Ukraïns’kyi holos

Ukraïns’kyi holos («Український голос»; Ukrainian Voice). A weekly newspaper published in Winnipeg from March 1910 to 2018; at the time of its closure, it was the oldest continuing Ukrainian newspaper in Canada. The newspaper was published by the Ukrainian Publishing Company (now Trident Press), which was founded by a group of liberal-minded Ukrainians, many of them graduates of the Ruthenian Training School. It was committed to the principles of popular enlightenment, education, economic self-reliance, Ukrainian nationalism (it was the first paper in Canada and one of the first in the world to call itself ‘Ukrainian’ instead of ‘Ruthenian’), and loyalty to Canada. Initially it was supported by most liberal, nationally conscious Ukrainians in Canada, by the emerging Prosvita movement and the various national homes and cultural societies across Prairie provinces. The paper reported on Ukrainian-Canadian affairs and on developments in Western Ukraine and Russian-ruled Ukraine. During the Ukrainian struggle for independence (1917–20) it supported the Central Rada and then the Ukrainian National Republic. The paper also emerged as a major critic of the Ukrainian Catholic church in Canada—engaging often in heated polemics on religious and church subjects—and (in the interwar era) of the Ukrainian Communist movement in Canada. Its first editor was Vasyl Kudryk (1910–21). Others involved in the early years of the paper included Taras Ferley, Vasyl Chumer, P. enko, Orest Zherebko, and Jaroslaw Arsenych.

Early in its history, Ukraïns’kyi holos emerged as a major force behind the establishment of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada, and it became the unofficial organ of the new church in 1918. Under its second editor, Myroslaw Stechishin (1921–47), it worked to establish a new Orthodox lay organization, the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League (SUS); it became that organization’s organ in 1927. From that time it reported extensively on the activities of SUS and its constituent organizations, the Canadian Ukrainian Youth Association, the Ukrainian Women's Association of Canada, the Union of Ukrainian Community Centres of Canada, and the four student residences affiliated with SUS. Until 1973 it included a monthly supplement devoted to literature, scholarship, and the arts. After the Second World War the paper’s editors included Ivan Syrnyk, Danylo Lobai, Stepan Volynets, M. Hnativ, M. Hykavy, Anatol Kurdydyk, and P. Danyliuk.

In 1981 the newspaper Kanadiis’kyi farmer was merged with Ukraïns’kyi holos. Eight volumes of annals of Ukrainian life in Canada based on the contents of Ukraïns’kyi holos covering the period through the 1970s, prepared by Olha Woycenko, by 1992. The newspaper published an annual almanac virtually from the time of its formation. The 1960 jubilee edition includes accounts of its history and development. Due to declining readership, the newspaper ceased operations in 2018.

Boris Balan

[This article was updated in 2022.]