|
ODWU -
The Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine
FULFILLING
AN IMPOSSIBLE DREAM
The history of ODWU, the Organization for the Rebirth of
Ukraine, is a heroic story of extraordinary dedication and
perseverance by thousands of Ukrainian-Americans. ODWU was
born in the United States and from its inception ODWU
members have remained faithful to the universal principles
of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness so
eloquently articulated in America’s Declaration of
Independence.
The purpose of ODWU was to keep the dream of an
independent, sovereign, and democratic Ukrainian
nation-state alive and vital. With Ukraine divided after
the First World War among four European powers - - Poland,
Rumania, Hungary and the Soviet Union - - the idea of a
free Ukraine seemed like an impossible dream.
Like many people in Central and Eastern Europe during the
war, Ukrainians fought long, hard and heroically to free
themselves from foreign bondage. Unfortunately, while
other peoples succeeded in their quest for freedom, the
Ukrainian people did not.
World War I culminated with the collapse of the German,
Austrian-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires, creating such
newly constituted nation-states as Poland, Czechoslovakia,
Yugoslavia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and Hungary. The Russian
Empire, however, did not collapse. It was reconstituted by
the Bolsheviks, a ruling class far more tyrannical than
the former Czarist rulers.
Ukraine enjoyed three years of tenuous independence. Under
attack from the Red Russians, Czarist Russians, and the
Poles, the Ukrainian army fought against overwhelming
odds. With no support from the Allies, the Ukrainian
people were unable to maintain their sovereignty. Once the
smoke of battle cleared, Ukraine was no more.
The defeat was devastating. The Ukrainian people were
incredulous. Questions were asked and the finger pointing
began. What went wrong? Why did Ukrainians fail while
others succeeded? Who was responsible? Three ideologies -
- Communist, Hetmanist, and Nationalist - - eventually
emerged to explain the debacle, and to offer a plan for
the future.
Soviet Ukrainians, of course, argued that while a
"blue and yellow" Ukraine had disappeared, a
"Red" Ukraine was alive, well and thriving. The
claim was difficult to deny. The Soviet Ukrainianization
campaign of the early 1920’s created Ukrainian language
schools, numerous publications, and a plethora of
Ukrainian scientific and cultural institutions throughout
Ukraine. At the time, Soviet Ukrainian leaders looked to
Europe for their socio-political inspiration, not to
Russia. In the beginning, most Soviet Ukrainians
considered themselves Ukrainian first, Communist second.
When the Soviet Ukrainian leader Mykola Skrypnyk visited
Moscow, for example, he brought along an interpreter even
though he spoke fluent Russsian. Ukrainianization in the
USSR, however, had a short history. Once Stalin was firmly
in command, Russification was again the order of the day.
A second paradigm which emerged during the 1920’s to
explain Ukraine’s defeat was the Hetmanist ideology.
Ukraine was not prepared for independence, the Hetmanists
explained, because the Ukrainian people were neither
nationally conscious nor politically sophisticated enough
to create and sustain a nation-state. Ukrainians were far
too individualistic and undisciplined. Every Ukrainian
wanted to lead; few were willing to follow. The solution,
the Hetmanists argued, was to follow a Hetman who would
mediate among various interest groups and whose decisions
would be final. That Hetman was to be Pavlo Skoropadsky
who had ruled Ukraine briefly during Ukraine’s three
years of independence.
During the 1920’s, both ideologies, the Communist and
the Hetmanist, had followers within the Ukrainian American
community. Financially supported by Moscow, the Communists
in America were the more powerful by far. They had labor
temples in major American cities where they taught
illiterates to read and write; they established choirs,
dance groups, affiliated women’s’ organizations, and
the "Young Pioneers," a youth group. They also
published books and other literature praising the
accomplishments of Soviet Ukraine. Their influence was
effective and far-reaching. The first daily
Ukrainian-language newspaper in the United States, for
example, was published by Ukrainian Communists.
