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This item contains an interview in German with an interviewee who wishes to remain anonymous.
Her father came from a rich family. In Russia rich people were prosecuted and displaced to the East Siberia to starve at the time of Bolshevism. The interviewee and her family moved to the next bigger city so her father was not displaced but he was unemployed for a long time. Interviewee went to a German school and was always afraid that her father might get arrested, because many people got arrested in this time. Thus they decided to move to Omsk / Siberia, where it was very cold. Her father could not find a job so they moved to Slavgorod a place where many Germans lived. She and her siblings were able to go to the German school again.
The family had a hard living and her father still was unemployed, then he got ill and died in the spring. After that her mother sold all personal belongings from her father (tools, violin) and the family got back to Ukraine. Her mother had to work and the interviewee lived with her aunt. When Hitler took power in Germany, Germans abroad were prosecuted and displaced again. One night her uncle got arrested and they never heard from him again. She lived in fear that her mother might get arrested too. After the WW2 they were living in West Germany until her uncle helped them to move to Canada. She is talking about deportations during the war. Her brother came to a concentration camp in Russia after the war and was arrested there for 10 years. When Stalin died he was set free. In the next ten years her brother has been taken for interrogation over and over again. He was living in a constant fear that he might get imprisoned again. The interviewee is saying that the church had no power in Communism. Later in Canada the interviewee was able to go to the Catholic church again.

She talks about arriving to Canada. Says that Canadians let her feel that Germany was the country who started the WW2. Talks about her husband (Canadian) who was injured in the war. She says her children are the real Canadians, she loves Canada as well and does not want to return.

This item contains an interview conducted with Mr. and Mrs. Sommer. Mrs. and Mr. Sommer are talking about the farm life and their lack of money until the end of the 1930s. They bought their farm taking out a loan with the help of his brother and it paid back step by step. It was a difficult time for them. Their children learned English quickly at school, but Mrs. Sommer mentions that she did
not have any lessons, and could only learn English by herself which took some time. Children went to a German school. Later the children and grandchildren were able to speak English better than German. Mr. and Mrs. Sommer say that they did not had any problems during their journey to Canada because of being Germans.
Mr. and Mrs. Sommer talk about going to church (Lutheran Church, later Protestant). Sermon was preached by a teacher because the German pastor came only once in six weeks.
They came to Edmonton in 1957. Mrs Sommer compares life in Russia with their life in Canada and says that they needed about five years to feel at home in Canada. Later they learned to enjoy their freedom and didn’t want to get back again. They became
Canadian after a few years living in Canada.
Mrs. Sommer talks about speaking German and learning English language. German remained her main language. Mrs. Sommer says that she still cooks the way she learned it in Russia (sauerkraut and borscht).
Mr. Sommer has one sister living in Germany and they have many grandchildren living in Canada.

This item contains an interview with a group of interviewees. It is poor sound quality. They discuss Government support to cultural ethnic organizations (?), University of Alberta relation with the community, Multicultural Centre vs Conventional Centre debate(?). The group is discussing the budget and approaching the Government about funds regarding heritage projects(?).

[Ukrainian voice starts from 11:26, sounds of a Jackhammer in the background ]
Various professions the man had to come through
Came to work on a farm. Since 1942 was looking for a job in cities

