Ukrainian Canadian

It was a little over a week ago that Joseph Stalin led the polls in ‘The Name of Russia‘, a TV show where viewers vote in the most notable person in Russian history:

From the Telegraph:

While the poll, conducted by the state run Rossiya channel, has been criticised for allowing multiple voting, there is little doubt that Stalin has undergone a remarkable renaissance in recent years.

Opinion polls regularly name him Russia’s greatest post-revolution leader after Vladimir Putin, the prime minister.

The wartime leader’s resurgence owes much to the Kremlin, which under Mr Putin’s presidency appeared to support a campaign to rehabilitate Stalin, with television documentaries, films and books released in recent years eulogising him.

A newly published history text book, approved by the Kremlin for use in all schools, glossed over the more unappealing parts of Stalin’s rule and ultimately concluded that he was the Soviet Union’s most successful leader.

The Communist party in St Petersburg has petitioned the Orthodox Church to canonise Josef Stalin if he wins a television poll to nominate the greatest Russian in history.

Read more…

Earlier this month the Ukrainian Cultural Insitute held a Ukrainian Festival in Bizmark, North Dakota (video), the 33rd Annual Ukrainian Festival in Verkhovyna was held  in Glen Spey, New York (article).  Ohio hosted the Fifth Annual Ukrainian Festival along with an Arts Festival a week prior in Youngstown. The Ukrainian Homestead hosted the Ukrainian American Heritage Foundation Workshop in Pocono, Pennsylvania and the Alpha Omega Alumnae with Canadian Idol Finalist Theresa Sokyrka presented the Golden Jubilee in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Last Saturday was the Ukrainian Festival in Sycause, New York amongst the other cultural festivals.  The next day it was the 74th annual Ukrainian Seminary Day in Primrose, Nebrasksa, the 61st annual Ukrainian Festival in Elmira, New York (video) and over 3,000 strong packed the 60th annual Ukrainian Festival in Chemung County, New York (video).

This Friday will be the Canadian National Ukrainian Festival in Dauphin, Manitoba.  This Sunday there will be a Ukrainian Festival in Whippany, New Jersey which will feature the newly constructed Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey as well as the annual Ukrainian Day Festival in Edmonton, Alberta.  Don’t forget on the weekend of August 23rd and 24th look for a slew of Ukrainian events to celebrate Ukrainian Independence.

Ukraine officially blames Soviet leaders for the Holodomor!  The National Security Service published archive documents “unequivocally” proving its case that Soviet leader Josef Stalin and his subordinates were responsible for the genocide.  The SBU had also published on their website a list of high-ranking Soviet state and party officials and NKVD henchmen who were responsible, available here (direct link if your Ukrainian isn’t that good)!  Not all are happy with the list as the Ukrainian Jewish committee complained the list contained too many Jews and neglected other culprits.

While I was away I was saddened to hear that the United Nations refused to include the Holodomor into their 62nd session agenda due to objections from only one country – Russia.  Ukraine will attempt to re-submit the Holodomor resolution for the 63rd session in September.   The Holodomor issue has not been faring well in Europe this month as OSCE’s Parliamentary Assembly stopped short of recognizing it as genocide as well (link to the resolution).

It was the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Kyivan Rus, with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople visiting with President Yushchenko to begin to establish an independant and unified Ukrainian Orthodox church.  The Ukrainian Orthodox Church  Moscow Patriarchate does not recognize the Kyiv Patriarchate or the Autocephalous Orthodox Church and considers Ukraine its canonical territory, even though the baptism of Kyivan Rus predates the founding of Moscow.

It’s been rough times for President Viktor Yushchenko;  Never ending conflicts with Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko (the latest being over this Odessa-Brody oil pipeline) and forecasting rivaling her for Presidency in 2010 to disputes with the Russian Orthodox church, Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia over the UPA and even his son’s Godfather over his poisining and others he can’t extradite from Russia.

