Ethnic Tourism from Canada and the United States to Ukraine in the Context of the Cold War, 1950s–1980s

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The Communist Party of Canada was established illegally in 1921, legalized in 1922 under the name of the “Workers’ Party of Canada,” and renamed as the CPC in 1924 and joined the Comintern. Tim Buck, the secretary of the CPC Central Committee made multiple visits to the Soviet Union after World War II.

2. Kartunov, O.V. Iuvileinii al’manakh Lihi amerikans’kikh ukraintsiv. 1924–1974. New York: Vidannia Lihi amerikans’kikh ukraintsiv, 1974.

3. The Ukrainian Labour Temple Association (Stovarishennia ukrains’kii robitnichii dim) (1918); since 1948, the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians (AUUC).

4. Troshchins’kii, V.P. Ukraina kriz’ viki: Ukraintsi v sviti: v 15 t./Troshchins’kii, V.P, and A.A. Shevchenko. Kiev: Vidavnichii Dim Al’ternativi, 1999, T. 15, p. 72.

5. Ethnicity and National Identity. Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Persons with Ukrainian Mother Tongue in the United States. Ed. O. Wolowyna. Cambridge: HURI, 1986, p. 72.

6. Piskun, V.M. Ukrains’ka politichna emihratsiia 20-x rokiv XX st.: avtoref. dis. … d-ra ist. nauk No. 07.00.01/Piskun, V.M. Kiev: Kievs’kii nats. un-t im. T.G. Shevchenka, 2007.

7. Orest Subtelny. “Ukrainian Refugees. An Historical Overview.” In Boshuk, Yury, Wsewolod W. Isaiiw, and Roman Senkus (Ed.). The Refugee Experience. Ukrainian Displaced Persons After World War II. Edmonton, 1992; Dyczok, Marta. The Grand Alliance and Ukrainian Refugees. New York, 2000.

8. Ias’, O.V. Emihratsiia ukrains’kogo naseleniia. Available at http://www.history.org.ua/?termin=Emigraciya_ukr_naselennya (accessed February 2, 2019).

9. Na skrizhaliakh istorii: Z istorii vzaiemozv’iazkiv uriadovikh struktur i hromads’kikh kil Ukraini z ukrains’ko-kanads’koiu hromadoiu v druhii polovini 1940–1980-ti roki. Zb. dok. ta materialiv. Kn. 1. Ed. board: P.T. Tron’ko (head) et al. Kiev: In-t istorii Ukraini NAN Ukraini, 2003; Ethnicity and National Identity. Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics …, op. cit.

10. Troshchins’kii, V.P., op. cit.

11. Ievtukh, V.B. “Ukraintsi v Kanadi.”/Ievtukh, V.B., and O.O. Koval’chuk. Kiev: Budivel’nik, 1993.

12. Koval’chuk, O. “Holodomor 1932–1933 rr. v USRR i ukrains’ka diaspora Pivnichnoi Ameriki: informativni aspekti.” In Ukraina XX st.: kul’tura, ideolohiia, politika. Kiev: Institut istorii Ukraini NAN Ukraini, 2008, No. 14, pp. 377–400.

13. Neduzhko, Iu.V. “Ukrains’ka diaspora v protsesi vidnovlennia derzhavnoi nezlezhnosti Ukraini (seredina 40-x – pochatok 90-x rokiv XX stolittia)./Neduzhko, Iu.V. Lutsk: Volin. obl. druk., 2009.

14. Vivcharyk, M.M. “Ukraintsi v sviti: skhidna i zakhidna diaspora./Vivcharyk, M.M. Ukrains’kii istorichnii zhurnal, 1993, No. 12, pp. 57–68.

15. Petr Il’kovich Kravchúk (Peter Krawchuk) (1911–1997), was a member of the Sil’rob Ukrainian Peasants’ and Workers’ Socialist Association and the Communist Party of Western Ukraine. In 1930 he emigrated to Canada. In 1932 he joined the Communist Party of Canada and over time became one of its leaders. From 1931 to 1939 he was a member of the main directorate of the Association to Assist the Liberation Movement in Western Ukraine. From 1940 to 1942 he was in prison for revolutionary propaganda. Afterward, he was a correspondent for the Ukrainian émigré newspapers Ukrains’ke zhittia and Zhittia i slovo. From 1978 to 1991 he was chairman of the AUUC.

