Ukrainian Rochester collection

Collection

Identifier: D.381

Staff Only

Biographical / Historical note

The Ukrainian Rochester Collection is the largest collection of primary and secondary source material in New York State documenting the Ukrainian-American Community in Rochester and Monroe County, New York. The collection was compiled by Wolodymyr (Mirko) Pylyshenko (see biographical note) and is comprised of approximately 25 cubic feet of materials, including records and minutes from a variety of Rochester-area Ukrainian churches, clubs, schools, and veterans and fraternal organizations; books and magazines published by Rochester-area Ukrainians; family histories, personal memoirs, photographs, fliers and event programs: photographs and ephemera. The Ukrainian-American Community of Greater Rochester consists of approximately 15,000 to 20,000 residents. They came from Ukraine to America in search of economic, political, religious, and social freedom. Their immigration history is especially complex because Ukraine was at various times occupied by Austria, Russia, Hungary, Romania, and Poland; and as the new immigrants arrived in the United States they were consequently registered as Austrians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians, and Poles.

The majority of Ukrainians came in four waves:

1900-1914: Before WWI, mainly from Austro-Hungarian Empire
1918-1939: Before WWII, mainly from Poland (Western Ukraine)
1947-1965: Displaced Persons from the whole of Ukraine
1987-2005: Pentecostals and Baptists from the whole of Ukraine and USSR

Although each wave of Ukrainian immigrants came to the United States for different reasons and sometimes had different goals, they shared traditions, culture, language and a sense of community and common values. At different times, the Ukrainian -American community in Rochester organized its activities in different ways: for example in the 1950's there were seven Ukrainian clubs and one Ukrainian church; in 2006 there are seven Ukrainian churches and only one Ukrainian club. More than 50 organizations have served the Rochester Ukrainian-American community; these groups have included political, religious, business, professional, sports, women's, youth, educational, veterans', reading, and dance clubs and organizations. As individuals and through their organizations, Ukrainian Americans have made major contributions to the culture, social life, and business activities of the Greater Rochester community. The Ukrainian Rochester Collection is an attempt to gather, organize, and annotate the surviving records of the community in an archive that will preserve the history of the first 100 years of Ukrainian-American life in Rochester and make its activities understandable to future generations.

Subjects

Geographic

Topical

Ukrainians

Additional Description

Related Archival Materials

Wolodymyr (Mirko) Pylyshenko was born in Ukraine in 1934 to Wasyl Pylyshenko and Halyna Lopuchowycz Pylyshenko. During World War II his family lived in Poland, Czechoslovakia, and then in Displaced Persons Camps in Germany after 1945. In 1950, at the age of 15, Pylyshenko and his parents immigrated to the United States, joining the Ukrainian-American community in Rochester, New York, which had existed since 1900. Both of his parents were heavily involved in the Ukrainian community, church life, and politics. Pylyshenko studied fine arts at Rochester Institute of Technology, where he received a Bachelor's of Fine Arts in 1958 and Master's of Fine Arts in 1964. He subsequently taught art at Rochester Institute of Technology, the University of Rochester, Irondequoit's Ridgewood Junior High School, and the Memorial Art Gallery before joining the faculty at the State University of New York, College at Brockport, where he taught art for 36 years and served as Chairman of the Department of Art and Art History for 10 years. While at SUNY Brockport, Pylyshenko also offered courses in Ukrainian culture and history, and presented special lectures on Ukraine in political science and history courses. In 1979, he was an Exchange International Scholar at Moscow State University, and he taught at Kyiv Mohyla Academy University in 1996. President Jimmy Carter appointed Pylyshenko as an advisor to the Human Rights Committee in 1980. From his youth, Pylyshenko was extremely active in more than 25 religious, political, social, educational, and professional organizations in the Ukrainian-American community. This included membership in the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, the T. Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian American Association of University Professors, and service on the Board of Directors of the Ukrainian Museum in New York City and as Chair of the Rochester Fund for Harvard University's endowed chairs of Ukrainian Studies. He also was a Charter Member of the Western Monroe Historical Society, a Trustee of the Irondequoit Public Library, and the Director of the Ukrainian Credit Union Library. For over 40 years, Pylyshenko and his family have hosted scores of Ukrainian artists, poets, academics, and political figures during their visits to the United States. In that period he also made more than 35 trips to Ukraine and visited Ukrainian minorities in Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia, and Germany. Orysia Pylyshenko and Katya Kolcio are the daughters of Mirko and Irma Pylyshenko. Sources of Additional Information For additional background information on the Rochester Ukrainian Community, researchers may wish to review the following published histories and magazine, which are included in the collection:

Bratush. James D. Historical Documentary of the Ukrainian Community of Rochester, New York. Rochester, N.Y., 1973. 581 pp. Illus. (English)
Hawrylak, Walter. Free Cossacks: Anniversary Jubilee Book of the Ukrainian Civic Center. Toronto, 1970. 352 pp. Illus. (Ukrainian with an English summary)
The Ukrainian Federal Credit Union magazine also has documented the major activities of the Ukrainian-American community since 1955.