Orest T. Martynowych. Ukrainians in Canada: The Interwar Years, Book 1: Social Structure, Religious Institutions, and Mass Organizations.

Extract

Emigration from Ukraine and changes in transnational Ukrainian communities across the globe could not be timelier subjects for historical inquiry. The annexation of Crimea, the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and the ongoing political and societal instability have reconfigured narratives surrounding the phenomenon of Ukrainian migration and the ways in which Ukrainian migrants organize themselves between places, both inside Ukraine and across international borders. Since 2014, new migration flows and systems have developed inside Ukraine (to Central and Western Ukraine), while international migrations to the European Union, the Russian Federation, and the Americas have also transformed. Thus there is much to learn from Ukraine’s longstanding emigration and diaspora history, as this well-organized and well-researched book illustratively shows.

The historical event of migration from and to numerous places and spaces in the years between World Wars I and II had a plethora of economic, social, and political implications for a large number of countries and people. Its significance and the related socioeconomic consequences are unquestioned. However, to discuss and better understand this complex event, one needs to focus on specific cases, and that is what Orest T. Martynowych has set out to do in Ukrainians in Canada: The Interwar Years, Book 1: Social Structure, Religious Institutions, and Mass Organizations. He focuses on the processes of emigration, social struggles, and the evolving organizational sophistication of Ukrainians in Canada during the interwar years (1918–1939).