EDMONTON, Canada — It is not typical for Lubomyr Luciuk to be at a loss for words. After all, communication is his strong point: he is a professor of political geography in the department of political science and economics at the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. But when Luciuk, 66, learned he had been awarded a state award of Ukraine, he was dumbfounded.
“The news came by email and it was a surprise, and to this day I don’t know how it came to be that I was awarded,” Luciuk said in a phone interview with the Kyiv Post, adding that he doesn’t have the “slightest idea” who nominated him. Kyiv Post readers may also recognize Luciuk as an academic who has been contributing articles and op-eds to the newspaper since 2008.
Luciuk is the ninth Canadian recipient of the Cross of Ivan Mazepa since it was first awarded in 2009. The presidential award is given to citizens or non-citizens of Ukraine for their significant contributions to the revival of Ukrainian national interests in cultural, artistic and spiritual areas, as well as the areas of architectural, military or historical heritage.
“It is a high honour. I was very pleasantly surprised and grateful to be recognized,” Luciuk said.
He has been an active member of the Ukrainian diaspora for decades but never sought any recognition from Ukraine. In 2010, Luciuk was one of 16 recipients of the Shevchenko Medal of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in recognition of his educational, research and advocacy efforts on behalf of the Ukrainian Canadian community. But the Ivan Mazepa Cross comes as the first recognition of Luciuk’s advocacy and accomplishments by his ancestral homeland.
“This (award) speaks to the emergence of the new Ukraine. In 1991, and even for many years after that, the Ukrainian state was barely aware of the Ukrainian diaspora. Now the situation has changed. Ukraine has developed a much more sophisticated understanding of the diaspora and of how to better co-operate with those of us abroad, to further the cause of Ukraine’s independence even as the country reclaims its rightful place in Europe.”
Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukrainian ambassador to Canada, honoured Luciuk in Kingston on Dec. 6, 2019, on the birthdate of Lubomyr’s late father. “For me this was very emotional and symbolic,” Luciuk said. “Both of my parents found asylum in Canada as political refugees after the Second World War, raising me to be a good Canadian but also someone aware of who they were, where they had come from and what they fought for. I was raised to continue with their just cause. While I may have been the person being honored, I felt Ukraine also paid tribute to their sacrifices by presenting their son with this medal.”
Luciuk has devoted his academic life to globally promoting the Ukrainian cause, raising awareness about the country’s fight for freedom and independence through many books, newspaper commentaries, and public appearances.
He organized dozens of projects across Canada and overseas focused on the political geography of Ukraine in the 20th and 21st centuries. Luciuk has been behind such projects as securing funding in 2017 for a memorial walk at Loos-en-Gohelle, France, remembering Cpl. Filip Konowal, a Ukrainian Canadian soldier of the First World War whose valour at the Battle of Hill 70 earned him the Victoria Cross.
The 2019 award recipient also oversaw the unveiling of the world’s first English, Ukrainian, Hebrew and Yiddish plaque in New York City, in September 2018, honouring Raphael Lemkin, the “father of the UN Genocide Convention,” whose 1953 speech in New York City described the famine of 1932-33 as a Soviet genocide against Ukraine.
With his colleagues in the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Luciuk spearheaded the campaign to secure official acknowledgment and symbolic redress for Canada’s first national internment operations of 1914 to 1920, leading to the creation of the $10 million Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund, supporting dozens of educational, cultural and commemorative projects across Canada. Now UCCLA is working on unveiling a commemorative stained-glass window to recall the Canadian Ukrainians who served overseas in the ranks of the Canadian military in the Second World War and then helped to save Ukrainian refugees and victims of the war from the Soviets.
“Part of my life’s work has been to make sure that books about Ukraine are available, reminding and educating others about the Holodomor and the Ukrainian nation’s struggle against Soviet and Nazi tyranny,” Luciuk said. He ended by saying: “I know how those who have opposed Ukraine’s independence have used the term “Mazepist” in a derogatory manner. To them I say: I am proud to be called a Mazepist.”
