Fifty years ago, on May 28, 1970, a monument to the Rev. Hryhoriy Hrushka, founding editor of the Svoboda newspaper that led to the establishment of the Ukrainian National Association, was unveiled and dedicated at Cleveland’s Cultural Gardens during the UNA’s regular convention that year. Nearly 600 people were in attendance for the unveiling ceremony.
The ceremony was held on the fourth day of the UNA convention in Cleveland, which lasted a week.
The Rev. Hrushka came to the U.S. in the latter half of the 19th century, and founded the Ukrainian-language daily newspaper Svoboda in 1893. From the pages of Svoboda, the Rev. Hrushka appealed to the community for the need to create a single Ukrainian organization to protect the interests of Ukrainian immigrants.
On February 22, 1894, that vision became reality with the founding of the UNA in Shamokin, Pa.
The monument in Cleveland features a bronze bust, created by sculptor Michael Chereshniovsky of New York, and is mounted on a dark granite pedestal (during the unveiling, a truckdrivers’ strike prevented the pedestal from being delivered on time, and a temporary wooden pedestal was installed). The unveiling was performed by Martha Turchyn, a member of UNA Branch 278 in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., a one-time student of the Rev. Hrushka in the village of Pyniaky, in Brody, Lviv Oblast.
Ms. Turchyn recounted how it was the Rev. Hrushka who taught her the Ukrainian national anthem and who reinforced the students’ Ukrainian identity and national pride.
An opening statement was delivered by Supreme Advisor Taras Szmagala Sr., convention chairman, and the Ukrainian, Canadian and U.S. national anthems were sung by soprano Nadya Wolanyk of the Dnipro chorus of Cleveland.
Bishop Joseph Schmondiuk of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Stamford, Conn., blessed the monument. The Rev. Bohdan Smyk of Utica, N.Y., who was a convention delegate and chairman of the elections committee, assisted the blessing and added remarks. Deceased UNA members were commemorated with the singing of Memory Eternal (“Vichnaya Pamiat”).
Supreme President Joseph Lesawyer explained the erection of the monument, which was designed to honor “the man who placed the Ukrainian cornerstone in the building of America,” as the inscription on the pedestal stated. He added that this monument also is dedicated to all Ukrainian pioneers who contributed to the growth of the UNA and the Ukrainian community in North America.
Anthony Dragan, Svoboda’s editor-in-chief, introduced Mr. Chereshniovsky, who also sculpted the monument to Lesia Ukrainka, located in the same Cultural Gardens. The crowd sang “Mnohaya Lita,” wishing the sculptor many more years.
Today, the Hrushka monument stands on the grounds of Soyuzivka Heritage Center, where it was rededicated on September 20, 1981, after the area around the Cultural Gardens had deteriorated.
Source: “Rev. Hrushka monument unveiled in Cleveland,” The Ukrainian Weekly, May 28, 1970; “Ukrainian-American Citadel: The First One Hundred Years of the Ukrainian National Association,” by Myron B. Kuropas (Boulder, Colo.: East European Monographs, 1996).