The Michael Ewanchuk fonds

Michael Ewanchuk in 1941, Bachelor of Education,
University of Manitoba

(The Michael Ewanchuk fonds MSS 75, PC 96 - U of M Archives & Special Collections)

Born in 1908 in Gimli, Manitoba, Michael Ewanchuk was the son of pioneer settlers. Upon graduating from Gimli High School, he worked at Ford's in Detroit, and attended the Detroit Institute of Technology and Detroit City College (now Wayne State University). He received his B.A., B.Ed., and M.Ed. degrees from the University of Manitoba. He later received two honorary Doctoral degrees from the University of Manitoba (St. John's College), and the University of Winnipeg. Upon completion of his service with the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1946, he was appointed Inspector of Schools. Ewanchuk served on various curriculum committees and was chairman of a committee that organized the introduction of Ukrainian instruction in the high schools of Manitoba. He was elected president of the Canadian Association of School Superintendents and Inspectors and for several years was member of the Educational Showplace Committee in Toronto. Interested in oral history, Ewanchuk conducted a series of interviews in the 1930's with Ukrainian seniors and began writing oral histories. In the 1970s and 1980s , he continued to conduct futher interviews with Ukrainian Canadian pioneers.  Those chosen by Dr. Ewanchuk to be interviewed included: both women and men; people of different strata of society; and individuals who settled or lived in various regions of Manitoba (for example, the Ethelbert – Dauphin Region, the Interlake; and the Vita area).

Dr. Ewanchuk began to donate portions of his archives to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections in the 1990s, and continued to do so, up until his passing in 2004. The fonds is organized in several accessions, and includes textual reocrds (including correspondence, drafts of his many publications on Ukrainian pioneer life in Manitoba, etc.); audio recordings of the pioneer interviews conducted in the  1970s, and 1980s; and a large photograph collection (containing family, community and historical photographs).  The Michael Ewanchuk fonds is available to view in the U of M Archives & Special Collections, 330 Elizabeth Dafoe Library ( MSS 75, A.90-32, A.94-03, A.99-72, A.02-19, A.02-33, A.04-129, A.06-55, PC 96, TC 105). In addition, a portion of the Ewanchuk photographs were digitized, and are available on the Archives' Prairie Immigration Experience's website.

Izvestiia Digital Archives

Front page of the December 25, 2012 issue of Izvestiia

The University of Manitoba Libraries (UML) has purchased the digital archives database of Izvestiia, the Kremlin’s official newspaper. The paper is available online, from 1917 to 2010, and contains both full-image and text scans of the original newspaper. In addition, the UML, has purchased an online subscription to the newspaper, for the subsequent years, beginning with 2011. The Izvestiia Digital Archive chronicles  Soviet society from revolutionary times to the U.S.S.R.'s break, -- and to the present day Post-Soviet Russia.


East View Information Services' Izvestiia Digital Archives contains over 25,000 continuous issues. With approximately 300,000 photographs and other graphics, and nearly 1,000,000 articles. The Izvestiia Database may be accessed through, the U of M online catalogue, by doing a "journal title" search using the term 'Izvestiia', or through the online Database A-Z link, under the letter "I". Free access is available to current faculty, students, and staff of the University of Manitoba.

The Slavic Collection moves to the 3rd Floor

The floor plan of the third floor of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library,

 showing the new location of the Slavic Collection.

The Slavic Collection has been relocated from the second floor of the Elizabeth Dafoe Library, to the third floor. The move took place over this past summer and early fall.  The collection's new location, is opposite the bound periodical collection, and near the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections, and the Iceland Reading Room (and the Icelandic Collection). 

The Slavic Collection is a separate language collection of over 60,000 volumes of books, periodicals, newspapers and microforms. It was created in 1949 to support the then newly formed Department of Slavic Studies. Originally housed in the Tier building within the Department of Slavic Studies,  -- it was transferred in 1953 to the recently built Elizabeth Dafoe Library (the largest of the Fort Garry Campus's libraries, catering to the Humanities and Social Sciences; Education; Human Ecology; Nursing; Kinesiology and Recreation Management; and Social Work). The Collection, one of the best in Canada, contains material on a wide range of subjects, mainly in humanities and social sciences. Most material is in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish, although all fourteen languages are represented. The Slavic Collection supports courses and research in the Department of German & Slavic Studies, the Centre for Ukrainian Canadian Studies, Central and East European Studies, and other departments. In addition, the Collection complements the Archives of the Ukrainian Canadian Experience, which is housed in the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections. Materials are also used by multilingual members of the university community and general public.

