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10 Facts About John Kolasky

1.

John Kolasky was a Canadian-Ukrainian historian and activist.

2.

John Kolasky Koliaska was born on October 5,1915, in the town of Cobalt, Ontario to a Ukrainian Canadian family from Bukovina.

3.

John Kolasky's parents were both members of the Ukrainian Labour Farmer Temple Association, and he grew up on a farm near the city of Timmins, where his surname was Polonised to Kolasky.

4.

In 1944 John Kolasky began studying at the University of Saskatchewan as a historian, graduating in 1948.

5.

John Kolasky graduated from the University of Toronto in 1950.

6.

In Ukraine John Kolasky experienced firsthand the Russification of Ukraine occurring under the Soviet government.

7.

John Kolasky began disseminating samizdat regarding Russification, and was arrested in 1965 before being deported back to Canada.

8.

John Kolasky continued to publish literature about the Russification of Ukraine, including a translation of Valentyn Moroz's Report from the Beria Reserve in 1974.

9.

John Kolasky was a supporter of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and, later, the Ukrainian Republican Party.

10.

John Kolasky died in the village of Khotiv or in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on October 20,1997.