AT THE FINAL STAGE OF CONSOLIDATION: THE ACTIVITIES OF UKRAINIAN ORGANIZATIONS IN CANADA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE FORMATION OF A UNIFIED REPRESENTATIVE BODY (1938-1940)

Abstract

The aim of the article is to analyze the events concerning the formation and activity of Ukrainian diaspora organizations in Canada, their further consolidation around one leadership – the Ukrainian Canadian Committee, established in Winnipeg on November 7, 1940. Almost twenty years have passed since the defeat in the First Liberation Struggle. At that time, the Ukrainian people lived in difficult and tragic conditions as a result of the occupation of their lands by Soviet Russia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Romania. Dnieper Ukraine was conquered by the Soviet totalitarian regime, which continued the policy of destroying Ukrainians as a nation by suppressing any uprisings and other manifestations of civil disobedience. A similar policy was pursued by the Polish government in western Ukraine for the same purpose, with repressions against Ukrainian patriots and ordinary Ukrainians. Any activity of organized Ukrainian communities and associations undesirable for the occupiers was persecuted, and the autochthonous population of Ukrainian ethnic lands was replaced. In addition, the colonizers destroyed the intellectual elite of the enslaved country – scientists, writers. Given these circumstances, some Ukrainians were forced to seek a better fate in other countries, including Canada. It has been proven that no country in the world – neither Soviet Russia, nor Poland, nor Czechoslovakia, nor Romania, nor Hungary – has ever been interested in and supported the restoration of Ukrainian statehood. Global trends towards the Ukrainian people have forced various Ukrainian public and political organizations to unite into one structure. The publication reflects how the Ukrainian diaspora rallied to preserve Ukrainian culture and the national and political identity of Ukrainians, and their leaders found common ground with the assistance of the Government of Canada.