Perogies and Politics: Canada’s Ukrainian Left, 1891–1991

308 Pages·2018·3.333 MB·English

by  Rhonda L Hinther

PEROGIES AND POLITICS
Canada’s Ukrainian Left, 1891–1991
STUDIES IN GENDER AND HISTORY
General Editors: Franca Iacovetta and Karen Dubinsky
RHONDA L. HINTHER
Perogies and Politics
Canada’s Ukrainian Left, 1891–1991
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2018
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
ISBN 978-1-4875-0049-8
Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Hinther, Rhonda L., 1974−, author
Perogies and politics : Canada’s Ukrainian left,
1891−1991 / Rhonda L. Hinther.
(Studies in gender and history)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4875-0049-8 (cloth)
1. Right and left (Political science) – Canada – History − 19th century.
2. Right and left (Political science) – Canada – History − 20th century.
3. Ukrainians – Canada − Politics and government − 19th century.
4. Ukrainians – Canada − Politics and government − 20th century.
I. Title. II. Series: Studies in gender and history
FC106.U5H56 2018 971.004’91791 C2017-903097-3
This book has been generously supported by the publications program of
the Shevchenko Scientific Society of Canada and the Brandon University
Research Committee.
University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its
publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario
Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
Funded by the Financé par le
Government gouvernement
of Canada du Canada
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Note on Transliteration xi
Introduction: The Men, Women, and Children of the Ukrainian
Labour Temple Movement, 1891–1991 3
1 “‘Sincerest Revolutionary Greetings”: Men and the Interwar
Ukrainian Left 17
2 Raising Funds and Class-Consciousness: Women and the Interwar
Ukrainian Left 50
3 Junior Participants in the Class Struggle: Children, Youth, and the
Interwar Ukrainian Left 75
4 “Dear Kate, I Don’t Know How You Manage!”: The Ukrainian Left
and the Second World War 103
5 “If There Had Been a Siberia”: Adults and the Association of United
Ukrainian Canadians 133
6 “We’re Ukrainian Canadians, Not Ukrainians”: Children, Youth,
and the Post-War Ukrainian Left 175
Conclusion: “If I Can’t Dance, It’s Not My Revolution” 205
Appendix: Key Ukrainian Leftist Organizations 215
Notes 217
Bibliography 265
Index 283
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Acknowledgments
This project was completed with the support, assistance, and encour-
agement of many parties. It began as an oral history project at the Ukrai-
nian Labour Temple in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The people there and others
tied to the movement across Canada offered an array of assistance with
the research. Special thanks go to Zenovy Nykolyshyn, Mary Semano-
wich, Myron Shatulsky, Lily Stearns, Brett Stearns, Gloria Gordienko,
Orysia Zaporazan, Mary Skrypnyk, and John Boyd. I would also like to
express appreciation to those individuals who generously shared their
life stories with me by participating in the Ukrainian Labour Temple’s
oral history project. Without their contributions this study could never
have been as rich in detail as it is. I am also indebted to the Association
of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC) for allowing me access to its
fonds at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and to substantial uncata-
logued materials housed in Winnipeg and Toronto.
At McMaster University, where this book began as my doctoral the-
sis, Ruth Frager served as my supervisor. I am grateful for her intel-
lectual guidance and support. I would also like to acknowledge the
other members of my doctoral supervisory committee – Ken Crui-
kshank and Dick Rempel – for their help and encouragement. Oth-
ers at McMaster whose support aided in the successful completion
of this study include Wendy Benedetti and Rita Maxwell. Two indi-
viduals deserve special mention for their friendship and encourage-
ment: Wendy Churchill and Erika Hauschild Abbott were especially
supportive during my time in the doctoral program. Dan Gorman,
Mary Jo Megginson, Jessa Chupik, Greg Stott, Ken MacMillan, Dave
Leeson, and Neil White also aided my efforts to complete the thesis.
