Ukrainians in Canada: The Interwar Years

Between 1925 and 1939 a second wave of Ukrainian immigration brought within its ranks many civically active and politicized newcomers to Canada. Their impact on the major Ukrainian religious institutions and secular mass organizations were particularly strong. Many of them followed political developments and religious controversies in their dismembered homeland and hosted emissaries of overseas political movements and regimes. One of the most active groups—the Ukrainian war veterans, who had participated in the struggle for Ukrainian independence (1917–21)—promoted an assertive brand of nationalism and expressed admiration for authoritarian regimes in Europe. The author considers the impact of the second wave of Ukrainian immigrants on the churches, on the emergence of new secular mass organizations, and on the response of pre-war immigrants to the challenge presented by the newcomers.