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share with you some of my work which, while not directly emanating from my role in UNWLA, nevertheless had some bearing to the topic at hand. Right after the UNWLA Detroit convention, the US Institute of Peace held a study session on the impact of religion on politics and the preconditions for tole ration. Ukraine, Sri Lanka, Israel are among the countries the group is studying. I was a participant in the working group on Ukraine. A day later Volodymyr Vojnovich, (the author of a biting satire Moscow 2042 met with us in Washington and practiced his childhood Ukrainian. On August 10, 1990, there was a meeting at the Department of State on con tinued exchange programs with Eastern Euro pe. At the end of August, at the first inter national council of scholars of Ukrainian subjects, I gave two presentations on the history of women. I raised that topic again in a working session of historians of modern Ukraine which was held in the Carpathians. The topic got me on radio, television, and various interviews. Radianska Zhinka , which now reverted to Zhinka Woman) —the same title as the pre-World War II Ukrainian wo men’s newspaper — had a long interview with me. Various journals in Ukraine are now publishing my historical articles, I must con fess I have not seen some of them. But my research continues to elicit interest, and there are scholars now who are writing disserta tions on aspects of Ukrainian women’s histo ry. The interest was again evident at the annual meetings of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies and at the American Historical Association meetings. At all of them I either gave papers, or chaired sessions, or served on the program commit tee. And there was no difficulty getting a large entry on Ukrainian women in the Wo men's Studies Encyclopedia , edited by Helen Tierney. The Conference on Ukrainian Wo men in Two Worlds did not elicit as much interest as previous ones did, despite the presence of Laryssa Skoryk. It gave me a chance to lambast the Ukrainian-American press for its failure to cover this event, as it had failed to cover the convention. In March, 1991, I delivered a series of lectures at the University of Alberta and was able to meet with the Second Wreath group. These women will help organize an interna tional women’s conference in Kiev in 1993. A knee operation, followed by complications, kept me off my feet, but a steady stream of visitors from Ukraine gave me feeling for the dramatic developments there. A certain ela tion is inevitable when the persons you have known appear as spokesmen for their coun try. The gathering of Ukrainian diaspora in Kiev in August 1992 naturally had a round table on women’s organizations. That would not have been the case had not women of Ukrainian origin abroad played a visible role in community and political life. UNWLA had been the originator of the first international resolution on Chornobyl at the London Conference of the International Council of Women. It was a tragic time, and certainly no one could predict that Ukraine would find its voice in the near future. The last years mark an almost frantic period of facilitating contacts for Ukrainians in the United States and in the world. UNWLA should be proud of its role. We can truthfully say we helped the world become aware of Ukraine’s aspirations. An independent Ukraine speaking in its own name changes our mission somewhat. I have argued elsewhere that Ukraine as an idea and as a cause has ceased to exist — there is now a concrete state, a real nation, a power similar to other entities. Ukraine will speak in its many voices, and we will hear our strain in some of it, but it cannot be the dominant one. The time has come to pay some atten tion to ourselves, to the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America. We have always focused on the needs of our members, but our members focused frequently on Ukraine. Now we can best serve the needs of Ukraine by bringing them through our example first hand knowledge of America and all its stands. America stands for change, adjustment, toleration, integration, and women’s rights. It stands for new frontiers and for indivdual- ism; for continued adjustments between the needs of all the roles we fill in our varied and rich lives. It stands for opportunity for all. Ours is an organization of Ukrainian women in America : This is the topic that interests our members, this is the area about which women in Ukraine are the most eager to learn. 63 www.unwla.org
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