Toronto Ukrainian People’s Home Narodnyi Dim in the 1920s and 1930s

By Olena Wawryshyn

A recent lecture about the history and role of the Ukrainian People’s Home, or Narodnyi Dim in Toronto, stirred up nostalgia for bygone days when vibrant community gathering places were much more common than they are today.  Toronto’s Narodnyi Dim, which today has no equivalent in Ontario and perhaps in Canada in terms of the scope and impact of its activities, was for Ukrainians, at one time, a place of belonging– and much more.
“In the 1920s and early 1930s, the Ukrainian People’s Home at 191 Lippincott Street in Toronto could readily be described as the most dynamic institution in the city’s mainstream Ukrainian community,” said Ukrainian-Canadian history scholar Andrij Makuch at this year’s Professor Ed Burstynsky Memorial Lecture, which took place at Toronto’s St. Vladimir Institute on February 22. 
Narodnyi Dim had as its mandate to advocate for the cause of Ukrainian independence and to foster a healthy Ukrainian national consciousness in Canada, to help establish greater respect for Ukrainians in Canada and to struggle against Bolshevism.  “It was a key institution for organizing Ukrainians in Central Canada,” said Makuch.  
Makuch, research coordinator with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies’ Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre, delivered his presentation as part of the Burstynsky Memorial Lecture Series, named after the late University of Toronto linguistics professor.  The second speaker was Maegon Young, soon to be a graduate student at Trent University, who is working with Makuch on an oral history project that is capturing memories of Toronto’s Ukrainian community from the Interwar Period. Trent University history professor Olga Andriewsky, Young’s thesis supervisor who is leading the oral history project was the moderator.
The lecture title “Pride, Patriotism, Enlightenment and Entertainment,” provided a broad thematic structure for the lecture. Makuch began with an historical overview tracing Narodnyi Dim’s origins to organizations dating back to 1910, which evolved into the Taras Shevchenko Enlightenment and Reading Society.  With expansion of the Society’s activities, community leaders Theodore Humeniuk, the first Ukrainian-Canadian lawyer in Toronto, and Marian Kunikewitch began raising funds for a building.
The nature of the official opening ceremony of the Nardonyi Dim in December 1928, underscored that “this was a substantial institution with a fair amount of support and clout,” said Makuch.   Two banquets with 250 to 300 people in attendance at each took place.  Representatives from Ukrainian-Canadian communities in Central Canada were present at the festivities as was Manitoba MLA Nicolas Bachynksky.  In addition, Toronto’s Deputy Mayor attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, author Florence Randall Livesay recited several of her English translations at the concert and The Evening Telegram Editor Charles H.J. Snider spoke at the event, commenting that “who is not a good Ukrainian patriot cannot be a good Canadian.” Notably, the concert programme started with the singing of “God Save the King” in Ukrainian and the Ukrainian National Anthem at the time, “Ne Pora.” 
Participation in the broader Canadian sphere was a key focus of the institution. Narodnyi Dim’s theatre groups and choirs regularly performed at events, such as the annual Canadian National Exhibition, where members also exhibited Ukrainian handicrafts. Such involvement helped to bolster the community’s pride and to establish greater respect for Ukrainians in Canada, as did their anti-communist activism.
Makuch noted various examples of political activism. For example, members delivered a memorandum of protest regarding the treatment of Ukrainians in Bukovyna to Queen Marie of Romania when she visited Toronto in 1926, and in 1934, lobbied to prevent the public appearance in Toronto by Shalom Schwartzbard, the assassin of Symon Petlura, the exiled President of the Ukrainian National Republic.
Narodnyi Dim helped to educate the community by holding events to mark important dates in Ukrainian history and invited notable figures, such as Canadian MP Michael Luchkovich and Interwar Polish Senator Olena Kysilevska to lecture on Ukraine and broader current affairs.
Makuch also spoke about Narodnyi Dim’s role as a centre for culture and entertainment. Its mixed choir, which Makuch called the “group’s soul,” had a busy performance schedule. By the 1950s, the choir had performed 24 times at the CNE, in 67 operettas, 221 concerts at Narodnyi Dim, 82 times before non-Ukrainian audiences, 38 times at other venues and 17 times for radio.
Theatrical productions, said Makuch, were “the heart of the Home’s cultural activities and … provided a practical way to engage a large number of people in the Home’s activities and to raise monies to cover the building’s debt and operating costs.” Productions regularly saw audiences of 400 to 600 people in the late 1920s and 1930s, noted Makuch, and actors practised up to four times per week.
In his lecture, Makuch also touched on the relationship between other Toronto-based Ukrainian-Canadian organizations and discussed tensions in Toronto between the Ukrainian “patriots” and “Communists” during the Interwar Period.
He concluded by noting that its urban environment accounted for Narodnyi Dim’s large membership, compared with rural Prairie community halls, as many members lived within walking distance. Its setting also influenced its cultural programming and facilitated its connections with the Anglo-Canadian community as various events and other points of intersection “were part-and-parcel of big-city life.”
After Makuch’s presentation, Maegon Young spoke about the oral history project, explaining that she and Prof. Olga Andriewsky have been interviewing Ukrainians in Toronto to develop a picture of Ukrainian life in Toronto from the 1920s to 1950s, as well as a detailed view of  Ukrainian activities in Toronto, in general.  Interviewees are being asked questions relating to “the development of the community, the conflicts which may have caused problems and the arrival of new immigrants and their impact,” said Young.
Many of those already interviewed described the significant role Narodnyi Dim played in their lives, said Young.  One commented that it was a place where those from out-of-town could go and feel welcome upon arriving in Toronto; another noted that many marriages developed out of activities at the “Dim”, including her parents’ and her own.
Young concluded by stating that from her interviews thus far, “it is clear that the goal of the Narodnyi Dim was a success. Its existence allowed the Ukrainians to have a place to be themselves and lean on one another as they learned to live in a new city and country.”