Ukrainian Students' Aid Commission

Ukrainian Students' Aid Commission (Комісія допомоги українському студентсву; Komisiia dopomohy ukrainskomu studentstvu, or КоДУС; KoDUS). Founded in 1940 in Cracow by the Ukrainian Central Committee, it was transferred to Lviv in 1942. After 1945 it became an émigré group based successively in Fürth (Germany), Sarcelles (France, 1951–82), and Munich (since 1982). It has been headed consecutively by Ivan Hrynokh, Yurii Poliansky, Zenon Kuzelia (1944–52), Oleksander Kulchytsky (1952–80), Hrynokh (1982–9), and Z. Sokoliuk (from 1989). Its secretaries have been T. Voloshyn (1946–82), H. Komarynsky (1982–9), and V. Lenyk (from 1989). To date more than 2,600 students have received financial aid from the commission. These funds were drawn from community donations, the Ukrainian Central Committee (before 1945), the Ukrainian Catholic church (through the Ukrainian Relief Committee in Rome established by Bishop Ivan Buchko), the United Ukrainian American Relief Committee, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, and the Ukrainian Canadian Relief Fund.

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