Author: Andrew Fedynsky

After more than a decade of weekend liturgies at a transit garage in Cleveland’s Tremont neighborhood, Ss. Peter and Paul Ukrainian Catholic Parish opened its doors to an actual church in 1910 to serve immigrants who had come for jobs in the industrial valley just down the street and in businesses which sprouted within walking distance:  stores, restaurants, bakeries, saloons, agencies sending money to relatives in the village back home.  

In 1920, Lviv-based poet Stepan Charnetsky published a collection, “Сумні Ідем” (Sorrowfully We Go). Sorrow? Of course. The world had just emerged from “The Great War,” which claimed millions of lives. Everyone lost family and friends. Beginning almost by accident, the war engaged half a dozen European empires, four of which were gone by the Armistice on the Western Front in November 1918. 

November was the ninth month in the ancient Roman calendar, taking its name from the Latin, “novem,” the number nine. Ukrainians have a much more descriptive name: “Lystopad” – falling leaves, a month that has political/historical significance stemming from age-old aspirations for national self-determination. A thousand-plus years ago, Kyiv was the capital of a vast...

How do I write about Brazil without it sounding like a grade school essay about my summer vacation? Well, I can’t because that’s where my wife and I traveled to visit our daughter in Apucarana in Parana State.  Brazil always loomed large for me. Just a boy in the 1950s, I saw photos of our...

I was 20 years old in 1968 and a junior in college. The big concern for guys my age was the Vietnam War. Protected by a draft deferment, we debated the conflict, even as others who had graduated from high school with us were dying in jungles and rice paddies half a world away, their...

At the end of March, Cleveland MetroParks – a 100-mile network of recreation areas, golf courses, trails, learning centers, etc. – invited the Ukrainian Museum-Archives (UMA) to be part of World Water Day. We didn’t even know there was such a celebration, but sure enough there is, sponsored by the United Nations, the World Wildlife...

February is the dreariest month, happily interrupted by Valentine’s Day, the holiday dedicated to love. Relatively new to Ukraine, it’s long been established in America. I remember exchanging flimsy cards in grade school asking every kid in the class to “be my Valentine.” Ah love… There have been a billion songs, poems, movies, paintings, novels,...

“Call me Jim.” That’s how Prof. James McAdams responded when my wife and I introduced ourselves as Michael’s parents. At the time, our son was a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, taking “Jim’s” class on comparative politics.

Dr. McAdams, a friendly bearded man, is a world-class scholar who reaches thousands through his publications as well as an inspiring educator with popular classes of 60-plus, seminars of 10 to 20 and a counselor and mentor who meets with students one-on-one in his office, located a short walk from Notre Dame’s iconic Golden Dome and legendary football stadium.

In his 2005 state of the nation address, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the fall of the Soviet Union, “the greatest geo-political catastrophe of the century.” Few outside of Russia would agree, but apparently that’s what he believes. So how did Mr. Putin celebrate the centennial of the Bolshevik Revolution that brought Vladimir Lenin and...

CLEVELAND – The Maria Zankovetska National Drama Theater, in existence now for a century, is coming to North America in late October. The troupe traces its beginnings to 1917, at the time the Russian Empire fell and the Ukrainian Revolution began, when young Ukrainian activists established political and cultural organizations, including the first national theater...

Years ago, I wrote a column dedicated to fathers – including my own, of course, but also those who served as mentors and helped to shape the person I’ve become. Premier among them was Osyp Zinkewych, the founder and tireless engine who ran Smoloskyp for 60-plus years. Beyond question, he was the most brilliant person...

“The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.” – Psalms 90: 10 My parents, two brothers and I moved to Cleveland on my seventh birthday, September...