Author: Andrew Fedynsky

We take electricity pretty much for granted. Lights, subways, movies, sound systems, the Internet, television, air conditioning, coffee makers, toasters – you name it; they all use it. So where does this miracle come from? Well, to state the obvious, from electric power plants. Have one go down for even an hour and people get...

CLEVELAND – The Maria Zankovetska Theater based in Lviv is one of Ukraine’s most distinguished and respected cultural institutions. Starting April 1 at the Ukrainian Catholic Seminary in Stamford, Conn., and ending April 10 at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown, Pa., near Philadelphia, the group will be on tour presenting the classic...

I was in Paris the first time in 1966. In the half century since, I’ve been there at least a dozen times, but had never visited the grave of Symon Petliura. A journalist, politician and military leader, Petliura was one of the most consequential Ukrainians of the 20th century or any other era; that’s why...

On April 22, 1945, U.S. Army troops blew up the huge stone swastika that loomed over Zeppelin Field in Nuremberg where the Nazis had staged their massive rallies. A week later, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in Berlin and a few days after that, World War II in Europe ended. Today, there’s not a single public...

WASHINGTON – The Ukrainian Heritage Consortium of North America (UHCNA) held its fourth conference in Washington at the Library of Congress on September 18-20. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), chair of the Congressional Caucus on Ukraine and the conference’s keynote speaker, put the work of museums and cultural institutions into context. If you don’t know your...

They described them as “degenerates, criminals and subversives who can never be assimilated into the United States but would breed their own particular brands of crime and subversion, making no worthwhile contribution to the United States.” Donald Trump? The Freedom Caucus in the House of Representatives? Actually no. It’s a quote from the 1952 “Final...

Historian Timothy Snyder, arguably today’s foremost expert on Ukraine, has a fascinating article in the July 21 issue of the New York Review of Books, “Edge of Europe, End of Europe,” where, among several others, he cites 1920s Ukrainian author, critic and cultural leader Mykola Khvyliovy and his relevance to today’s events. I first heard...

Millions saw the Seinfeld TV episode where Kramer and Newman are on the subway playing Risk.  For those uninitiated, Risk is a geopolitical board game for up to six players contending for global domination by assembling armies (colored tokens) and taking turns attacking their neighbors by casting dice.  The game ends when one player controls...

When Taras Shevchenko was a little boy in the early 1820s, his grandfather Ivan told him about the Haidamak Rebellion, which he had experienced when he himself had been a youth half a century before. There was no “military-revolutionary command,” no “political arm,” no press releases. Illiterate Ukrainians fed up with serfdom and national/ religious...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is into its second year, the latest in a centuries-long assault on Ukrainians’ very right to exist. Taras Shevchenko wrote about it nearly 200 years ago, a sad legacy he had learned from his grandfather, who heard it from even older Kozak ancestors. Now with the euphoria of Euro-Maidan fading, we...