by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 17, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: NATIONALISM Слава Україні (Slava Ukraini/Glory to Ukraine) is a national salute symbolizing Ukrainian sovereignty and resistance. The salute was forbidden in Ukraine’s historic fights for independence and it often went underground. But in 2013,...
by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 13, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: VYSHYVANKY The only article of clothing that I have from my youth is an embroidered Ukrainian blouse my mother made for me when I was a teenager. Despite my neglectful storage, it has somehow withstood most of the ravages of time. My mother...
by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: ACTIVISM One dreary night in 1971, my father, elder brother, and I set out for Toronto on a bus filled with members of Hamilton’s Ukrainian Youth Association with the intention of protesting the visit of Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin. I didn’t...
by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: MOTHERS As my soul crumbles at the sight of images from Kyiv and Kharkiv with train platforms bursting with women and children, I cannot help but be reminded of my mother’s exodus story from Ukraine. When Germany invaded Ukraine, families had to...
by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: GUILT There was an occasion when my father was lying in a hospital bed recovering from a heart attack and he confessed he had felt guilty his entire life about being the only one in his family to have escaped the Soviet Union after the Second...
by Luba Lesychyn | Mar 12, 2022 | Uncategorized
Diasporic Postcards: GENESIS When Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, as someone with Ukrainian ancestry living abroad, not only was I gripped by an immediate sense of despair and grief at this act of aggression and monumental and horrific violence, but my...
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