This item contains a recording from a CEESSA Meeting on March 6, 1976.
Conference meeting (working group)
Opening comments: Central and East European Studies and Research including Cultural Heritage in Edmonton
127 pages
Committee that looks after the University interests in studies related to this topic
Small budget and space but University research is funded from outside the University; University focuses on its relevance to the community of Edmonton. Looking for ways of working with the community. Ukrainian community was successful for getting budget for Ukrainian studies. CEESSA would like to provide leadership.
A need to go out and meet the community people.
Project for historians and high school teachers to write the history of people from Eastern Europe (for the book for schools). Oral history recorded interviews. The project should proceed; advertising it via radio.
Students writing Master’s and PhD thesis on this topic and getting scholarships for that purpose. Getting ethnic groups active.
Not competing with ethnic organizations but making the University useful for the community.
East European Studies achieved a purpose of getting known – they are listed in the directory for the community to find them.
Researching with Dr. Gulutsan in 1966 on cultural orientation of Ukrainians in Alberta/Canada – it was published.
Ukrainian Studies Institute – why is it separated from CEESSA? It would be a part of activities of CEESSA. Mission of the Ukrainian Studies Institute – to compliment the work on CEESSA, not to compete. It focuses on the national level. Hungarian Institute in Toronto.
No established library for CEESSA (Dr. Suchowersky). No demand on books in Hungarian. No budget for buying books. A need for financial aid from the group. Problems with donated books of sets that are incomplete.
The questions of books acquisition depends on whether UofA is going to be committed to CEESSA.
Present: Bill [Shukanovich] – Alberta Heritage Council; Ausma Birzgalis – Latvian community; Tom Priestly – Chair of Slavic Languages; Steven [Yurachek] - President of the Ukrainian Self-Reliance League of Canada; Peter Chartoryski; [Maren Kustro] – representing Baltic Germans; [Mongovsky] – representing Canadian-Polish Council(?); Joanna Matejko
Coming up with the agenda. CEESSA comes to the jurisdiction of the UofA’s Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, Special Council. Building a bridge between the University and the community.
CKUA radio plans to broadcast a series of interviews with early pioneers (in English): trying to get 1 person from each country + DPs.
Matejko, Sokolovsky and [??] went to Calgary to investigate the [?] Foundation Archives + to talk to people from the University of Calgary about the project. They have 2 people who work on the journal Ethnic Studies (Dr. Palmer & Dr. [Malytskyi]). University of South California conducting a research project on various ethnic groups, and asked for the bibliography for Alberta province.
An exceptional Ukrainian old gentleman as a candidate for the CKUA radio interview.
Oral history archives should collect interviews in ethnic languages.
Agenda items (not programs ideas): 1) mechanisms for the liaison between UofA and community; 2) proposal for the Research and Studies Foundation to have access to funds to the university people who work on the project; 3) planning and development committee.
A feedback to the UofA is needed. A newsletter idea within the UofA and community for those interested in CEESSA activities. Journal would be better than a newsletter but it needs higher funding.
Proposal: 1) to have a skeleton of a financial committee for the foundation; 2) for the government funding, a financial committee is needed – anyone volunteer? Ethnic groups should also make contributions. Do not go to the communities with the word “Soviet” – no money and no interest in that research. Canadian content in research.
Alberta Heritage Council has a legal status - it should be contacted.
Deciding on the name of the committee that would include “Central and East European Studies” – Central and East European Ways and Means Committee.
How to get people and organizations interested in this committee? Honorary membership should be introduced/considered.
Central and East European Studies Foundation Association – a proposed name. The word “Foundation” is criticized because it means “raising money purpose”.
Central and East European Studies Association of Alberta.
Establishing a smaller working committee.
There are 2 needs: people in the foundation to raise money, and people on board to set policies.
Subcommittees meeting and informing the general committees.

This item contains a recording of a meeting.
Recommendations for Annual meeting.
CEESSA applied for the Income Tax number
Minutes of 1977 meeting.
Members of the meeting introduce themselves: Maurice Williams, Matrin Kovacs and others
(cannot decipher)
Board of Executives
Report from the Board: operational budget, financial situation
Meeting in Toronto
Board elected at the Banff (?) meeting
Dr. Suchowersky
An idea of Association
Establishing Provincial Committee in addition to the National Committee
Minutes of the previous meeting are published
Nominating Committee report
Proceedings could be received for a price of $12.50 (second copy for $6)
One member from each Province remains on the National Board for one more year
Procedure of election and nomination to the National Board
Correlation between National and Regional organizations
Section 17 – these organizations should be considered branches
Discussion about branches of the organization, National and Provincial boards
Section 18 – groups within association can form alliances
Item 3: report on cooperation
Nominations for Eastern and Western regions, then National nominations – the Meeting would
accept as elected. 14 elected members.
Item 6 : other business (fees; proposal for next conference in Saskatoon in June)
Government assistance to arrange conference
Concerns about joining a larger organization for the fear of losing control
Joining LEARNERD(?) Society dilemma - can different academic communities join?
Membership dues – suggested minimum $5 for the Provincial and $5 for the National
membership ($10 split two-way)
More discussions on problems of national and provincial membership/committees
Professional photographer for taking a group pictures
Manitoba branch – meeting planned on March 30

This item contains a recording of a meeting. Items discussed included: course offerings and attracting students. Ukrainian course + one suitable for the Women’s Studies. With funding, a specialist in Siberia from Calgary could come and teach - Department of Northern Affairs might be interested in it. Also discussed a need for establishing the Standing and Ad Hoc Committee. Financial and Budget Committee doing space allocation and money allocation – under the jurisdiction of the Head of
the Department. Discussing equipment matters.

