Stechishin, Myroslaw

Stechishin, Myroslaw [Стечишин, Мирослав; Stečyšyn, Myroslav], b 24 July 1883 in Hleshchava, Terebovlia county, Galicia, d 18 November 1947 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Editor and community leader; brother of Michael Stechishin and Julian Stechishin. He emigrated to Canada in 1902 and then moved to Rev Ahapii Honcharenko’s commune in California until 1905. Heavily influenced by Galician radicalism, he organized the Borotba society in Vancouver (1907) and became a leading figure (together with Pavlo Krat) in the Ukrainian socialist movement in Canada. He served on the executive of the Socialist Party of Canada and was editor of Robochyi narod (Winnipeg, 1909–12) before breaking with the movement in 1912. He moved on to edit Novyny (Edmonton) and Narodna volia (Scranton, Pennsylvania) before serving as secretary to the diplomatic mission of the Ukrainian National Republic in Washington, DC, in 1920. In 1921 he became editor of Ukraïns’kyi holos in Winnipeg. He used his position (to 1946) to develop and refine the ideology of the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League (SUS), which he had helped to establish in 1927. Stechishin was also a longtime member of the consistory of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]