Holodomor

Holocaust Memorial Museum to digitize Ukrainian Museum-Archives’ DP collection

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WASHINGTON – The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) in Washington and the Ukrainian Museum-Archives (UMA) of Cleveland have signed a cooperation agreement to digitize UMA’s collection of archived materials from post-World War II Displaced Persons (DP) camps. The agreement was signed on February 6 at the Holocaust Museum in Washington by UMA Acting Director Andrew Fedynsky and USHMM Collections Director Michael Grunberger, as witnessed and applauded by representatives of their museums, the U.S. government, and Ukrainian American and other interested organizations. Opening the event, Mr. Grunberger noted that digitalizing UMA’s collection – “one of the world’s most important collections of Ukrainian history and culture” focusing on the post World War II period – will help “ensure that our collections document the stories of non-Jewish victims of Nazi persecution as well.” And having that information digitalized will make it available “to anyone, anywhere and anytime.”

Also focusing on the importance of having this information available to all, Mr. Fedynsky stressed that it is needed by people and nations as well. “If you don’t have a past, you don’t have a future,” he said. “That’s why we have a Holocaust Museum.

Culture/Arts

Solomia performs to raise funds for Ukraine’s orphans of war

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WASHINGTON – When the Ukrainian singer, composer and poet Solomia entered the stage at St. Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral on December 4, the people in the audience knew that all the proceeds from the ticket sales would go to help feed, clothe and care for the many orphans who lost their parents in the armed struggle being waged in the eastern part of Ukraine. But they could hardly have imagined what they would be getting in return: the deeply touching performance of Solomia’s own songs, her poems, her musical accompaniment and explanations of what was being presented and what Ukraine was undergoing. Solomia (Olena Karpenko is her real, off-stage name) wrote the words and music of all the songs she performed, as well as the short poems she recited. She noted, however, that some were based on other authors, like Lina Kostenko, or novels, like “Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors,” or foreign songs, like “Anyone Can Fly.”

Near the end of the two-hour presentation, Solomia performed what she wrote last year about her brother, “Ty” (You).

US

Leonid Kravchuk speaks in Washington about historic break-up of the USSR

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WASHINGTON – Leonid Kravchuk, the first president of the independent Ukrainian state established 25 years ago after the break-up of the Soviet Union, came to the U.S. capital last weekend to discuss that historic event, how it has progressed since then and what can be expected in the future. “I can give you a lot of examples of mistakes that were made, but Ukraine lives on,” he told a large gathering on November 18 at the Atlantic Council that came to hear him, and two other post-Soviet leaders – the first president of Belarus, Stanislau Shushkevich, and the first deputy prime minister of Russia, Gennady Burbulis – discuss the “Soviet dissolution, the birth of nations and the successes and challenges 25 years later.”

Despite the many challenges it has been receiving from Russia, Mr. Kravchuk stressed that “Ukraine is growing and doing so in a democratic way, in a European way, and now Ukraine cannot be pushed off this path.”

Not unexpectedly, the issue that came up most often during the discussion was the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. “The question of Crimea is very painful for Ukraine. And the idea that Crimea has always been Russia is an illusion,” Mr. Kravchuk said, pointing out that until 1789 Crimea was a part of the Ottoman Empire. “So the question of who Crimea has historically belonged to is not so easily answered.”

He pointed out that today’s world is based on a few “great principles: sovereignty, territorial integrity and untouchable borders.” Those principles – of which the United States is considered to be a major guardian – must be adhered to if the world is to remain that way, he added.

Culture/Arts

Kyiv Chamber Choir performs concert of sacred and folk music in Washington

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WASHINGTON – Choral music lovers in this area received a very welcome present from the Kyiv Chamber Choir on November 6 at the National City Christian Church: an emotionally and artistically moving concert of Ukrainian sacred and folk music. This was the last of nine concerts on the Ukrainian choir’s 10-day 2016 “Sounds of Ukraine” tour that began October 28 in Chicago and continued through Cleveland, Toronto, Rochester, Hartford, Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Under the direction of its founder and conductor Mykola Hobdych, the 21-member choir (10 women and 11 men) began their concert here dressed in formal attire, singing eight examples of some of the finest Ukrainian sacred music, among them medieval chants, like “Blessed is the Man” from the Kyiv Pechershka Lavra; classical period compositions, such as Maksym Berezovsky’s “I will sing of your love and justice, o Lord,” Dmytro Bortniansky’s “Glory to the Father and the Son”; and, before breaking for intermission, a few more-contemporary compositions, among them Valentyn Sylvestrov’s “Three Sacred Songs” and Petro Turchani-nov’s “God Is with Us.”

The second half of the program was completely different, as was the choir members’ clothing, changed from formal to a modernistic Ukrainian embroidered attire when they walked back in front of the church to perform, this time without their conductor. The second half was devoted completely to Ukrainian folk music, as arranged by 10 contemporary Ukrainian composers, among them Hanna Havrylets, Ivan Nebesny and Volodymyr Zubytsky. And the Kyiv Chamber Choir’s performance was as contemporary as the music itself: singing without their conductor, with all the songs blending together without any pauses for audience applause and with the choreographed and animated movement of sections of the choir on, off and around the stage as they sang.

