aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] (no subject)

[StephenOlynyk@cs.com]

OBITUARY

    Roman Oliynyk-Rakhmanny passed away on June 24, 2002 at the age of 83 after a lengthy illness, and was buried in Montreal, Canada. Born in Ukraine, he was one of the most notable journalists-publicists and political commentators in the Ukrainian diaspora. He had a PhD  degree in philosophy from University of Montreal. He received numerous awards for his writings, and was the recipient of the 1994 State (now National) Shevchenko Prize -- the highest award in Ukraine for his collected works in 3 volumes, Ukraina Atomnoho Viku (Ukraine of the Atomic Age).  He was the author of many monographs, and his last scholarly work was Literary and Ideological Trends in Western Ukraine , 1919-1939 (published in Kyiv in 1999).
    Rakhmanny was a member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, the National Union of Writers of Ukraine, Ukrainian Writers Union in Exile, Union of Ukrainian Journalist in Canada, the International PEN-Club, and  a leading member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). He was a visiting lecturer at the McGill University (Montreal) and the head of the Ukrainian Section of CBC’s Radio Canada.
     Rakhmanny was a co-founder and co-editor of two newspapers -- Chas (Time) in Germany and Homin Ukrainy (Echo of Ukraine) in Canada; he was also a member of the editorial board of several newspapers and journals. His articles and essays on current political, social and literary issues in Ukraine and the diaspora appeared in almost all Ukrainian newspapers and periodicals as well as in many foreign language publications (English, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Polish), and some of the latter appeared in a collection entitled In Defense of the Ukrainian Cause (1979).  Some of the first news in West European press about the struggle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) came from his pen in 1945-1947.
    In his memory, his family suggests donations to the "Children of Chernobyl Relief Fund"  272 Old Short Hills Road, Short Hills, NJ 07078. 
    

A Eulogy for Roman Oliynyk-Rakhmanny
Delivered by Dr. Yuri Shcherbak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine in Canada
Montreal, 27 June 2002

Today we are ushering a great Ukrainian on his final journey. Roman Oliynyk-Rakhmanny, a person of heroic destiny and prophetic talent, was one of the most brilliant figures of twentieth-century Ukraine.
    On this day of grief and parting, we are still unable completely to grasp the magnitude of the loss that has taken us by surprise. For Roman Rakhmanny was a unique phenomenon in Ukrainian politics, literature, and journalism. His works comprise a monumental and tragic encyclopedia of the Ukrainian struggle for independence-a dazzling collection of ideas, hypotheses, predictions, facts, and names.
    Without a doubt Roman Oliynyk-Rakhmanny was and will remain in our history as -2-

a figure of the Ukrainian Renaissance. But in contrast to the writers of the executed Renaissance, Roman Rakhmanny refused to become a victim of the Communist regime. He entered the battle against the Red "Horsemen of the Apocalypse." His mightiest weapon became the word, and his heroic struggle in the ranks of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army gained him immortality.
    Although Roman Rakhmanny’s works embraced a variety of themes and forms, they were united by a single passion, one fiery love -- love for Ukraine and the desire to see his beloved native land within the family of free European nations.
    Ukraine is more than just a topic -- it is the body and blood of Rakhmanny’s creativity. He crafted the conception of a global Ukrainian identity and achieved renown through his profound reflections on what it means to be a person of the Ukrainian civilization in the contemporary world. 
    Ukraine -- her past, present, and future -- always remained at the center of his concerns. The title of Rakhmanny’s three-volume collection of works, Ukraine of the Atomic Age, which was awarded the Shevchenko State Prize [the highest award in Ukraine], became symbolic. Ukraine’s atomic age means the menace of the Cold War and the catastrophe of Chornobyl. It is not merely the perils of radiation but the dangers of assimilation and homogenization of Ukrainians in an increasingly globalizing world. Roman Rakhmanny was a prophet and a state builder. He was constructing an independent Ukrainian state even in the days when few believed in such a possibility. His building materials were words, ideas, and dreams -- seemingly weak and ephemeral materials for building a state. But they turned out to be everlasting ones.
    Together with Volodymyr Vynnychenko and Ivan Bahriany, Roman Rakhmanny was one of the first Ukrainians in the diaspora who came to believe that "a real base exists in the Ukrainian SSR for Ukrainian activists who long to implement Ukrainian policies."
    More than half a century ago, Roman Rakhmanny wrote prophetically about the inevitable dissolution of the Soviet Union and the creation of free national states on the ruins of the Red Empire.
    Despite all his sufferings, Roman Rakhmanny was a happy man. He lived to see Ukraine become an independent state and occupy a worthy geopolitical place in the world. 
    Today I am appearing here not only as the Ambassador of the new and independent Ukraine and a political activist and statesman, but also as a Ukrainian writer and member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. Grief is filling the hearts of all Ukrainian patriots, for whom the name of Roman Oliynyk-Rakhmanny is inscribed in gold letters in the history of Ukraine and in the heroic chronicle of Ukrainian writing.
    I wish to express my most heartfelt sympathies to the family members and friends of the deceased.
    May Roman Rakhmanny rest in peace. May his soul abide in the Ukrainian heaven, so that he may see and hear what is happening in Ukraine.
May his memory be eternal!

Dr. Yuriy Shcherbak
Ambassador of Ukraine in Canada