Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine

Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine (Організація оборони чотирьох свобід України; Orhanizatsiia oborony chotyrokh svobid Ukrainy, or ООЧСУ; OOChSU). A sociopolitical organization in the United States of America, dedicated to defending Ukraine’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of religious worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It is linked ideologically with the OUN (Bandera faction): the Ukrainian Liberation Front and Canadian League for Ukraine's Liberation. The first two branches of the organization sprang up in Newark and New York in 1946, and by August 1947 the organization had been incorporated, with a head office in New York. In 1955 OOChSU had 29 branches and 2,280 members. By the end of 1967 it had 48 branches and 9 representations, and its membership had reached 8,400. Besides the sociopolitical monthly Visnyk (New York) (est 1947), the organization publishes information about Ukraine and the history of Ukraine in Ukrainian and English and the works of émigré writers. It also organizes lectures and courses. Its founder and first president was Yevhen Liakhovych (1946–8). His successors have included I. Bilynsky, Ivan Vovchuk, Nicholas Chirovsky, Yevhen Lozynsky, Ivanna Vynny, Bilynsky (for a second time), Yevhen Hanovsky, Bohdan Fedorak, and Teodor Oleshchuk. In 1967 the Women’s Association of the OOChSU was founded. It had 16 branches and 1,200 members. Its presidents have been Uliana Tselevych-Stetsiuk and D. Protsyk.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]