Believing that they could be the vanguard of a Ukrainian
liberation army, the Hetmanists organized themselves into
military units called "sotnyas". Younger
Hetmanists joined the American national guard and were
trained by American professional soldiers. An Infantry
company was active in Chicago; an engineer unit was
established in Cleveland; a medical support battalion was
created in Detroit. Three airplanes, christened "Ukrainia",
"Kyiv" and "Lviv", were also purchased
to train young Ukrainian American pilots. A weekly
newspaper, emphasizing personal integrity and military
discipline, was circulated to all members. With the full
support of the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchy in America,
the Hetmanists established the United Hetman Organization
(UHO), a women’s’ affiliate organization, and a youth
contingent, "Sitch". During the 1920’s the UHO
offered the only Ukrainian ideological alternative to the
Communists. Neither the Communists nor the Hetmanists
appealed to most Ukrainian-Americans. The community, it
seemed, was yearning for a third alternative.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian veterans
in Europe had established the Ukrainian Veterans
Organization (UVO). In 1929, they came together in Vienna
and created the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN).
Four months later, Evhen Konovalets, the newly elected
head of OUN, visited the United States and began to
establish UVO branches as affiliates of OUN. At the same
time, the idea emerged to establish a more broadly based
Ukrainian nationalist organization in America, one that
was more in keeping with American ideals. With the arrival
in the United States of the charismatic OUN leader Omelian
Senyk-Hribiwsky in 1931, the idea of such an organization,
to be called the Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODWU),
was realized.Visiting various Ukrainian-American
communities, Senyk-Hribiwsky transformed UVO branches into
ODWU branches. On June 26 and 27, 1931, delegates from
nineteen ODWU branches came together in New York City and
formally established the Organization for the Rebirth of
Ukraine as a national organization. Gregory Herman, an
officer in the U.S. army reserve, was elected president.
The
growth of ODWU was phenomenal. A women’s’ affiliate,
the Ukrainian Red Cross, later renamed the Gold Cross, was
established in 1931. The Young Ukrainian Nationalists (MUN),
a youth group, came into being in 1933. By the 4th ODWU
convention in 1934, there were delegates present from 50
local ODWU branches.
The first All-American Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists
was convened in New York City in 1935 with 223 delegates
representing UVO, ODWU, the Red Cross, MUN, the
Chornomorska Sitch and numerous branches of the Ukrainian
National Association (UNA) in attendance. The most
significant resolution passed by the delegates read as
follows:
On
the basis of its historical right and in complete
agreement with the principles of President Wilson
concerning the right of all peoples to self-determination,
the Ukrainian Nation proclaimed and is still proclaiming
its active will for the realization of an independent and
sovereign state on its own ethnographic territory.
It was that resolution that became the rallying cry for
ODWU members for the remainder of the century.
By 1938, the ODWU organizational network - - which,
according to Volodymyr Riznyk, ODWU national secretary at
the time, included 70 ODWU branches, 70 Red Cross
branches, and 41 branches of MUN - - enjoyed a total
American membership in excess of 10,000. The ODWU press
which included a Ukrainian language gazette, Nationalist,
and The Trident, a monthly English-language journal,
enjoyed wide circulation in the Ukrainian American
community.
The
three Ukrainian political ideologies - - Communist,
Hetmanist, and Nationalist - - competed with each other
for the loyalty of the broad Ukrainian American population
all through the 1930’s. Thanks to the pro-Soviet
policies of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the
financial support of the USSR, it was the Communists who
appeared to be winning. The 1930s were, according to one
American commentator, the "Red Decade."
Threatened by the increasingly aggressive anti-Soviet
posture of Ukrainian Hetmanists and ODWU, America’s
Communists launched a vicious smear campaign alleging that
both organizations were under the control of Nazi Germany.
Once the United States declared war against Germany, the
FBI began to investigate the two leading anti-Communist
ideological organizations as well as the UNA, which by the
early forties, emjoyed a preponderance of ODWU members on
the Supreme Assembly.
