Union of Ukrainian National Democrats

Union of Ukrainian National Democrats (Союз українських національних демократів; Soiuz ukrainskykh natsionalnykh demokrativ, or СУНД; SUND). A political organization founded in New York in 1950. The group was established by post–Second World War émigrés who hoped to develop a nonpartisan center-left coalition to support the cause of Ukrainian independence and to counterbalance the perceived extremism of the existing nationalist and socialist Ukrainian-American organizations. The initiators of and main figures in the group were Kost K. Pankivsky and Mykola Shlemkevych. The union published its own Biuleten' and then Informatsiinyi lystok, although its members also used the journal Lysty do pryiateliv as a forum for expressing their views. The SUND was centered in and around New York and initially generated some interest in establishing branches in other locations. These hopes were never realized, and the group dissolved itself in 1966.

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