Ukrainian Americans

The First Wave: Before World War I

In the 19th century, Ukrainians were a stateless people ruled by the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. Their homeland was one of the least developed agricultural regions of Europe. To escape severe land shortages, overpopulation, and poverty, Ukrainians began a massive emigration. Ukrainians who lived in the Russian empire immigrated to the Asian regions of the empire, while their counterparts in the Austro-Hungarian empire immigrated to the New World.

The first wave of Ukrainian immigration to the United States began in the late 1870s. The earliest Ukrainian immigrants were brought in by agents of a Pennsylvania coal mine to work as strikebreakers. The coal mines of central Pennsylvania remained a primary destination for later Ukrainian immigrants. However, some immigrants found work as laborers in factories and foundries in the industrializing towns and cities of the Northeast and Midwest.

The majority of the Ukrainian immigrants who came to the United States prior to 1914 had in the past been peasant farmers, unskilled laborers, or servants. They migrated in order to seek better lives. Many intended to return to their homeland after they had earned enough money to purchase land. Although they retained close ties to their place of origin, most tended not to be nationally conscious. They identified themselves not as Ukrainians, but as Rusyns (Ruthenians in English), the customary designation used in the Austrian empire. Many of these immigrants also continued to refer to themselves using regional identities (e.g., Hutsuls, Lemkos, or Boykos).

For these immigrants, community life revolved around the church. Indeed, priests were very nearly the only community leaders of this era who were educated. Immigrants of this first wave generally belonged in their homeland to the Uniate Church. A small minority was Greek Orthodox. Upon their arrival in the United States, most Uniates at first attended Roman Catholic churches, and most Orthodox attended Russian Orthodox churches. Soon, Uniates began to campaign for their own Greek Catholic churches. The first Greek Catholic congregation was established in 1884, in the mining community of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Others followed. By 1916, there were nearly 260 Greek Catholic priests and many parishes. The Vatican agreed to allow Ukrainians to establish a separate Greek Catholic diocese, based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, called the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church.

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