian civil decoration bestowed on women for personal merits in cultural or other spheres of social activities. Earlier that day, Ms. Wolynetz had given a tour of the museum to First Lady Maryna Poroshenko. Having viewed the permanent exhibits of folk art, fine art and religious art as well as a special exhibition titled “Ukraine’s Struggle for Freedom, 1917-1921,” Dr. Poroshenko commented: “I can see that this cultural institution was created and supported by individuals who love Ukraine, respect its people and value Ukrainian history and art.”
• The Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) presented Gov. John Kasich of Ohio with its highest honor – the Shevchenko Freedom Award, given to individuals who have displayed a remarkable understanding and given substantial assistance to the Ukrainian American community and the Ukrainian people. The award was presented by UCCA President Andriy J. Futey, along with Marta Liscynesky Kelleher, president of the United Ukrainian Organizations of Ohio, and other community leaders. Tweeting on September 25, Gov. Kasich said: “It’s an honor to receive the Shevchenko Freedom Award from the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. The Ukrainian-American community has a special place in my heard, and I will continue to stand with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in their fight to preserve their independence and territorial integrity. Strong U.S. support for Ukraine is critically important now, more than ever.” At the meeting, Gov. Kasich presented the community representatives with the Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Year resolution, which he had signed on June 27.
Alex Kuzma
Dr. Leon Chameides, one of the children that Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky saved from the Holocaust by providing sanctuary at St. George Cathedral and the Univ Monastery in western Ukraine, speaks to participants of “Banduras at Bobriwka” in Colebrook, Conn., at July 28.
• Ronald S. Lauder, philanthropist, activist and president of the World Jewish Congress, received the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Award for 2018 at a ceremony at New York’s Ukrainian Institute of America on September 27. The award was presented by James C. Temerty, board chairman of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, and Borys Lozhkin, president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine. Ambassador Lauder was recognized for his support of Ukraine’s Jewish community and his promotion of Ukrainian-Jewish cooperation. Mr. Lozhkin noted, “Thanks to Ambassador Lauder’s philanthropy and commitment, our community is now coming from a place of strength. Ambassador Lauder’s deeds have helped bring the entire Ukrainian Jewish community together through the establishment of Jewish educational institutions…, as well as a modern security system to protect the Jewish community.” Mr. Lauder noted that everything possible needed to be done to bring the Ukrainian and Jewish people together, and welcomed UJE’s efforts in that direction. The Andrey Sheptytsky Medal was established for contributions to the cause of Ukrainian-Jewish understanding and cooperation; it is awarded to people who have dedicated themselves to fostering relations between the Ukrainian and Jewish peoples.
Ukrainian Jewish Encounter
2018 Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Award laureate Ronald S. Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress (center), with James C. Temerty, board chairman of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (left), and Borys Lozhkin, president of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, during the awards ceremony on September 27.
• Ukraine’s famous singer and political activist Svyatoslav Vakarchuk was honored on October 6 for his contribution to culture and the arts at the annual dinner of the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago. Mr. Vakarchuk received that organization’s Man of the Year Award in recognition of his promotion of Ukraine’s culture and his contribution to the positive image of Ukraine throughout the world. Mr. Vakarchuk did not answer the frequently asked question of whether he will run for president in Ukraine’s upcoming election, focusing his remarks on the topic of culture – not so much about culture as a visible manifestation of a nation, but about the nation’s values and how those values are developed and preserved as a legacy. Also honored at the event was well-known artist Alexandra Diachenko Kochman, a member of the first group of founders of the UIMA 50 years ago.
• The Weekly reported in its October 14 issue that in an open letter posted on its website, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked “all countries and organizations” to amend their usage of Soviet-era place names when referring to Ukraine, using instead transliterations that are based on Ukrainian forms of the name rather than Russian. The letter included a list of the most commonly misspelled names, including “Kiev” instead of “Kyiv,” “Lvov” rather than “Lviv,” and “Odessa” instead of “Odesa.” Additionally, the MFA underscored that the proper name of the country is Ukraine, not “the Ukraine.” To better inform the international community about the correct forms of Ukrainian place names and to avoid mistakes, the MFA launched the campaign #CorrectUA. The letter can be read on the MFA’s website, https://mfa.gov.ua/en/page/open/id/5418; the website also provides useful resources for transliteration, spelling rules and pronunciation of Ukrainian toponyms.
• Yuriy Shcherbak, the Ukrainian scientist, writer, historian, diplomat and politician who spent more than a half a century helping to develop Ukraine into a successful independent country, was thanked and honored for his service with this year’s Omelan and Tatiana Antonovych Foundation award. The award was presented October 20 at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, where Dr. Shcherbak had served as post-Soviet Ukraine’s second ambassador from 1994 to 1998. He was Ukraine’s first minister of the environment, founder of the Green Party, researcher and the author of a documentary novel about the Chornobyl nuclear disaster and a dozen other books. Dr. Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak, chair of the Antonovych Award nomination committee, described Dr. Shcherbak as “a renaissance person of the Ukrainian renaissance, which continues in Ukraine, unlike in its post-Soviet northern neighbor Russia,” adding that “In Ukraine he is known as a writer, but he is a popular writer whose works are being read, in contrast to the classical writers, who are quoted but not read.” She stressed that the award was given not only as recognition of Dr. Shcherbak’s writing, but for his dedicated work on “the development of the Ukrainian government service.
