Valentyn Moroz and the mobilization of the Ukrainian community : a Winnipeg profile, 1974-79

• Main Author: Panchuk, Marika Anne
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1993/6666

Ukrainians in Canada, during the years 1974-1979, were visibly active and articulate in the defense of political dissidents in Soviet Ukraine, and particularly Valentyn Moroz. His incarceration in a Soviet prison provided the most contemporary impetus for mobilization of action within the Winnipeg Ukrainian community. As an ethnic minority group in Canada, Ukrainians are numerically strong and present an institutionally organized base. They have historically organized in response to the greater society and their position in it, but have been internally fragmented along religious and political lines. Ethnic groups are visible through their objective cultural and linguistic criteria, but are structurally not static entities that are defined once and for all. They are products of their historical experience and are constantly changing. Ukrainians have historically strived at cohesive action in order to survive as individuals and as a unit. Mobilization is a mechanism used to revive and renew commitment. Multiculturalism -- the policy and ideology of the federal government -- has contributed to the most recent struggle for cohesive action in the Ukrainian community. A historical account of the structural formation of the Ukrainian community is provided. It is with this frame of reference that the mobilization of the community in support of Valentyn Moroz will be viewed. Moroz and his writings are described. The mobilization movement of the community in Winnipeg is catalogued. Information about the movement is based on interviews with members of the Ukrainian community in Winnipeg. Disintegration of the movement occurred upon the arrival of Moroz in 1979. The ethnic-based strategy of mobilization for Moroz and the subsequent disillusionment of the Ukrainian community is analyzed through the internal structural dynamics of that community and its efforts to establish relationships with the contemporary dominant Canadian society.