UKRAINIANS IN URUGUAY: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW

According to estimates, some five thousand to ten thousand Ukrainians immigrated to Uruguay. The vast majority of the immigrants settled in the republic in the 1920s and 1930s. Few came before World War I and after World War II. The capital city of Montevideo was the chief centre of Ukrainian settlement with smaller numbers of Ukrainians residing in other parts of the country.This article provides details about the occupations of the immigrants and the organizations that they founded. The study also traces the evolution of the organizations and discusses the period of decline in Ukrainian community activity. Among the organizations discussed are the Taras Shevchenko Workers’ Society (Ukrainske Robitnyche Tovarystvo im. Tarasa Shevchenka); the Ivan Franko Ukrainian Cultural-Educational Society (Ukrainske Kulturno-Osvitne Tovarystva im. Ivana Franka), and the Volia (Freedom) Workers’ Society (Robitnyche Tovarystvo Volia), which merged to found the pro-Soviet Ukrainian Cultural Centre (Ukrainskyi Kulturnyi Tsentr). During the 1940s, the latter evolved into the Maxim Gorky Cultural Centre (Centro Cultural Máximo Gorki). The article also discusses the Prosvita Society, founded in Montevideo in 1934, and other developments in the organizational and religious life of Ukrainians after World War II.The study draws on a variety of sources. These include the Ukrainian-language periodical Ukrains’ke slovo published by the Prosvita Society in Argentina and to which members of the Ukrainian community in Uruguay subscribed. Another set of sources pertain to publications that carried reports about the pro-Soviet segment of the Ukrainian community and which were published in Uruguay, Argentina, and elsewhere. The Ukrainian-language periodical Svoboda of Jersey City, USA, was also used for this study along with yearbooks published by Svoboda Press. Other materials consulted include sources in Spanish, English, and Russian.