Wasyl Didiuk


Wasyl Didiuk or Vasyl Didiuk was a Ukrainian public and political figure, journalist, writer, humorist, satirist, and editor.

Biography

Vasyl Didiuk was born on 8 February 1915 in the village of Kryvoluka, now the Bilobozhnytsia Hromada in the Chortkiv Raion of the Ternopil Oblast of Ukraine.
He studied at the Chortkiv Gymnasium and the Buchach Teachers' Seminary; he studied theology in Stanyslaviv, graduated from the Higher School of Political Science, Ukrainian Economic and Technical Institute in Poděbrady.
He sang and conducted with the Choir. He was active in organizing and directing church and secular choirs. During the German occupation, he was imprisoned in Chortkiv prison for 14 months, from which he escaped. Then he worked in the department of propaganda and political education of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, was the editor of the newspaper Upivski Visti and others.
Before the end of World War II, he moved to Germany to the city of Goslar, which was then in the British occupation zone, on behalf of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. He worked as a deputy chairman and cultural and educational advisor to the Ukrainian Red Cross. He also founded the "Ridna Shkola" society, Ukrainian studies courses, and a gymnasium where he taught. At the same time, he conducted choirs and prepared amateur performances. He was the editor of the Taborovyi biuleten, the newspapers Taborove zhyttia, and . District liaison of the League of Ukrainian Political Prisoners in Germany.
In 1948, he emigrated to Canada, where he organized and taught in schools in Canadian cities. In 1985–1991, he worked as director of the Ridna School Society and Ukrainian Studies courses in Etobicoke. He was a school inspector with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Regional organizer of the Ukrainian Youth Association, secretary of the UPA Society. Chairman of the Ukrainian Journalists' Union of Canada, member of the Presidium, and press officer of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. Chair of the Toronto chapter of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, Secretary General of the Ukrainian Catholic Brotherhood of Canada, member of the Presidium of the World Congress of Free Ukrainians, Chief Advisor to the Government of the Ukrainian People's Union, the Union of Ukrainian Youth, the League of Ukrainian Political Prisoners, Chair of the Toronto Association of Ukrainian Educators, Secretary of the Association of Ukrainian Cultural Figures, Secretary General of the Ukrainian Liberation League, Secretary General of the World Ukrainian Liberation Front, President of the World Federation of Ukrainian Journalists.
From 1991 he came to Ukraine, in particular to Ternopil Oblast.
He died on 15 September 2003 in Toronto. Together with his wife, Lina Vavryk, he was buried at St. Volodymyr Ukrainian Cemetery in Oakville, Canada.

Works

He is the author of more than 1000 articles, poems, essays, short stories, reviews, and reports in the press, calendars, and almanacs.
Books:
  • "" ;
  • "" ;
  • "На народній ниві" ;
  • "Смійтеся на здоров'я" ;
  • "Подорож по рідному краю" ;
  • "ОУН-УПА в боротьбі за незалежність України".
Editor of the Ukrainskyi Zhurnalist and a number of books. In 1963, he founded the Ovyd Publishing House, where he published brochures for Ukrainian studies courses and the economic and business monthly "Problemy". He was a co-editor of the newspaper "Homin Ukrainy", and from 1965 he contributed to the American newspaper "Svoboda".
The State Archives of the Ternopil Oblast created the Wasyl Didiuk Fund, to which he donated more than 2,000 books and periodicals from his own library.

Awards