This item contains minutes from a CEESSA Meeting. Topics discussed include:
Writing thanks to Hungarian Association for a very successful evening of cultural exchanges
Letter written to Prime-Minister [Pierre] Trudeau sent on November 10
Mr. Kulak is leaving for Ottawa, writing a letter to him
Correspondence: from the Minister RE. application for the grant of CEESSA that was approved – writing a reply of thanks and appreciation.
CEESSA Heritage Project
Several application to the government were sent. One was okayed, another was about to be reviewed as a priority one. Hope to hear from Monroe soon.
A letter from editor of Heritage Magazine – news about conference of CEESSA
A letter with a check for membership from Volikovsky (?)
A letter from President of McGuiness Distillery in Toronto RE donation of liquor and wine for conference
Conference letters from Sr. Williams proposing a panel discussion
Don Massey group
Professor Wojciechowski’s letter
Financial Committees report: bank loan for $1500; $3090 of donations; $600 coming. Things pending: salary + money for Christmas
Special account for conferences. Good financial standing
Publicity committee report: goal to get more members from ethnic groups of CEESSA, Canadians at large. Contacting press: Heritage Magazine, St. John Magazine. TV interviews. Priestly and Kostash work on how to organize that. Lectures on the CKUA radio about Eastern Europe.
Alberta Teachers Association contact and liaison – Mrs Lobay will have a meeting with them in January. Visiting schools with lectures about Eastern European problems. Materials to teach.
School grades 5 and 8 – information about immigrants in Canada, so schools need information to teach about roots and such.
Could there be a special Educational Committee? Recommendation for Kostash
Possibly an Ad-Hoc Committee on Education.
To which degree CEESSA supports only University activities rather than broader community’s – consulting the Constitution. Discrepancy between Constitution and the Green Pamphlet.
A sourcebook for teaching at high schools (who were the immigrants, when they came, where they settled, etc.) – not enough information
CEESSA bulletin could serve as a book review source – who and how will do that?
Curriculum: 12 units on Canadian content at $3000 each. Teachers are expected to do that on their own time, so nothing is done. Ukrainian language is dropped at high schools but Spanish gets promoted because of the immigrants from Chili. Promoting CEESSA through all possible means. January 27 – General Meeting. January 31 – Board Meeting.

This item contains a recording of a CEESSA Meeting held on September 14, 1976. Topics covered include:
A meeting regarding the project
The government of Alberta gave money for the project
Aim of part 1 of the project on East European groups – to write a book about historical background of East European immigration; size and distribution of their settlements. The book will be comprised of 10 chapters.
Mrs. Matejko on progress of the work: the work started on October of last year with statistics of all kinds on Central and Eastern European groups. Search in the Provincial Archives. Compiled bibliographies. The most detailed ones are on Poles, Russian Germans, and Jews. Less information on Romanians or people from the Baltic countries.
A need to find private collections of documents and cover 3 waves of immigration. Problems: some communities came in the 1880s, very early, like Russian Germans. Latvian immigrants were very rare, mostly after WWII.
Volunteers are needed to make contacts with old timers and do fieldwork. Germans are the largest community in Alberta coming from Volga region, Black Sea region, and Volyn apart from those from Reich. Mr. Sokolovsky was a research assistant last year and did a great job on Russians, Byelorussians. 2/3 Germans in Alberta are from Central and Eastern Europe.
Problems with counting Czechs and Slovaks because of the former Czechoslovakia. Dr. Horna is working on Slovaks group. Ms. Birzgalis is writing a massive thesis on Latvian community in Alberta (around 1010 people altogether). And Latvian community is very young and predominantly urban comparing to other ethnic groups.
Romanian community research – there is an old settler who was born in Romania. A student in anthropology in Calgary wrote thesis on Polish community – there is interest from outside and people want to help..
A linguist from Poland studies the changes of Polish language in Alberta. He has many interviews with life stories.
High schools now offer a course on ethnic groups in Alberta – they could use a source book from CEESSA.
Discussing that 5 ethnic groups under consideration now but possibly extending the number of ethnic groups for research.
Problems of intermixed settlements of Romanians.
Grant of $10000 for research: $5000 for research associates, $4000 – for field trips, $1000 – for typing.
Mrs. Matejco will be working on all the ethnic communities in addition to the Polish one, and she will get half of that grant money. The University is going to handle the money so that CEESSA will not have to deal with the receipts and report to the Ministry.
Mrs. Matejko used to work on the project for free but put in a lot of time and effort.
Field trips should be longer and more extensive when there is money.
Mrs. Horna will be paid only for her trips and Xeroxing.
People interested in working on 2 different ethnic communities on their own budget (one is a former student working in the Provincial Archives).
To complete the project, trips to the National Archives in Ottawa and archives in Toronto should be made + a trip to the B.C. Archives and Saskatoon – those have unique sources that must be included.
Dr. Rudnytskyi and Dr. [Lupul] were assigned to do a federal project on history of Ukrainians in Canada. The project is far from being completed. CEESSA did not touch the Ukrainian community because they already have the Ukrainian Institute working on it and various funding.
The German community is more difficult than any other one – they are spread all over the province.
Federal government project includes 20 ethnic groups. The only group that was not approached was Slovenes. Dr. Priestley was then asked to do the work on that group. Another group was Finns – someone is researching them now.
The federal government is not going to give money any more for researching ethnic communities because it already did so. But money could be obtained for compiling and publishing memoirs of the pioneers – it could become a bestseller.
Getting money from Canada Council would enable to finish the project without begging from the communities.