Meanwhile a devastating flood has hit Ukraine, killing 30 people and destroying 40,000 homes.  Yushchenko has declared a state of emergency in the Western region for the next three months while Tymoshenko has been busy prepping the budget and collecting foreign aid to help the victims.  The Kyiv ecology-cultural center has partly blamed the flood on the rising deforestation of the Carpathian mountains, and noted how its neighbouring countries have banned the practice for quite some time.

And finally some quick news:

• A monument to slain journalists including Heorhiy Gongadze is scheduled to go up in Kyiv in August (link)
• Chelsea striker Andrei Shevchenko is likely to return to his former club Milan within the next few days (link)
• Members of the Eurasian Youth Union pelted the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow with eggs on ‘Navy Day’ in protest of plans to withdraw the Russian Black Sea Fleet from Sevastopol, Ukraine, and in protest of the deportation of Duma member Konstantin Zatulin from Ukraine. Police detained head of the Moscow division of the Eurasian youth Pavel Kanishchev for organizing an unauthorized public action  (link)

Legendary Guess Who lead guitarist Randy Bachman will be the parade marshal for this years Toronto Ukrainian Festival (formerly Bloor West Village Ukrainian Festival) September 12 – 14.

Bachman recently learned a lot about his Ukrainian ancestry from the CBC hertiage series ´Who do you think you are´:

Randy visits geographer John Lehr from the University of Winnipeg, a specialist in Ukrainian immigration to Manitoba, to find out more about the Steckos’ arrival in Canada. The Steckos landed in North America in 1907, and like many Eastern European immigrants, they came through Ellis Island in New York and then journeyed by train to Winnipeg. They were part of a massive wave of immigrants from the Western Ukrainian province of Galicia, then part of Austria. From 1889 to the start of WWI, 180,000 Ukrainians settled on Western Canadian farmlands. For most, poverty and illiteracy made life extremely difficult. Not only were they granted some of the worst land in the region, but they also faced hostility from Canadians. Booklets were produced to help Ukrainians integrate into Canadian culture. But despite their efforts, the new Canadians experienced rampant discrimination. John Lehr shows Randy newspaper editorials denouncing Ukrainian settlers as “ignorant paupers” who were a “curse rather than a blessing to the country”. Randy is moved by the hardships his ancestors endured.

From Cracked:

The Hollywood Version:

During World War II, a group of Allied prisoners that included the unlikely trio of Pele, Michael Caine and Sly Stallone (who was between Rocky II and First Blood) spent their time in a Nazi prison camp playing soccer. The Nazis, being the clever bastards they were, came up with a can’t-miss propaganda extravaganza in which a team of their best and brightest would take on this Allied side, clearly having never heard of Pele.

The Allied team accepts, hoping to use this match as a means of escape. However, once they get their perfect opportunity to escape during halftime, they choose instead to return to the pitch and try to beat the Nazis thus winning respect, rather than their freedom. It should be noted that they were relying on Stallone as their keeper. After a miraculous save by–you guessed it–Stallone, there was much rejoicing, and the Allies escape during the ensuing chaos.

In reality …

Well, for one thing, there was no Allied team. That means no random Brazilian like Pele, that means no cheeky Brit like Caine, and that certainly means no out of place palooka like Stallone manning the net. Instead, this story is inspired by a group of Ukrainians who were forced into playing the Germans while their country was occupied during WWII.

The Nazis lost to the upstart club miserably and repeatedly, with the Ukrainians destroying them in the final match by a decisive and wholly embarrassing 8-0 score. So that’s pretty inspiring, right?

Well, shortly thereafter, the Gestapo found various reasons to arrest and then torture several members of the Ukrainian team. After all, the Gestapo were
assholes like that. One player died during the torture process, while
the rest were shipped off to a work camp. And, well, executed.

God, that’s depressing. And that’s precisely why Hollywood chose to Stallone the shit out of it.