Month: June 26, 2020 4:40 am

I read Thomas Prymak’s “The generation of 1919: Pritsak, Luckyj and Rudnyt­sky” (May 24) with considerable interest. I now write to make one rather important correction and to share a personal anecdote.

Whereas Dr. Prymak writes about it being the Ukrainian Canadian community that established the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, he writes that it was Prof. Omeljan Pritsak who “made a special mark by founding the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and its journal Harvard Ukrainian Studies (HUS)…” Perhaps because Dr. Prymak is a Canadian, he might be less informed about the history of events in the U.S. Whereas the statement about Prof. Pritsak founding the journal is certainly accurate, the statement about HURI is only half true.

Dear Editor:

This is in response to the letter to the editor titled “Has coronavirus become Trump’s Chornobyl?” by Andrij Skyba (June 7).

To equate Chornobyl with the coronavirus is like comparing apples and oranges. President Donald Trump did not cover up a disaster. He banned travel from China to the U.S.A. on January 31 amid protests from many political leaders. His travel ban saved many thousands of lives here in the U.S.A.

There was an impeachment going on at the time and the U.S. Congress completely ignored the approaching pandemic.

Dear Editor:

I look forward with great pleasure to the reportage by Mark Raczkiewycz on events in the Chicago Ukrainian community. I have worked in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village most of my adult life, and can attest to the veracity and accuracy of Mr. Raczkiewycz’s articles. His stories (May 10, June 6, June 21) are not only spot on, but he captures the essential mood of the Village’s diverse community in these difficult times.

The Ukrainian Weekly is fortunate to have this competent reporter on board. He adds new breadth and dimension to the Weekly’s geographic coverage of Ukrainian events in the Midwest.

“Стихія” (stykhiya): it’s a wonderful Ukrainian word conveying an overwhelming elemental force of nature: a hurricane, drought, famine, locust infestation, forest fire, flood, plague. But it also has a social/political connotation characterizing as “стихія” a population erupting in massive, seemingly spontaneous actions: a national uprising, a revolution.

Ukrainian history is rife with these kinds of “стихії” (plural). For generations, peasants endured serfdom and national oppression until Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648 was moved to right a personal wrong and, to his astonishment, channeled pent-up rage to establish the first Ukrainian state since Kyivan Rus’. His statue dominates St. Sophia Square in Kyiv. More recently, we had the Orange Revolution in 2004-2005 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014 – both spontaneous, both transformative.

Ukrainians in the United States and elsewhere have much in common with African Americans. We can learn a lot about their shared struggle by comparing African American and Ukrainian history.

African American history in America

For over 350 years Black people endured the cruelty of slavery, racism and Jim Crow laws in America. Historians have estimated that of the over 10 million Africans that fell victim to the slave trade, between 300,000 and 400,000 were brought to the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries. One source points out that, outside of the traditional count of the slave trade, an additional 500,000 Africans also came against their will, under compulsion or duress, as indentured servants, or perished en route to America. Taken together, as many as 900,000 Africans were forced in a variety of ways to come to the United States, or perished along the way.

During the past several years, the Atlantic Council has been running reports on how Russian cyberwarfare and disinformation have been working overtime to undermine Western democracies in general, and Ukraine in particular. While Ukraine has been the target of Moscow’s attention, recently its tactics have evolved and shifted to exploit civil unrest in the United States.

The United States today is in the midst of an existential crisis that is tearing the country apart at its seams. Much of the harm is self-inflicted, but a good part is due to hostile outside players such as Russia and China sowing discord. The civic unrest and riots that rocked major cities across the United States in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing were aggravated by a radical movement known as Antifa and its collaborator Black Lives Matter. Although a relatively small segment of the demonstrators, these groups have created mayhem, causing incalculable property damage well beyond their small numbers.

Los Angeles Laker Kyle Kuzma jack-hammered a third-quarter dunk over Golden State Warriors’ Juan Toscano-Anderson in the third quarter of a February 26 NBA game, eliciting a raucous celebration from his two all-star teammates. LeBron James happened to be sitting on the Lakers’ bench in a black coat, while Anthony Davis was nearby after diving into the stands to save a loose ball from going out of bounds. The slam was “with authority” and emphatically emphasized Kuzma’s turnaround performance in the 116-86 win over Golden State.

Having unsuccessfully delivered consistent results in his role as a primary scoring option for much of the 2019-2020 season, the 24-year-old Ukrainian pumped in 18 points and helped build a lead big enough to rest L.A. starters the entire fourth quarter.

NORTH PORT, Fla. – On Sunday, June 7, Branch 56 of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, which is based in North Port, Fla., broke the tedium of the coronavirus pandemic by hosting a literary evening. The branch did so safely and in full compliance with CDC guidelines by hosting the evening’s entertainment on an online platform, offering live virtual meetings with audio and video features.

The president of UNWLA Branch 56, Alexandra Popel, opened the event by welcoming all participants, which at times topped 80 guests. The participants joined the virtual program from around the world.

The Ukrainian National Foundation and Soyuzivka management are pleased to announce that Soyuzivka will reopen on July 1, 2020, with enhanced health and safety protocols. As we are preparing to reopen, please be assured that we are giving the utmost attention to the safety of all our guests and staff, and will continue to follow the latest advice and directives of our state and local authorities. Below you will find an update to our operational changes to address the current COVID-19 outbreak.

We cannot do this alone; we will need your help and support. Please be patient as we institute social distancing guidelines. We also ask for you to take personal responsibility for your safety and the safety of friends, family and staff. Please be assured we will continue to provide our guests with exceptional service to ensure our guests continue to have a wonderful experience at Soyuzivka.

KYIV – For the last week, Ukrainians found themselves in an uncertain state of quarantine. On the one hand, the government plan of lifting restrictions continued in most regions, and life was returning to normal. On the other, the number of new COVID-19 cases spiked and set new records.

In the last seven days, 4,853 people contracted the coronavirus in Ukraine, which is the highest rate yet since the pandemic hit Ukraine. Consequently, on June 17, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine extended the quarantine restrictions until July 31.

CHICAGO – Tears began running down the faces of parishioners at the Saints Volodymyr and Olha Ukrainian Catholic Church’s early morning liturgy on June 14.

They hadn’t had the chance to pray as a congregation for more than two months, including on Easter, and were limited to attending services virtually amid a coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted the economy and social routines of the country’s third most populous city.

The usual second or mid-morning Sunday service wasn’t held to allow for all surfaces of the church to be disinfected and what would’ve been the third liturgy of the day took place at the customary time, close to noon.

KYIV – While other significant developments have dominated the news in recent weeks, such as the responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, or the much-awaited release of new financial support for Ukraine by the International Monetary Fund, the enduring saga of competition among stakeholders and profiteers within and around Ukraine’s lucrative energy sector also merits attention.

Even a cursory overview of this complex subject shows that extraordinary things have been happening.

Since the spring, a struggle for influence and control in this vital area has intensified among the oligarchic stakeholders, Ihor Kolomoisky, Rinat Akhmetov and others, including perhaps interested parties in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s political entourage. Government posts have been reshuffled. Imports of electricity from Russia have been renewed and the production of nuclear energy reduced in favor of a greater temporary reliance on coal.