During this time, Myron Momyruk at LAC was extremely helpful, not
viii Acknowledgments
only directing me to resources useful for my study but also taking the
time to translate numerous documents for me. Later, he offered help-
ful feedback on various versions of the manuscript. I also appreciate
the assistance received from Kim Foreman and Doug Luchak in LAC’s
Access to Information and Privacy Division.
I would like to recognize Oksana Demkiw and her family for their
ongoing friendship and for hosting me when I was Lviv, Ukraine,
studying the Ukrainian language. I would also like to extend my appre-
ciation to Victor Krevs of the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv
for designing an individualized program of Ukrainian language study
for me. Thanks also go to my former supervisor, Nolan Reilly of the
University of Winnipeg, for drawing the Ukrainian Labour Temple to
my attention and for his continued advice, support, and friendship.
I would like to express my appreciation to Larissa Stavroff for grant-
ing me access to the collection of her father, Peter Krawchuk, at LAC
in Ottawa, and for her friendship, research assistance, and time spent
tirelessly translating sources crucial to this study. Tannis Waugh also
deserves special mention for her continuing friendship and support; I
will always be grateful for her willingness to accommodate my unpre-
dictable and, at times, trying research schedule by providing me with a
place to stay, moral support, and many diversions with which to relieve
the stress of research whenever I needed to be at the National Archives
in Ottawa. Other friends and colleagues provided me with encourage-
ment, engaging conversation, and much-needed distraction during the
completion of this project. Among them are Wendy Sawatzky, Jason
Hooper, Sabine Hikel, Danishka Esterhazy, Jonathan Esterhazy, Shan-
non Slater, Holly Lowe, Joan Trimble, Tamara Biebricht, Mike Car-
roll, Kristy Menzies, Leanne Dustan, Kaj Hasselriis, Sharon Reilly, Jim
Mochoruk, Heather Bidzinski, Krista Cooke, Jennifer Anderson, Jenni-
fer Lonergan, Jars Balan, Dave Cannon, Jillian Wolfe, and John Willis.
I am also grateful to my colleagues at Brandon University – especially
Lynn MacKay and Jim Naylor – for their words of encouragement as
they bore witness to the latter stages of the manuscript’s transition to
publication.
Many thanks go to Len Husband and Frances Mundy at University
of Toronto Press for helping to move this book forward. Thanks go as
well to Angela Wingfield for her patient and careful copy-editing of
the manuscript. I am also grateful to Franca Iacovetta, as the external
reader on the thesis and co-editor of the Studies in Gender and History
Series, who has offered much valuable feedback and encouragement
Acknowledgments ix
along the way. I would also like to offer thanks to the four anonymous
peer reviewers for their thoughtful commentary on previous versions
of the text.
I am fortunate to have a supportive family, and I am especially appre-
ciative of the encouragement received from my parents, Evelyn Hinther
and the late G. Ronald Hinther. Throughout my academic career they
have generously and warmly offered moral and financial support. My
mother was exceptionally helpful with this project; she provided critical
research assistance by helping me review mountains of organizational
newspapers and RCMP surveillance files. Other members of my family
whose support sustained me during this project include my grandpar-
ents Sophie and the late Fred Skolny; my cousins Lynne Onofreychuk,
Peter Onofreychuk, and Keegan Onofreychuk; my aunts Gisele Skolny
and Myrna Eng; and my in-laws, Helen Floresco, George Floresco, and
Cathy Kennedy. Finally, special thanks must go to my partner, Aaron
Floresco, and our son, Sebastian Hinther-Floresco, for their love and
unwavering support.
T his project has benefited from funding by a variety of sources. In
addition to my parents, I would also like to thank the Department of
History and the Department of Labour Studies at McMaster Univer-
sity for their financial assistance. Financial support was also received
through the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program and the Canadian
Institute of Ukrainian Studies’ Darcovich Doctoral Fellowship.