Holodomor

Ceremony in D.C. marks first anniversary of Holodomor Memorial’s dedication

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WASHINGTON – The first anniversary of the dedication of the Ukrainian Holodomor Memorial in this nation’s capital was marked at its site here on November 7 with an evening event focusing on the importance of remembering that evil Soviet mass killing of millions of Ukrainians by starvation in 1932-1933 and ensuring that similar crimes will not be repeated in the future. Organized by the Embassy of Ukraine and the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness, the candlelight observance began an hour after the sun had set with a candlelight observance and prayers by Bishop John Bura and three priests from the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family, as well as the laying of symbolic bundles of wheat at the foot of the memorial. In his opening address to those who came to honor the anniversary, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly expressed Ukraine’s gratitude to the United States and Ukrainian Americans for helping make this memorial a reality – located just four blocks from the memorial honoring the world’s Victims of Communism. The world will be in a much worse state, he said, if it gets to the point where this is no longer remembered – as Moscow tried to do during the Soviet Union. Ambassador Chaly also thanked the memorial’s creative architect Larysa Kurylas for her major role in this effort.

Scholarship/Education

Rector of Ukrainian Catholic University receives 2016 Antonovych Award

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WASHINGTON – The Omelan and Tatiana Antonovych Foundation honored the Rev. Bohdan Prach, rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, with its 2016 award for his work in documenting “the Golgotha of the Ukrainian Catholic clergy.”

Announcing the new laureate on November 22 at its annual award presentation ceremony at the Embassy of Ukraine in Washington, the foundation singled out the Rev. Prach’s latest accomplishment: the publication of his monumental two-volume work: “The Clergy of the Peremyshl Eparchy and the Apostolic Administration of Lemkivshchyna.”

The first volume (721 pages) presents biographical studies, with photographs, covering the period of that area’s changing Soviet, Polish and German occupations between 1939 and 1989. The second volume (851 pages) is a collection of selected documents, other materials and photographs, from 1939 through 1950. In describing the award committee’s decision, Dr. Martha Bohachevsky Chomiak, who chairs the committee, noted that – as committee member Dr. Andrew Lewycky pointed out during their discussion – the foundation’s objectives can be described in three words: “authenticity, integrity and quality.” And the foundation searched for these principles in selecting the top candidate for this year’s award, she said. “Today’s laureate represents these criteria completely.” The Rev. Prach searched for, gathered, organized and deciphered those valuable materials that will be useful for many scholars and writers in the future, she said. “He serves God, serves Ukrainians and all mankind.”

Accepting the award – and the $10,000 check that accompanied it – the Rev. Prach noted that the time has come when Ukrainians can now inform themselves and the world about the “hellish repressions” their country experienced under the Nazis, Poles and Soviets.

Culture/Arts

Concert by Mykola Suk opens TWG Cultural Fund’s new season

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ALEXANDRIA, Va. – As autumn arrived in this nation’s capital, Ukrainian Americans and other music lovers knew the time had come for The Washington Group Cultural Fund to launch its 2016-2017 Music Series, its annual showcase of Ukrainian culture in the nation’s capital area. The annual series began on Sunday, October 2, at the Lyceum, the historic venue in Old Towne Alexandria, Va., just south of the capital. And the honor fell on Ukrainian pianist Mykola Suk, who – as the Cultural Fund’s co-director Chrystia Lucyk noted in her opening remarks – hardly needs an introduction in this capital area, having performed here at two previous TWGCF concerts and other venues, including the National Gallery of Art. “An internationally recognized and critically acclaimed pianist, first-prize winner at the 1971 Liszt-Bartok competition, his career has spanned four continents,” she said with her co-director Anna Rikova standing beside her.

US

Events in Washington point to ‘sobering lessons’ of Chornobyl

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WASHINGTON – Those living in and visiting the nation’s capital marked the 30th anniversary of the April 26 Chornobyl nuclear tragedy by remembering and paying their respects to those who died and suffered and focusing on what the world has and should continue to learn from it. “For me it’s a very sobering lesson,” was how Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who co-chairs the U.S. Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, described it at a commemorative gathering at the Embassy of Ukraine. “Chornobyl really is an international site that demands attention and a teaching site for the rest of the world,” Rep. Kaptur told the gathering that included U.S. government representatives, foreign diplomats, Ukrainian Americans, clergy and others. “I think Ukraine teaches the world a lesson today, this week, on the 30th anniversary. And we thank the people of Ukraine for the great sacrifice they made for the world and what was learned when they became victims of a Soviet system that did not care for human life and treated it badly,” she said.

Ukraine

In D.C., Jaresko discusses Ukraine’s economic reforms

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WASHINGTON – Natalie Jaresko came to Washington as the minister of finance of Ukraine to participate in a discussion on April 14 about the status of Ukraine’s economy and the prospects and results of its economic reforms and the effects of the conflict in Donbas. Earlier that morning, however, she learned – as did the rest of the world – that the Ukrainian Parliament had voted in a new prime minister and Cabinet of Ministers, in which she would be replaced by Oleksandr Danyliuk. In her opening remarks at the conference, organized by the Atlantic Council and the Center for International Governance Innovation, Ms. Jaresko said she had made the decision not to comment on or criticize the new government or her former colleagues because “I believe is it better for Ukraine not to do so.” Instead, she focused on the economic reforms initiated in Ukraine and what needs to be done to continue reforming her country.