Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association of Canada

Ukrainian War Veterans’ Association of Canada (Українська стрілецька громада в Канаді; Ukrainska striletska hromada v Kanadi, or УСГ; USH; UWVA). A nationalist veterans’ organization founded in 1928 in Winnipeg and incorporated in 1950 as an autonomous organization affiliated with the Ukrainian National Federation (UNO). Its purpose was to cultivate Ukrainian military traditions and support the struggle for Ukrainian independence. From the beginning the USH maintained close contacts with the Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO), the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), and, after the Second World War, the OUN (Melnyk faction). In the 1930s it sent substantial sums to Western Ukraine to help war invalids and to defend political prisoners. It played a key role in the founding of UNO. At first its membership (478 in 1928, 585 in 1931, and about 1,200 in 1939) consisted of former soldiers of the Army of the Ukrainian National Republic and the Ukrainian Galician Army. There were 22 branches in the interwar period and 16 branches after the Second World War. After 1945 recent immigrants from Ukraine and veterans of the Canadian armed forces joined USH. The head office was moved from Winnipeg to Saskatoon and, finally, to Toronto (1935). The presidents of the USH have included Evstakhii Vasylyshyn (1928–30, 1945–7, 1950–2), I. Guliai (1930–3, 1934–6, 1937–45), Yu. Diakunchak (1954–6, 1962–6), I. Nosyk (1956–62), and Yu. Temnyk (1966–71, 1972–5). To propagate its ideas the association published the monthly paper Strilets'ki visty (1930–1), a weekly page in Novyi shliakh (1932–9, 1949–50), and Informator Holovnoï upravy USH (1953–63).

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Za chest’, za slavu, za narod! Zbirnyk na zolotyi iuvilei Ukraïns’koï strilets’koï hromady v Kanadi, 1928–1978 (Toronto 1978)

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