A short video from YouTube where Congressman Mike Quigley (IL-05), remembers the tragedy of the Holodomor on the floor of the House of Representatives:
Heading to the UN in New York last week, Yanukovych’s administration attempted to create ‘dialogue’ with several Ukrainian American groups. The groups, not impressed by the lack of response on their issues – deteriorating civil liberties and press freedoms, selling of national interests to Russia and denying genocide among them, have decided to ignore his requests and instead protest his visit:
The issue which strongly turned Ukrainian-Americans against the Kremlin-friendly Yanukovych is his controversial gas-for-fleet deal with Moscow in April. Yanukovych received a 30 percent discount on Russian natural gas imports in exchange letting the Russian Black Sea Fleet remain based on the Crimean peninsula through at least 2042.
Yanukovych seemed to be trying in recent days to win over his American critics ahead of his trip to New York.
…
Also, coming several days before the U.S. trip, Yanukovych sent a letter to the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America calling for dialogue. But, upset with what they view as his pro-Russian and anti-democratic policies, the congress responded to his overture by organizing street protests on his visit.
Some pictures of the protest from Unian:
Last week a Pennsylvania resident Olga Yurechko, 90, wrote to her family and friends before she died a couple of weeks ago a very touching memorial about her life in Ukraine, as a slave laborer under the Nazis in WW2 and emigrating to America:
"I was born on Aug. 6, 1920 in a paradise where the wheat fields swayed like a golden ocean, and each stalk of wheat struggled to stand upright under the weight of its ripened grains. That is where I first saw the sun’s radiance. That is where I took my first little footsteps. That is my beloved land — my Ukraine. Within that paradise, I was born in a little village named Vilshanitsha.”
…
"As I was finishing my last year in school, my father suddenly died. My world was turned upside down, and the people I thought were good and decent people who might help us instead took advantage of my mother and me. With my father gone, they came and took many of our belongings and left us near starvation. This, my dear family and friends, was the forced collectivization of private lands and property by the communist regime.”
…
"And then the war began. During this horrendous, war-torn time, I was taken to Germany as a slave laborer. I was forced to work in a large restaurant run by a German mistress and her teenage children. The work was long, hard and dirty. But worse than any of that, this is where I experienced their vile hatred for me, because my mistress’ husband had recently been killed on the Russian front. She and the children constantly tormented me, as if I were the cause of their loss. It was so terrible that I didn’t want to live. I tried to escape, but was caught by the authorities. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but fortunately they did not return me to the family that brought me such misery. Instead, I had the good fortune to be assigned to a different family. Although I was still a forced laborer, the work was much easier, and they treated me well. After the war ended, the allies opened refugee camps to accommodate the many displaced people still in Germany. I moved into one of these camps, where I met and married my husband. Three years later, our son was born.”
There were reportedly 6 million forced labourers under the Nazi regime abducted from Ukraine during WW2, known as the Ostarbeiter (Eastern workers):
Former Soviet civil workers primarily from Ukraine. They were marked with a sign OST ("East"), had to live in camps that were fenced with barbed wire and under guard, and were particularly exposed to the arbitrariness of the Gestapo and the industrial plant guards.
Degraded as Untermensch (sub-human), many workers died as a result of their living conditions, mistreatment or were civilian casualties of the war, under Hitler‘s policy of Lebensraum: the conquest of new lands in the East. They received little or no compensation during or after the war.
Olga like many other thousands of Ukrainians received refuge in the USA:
The Displaced Persons Commission Act signed by President Harry S. Truman on June 25, 1948. More than 100,000 Ukrainians benefited from this act of the 80th Congress of the United States when they immigrated to the United States. During four years of its existence, the Commission created by this act was able to process, transport, and provide visas for 370,000 persons, allowing them to enter the United States.
The Ukrainian Museum of Archives in Cleveland has a virtual exhibit on these Displaced Persons.
A former soldier in the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, known for fighting both the Nazis and the Soviets for a free and independent Ukraine in World War 2 made the news recently in New York, stopping an intruder from breaking into his home:
Pulteney, NY — The unidentified man who broke into the residence of Stephen and Pauline Boyechko Friday night apparently didn’t know who he was dealing with.
Confronted with the sight of a man halfway through a bathroom window, Stephen Boyechko, 80, simply retrieved his .32 PPK/Walther and went back to confront the intruder. The man rushed Boyechko, who then shot him, reportedly in the abdomen and groin.
“I think I just surprised him,” Boyechko said. “I didn’t fire to kill him. I just shot, maybe a little low.”
Boyechko isn’t the kind of man to get easily rattled.
A veteran of World War II, he didn’t fight with the Americans troops, he said.
“I was in the Ukrainian underground,” he said. “I was 14. We fought the Germans and the Russians.”…
The break-in occurred after someone knocked on the door of the couple’s ranch-style home at 8016 Brown Road, Boyechko said.
However, Boyechko thought it was a member of a religious group and didn’t answer the door, he said. A short while later, the couple heard the sound of breaking glass from the bathroom and he went to investigate.
Boyechko said upon seeing the man wriggling through the bathroom window “I asked him ‘Why you break my window?’ But I guess he didn’t hear me. So I went to get my gun.”
After the would-be intruder was shot, the two men waited in silence for police to respond to Boyechko’s 911 call.
They didn’t have anything to say, Boyechko recalled.
“He didn’t talk to me,” he said. “He told the police he heard children screaming in the house, is why he tried to get in. But there are no kids here; just two old people.”…
“Oh it was nothing,” Boyechko said. “Just high blood pressure went a little higher is all.”
No charges are expected to be filed against Boyechko. The investigation into the break-in is continuing.
The 38th annual Rochester Ukrainian Festival kicks off today through the weekend:
The St. Josaphat Ukrainian Festival was established in 1973 as an effort to introduce Ukrainian Arts and Crafts, Ukrainian food, and Ukrainian music and dance to the Rochester community.
Date & Time
Thursday, August 12th - 6:00pm to 11:00pm
Friday, August 13th - 6:00pm to Midnight
Saturday, August 14th - 1:00pm to Midnight
Sunday, August 15th - 1:00pm to 10:00pm
Free Parking, Free Admission, Free Entertainment
St. Josaphat Ukrainian Catholic Church
Ridge Road East at Stanton Lane
Rochester, New York
Entertainment:
BURYA
Vanguard Concert Band
Nadia Kobelak
Zoloti Sturny Bandura Ensemble
DESNA Ukrainian Dance Company
Ukrainian Arts Foundation of Greater Rochester Dancers
Blogs