Union for Agricultural Education

Union for Agricultural Education (Khliborobsko-osvitnyi soiuz; Portuguese: União Agrícola Instrutiva). A community organization founded in 1922 as the Ukrainian Union at a congress of Ukrainians in Brazil in Dorizon. The group was organized by Petro Karmansky as a central institution for cultural and educational activity among Brazil's Ukrainians. But the liberally minded union failed to attract the support of the Basilian clergy (see Basilian monastic order), who established a rival cultural-educational body, the Ukraina society, which gained the support of a majority of Brazil's Ukrainians. Based initially in Porto União, Paraná, the union published Ukraïns’kyi khliborob from 1924 (renamed Khliborob) in 1938), briefly operated a school (1925–9), and organized several co-operatives. It moved its headquarters to Curitiba in 1934 and changed its name to the present one in 1938 in an unsuccessful attempt to stave off its suppression (1940–7) during the Vargas regime's ‘nationalization of culture’ campaign. The group has been ideologically and politically identified with the OUN (Melnyk faction) since resuming its activities in 1947. The union's women's affiliate, the Organization of Ukrainian Women in Brazil, maintains its own program and functions largely autonomously. A youth section, Centro Lítero Esportivo Mocidade, was established in 1946. The renowned folk dance ensemble Barvinok was set up with union support in 1930. The union has maintained a students' residence in Curitiba and a press. Its branches are located throughout Paraná. It also has a twin organization, the Ukrainian-Brazilian Club (Clube Ucraíno-Brasileiro), which develops activities in tandem with the union. It has a library, a museum consisting largely of folk art, and a country resort in Curitiba. In 1985 it became a founding member of the Ukrainian Brazilian Central Representation and offered its premises as a temporary headquarters.

Natalia Kerechuk

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 4 (1993).]