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Research Report No. 64 A Noble Cause Betrayed... Hope On but Lives Pages from a Political Life: Memoirs of a Former Ukrainian Canadian Communist by John Boyd Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press University of Alberta Edmonton 1999 Occasional Research Reports Copies of CIUS Press research reports may be ordered from the Canadian Institute ofUkrainian Studies Press, 352 Athabasca Hall, University ofAlberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2E8. The name of the publication series and the substantive material in each issue (unless otherwise noted) are copyrighted by the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press. ISBN 1-894301-64-1 PRINTED IN CANADA Occasional Research Reports A Noble Cause Betrayed... but Hope Lives On Pages from a Political Life: Memoirs of a Former Ukrainian Canadian Communist by John Boyd Research Report No. 64 Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press University of Alberta Edmonton 1999 Contents Part 1: My 38 Years (1930-1968) ofWorking Full Time in the Communist Movement 7 Part 2: Why I Left the Communist Party (My Letter to the Central Executive Committee) 43 Part 3: More Questions about Ukraine and Ukrainians 46 Part 4: My Reply to the Denunciatory Statement ofthe AUUC National Executive Committee 64 Part 5: More Questions about the Communist Party 68 Part 6: My Report on the 1968 Events in Czechoslovakia 72 Digitized by the Internet Archive 2016 in https://archive.org/details/noblecausebetray64boyd Preface The following pages are in lieu ofa political autobiography. They are, in fact, an edited and upgraded transcript of a series of interviews I gave at the end of 1996 as part of a nation-wide project sponsored by the Cecil-Ross Society. The project consisted of taped interviews with former members of the Communist Party of Canada and people who in one way or another were associated with the Party. By the end of 1998, some 450 such interviews had been recorded. The Cecil-Ross Society is a group of former members of the Communist Party, who, after they left the Party in December 1992, constituted themselves as trustees ofthe assets that at one time belonged to the Party. The interviews were conducted and taped by Rick Stow, a broadcaster,journalist and labour historian. I have rearranged some ofthe questions for better continuity and have added the text ofthree relevant documents. I am grateful to Mr. Stow and the Cecil-Ross Society for providing me with a copy ofthe tapes and to my son Zane fortranscribing them, thus enabling me to edit them. I am especially grateful to my long-time dear friend and colleague, Olga Dzatko, for the excellent job she did in copy-editing the first edition, which, together with the correction ofseveral errors of fact, made it possible to produce this second, revised and much improved, edition. Iftime and my health permit, I hope one day to put together a more extensive version ofmy memoirs, which would very likely incorporate much ofwhatisonthesepages. Meanwhile, I am publishingsomeofmy recollections — and thoughts contained in this form essentially covering the part of my life that was spent in the Communist — movement for some of my former colleagues and friends and others who may be interested. — John Boyd . Part 1 My 38 Years (1930-1968) of Working Full Time in Communist Movement the Q.: Let’s start with some ofthe sociologicalquestions. was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament in the Where and when you were born? 1920s and was apparently a distant cousin. I was born in Edmonton, Alberta, on January 26, My father active in politics 1913, into the family of John and Helen Boychuk; I was the first-born. My maternal grandfather, Todor My father was very active in politics all his life. Popowich, came to Canada with his family in 1899 Back in the old country his parents managed to send from the province of Bukovyna in the region ofWest- him toschool, andwhilehedidn’tgetmuchbeyondthe ern Ukraine that was then apartofthe Austro-Hungari- elementary grades, he did get to read and write well. an Empire. Hecame withhissecond wife(hisfirstwife Duringhis teen yearshe used to read newspapers tothe died while giving birth to my mother). My mother was illiterate peasants in the village library and became then five years old; her brother was ten. involved in radical peasant party politics and the My grandfather was a tall, handsome and strong struggle against national and economic oppression. So man who had served in the Austrian cavalry. He was when he came to Canada, he was already quite politi- given a homestead of 160 acres and worked very hard cally minded. In Hosmer, he was active in the miners’ atclearingthelanduntil 1918, when hewasstricken by union and helped to organize a Socialist Party branch. rheumatoid art—hritis. He spent 25 years in bed crippled In 1911, he left Hosmer and came to Edmonton, bythedisease th—eydidn’thavepenicillinorantibiot- where he and his cousin, John Semeniuk, opened a ics in those days and died in 1943 at the age of grocery store. They were doing fairly well, but in 1912 83.There were no males in the family, so the farm had there was an economic recession and they went bank- to be run by his wife and fourdaughters. They lived in rupt. But he gotto like working as astoreclerk and got poverty all theirlives and nevereverreachedawell-off a job in a general store in the town of Vegreville, status. which served the local population and farmers in the My fathercame toCanada in 1908 attheageof23. surrounding area. The store was a co-op run by Peter He came from the Western Ukrainian province of Zvarich, who later became a prominent leader in the Halychyna(Galicia), then likewiseapartoftheAustro- Ukrainiancommunity. Fatherwasavery