Publications in Other Languages

PUBLICATIONS IN OTHER LANGUAGES If one excludes the literatures of the two Canadian founding races, it appears that the Ukrainians in this country have contributed more to the general field of letters than any other East European ethnic group who chose Canada as a permanent place of abode. I base this sweeping statement on the number of books, written in various Slavic languages, received during the past twenty..ood years by the Department of Slavic Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. The major reaSOn for this, no doubt, is that among the Slavs in Canada the Ukrainians foml the largest group. The books brought to Our attention are good, bad and indifferent. Some are excellent. Many of them are written by authors who arrived from the old country after the first and second world wars, and whose literary reputations had already been established there. Most of them write in their native language. Certain of the newcomers are active in journalism and free-lance work, eking out by this means a meagre livelihood for themselves. Others are employed in industry and write only in their leisure moments. As seems typical of many Canadian writers who are of foreign origin, they frequently write about matters pertaining to their native regions and generally from their particular nationalistic pOint of view. Certain others seek to ground their works in Canadian attitudes and consider themselves genuine Canadians. But even they are to some degree still sentimentally connected with the countries of their extraction. The Ukrainian intellectuals in Canada brought with them their literary organizations and continue their research in them here. One such organization, and the most active, is the Shevchenko Scientific Society (Naukove Tovarystvo imeny Shevchenka). It should be noted that the word "scientific" (naukove) embraces in Ukrainian not only natural sciences but also literary, political, economic, and other matters worthy of deeper investigation. Recently the Canadian Shevchenko Scientific Society, an affiliate of the main organization in New York, published several books dealing with the events taking place in Ukraine under the Soviets, as well as with those in which the free Ukrainians living beyond the boundaries of the USSR are involved. One of these, by M. Sosnovsky, Ukraina na mizhnarodniy areni, 1945-1965 ("Ukraine in International Relations, 1945-1965" [272, $4.50)), was published in Toronto/Ottawa under the auspices of the Studium Research Institute. In this well-documented volume, the author studies the problems and 590 LETTERS IN CANADA perspectives of Ukrainian foreign policy. It is clear from his initial quotation from Vyacheslav Lypynskyi (an ideologist of Ukrainian politics) that "no one will establish a state for us if we do not establish it ourselves ." Is it possible for Ukraine to achieve independence, considering that she has as her two great enemies such states as Poland and the USSR? Dr. Sosnovsky is a specialist in East European polities and stresses the fact that the aggressive and colonial policies of the Soviet Union are immense in scope. While believing in Ukrainian strength, he concludes that the hindrances his people will meet on their way are so massive that it would require a superhuman effort on the part of all the Ukrainians to overcome them. The re-creation of an independent Ukraine would mean the dismemberment of the present Russian empire, as well as the destruction of the Polish state. It would effect a complete change in the political structure of Eastern Europe and certain parts of Asia, and would alter the political character of the rest of the world. Unless, by some miracle, the Soviet Union disintegrates as a result of its internal weakness (which at present is not even to be contemplated), an attack against it by any power coming to Ukraine's assistance would certainly precipitate a nuclear explosion entailing consequences too horrible to envisage. Also in a strictly nationalistic vein the Shevchenko Scientific Society published in Toronto a collection of "materials" presented at its regular meeting, entitled V oboroni ukrayinskoyi kultury i narodu ("In Defence of the Ukrainian People and Their Culture" [no. 7, 184, $3.50]). The book contains ten articles, each of which attacks the USSR central administration for its negative poliCies towards the Ukrainian population under its...