Positive Nationalism

Tomorrow the awards ceremony of the Petro Jacyk Second International Contest in the Ukrainian Language, sponsored by the Ukrainian League of Philanthropists, will be held. It is a unique event, in which schoolchildren compete in various age categories to demonstrate their command of the Ukrainian language. It will be the first to bear the name of its founder. Last year, my old friend was present at the competition, but since then he passed away, and those who are carrying on the tradition he established decided to rename the competition in honor of its founder. In addition, the league has recently sponsored a tastefully illustrated and published memorial volume on this outstanding Ukrainian-born Canadian donor: The Philanthropist Who Did Not Refuse to be Ukrainian: Petro Jacyk in the Memories of Contemporaries. Articles, Speeches, and Interviews of the Great Ukrainian Community Figure, edited by Mykhailo Slaboshpytsky and Mykhailo Soroka. Among the thirty-three contributors are the late benefactor’s daughter Nadia Jacyk, Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada Yury Shcherbak, Harvard Professor emeritus and Academician Omeljan Pritsak, World Congress of Ukrainians Vice President Wasyl Wereha, league Executive Director Slaboshpytsky, and, of course, yours truly.

Petro Jacyk sponsored innumerable worthwhile projects to promote Ukrainian scholarship in the West and, once it became possible, to do what he saw was needed here in Ukraine. Yet, conceiving this contest was a true act of genius. As I try to convey to my university students in my class on ethnopolitics, promoting the values and prestige of one’s nation and culture is a very positive thing unless it comes to the point of denigrating (or worse) other nations and cultures. Promoting the positive values of Ukrainian — or, for that matter, any other — identity one can only serve the interests of the community and state associated with that identity. Because of historical circumstances that community’s culture has often been denigrated and still lacks much in terms of prestige. Petro decided to do something constructive about this. His success has outlived him as a continuing memorial affirmed annually in a celebration of a language unique in its beauty, grace, and expressiveness.