This item is a recording of a CEESSA meeting held on January 14th. Topics discussed include:
Equality of opportunities – what it means
Multicultural affairs – who to contact about it? Who is responsible for it?
How correct was a letter statement about “complete omission of ethnic groups except for Anglo-Saxon and French”
Multicultural policies on the Legislature level in Ottawa
Will the new Legislature move in the direction of multicultural research?
The time of landing of immigrants is not relevant but Canada’s constitution is geared toward the
English and French ethnic groups because they arrived first. Canada’s unity politicians talk about cannot be achieved through the use of just 2 languages.
Three points that should be incorporated in the letter: 1) [?] 2) no further legislature on multiculturalism, 3) no discussion on multiculturalism, who looks after multicultural affairs.
Could be reworded.
2 official languages but multicultural policy?
Yet there is a cultural emphasis on different ethnic groups so that Canadians would be more interested in each other. Programs are needed for young people to lean about other ethnicities.
Reading out loud a blueprint of the letter to the Prime Minister who should be informed about the existing conflict in policies regarding multiculturalism. Anything about languages should be sent not to Monroe.

This item is a recording from Banff conference of CEESSA

(Session #18): Chairman is [Andre] Tari
Only 2 sessions were allocated for the community topic
Mrs. Pelech talking about Sunday school
[Czartoryski?] talking about cultural heritage
Duska speaking about educational needs
Dudaravicius talking about identity

Dudaravicious’ presentation: identity as subjective sense of belonging in groups. Canadian identity is multiculturalism. Forcing immigrants to conform to the Anglo-Saxon or French identities., to forget their mother tongue and dances.

Mrs. Pelech: Saturday schools get grants. They are needed to preserve cultural group’s true history and provide information about it. Participants of those schools need pride and motivation. There are people-parasites who are not interested in anything except pleasures. Regular school and Saturday one compliment each other and does not compete. They teach respect to ethno-cultural heritage and be proud of it; they motivate youth for a healthy life outlook. Media and parents do not anymore encourage to learn. Edmonton school board is cooperative. Recommendation for the UofA to prepare teachers for language classes, especially in native languages. Languages should be compulsory at the university level.

Mr. Duska: Teaching our young people respect for their cultural heritage will help them respect other Canadians. We should keep children busy learning and off the streets. There is no single program at Canadian universities for Hungarian studies. Provincial governments refused to help. There was a suggestion to establish an endowment fund. Hungarians campaign to promote own language/culture at a university level.

Mr. [Czartoryski?], Executive Director of CEESSA, talking about maintaining cultural heritage. Academics, people with higher education have an obligation to go back to the communities and help with higher level of education. Academics are often accused by the community members. 30% of Alberta population are of East European background. Canadian schools struggle to develop in their students certain values.