16. Koval’chuk, O.O., and T.V. Marusik. Holodomor 1932–1933 rr. v URSR i ukrains’ka diaspora Pivnichnoi Ameriki/NAN Ukraini. Institut istorii Ukraini; Chernivets’kii natsional’nii universitet imeni Iuriia Fed’kovicha. Chernovtsy: Nashi knigi, 2010.

17. Rubl’ov, O.S. “UIZh,” tsar Petro i ukrains’ka diaspora. Available at http://www.s-bilokin.name/Bio/60Anniversary/Diaspora.html (accessed February 2, 2019).

18. Tron’ko, P.T. “Vzaiemozv’iazki uriadovikh struktur i hromads’kikh organizatsii Ukraini z tovaristvom ob’iednanikh ukraintsiv Kanadi,” Ukrainskii istorichnii zhurnal, 1999, No. 3, pp. 126–137.

19. Rodionov, A.A. SSSR–Kanada. Zapiski poslednego sovetskogo posla. Moscow, 2007.

20. Kravchuk, P.I. Bez nedomovok. Kiev, 1995.

21. Bishop, P. An Archetypal Constable: National Identity and the Geography of Nostalgia. London: Athlone, 1995; Bachimon, Philippe; Jean-Michel Decroly; and Remy Knafou. “Touristische Erfahrungen und Lebensverläufe. Beziehungen zur Nostalgie.” In Expériences touristiques, 2016, No. 10. Available at https://journals.openedition.org/viatourism/1346?lang=es; Dann, G. “Tourism and Nostalgia: Looking Forward to Going Back,” Vrijetijd en Samenleving, vol, 12, Nos. 1–2, 1994, pp. 75–94; Frow, J. “Tourism and the Semiotics of Nostalgia,” October, 57, 1991, pp. 123–151.

22. Slachta, K. “Banalität der Bürokratie? Überwachung ungarndeutscher „Verwandschaftsbesuche“ – Eine Fallstudie: Janos Tofalvi,” in: Aus den Giftschränken des Kommunismus. Methodische Fragen zum Umgang mit Überwachungsakten in Zentral- und Südosteuropa. Eds. Kührer-Wielach, Florian, and Michaela Nowotnick. 2018, pp. 337–358.

23. Vlada URSR i zakordonni ukraintsi (1950–1980-ti rr.): Dokumenti i materiali. Compiled by V. Danilenko, 2017.

24. Kravchuk, P.I., op. cit., p. 117.

25. Antons, Jan-Hinnerk. Ukrainische Displaced Persons und ihr Kampf um nationale Identität. In Boehling, Urban, and Bienert (Eds.): Freilegungen. Displaced Persons – Leben im Transit: Überlebende zwischen Repatriierung, Rehabilitation und Neuanfang (Jahrbuch des internationalen Suchdienstes, Bd. 3), Göttingen, 2014, pp. 228–240.

26. The reference is to the “Guzenko affair”—the 1945 spy scandal that caused a rupture of Canadian–Soviet diplomatic relations. They were only restored in 1955 after a visit to Moscow by Canadian Foreign Minister L. Pearson.

27. Petr Timofeevich Tron’ko (1915–2011) was a historian, government official, and social leader. He was a doctor of history (1968) and a professor (1994). He became an active member of the Ukrainian SSR Academy of Sciences (1978; in 1991, the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, and in 1994, the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences). He was an Honored Specialist in Science and Technology of the Ukrainian SSR (1990). Hero of Ukraine (2000).

28. Tron’ko, P.T. op. cit., p. 127.

29. Ditkovskaia, S.A. “Mezhdunarodnoe sotrudnichestvo Ukrainskogo obshchestva druzhby v sfere nauki i obrazovaniia (1959–1970-e gg.),” Vestnik KGU, 2017, No. 1, pp. 37–41.

30. TsDAGO, f. 1, op. 25, d. 244, l. 26.

31. Ukrains’ka Kniga was a trading firm in Canada that sold a wide assortment of Soviet goods from catalogs and offered Canadians an opportunity to pay for travel vouchers to sanatoriums and health resorts in the USSR for their relatives. Advertisements were regularly published in the AUUC newspaper Zhittia i slovo.

32. Kravchuk, P.I. op. cit., pp. 68, 70.

33. In the early 1970s the managers of Globe Tours tried to move away from the CPC, but they were fired. See TsDAGO Ukrainy, f. 1, op. 25, d. 425, l. 6–7.

34. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 307, l. 131.

35. Radchenko, O.N. “Inturist” v Ukraine 1960–1980 godov: mezhdu krasnoi propagandoi i tverdoi valiutoi. Cherkassy, 2013, pp. 142, 160.

36. It is worth noting that, despite coordination among the security services in the socialist countries, trips by ethnic Germans to their relatives in Hungary became possible right after Stalin’s death and initially allowed for a three-week stay and then for a stay of two to three months. See Slachta, op. cit., p. 339.

37. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 5177, l. 154.

38. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 5177, l. 76.

39. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 574, l. 9.

40. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 481, l. 80; d. 482, l. 92; d. 604, l. 41

41. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 598, l. 6.

42. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 3211, l. 43.

43. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 32, d. 2664, l. 45.

44. Kravchuk, P.I. Bez nedomovok. Spogadi./Kravchuk, P.I. Kiev: Literaturna Ukraina, 1995, p. 196.

45. The idea that the security services had similar forms and methods of monitoring ethnic tourists who were visiting relatives in Ukraine and Hungary is obvious. See Slachta, op. cit., p. 341.

46. Kravchuk, P. Informatsiina dovidka [Memorandum]/Kravchuk, Petro. Kiev, 1990, No. 5, pp. 125–137.

47. This term refers primarily to such organizations as the UCC (Ukrainian Canadian Committee), the UUS (Union of Ukrainian Separatists), OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), UNA (Ukrainian National Association), LUN (Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists), LLU (League for the Liberation of Ukraine), LUC (League of Ukrainian Canadians), EU OUN (External Units of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), UYA (Ukrainian Youth Association), UYAC (Ukrainian Youth Association of Canada). See TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 226, l. 95–97. See the books of memoirs by former Soviet ambassadors to Canada: Rodionov, A.A. op. cit.; Iakovlev [Yakovlev], A.N. Sumerki. Moscow, 2003, p. 361.

48. Banderites were followers of Stepan Bandera (1909–1959), an ultranationalist Ukrainian politician who collaborated for a time with the Nazis during the German occupation of Ukraine in hopes of establishing an independent Ukrainian state. Bandera was murdered by a Soviet agent in Berlin in 1959.—Trans.

49. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 70, l. 66. A similar approach is noted in documents of the Hungarian security services: see Slachta. op. cit., p. 340.

50. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 251, l. 25.

51. Bazhan, O.G. “Movne pitannia v ukrainskomu ational’no-kul’turnomu rusi v druhii polovini 1960-x rr.” In Magisterium. NaUKMA. Vip. 28. Istorichni studii. Kiev, 2007, pp. 30–37.

52. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 6380, l. 2.

53. Kravchuk, P. Informatsiina dovidka …, p. 136.

54. Education in Soviet Ukraine: A Study in Discrimination and Russification.—Trans.

55. Koliaska, I.V. “Osvita v Radians’kii Ukraini. Doslidzhennia.” In Koliaska, I. Toronto 1970. In Peter Krawchuk’s conversation with Petr Shelest, first secretary of the CPU Central Committee during a trip around Ukraine in 1967, the latter warned against making mistakes in selecting AUUC emissaries. “See,” he said, “you sent Koliaska to us.” By way of justification, Krawchuk called him a “mentally ill person.” For more detail, see Kravchuk, P. Informatsiina dovidka [Memorandum]/Kravchik, Petro. Kiev, 1990, No. 5, p. 136.

56. Kravchuk, P. Informatsiina dovidka …, 1990, No. 5, p. 116.

57. Communiqué on the visit to the Ukrainian SSR by the chairman of the board of the AUCC and board members of that organization, August 31, 1968. In GDA SBU, f. 16, d. 976. Available at http://avr.org.ua/index.php/viewDoc/25990/ (accessed February 2, 2019).

58. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 67, l. 114; d. 69, l. 198.

59. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 265, l. 17.

60. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 74, l. 30.

61. Iurii Smolich (1900–1976) was the society’s first chairman and then its president, and a well-known Ukrainian writer and social leader. He was held in high regard by Peter Krawchuk, who considered Smolich “a talented writer, a man of great erudition and boundless creative energy.” In Krawchuk’s opinion, Smolich “made the visits of his overseas compatriots to Ukraine pleasant, interesting, and beneficial.” Quoted from Kravchuk, P. “Dvadtsiatirichna druzhba (Pro Iuriia Smolicha),” Radians’ke literaturoznavstvo, 1980, No. 5, pp. 54–60.

62. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 70, l. 49.

63. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 220, l. 28.

64. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 226, l. 107.

65. See, e.g., Ravlik, S. “Vrazhennia z poizdkina vidvidini do ridnoho sela na Bukovini” [Impressions from a Visit to an Native Village in Bukovina], Zhittia i slovo, 24 zhovtnia 1966 r., s. 24. Nepiuk, A. “Vimiriana poizdka na ridnu zemliu, v ridne selo” [A Long-Awaited Trip to the Native Land, the Native Village], Zhittia i slovo, 9 sichnia 1967 r., s. 16.

66. Petrunishin, H. “Cherez 48 rokiv na ridnii zeli” [48 Years Later in the Native Land], Zhittia i slovo, 29 veresnia 1975 r., s. 12.

67. From Peter Krawchuk’s reminiscences of the 1967 trip around Ukraine: Kravchuk, P.I. op. cit., p. 117.

68. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 251, l. 41.

69. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 434, l. 39.

70. Kas’ianov, Hrihorii. Nezhodni: ukrains’ka intelihentsiia v rusi oporu 1960–80 rokiv. Kiev: Vidavnitstvo “Libid’,” 1995.

71. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 106, l. 96.

72. Vlada URSR i zakordonni ukraintsi …, p. 206.

73. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 5177, l. 76.

74. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 5177, l. 71.

75. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 5248, l. 40. [The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, founded in 1929, was one of the oldest and most prominent of the Ukrainian nationalist societies. - Ed.]

76. A.D. Skaba (1905–1986) was the secretary for ideological work of the CPU Central Committee from 1959 to 1968.

77. Kravchuk, P. Informatsiina dovidka …, 1990, No. 5, p. 129.

78. The “first department” at a Soviet enterprise or institution was the KGB’s unit overseeing political security and secrecy at the workplace.—Trans.

79. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 251, l. 41.

80. Kravchuk, P.I. op. cit., p. 75.

81. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 45, l. 99.

82. TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 131, l. 13.

83. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 6370, l. 154.

84. V. Shevchenko and Frank Joe Dvorak, Canadian tourists who came to their hometown of Rovno forty-eight years later: See TsDAVO Ukraini, f. 4672, op. 1, d.307, l. 201.

85. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 265, l. 42.

86. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 2450, l. 77.

87. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 570, l. 97.

88. TsDAVO Ukrainy, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 341, l. 19

89. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 24, d. 6312, l. 186.

90. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 3207, l. 50.

91. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 3026, l. 21.

92. Quoted from Kravchuk, P.I., op. cit., p. 245.

93. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 3026, l. 29.

94. Iakovlev, A. op. cit.

95. V.M. Kushnir (1893–1979) was a Ukrainian religious and social leader, a Greek Catholic priest, and a doctor of theology.

96. V.F. Skofenko (b. 1930) is a Ukrainian artist, journalist, and diplomat. From 1974 to 1979 he worked at the Soviet Embassy in Canada, and from 1984 to 1985 he was Deputy Permanent Representative of the Ukrainian SSR to the U.N. and the Ukrainian SSR representative on the U.N. Security Council.

97. V.E. Malanchuk (1928–1984) was, from October 1972 to April 1979, secretary for ideology of the CPU Central Committee and an alternate member of the Politburo of the CPU Central Committee. An orthodox conservative, he waged an uncompromising struggle against all manifestations of Ukrainian nationalism.

98. V.V. Shcherbitskii (1918–1990) was a Soviet party and government official and first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (1972–1989).

99. TsDAGO Ukraini, f. 1, op. 25, d. 1436, l. 251–252.

100. Ibid., l. 47.

101. A Canadian tourist named Skavuliak. See TsDAVO Ukrainy, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 250, l. 18.

102. A Canadian tourist named Golota-Popovich. See TsDAVO Ukrainy, f. 4672, op. 1, d. 425, l. 16.

103. An American tourist named Bogart. See ibid., l. 17.

104. Interview with S.Iu. Radchenko.—Author’s files. [These songs are two of Shevchenko’s poems set to music. - Ed.]