Journal of Ukrainian Studies
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UKRAINIAN STUDIES Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/journalofukraini1612cana JOURNAL OF UKRAINIAN STUDIES Volume 16, Numbers 1-2 Summer-Winter 1991 SPECIAL ISSUE UKRAINIANS IN CANADA GUEST EDITOR: Frances Swyripa CONTRIBUTORS: Serge Cipko Myron Gulka-Tiechko Oleh W. Gems Jars Balan Bohdan Y. Nebesio K.W. Sokolyk Gregory Robinson Myron Momryk Anna Reczynska Victor O. Buyniak Alexandra Kruchka Glynn JleoHijj JleineHKo EDITOR Zenon Kohut GUEST EDITOR Trances Swyripa Advisory Board Jurij Dobczansky (Library of Congress), Natalia Konomenko-Moyle (University of Virginia), Leonid Leshchenko (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences), James E. Mace (U.S. Commission on the Ukrainian Famine), Natalia Pylypiuk (University of Alberta), David Saunders (University of Newcastle Upon Tyne), Roman Solchanyk (Radio Liberty), Danylo Struk (University of Toronto), Frances Swyripa (University of Alberta), John Tedstrom (Institute for East-West Security Studies), Ze'ev Wolfson (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) The Journal of Ukrainian Studies is published semiannually in the summer and winter by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta. Annual subscription rates are $16.50 ($1.05 GST inch) for individuals and $21.50 ($1.40 GST incl.) for libraries and institutions in Canada. Outside of Canada annual subscription rates are $15.00 for individuals and $20.00 for libraries and institutions. Subscribers outside of Canada should pay in US funds. Cheques and money orders are payable to the Journal of Ukrainian Studies. Please do not send cash. The Journal publishes articles on Ukrainian and Ukrainian-Canadian studies. It also publishes discussions, book reviews, and journalistic articles of a controversial or problem-oriented nature. Ideally, those wishing to submit articles should first send a letter of inquiry, with a brief abstract of the article to the editor at CIUS, 352 Athabasca Hall, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6K 2E8. Fax (403) 492-4967. Copyright © Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1992. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. Printed in Canada. VOLUME 16 NUMBERS 1-2 SUMMER-WINTER 1991 CONTENTS SPECIAL ISSUE UKRAINIANS IN CANADA Editor's Note Frances Swyripa / 1 Articles Serge Cipko In Search of a New Home: Ukrainian Emigration Patterns Between the Two World Wars / 3 Myron Gulka-Tiechko Ukrainian Immigration to Canada under the Railways Agreement, 1925-30 / 29 Oleh W. Gerus The Reverend Semen Sawchuk and the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada / 61 Jars Balan Backdrop to an Era: The Ukrainian Canadian Stage in the Interwar Years / 89 Bohdan Y Nebesio Zaporozhets za Dunaiem (1938): The Production of the First Ukrainian-Language Feature Film in Canada / 115 K.W. Sokolyk The Role of Ukrainian Sports Teams, Clubs, and Leagues, 1924-52 / 131 Gregory Robinson Rougher Than Any Other Nationality? Ukrainian Canadians and Crime in Alberta, 1915-29 / 147 Myron Momryk Ukrainian Volunteers from Canada in the International Brigades, Spain, 1936-39 / 181 Anna Reczyhska Ukrainians and the "Ukrainian Question" as Seen by Poles in Canada during the Second World War / 195 Victor O. Buyniak Constantine Henry Andrusyshen: The First Canadian-Born Slavist / 211 Alexandra Kruchka Glynn Vera Lysenko's Men in Sheepskin Coats (1947): The Untold Story / 219 Archival Sources JleoHU JleineHKO ApxiBHi ji}Kepejia b YKpaiHi ao BMBaeHHa icTopii' KaHaauiB yKpaiHCBKoro noxoa>KeHHfl / 231 Book Reviews Basil Rotoff, Roman Yereniuk, and Stella Hryniuk Monuments to Faith: Ukrainian Churches in Manitoba (David J. Goa) / 245 Orest Martynowych Ukrainians in Canada: The Formative Years, 1891-1924 (Paul Voisey) / 246 Myron B. Kuropas The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations, 1884-1954 (Manoly R. Lupul) / 249 Bohdan S. Kordan and Peter Melnycky, eds. In the Shadow of the Rockies: Diary of the Castle Mountain Internment Camp (Audrey Kobayashi) / 251 Vera Lysenko Yellow Boots, 2d ed., with an introduction by Alexandra Kryvoruchka (Tamara Palmer Seiler) / 252 Gloria Kupchenko Frolick Anna Veryha (Myrna Kostash) / 253 Jars Balan and G.N. Louise Jonasson, eds. Prairie Fire (Joseph Pivato) / 255 Contributors / 257 — Editor's Note This special issue of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies marks the one hundredth anniversary of Ukrainian Settlement in Canada in 1991-1992. As is fitting for such a significant milestone, the focus of the volume is historical, although it does not, except as background, concern the pioneer immigration itself. Events of that period in Ukrainian Canadian history have been well documented, both within and outside the community, and have attracted the attention