goodclerk, so Hungarian Empire. To work his way to Canada he Zvarich kept him on in spite ofhis socialist politics. worked in a coal mine in Germany, so when he landed in Canada they sent him to work in a coal mine in An ardent proselytizer Hosmer, B.C., where he worked for two years. He was an ardent proselytizer. He would wrap up By the way, Todor Popowich was not related to a farmer’s purchases in asocialist newspaper, then talk Matthew Popowich, the Ukrainian Communist leader. aboutthearticleswith him on hisnextvisit. Indeed, my Just asmy father, John Boychuk, was notrelated tothe father was a proselytizer all his life; he spent all his JohnBoychukwhowasaleadingUkrainianCommunist spare time reading, agitating and selling left-wing in Toronto and one of the eight Communist leaders literature and did so right up until his final years. imprisoned in the 1930s. Boychuk and Popowich are In Edmonton and Vegreville he was very active in common Ukrainian names. My mother’s maiden name the Ukrainian Social Democratic Party, often attending was Skoreyko; there was a Skoreyko in Alberta who regional and national conventions in Edmonton and 8 John Boyd Winnipeg. Incidentally, William Rodney in his book, society. So as early as five and six I became aware that Soldiers of the International, wrote that the John the rich were supported by the poor. Boychuk inTorontohadbeenactivein theminingtown ofHosmer, B.C. He mixed him up with my father. The Father jailed and “exiled” other Boychuk was a tailor. During World War I, my father was very active in My mother was a very strong-willed woman. Since the anti-war movement, especially among the farmers, my fatherspentagreatdeal oftime in politics, she had for which he was arrested and sentenced in 1918 to much to do with keeping the family together. In the three years in prison. I remember visiting him in jail very early years, before we moved to Ontario in the when I was about five, his hands manacled to a chair. mid-1920s, she was quite active politically: during A few months into his sentence, Matthew Popowich World War I she helped to distribute anti-war leaflets came to Vegreville from Winnipeg, together with Joe illegally. But after the 1930s she ceased to be active, Knight, one ofthe leaders ofthe Socialist Party in the except fortaking part in some ofthe cultural and social United States. They hired a lawyer and got my father activity of the Ukrainian community. She wasn’t offon a suspended sentence, but with the proviso that alienatedagainstthemovementon politicalgroundsbut he leave Alberta, which meant he was exiled from because my father’s involvement caused him to give Alberta. He left his family in Vegreville and went to lesstimetothefamily than shethoughthe should have. Vancouver, where he found work and spent all his He worked very hard, both at earning a living and at spare time peddling socialist literature. outdoor jobs around the house. But he did not spend In the 1920s, besides belonging to the Ukrainian much time with the family. Social Democratic Party, my father also joined the “Wobblies” (the Industrial Workers of the World). To In politics from childhood this day I remember seeing the red IWW membership As you can see, I was exposed to politics at a very card and asking him to explain to me what it was. early age. My father and mother used to get me to My fatherand my motherdidn’t get along too well recite poems, in Ukrainian, when I wasonly fiveorsix. in their personal lives. They split up many times, but They always picked radical and socialist poems, so I got together again mainly for the sake of the children, imbibed them even before I knew what many of the which was the norm in those days. So when my father words meant. I recall twocoloured posters I saw in our went to Vancouver, my mother took the children and home when I was about five. One showed ordinary went to Fernie, B.C., to work as a cook and general Russian workers and peasants with ropes tied to a housekeeper for a group ofbachelor miners living in a statue ofthe tsar, which they were pullingdown. When co-op. I asked my father what it meant, he said itdepicted the February Revolution in 1917, whenthepeoplefirstrose Started school at seven up against the tsar. The irony is that some 40 years Itwas in Fernie, in 1920, that I first went toschool, lHautnegrarIiasnaswpuallinnegwsdowphnotaostfartuoemofBuSdtaalpiens.t showing sktianrdteirnggarGtreand,eor1aantytphreea-sgcehoooflsperveong.raIm,nebvuetrIwheandtbteoena The other poster showed a coloured painting taught to read and write in both Ukrainian and English featuring four huge plates. On the top plate stood the by my parents, so I was able to cope. I stayed in that Russian tsar and his family and entourage. It was held school for only three or four months, because by then up by members ofthe aristocracy standingon aslightly my father had come back from Vancouver and the larger plate, which in turn was held up by a larger family moved to the village of Lavoy, not far from group made up of bankers, merchants, manufacturers, Vegreville, where my father got a job as a clerk in a landlordsand leadersofthechurch.Thatplatewas held general store. We had a small home across the street up by a still larger group of teachers, doctors, nurses, from the store, with a cow and a few chickens, and clergy and other professionals. At the very bottom, on lived there till 1923, when my father lost his job. the ground, holding up the entire structure, were scores Unable to find any work there, he took a cattle train oafndorpdeiansaarnytsm.enM,ywfoamtehenr,aannddmcohtihlderrene,xpglraiimnyedwotrhaktertso etahsatt.aWhpaepnerhemilglotwtaosKbaepiunsgkabsuiinlgt,thOenrtea,risoo,hheeslteoaprpneedd me also. It was my introduction to the class system of