• With Ukraine’s 2019 presidential and parliamentary elections on the horizon, the Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society was established by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation’s Friends of Ukraine Network with the Kyiv-based Reanimation Package of Reforms (RPR). The launch of the initiative, whose aim is to support a fair and democratic election process in Ukraine, came on October 30 in the format of the three-way video bridge bringing together experts and activists in Washington, Kyiv and Brussels. The session was moderated by Jonathan Katz, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund, and Orest Deychakiwsky, board vice-chair of the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation; they are also co-chairs of the FOUN’s Democracy and Civil Society Task Force. In her opening remarks, Olena Prokopenko, head of international relations for RPR, an influential association of some 80 NGOs, said that, without the engagement of the West and international organizations through statements of support and assistance conditionalities, “most of Ukraine’s reform achievements would not be possible.” Other Ukrainian organizations participating in the Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society in Ukraine include the Ukraine Crisis Media Center, the Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, the Center for Policy and Legal Reform, the OPORA Civil Network, the Democratic Initiatives Foundation, the DEJURE Foundation, the Center for Economic Strategy, the Anti-Corruption Action Center, Center UA and Transparency International Ukraine. The Brussels office of the Ukrainian World Congress and the Ukraine Crisis Media Center in Kyiv hosted the launch event in those two cities, while the German Marshall Fund hosted in Washington. Attendees in Washington included representatives of the National Democratic Institute, the International Republican Institute (IRI), the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. A roundtable of the task force was also held on November 3 – just days after Russia’s attack on Ukrainian ships in the Black Sea – and focused on the U.S. and international response to this provocation as well as efforts to address cybersecurity threats to Ukraine’s upcoming elections. On December 19, the Transatlantic Task Force on Elections and Civil Society in Ukraine held its third international videoconference during which experts in D.C., Kyiv and Brussels characterized the upcoming March 31 presidential election in Ukraine as “unpredictable” and “wide open.” Mr. Deychakiwsky set the tone for the discussion with questions about the electoral prospects of pro-Russian candidates, the impact of the creation of an independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, and the possibility of a serious challenge to incumbent President Petro Poroshenko and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko from a “reformist bloc” presidential candidate. Offering a snapshot of voter sympathies in Ukraine based on polling conducted in late September and early October 2018 was Stephen Nix of the IRI. Participating from Ukraine was keynote speaker Iryna Bekeshkina, director of the Democratic Initiatives Foundation. Speaking from Brussels was Svitlana Kobzar of the European Endowment for Democracy. Washington participants included Ambassadors Alexander Vershbow (Atlantic Council) and William Taylor (U.S. Institute of Peace), both of whom are members of the Friends of Ukraine Network.
• The Ukrainian Technological Society (UTS) of Pittsburgh on November 3 presented its 2018 Ukrainian of the Year Award to Daria Pishko Komichak, who was honored for her 40 years of professional accomplishments in engineering, financial evaluation and portfolio management in the power industry; her lifelong service to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A. and the Ukrainian Orthodox League; and her dedication to raising awareness about Ukraine and Ukrainian culture, particularly her work as executive secretary of the U.S. Committee for the Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness. Accepting the award, Ms. Pishko Komichak thanked the greater Pittsburgh community for nurturing her development professionally, culturally and spiritually, and noted that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Ukrainian Orthodox League continue to serve as the foundation of her character. The UTS is one of the longest continuously active Ukrainian organizations in the tri-state area. Its Ukrainian of the Year Award recognizes individuals of local, national and international stature who have contributed to the Ukrainian community or Ukrainian scholarship, or who have demonstrated significant achievement that brings recognition and prestige to the Ukrainian community.
Cover of “Holodomor in Ukraine – The Genocidal Famine 1932-1933: Learning Materials for Teachers and Students,” by Valentina Kuryliw, which was published by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in 2018.
• The Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press published an excellent and much-anticipated resource for teachers titled “Holodomor in Ukraine – the Genocidal Famine 1932-1933: Learning Materials for Teachers and Students,” authored by Valentina Kuryliw, director of education of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC), and the chair of the National Holodomor Education Committee of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. The full-color, illustrated, spiral-bound book includes photographs, maps and charts, lessons and more, providing a wealth of learning materials for teachers and students and making use of the latest research on the Holodomor. Reviewing it in The Weekly’s November 4 edition, Oksana Kiciuk-Kulynych noted “It is a powerful resource; it remains for educators to use it to teach and to further insist on its inclusion in all levels of curricula in their educational institutions.”
Tamara Olexy
Rep. Sander Levin (right) receives the St. Volodymyr Medal from the Ukrainian World Congress on November 25. With him are UWC President Eugene Czolij and First Vice-President Jaroszlava Hartyanyi.
• During the November 25 opening ceremony of the XI Congress of the Ukrainian World Congress in Kyiv, several honorees from the United States were honored with the Ukrainian World Congress’s highest accolade, the St. Volodymyr the Great Medal. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, and Dr. Larissa Kyj, president of the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, were recognized for their long-time contributions to the Ukrainian American community and Ukraine. The St. Volodymyr the Great Medal, introduced in 1988, acknowledges individuals for their special contributions to the development of Ukrainian life in the diaspora and/or Ukraine. Other U.S. recipients in 2018 included Ambassador Paula Dobriansky, Ambassador Roman Popadiuk and Sen. John McCain (posthumously).