of numerous special interest commentators as well as professional and popular historians. Such attention testifies to the crucial role the experience of their turn of-the- century peasant immigrants plays in Ukrainian Canadians' self-image, particularly as a founding people of Western Canada. It also testifies to acknowledgement in mainstream circles that Ukrainians were indeed participants in Canadian nation building, even though they were not always warmly received. In contrast to the pioneer era, the interwar period in Ukrainian Canadian history has been curiously ignored. Perhaps this neglect reflects nothing more than the difficulty of those who followed to compete, in the imagination of the public and historians alike, with those who came first. But the neglect perhaps also reflects the nature of the experience of Ukrainians in Canada between the wars, and an unwillingess to probe issues perceived as being painful or divisive. Besides the socioeconomic and psychological impact of the Great Depression, there were increasing tensions as the community fractionalized along often acrimonious political and religious lines, and as Ukrainian Canadian youth sat uneasily between two worlds. The essays presented here begin to address the issues of the interwar years. Some—like Serge Cipko's examination of Ukrainian emigration patterns, Myron Gulka-Tiechko's study of Canadian immigration policy, and Jars Balan's account of the Ukrainian Canadian stage—have parallels with the research conducted on the preceding pioneer period. Others like Bohdan Nebesio's discussion of the first Ukrainian-language feature film produced in Canada, K.W. Sokoloyk's look at the role of sport, and Myron Momryk's profile of Ukrainian Canadian volunteers in the Spanish Civil War—move into new areas. Victor O. Buyniak's sketch of the interwar career of Canadian Slavist, Constantine Henry Andrusyshen, Oleh W. Gerus's more detailed analysis of the role played by Reverend Semen Sawchuk in shaping the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church, and Alexandra Kruchka Glynn's revelations concerning the background to the publication of Vera Lysenko's Men in Sheepskin Coats, reveal the potential of biography. Gems and Glynn both also raise sensitive points—the heated and personalized Sawchuk-Swystun controversy, and the mental anguish experienced by Lysenko due to the reception of her book. In their examination of Polish-Ukrainian relations and Ukrainian Canadian crime, respectively, Anna Reczyhska and Gregory Robinson continue this willingness to confront directly subjects that are not always comfortable. The last selection in the volume, Leonid Leschenko's survey of archival sources in Ukraine, demonstrates the possibilities that the new political reality in the homeland open for researchers into the history of Ukraini- ans in Canada. Frances Swyripa Guest Editor Journal of Ukrainian Studies 16, Nos. 1-2 (Summer-Winter 1991) In Search of a New Home: Ukrainian Emigration Patterns Between the Two World Wars Serge Cipko The objective of this article is to begin to account for Ukrainian emigration patterns—the numbers of individuals involved, their geo- graphical origins, and their targeted destinations—between 1919 and 1939. The fact that Ukrainian emigration history during this period has received relatively little scholarly attention reflects in large part the prob- lem with sources that statelessness imposed. Most Western Ukrainian emigrants travelled with Polish, Romanian, or Czechoslovakian passports that asserted their citizenship as opposed to their nationality. A minority of Eastern Ukrainians left their homeland legally in possession of Soviet papers, but the great majority were political refugees following the Bolshevik Revolution who carried passports stamped by the League of Nations, which often declared their nationality as Russian. These conditions, compounded by record-keeping practices in the emigrants' countries of origin, not only make the recovering of interwar Ukrainian emigration patterns difficult but also encourage the researcher to approach the data with healthy caution. On the basis of the available evidence, however, it can be convincingly argued that both seasonal migration and permanent resettlement abroad involved more people than traditionally thought. Contrary to popular Ukrainian Canadian under- standing in particular, it is equally clear that it was not Canada or even North America but South America that attracted the greatest number of emigrants. Eastern Ukrainian Refugees While the bulk of interwar emigrants were Western Ukrainians seeking new economic opportunities, a significant number were Eastern Ukrainians fleeing their homeland with the collapse of the Ukrainian People's Republic (Ukrainska Narodnia Respublika—UNR) and Soviet 4 Serge Cipko victory. Traditional