The Soviet-funded smear campaign was relentless and
ultimately successful. ODWU was weakened. The FBI seized
ODWU records and leading ODWU members had their bank
accounts frozen and were told not to leave town. Ukrainian
Communists suggested that ODWU members would soon be
deported to the USSR to be tried for treason against
Ukraine. Given President Roosevelt’s close and warm
relationship with Joseph Stalin, Ukrainian-Americans took
the threat seriously. The UHO was disbanded and more than
half of the ODWU membership resigned. Thanks largely to
the efforts of Dr. Alexander Granovsky, Volodymyr Riznyk,
Eugene Lachowitch, Stephen Kuropas and others, however,
ODWU was able to weather the storm. Finding the
allegations against ODWU to be totally fraudulent, a
product of Soviet lies, the FBI completed its
investigation of ODWU in November of 1943 with a full
exoneration. The damage had been done, however. On the eve
of the third mass immigration of Ukrainians to the United
States, ODWU was a considerably weakened organization.
Attending the 1939 OUN convention in Rome, ODWU delegates
voted for Andrew Melnyk as the successor to Evhen
Konovalets, assassinated by a Soviet agent a year earlier.
It was not until the war ended
in 1945 that ODWU members learned of the 1941 OUN(B)
convocation in Cracow. Once informed of the OUN split,
ODWU members agreed to remain loyal to Andrew Melnyk, the
man they had helped elect in 1939. ODWU attempts at
reconciliation with OUN(B) members failed. The clamorous
and debilitating European division between OUN(M) and
OUN(B) was firmly planted in the United States. The effect
on ODWU was profound. Bickering between OUN(M) and OUN(B)
in the United States continued for the next fifty years.
Unfamiliar with American life and the tribulations of ODWU
during the war, the OUN(M) immigration joined ODWU and
pushed it in a new direction, attempting, among other
things, to "militarize" the organization along
traditional OUN lines. In retrospect, this type of inter-OUN
competition proved to be counter-productive. Neither side
benefited from the rivalry. The entire Ukrainian-American
community suffered.
Regardless of setbacks and missteps, ODWU has a long,
noble, and productive history in the United States. From
its inception, ODWU has been a patriotic American
organization, dedicated to the same democratic principles
which made the United States the greatest nation in the
world. ODWU members have nothing of which to be ashamed.
Today, ODWU members can take pride in the fact that they
kept the torch of Ukrainian independence burning brightly.
Their impossible dream has been realized, at least in
part. Ukraine is independent and sovereign. The people of
Ukraine, however are are still not completely free.
Freedom of the press in Ukraine remains a far-off dream.
The rule of law in Ukraine has not been attained. Soviet-
educated thugs and oligarchs are pushing Ukraine back into
the Russian bear’s embrace and Ukrainian Americans
appear helpless to prevent this tragedy.
Now that Ukraine is reborn, it is time for ODWU to be
reborn. With a new vision and a revived agenda for the
21st century, ODWU can play a significant role in
assisting Ukraine and in preserving the nationalist
heritage, both here and abroad. As we celebrate 75 years
of ODWU accomplishments, let us not forget those who
sacrificed so much to bring us to where we are today. Let
us resolve here tonight to rekindle their spirit and to
finish the task that still begs completion. Let
tonight’s celebration mark a new beginning for the
Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine. Slava Ukrainy!
Slava Heroiam!
Myron
B. Kuropas, Ph.D.
Through
the times of light and darkness, the activities of ODWU
have been headed by the following honorable souls, from
its inception to the present:
Prof.
Hryhory Herman
Dr. Oleksander Nepryckyj-Hranowsky
Wolodymyr Riznyk
Dr. Bohdan Hnatuik
Dr. Bohdan Shebunchak
Dr. Denis Kvitkovsky
Dr. Bohdan Hnatuik
Dr. Bohdan Shebunchak
Pavlo Dorozhynskyj
Dr. Petro Stercho
Dr. Mychailo Pap
Dr. Yurij Soltys
Engr. Yaroslaw Zhmurkewych
Wolodymyr Zulak
Wolodymyr Procyk
Alexander Prociuk |
