Ukrainians in Canada: The Interwar Years, Book 1 Social Structure, Religious Institutions, and Mass Organization by Orest T. Martynowych (review)

Orest T. Martynowych's exhaustive work provides both insights and extensive minutia on a panoply of Ukrainian-Canadian religious and political organizations during the interwar era. Interestingly, given the size of the volume, he begins by noting what is not here—his earlier work covers Ukrainian-Canadian history to about 1920, and an as-yet-unpublished work by the author and Jars Balan examines Ukrainian-Canadian cultural and recreational life. Balan and Andrij Makuch provided unpublished research materials and papers while aiding in transforming the "very lengthy manuscript" into a "more fluid and balanced text" (xvii). That said, this is Martynowych's book; his relentless effort is revealed in the bibliography's list of archives.

Given the sheer volume of archival riches unearthed here, Martynowych's assurances that one need not have previous knowledge of Ukrainian-Canadians to follow the book rings somewhat hollow. Martynowych himself later casts the book as "an internal history of Ukrainian Canadians, written, some readers may suspect, with a Ukrainian-Canadian or Ukrainian, rather than a Canadian, readership in mind" (xxiv). As it turns out, differentiating competing Ukrainian religious or secular organizations can be challenging. The first two chapters do aid the novice by discussing Ukrainian immigration to, and settlement in, Canada. Usefully if lightly informed, the reader moves on to assessments of Ukrainian organizations ranging from the leftist Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association (ulfta), to Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, to groups that in the later 1930s flirted with Fascist causes.

In discussing this array of organizations, Martynowych offers repeated bursts of micro-detail that report travellers' itineraries, organizations' key members and accomplishments, even celebration of early post-secondary graduates. Such dense data can slow even the most enthusiastic reader, especially when some groups are ultimately dismissed as having "left no mark" (480). The relentless detail is somewhat disappointing, for Martynowych is at his best in all-too-brief analysis: each chapter's start, and the book's introduction, feature tautly-written and satisfying argument. Torrents of evidence follow, distracting from valuable correctives to simplistic notions like left-right ethnic division. Ukrainian-Canadians' institutions, like those of Finnish and other immigrant groups, were complex and featured "endless fractiousness" (xxi).

Discussion of these complexities focuses on organizational elites, leaving one wishing for more on everyday Ukrainians. The mass of Ukrainian-Canadians get short shrift, with the activities of local branches' work dismissed as "mundane and prosaic" (470). Surely everyday concerns were at the heart of immigrant organizations' successes—what could the group do for me, my family, or my community? Hopefully, the forthcoming Book 2 will present more on the large numbers of Ukrainians who were social or pragmatic members backing groups with familiar language, entertainments, and foods.

While certainly striving for a balanced view of these organizations, the book focuses attention on rightist and religious organizations, perhaps reflecting the author's background: Martynowych notes years spent in the religious and rightist archives while thanking Makuch for materials on other (leftist) organizations (xvii). The Ukrainian left, while dealt with fairly, is more often than not depicted critically, with subtle hints of wrong-headedness. Their elites are openly challenged: ulfta leaders "were pervaded with uncritical glorification of the Soviet Union" (297).

Issues like the ulfta role are presented within a straightforward structure—major religious and political organizations receive chapter-length study, or are grouped into chapters reflecting their shared or parallel goals. The writing is clear, but readers may find that the many, largely unavoidable, group acronyms and their quite different Ukrainian forms grow wearisome. Chapter citations are extensive (some 1650 notes in small font fill 120 pages), revealing very close reading in many archives. The citations show limited use of the most recent secondary sources, perhaps understandable given the micro-detail plumbed by Martynowych and the time it must have taken to bring the...