Everyone knows that the term “genocide” is the authorship of the outstanding lawyer Rafal Lemkin, who was born in Lviv, but it is also worth remembering that another important term is connected with Ukraine and the Ukrainian author – Captive Nations. After all, for a long time, Ukraine was also among the countries enslaved by the Russian communist regime. Presently, it is the Week of Captive Nations.
We owe the tradition of honoring Captive Nations Week to Lev Dobryanskyi, an outstanding American politician and diplomat of Ukrainian origin, the long-time president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (1949-1954; 1962-1983).
Exactly 65 years ago, on 17 July 1959, at the height of the Cold War, US President D. Eisenhower (R) signed a presidential proclamation celebrating Captive Nations Week and the corresponding joint resolution of the US Senate and House of Representatives. It was L. Dobryanskyi who authored the text of the draft resolution of the Congress.
Captive Nations Week is celebrated in the USA every year in the third week of July as a set of mass events aimed at drawing public attention to the problem of nations and countries enslaved by dictatorial regimes.
Oksana Markarova, Ambassador of Ukraine to the USA
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