Author: Andrew Sorokowski

Family friends once told us how, fleeing the Red Army towards the end of World War II, they were taken in by a Hungarian family just before Christmas. Overhearing them discussing the preparation of “kutya” (also transliterated as “kutia”) for Christmas eve supper, the Hungarians were alarmed by this strange Ukrainian custom: kutya is Hungarian...

Most readers of The Weekly, one would imagine, have at some point in their lives made a monetary contribution to “Ukrainian studies.” It may have been a hard-earned $5 bill tendered cautiously to an importunate gentleman in a shabby suit carrying a battered briefcase on the steps of your parish church, or it may have...

Most of us still look at the world through 20th century eyes. But it is already clear that the 21st century is very different from its predecessor. We must begin to look differently at the world; we must view Ukraine differently too. Since 1991, the United States has been the world’s only superpower. But its...

Last March 8-10 marked the 70th anniversary of the so-called Lviv sobor (council) of 1946, by which the Greco-Catholic Church in Galicia supposedly liquidated and incorporated itself into the Russian Orthodox Church. On March 12, the eve of Forgiveness Sunday by the Julian calendar, a number of Orthodox faithful – clergy and laity, Russians, Ukrainians...

The doping of athletes to enhance their performance, particularly with anabolic steroids, has been a recurrent scandal in the international sports world. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned this practice in 1967 and began testing for steroids in 1976. In 1999, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was created. Yet athletes continue to use performance-enhancing drugs....

Not long ago I received an e-mail from a historian in Ukraine asking for a photograph of my grandfather. The scholar was writing a history of the town of Dobromyl. A few days later he asked for a photo of my grandfather’s elder brother. These requests compelled me to go through some old photos and...

Being Ukrainian has never been easy. It’s especially difficult in a time of rapid political change. We Ukrainian Americans find ourselves in the midst of a most unusual election campaign. On the global level, Ukraine is in an awkward position. These national and international predicaments are related. Who is really on our side? There are...

WASHINGTON – Over 50 people gathered on Sunday, June 12, at the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington to hear internationally known Ukrainian political commentator and essayist Mykola Riabchuk. Sponsored by the Washington chapter of the Shevchenko Scientific Society and delivered in Ukrainian, his lecture was titled “What is Left of...

Not all of us have the time or patience to watch a couple of talking heads on YouTube for close to an hour. It’s faster and more efficient to scan a transcript and pick out anything worth reading. But the recent Uke Tube debate between historian John-Paul Himka and attorney Askold Lozynskyj on “OUN, UPA,...

“Do you have a grandfather?” asked my second-grade classmate Gillian as we walked up the dusty track to the horse corral. “Yes,” I replied. “He’s retired.” “You mean he’s dead?” “No…” Recent experience has confirmed my childhood understanding that retirement is not the same thing as death. Though some may find it comparable. The very...

It was one of my most alarming experiences. It was 1990 or 1991, and I was in Moscow. It was cold, damp and grey. My colleagues and I had been wandering along the Arbat. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a throng of children with two or three adults. Suddenly one of...

The other day, my old friend Prof. Dr. Dr. (he has two doctorates) Ilarion Khvalko-Yerundovych was poking along Second Avenue when, just as he was about to cross East Seventh Street, he saw his acquaintance Pani Kvasniuk advancing down the sidewalk. Her grey hair was tied up in a bun, and her plump figure was...