The Ukrainian Americans

As might be expected, the most numerous, best-organized, and dynamic Ukrainian communities abroad are to be found in the United States and Canada. Surveying first the situation in the United States, it is apparent that a strong point of Ukrainian Americans is their relatively large numbers.

But for those who wished to maintain their ethnic heritage, the United States also had its drawbacks. Economic constraints forced Ukrainians to settle in urban centers where it was difficult to maintain the traditions of a peasant people. Until recently, the educational system was geared to assimilating immigrants into the American melting pot. Although numerous compared to their compatriots elsewhere in the West, Ukrainians are relatively insignificant among the many ethnic groups in the United States. In terms of numbers, they rank twenty-first nationally and ninth in the Middle Atlantic states where they are concentrated. And their political influence is even less than might be expected. The large influx of DPS has had a generally positive impact. It reinvigorated the Ukrainian community and greatly expanded its range of activities.

What socioeconomic features distinguish the Ukrainian American from the average American? Traditionally, the Ukrainians have been marked by a relatively low level of education. This circumstance is not surprising because the early and most numerous immigrants arrived from one of the most backward regions in Europe and with an illiteracy rate of about 50%. Consequently, even American-born Ukrainians have long been overrepresented in blue-collar jobs and underrepresented in white-collar occupations. But recent studies indicate that the situation is changing. If current trends among younger Ukrainians continue, it is likely that they will surpass both the white population in the United States and some of the other East European ethnic groups in terms of educational level. The children of the post-Second World War refugees have been particularly successful in attaining managerial and professional status. Thus, it is safe to say that Ukrainians are now solidly ensconced in the American middle class.

On the whole, Ukrainian families are less “modern” than the average American family: they have fewer single-parent families and more of them have parents and other elderly relatives living with them. They marry later, delay childbearing longer, and stay single more often. As befits their generally rural roots, they tend to be conservative in their politics and mores.

Observers have noted that the Ukrainian-American community has a strikingly large number of organizations. Indeed, some argue that it is over organized. The highly developed Galician / Bukovynian tradition of communal organization, the fact that each wave of immigrants established its own organizations, and the attempts of the DPS (many of whom were community activists in Galicia) to reconstruct in America many of the organizations they led at home help to explain this phenomenon.

Today, the strongest Ukrainian institutions in the United States are those that the earliest immigrants established, that is, the churches and the fraternal associations. The Ukrainian Catholic church encompasses about 200 parishes and 285,000 faithful, the various Ukrainian Orthodox churches have about 125,000 members, and the Baptists claim a membership of 50,000. Among the fraternals, the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), with 85,000 members, is by far the largest and richest. It publishes Svoboda, the oldest and most widely read Ukrainian daily in the West, and the lively, informative English-language Ukrainian Weekly. The Ukrainian Fraternal Association (previously called the Ukrainian Workingmen’s Association) has about 25,000 members and publishes Narodnia Volia and the well-edited Forum magazine. The Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics has 19,000 members and its press organ is the daily Ameryka. The list of other periodicals is too lengthy to enumerate.

Until recently, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) functioned as the representative and coordinating body for all the Ukrainian organizations in the United States. However, when the Bandera faction and its sympathizers gained control of it in 1980, a counter organization, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council, was formed. As a result of this split, Ukrainian Americans were deprived of a single, generally recognized body that could legitimately claim to represent them all.

Continuing in the Galician tradition and responding to local needs, the post-Second World War immigrants to the United States have established a growing network of savings and loan associations and credit unions. Together with similar institutions in Canada and elsewhere in the world, they have a membership of about 120,000 and combined assets of close to $1 billion. Another carryover from the “Old Country” is a well-organized women’s association, the Ukrainian National Women’s League (3700 members and 83 branches in the United states).

Teaching their children the Ukrainian language, history, and culture has always been a major concern of the immigrants. The Ukrainian Catholic school system, which in 1970 consisted of fifty-four parochial schools, six high schools, and two junior colleges, with a total of about 16,000 students, provides varying degrees of ethnic education in addition to its English-language and religious curriculum. The so-called Saturday schools stress exclusively Ukrainian subjects. In 1970 there were about fifty such schools with approximately 3700 students and 200 instructors. On the scholarly level, two institutions, the Shevchenko Scientific Society and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, strive to carry on the traditions of their Lviv- and Kiev-based namesakes. Clearly the most impressive achievement of the Ukrainian American community in terms of preserving its cultural heritage was the endowment in 1970 of three chairs in Ukrainian studies at Harvard University. Subsequently, the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute was established. The leadership of Omeljan Pritsak of Harvard, as well as the generosity of over 10,000 Ukrainian donors, was largely responsible for the successful completion of this $6 million project.

Another high point in the recent history of the Ukrainian Americans was the raising of a statue of Taras Shevchenko in Washington in 1964, which drew together about 100,000 Ukrainians. In the 1970s, many Ukrainians protested against the Russification of their homeland and demonstrated on behalf of Soviet Ukrainian dissidents.

Clearly the past looms large in the consciousness of Ukrainians in the United States. Some might argue that this orientation on the past exists, in part at least, because their future as a community is not promising. New immigration has practically ceased. Links with their Soviet-controlled homeland are tenuous and fraught with mutual suspicion. Many organizations are obviously on their last legs. And assimilation is moving apace. In 1980, of about 730,000 people of Ukrainian descent in the United States (this number does not include the approximately 500,000 descendants of the Transcarpathian/Ruthenian/Rusyn immigrants) only 123,000 declared Ukrainian to be their primary language. But there are also hopeful signs. Unlike its predecessors, the post-Second World War immigration, thanks to its many youth-oriented organizations, has had notable success in raising a new generation of community activists. Most of them are professionals by occupation and know the American environment well. Meanwhile, a new tolerance for ethnic diversity has emerged in the United States. Finally, many American-born Ukrainians are beginning to discover the psychological and social advantages of belonging to an ethnic in-group. It is, therefore, possible that the century-old Ukrainian community in the United States has more life in it than many pessimists contend.