For more information about the collection, please contact me by phone (204-474-9681) or by e-mail (James.Kominowski@ad.umanitoba.ca).

Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (NLO)

 

Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, issue 115 (2012)

Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie (NLO) [ New Literary Review], is a core journal of theory and history of literature, criticism and bibliography. It is published bi-monthly, and contains articles, reviews, interviews, and essays about Soviet and post-Soviet literary life. One will find discussions by Western and Russian theoreticians, on current and historical trends in Russian literature.

The most recent issues of NLO are displayed on the Slavic Collection’s Current Periodical Shelf, while the older issues are available in the Slavic Collection's main stacks, under the call # Slav PG 2900 N675. In addition, NLO is available electronically to faculty, students, and staff of the University of Manitoba.

The Leo Mol Fonds

Leo Mol receiving the Order of Canada from Governor General

Mme. Jeanne Sauvé, at Rideau Hall, Ottawa, 1989  (Leo Mol fonds, Mss 349, PC 308)

In the winter of 2011 the late  Dr. Margareth Mol , the widow of the internationally renowned artist and sculptor, Dr. Leo Mol, donated his archives to the University of Manitoba, Archives & Special Collections.  The collection consists  mainly of textual records, photographs and some artifacts . Included in the Leo Mol fonds, is a comprehensive collection of exhibition brochures  that chronicles Mol’s long and illustrious career.  There is a rich array of correspondence  between Mol and many well-known individuals, including: Cardinal   Joseph Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI); Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker; and U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower.  In addition, the collection contains the many awards, accolades and medals Mol received over the years, both nationally and internationally. The Leo Mol Fonds consists of  3.65 m of textual records,  over 2,500 photographs and over 3,000 slides.

Leo Mol, was born Leonid Molodozhanyn,  in Polonne, Ukraine (Khmelnyts’ka oblast’). He studied sculpture at the Leningrad Academy of Arts. In 1945 he fled to Germany from the advancing Soviet army, and moved to The Hague.  In 1948, along with his wife, he emigrated to Canada, and settled in Winnipeg.  Mol started off as a ceramic  artist and then as a church painter, which included creating over 80 stained glass windows, including  those in Winnipeg’s main Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha. He is best known for his sculptures, many of which are displayed at the Leo Mol Sculpure Garden at  Winnipeg’s Assiniboine Park. He is one of the very few sculptors to have been commissioned to create a statue of Ukraine’s national bard, Taras Shevchenko, for four separate cities: Washington D.C., Buenos Aires, St. Petersburg and Ottawa.

The Leo Mol Fonds, Mss 349,

PC 308 (A.11-15)

CZAS Polish Press Ltd. Newspaper Collection

 

Czas - Związkowiec, issue no 19 (2012)

Czas (the Times), is the oldest Polish language newspaper weekly in Canada. It was established in Winnipeg in 1914, -- and first published by a local Canadian firm owned and operated by the famous local Czech immigrant, Franciszek Dojacek. From its beginnings, Czas ensured that its Polish roots and content remained intact, as it was closely connected with members of the Polish Gymnastic Association Sokol.  It was through Sokol’s perseverance and guidance that facilitated the creation of the newspaper.   For nearly a century it has remained an invaluable resource of information to the Polish community in Canada – informing new immigrants of local andinternational events, and assisting them with the new challenges and adjustments they face in their new country.  Through the years Czas has http://libguides.lib.umanitoba.ca/slavicstudiesprovided a nonpartisan link between Polish-Canadians, and Polish communities beyond Canada’s borders -- allowing for the free dissemination of information about their ancestral home.

In the Fall of 2003 the executive board of Czas – Polish Press Ltd., agreed to find a permanent home for their collection of bound newspaper issues covering the period of 1915-2003. The Board approached the U of M Archives & Special Collections to house this unique and historical collection of Polish-Canadiana.  On January 2004 the executive board of Czas officially transferred the Czas newspaper collection from Czas – Polish Press Ltd., to the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections.  This special collection is now available to faculty, students, researchers and the public at the University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collection, 331 Elizabeth Dafoe Library. Current issues of Czas are available for the public to view in the Slavic Collections’ newspaper area.