Session 2:
Panelists: Dr. Chandler; Don [Benge] from Saskatchewan, Director of the Curriculum of the Edmonton Public School Board; Don Massey; Arthur Levin; Dean Lock; Mrs. Lobay

Dr. Chandler: Department of Education develops programs but does not build the books, about ethnic groups in particular. CEESSA’s objectives and the Department of Education’s objective can coincide and they can help each other with regards to the materials that are down to the level of the elementary children. The nature of multicultural education is beneficial and enriching for everyone. Opportunities in the curriculum for ethnic studies: good balance between Canadian studies and global studies, studies of the past and contemporary studies. Curriculum becomes more compulsory if certain goals are specifically identified. Tentative outline: grade 1 program about family should look at families of different ethnic backgrounds; grade 2 – groups that influence you. Should include what children should learn about various ethnic groups; grade 3 – communities; should take a look at communities with different ethnic cultures within Canada; grade 5 – Canada as a whole, should look at immigration and settlement in Canada; grade 7 – study of cultures in general, should look at native people in Canada and their relationship to the multicultural nature of Canada; grade 8 – study of developing nations in the World, should look at immigration policy of Canada; grade 10 – study of Canadian economic and political problems, should look at how multiculturalism adds to national unity. A Committee set up to develop materials for the program, and CEESSA should contact the Committee.

A motion to form a National Society

This item is a recording of a CEESSA Meeting where the roles and nomination process for the committee was discussed.

This item is a recording of a CEESSA meeting. Content includes:
Deciding on the day of election: Thursday, April 27 at 7:30
Difference between academic community and society – the society can do many more things.
Official name – CEESSA
Applause
Only 5 mins of sound

This item is a recording of the Annual General Meeting of CEESSA.
Electing the President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary
Describing the functions of each position
Not holding any office for more than 2 years
Nomination for President: Mrs. Lobay – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Vice-President: Dr. Metro Galutsan – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Treasurer: Mr. Dudaravicius – accepted the nomination
Nomination for Secretary: Dr. Bela Biro – accepted the nomination, appointed by acclamation
Mr. Kostash – would rather go to the educational committee
Mr. Kuester – appointed to the publicity committee
The finance committee – Algis Dudaravicius
Nominating Chairman: Mr. Kostash
Nominating Committee: Mr. Spillios, Mr. [Yerevic], Mr. [?]
Mr. Priesley and Mr. Kostash will appoint their own respective committees
The Nominating Committee had to be appointed today in case of some emergency
May 3, 7:30 – next meeting
Meeting adjourned

Side B- a lesson in the Russian Language (exercise in translation)

This item is an audio file containing the very last moment of Mr. Schmid's address, applause , and Mr. Agust Osis- his common prayer concludes the conference of CEESSA of 1977.

This item is a recording of a meeting of CEESSA. Discussions include the question of Hungarian and other courses at the university, the constitution and procedures of the committee, membership dues, and the name of the society.
Department of Education set up a committee on curriculum development but will there be ethnic content or just Canadian? “Units” of studies: “Ethnic mosaic” and “Alberta”. Making sure the ethnic groups get recognition in the history of Western Canada. Working together with Heritage Council History of Western Canada discriminates certain ethnic groups. Some Social Studies programs need to be revised.
Important feature – sizable new groups of immigrants from Eastern Europe. Travel concerns to those countries.
80% of Germans in Alberta are from Eastern Europe. Up to 40% of Alberta population is from Continental Europe

This item is a recording of a meeting discussing the logistics of the Central and Eastern European society. At this meeting the society was formally established and committees were created.

This item is a recording of an annual general meeting in [1976]. Reports were given by the President, Secretary, Treasurer, Academic Research Committee, Publicity Committee, and Executive Director. A new board was elected.

This item contains recordings from the Second Banff Conference on Central and East European Studies.
Presentation by Mr. Petr Czarnowsky: Eastern Europeans, despite their proportion of the population, came to form a large number, often over 50% of ethnic associations in Alberta. This includes ethnic organizations, arts organizations, and linguistic schools. Policies of multiculturalism have helped to form these figures, but have had the unforeseen consequence of adding to confusion about Eastern European ethnic groups on the part of students and teachers alike.

Presentation by Mr. Joanna Mateko on the problems already being faced in the study of Poles. She came from Poland associated with the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw for 15 years. She did work in the field of Polish history, having published numerous articles and co-author of bibliographies that were compiled by the Polish academy of sciences. She does her research on the Poles in Alberta. A problem that exists in the study of Poles is the inaccuracy of academic and official documents pertaining to Polish settlement in Canada, and the difficulty in unearthing accurate depictions and statistics of Polish settlers, and Slavic settlers more generally. This can be derived from a lack of knowledge from Canadian officials, and a lack of consciousness amongst many Slavic groups, particularly the Poles and Ukrainians.

Presentation by Mr. John Sokolowski, a graduate student in the department of Slavic Languages, his first graduate program was as a Classicist. He does work on the Russians and Belarussians. He started his work on the East Slavs, the Russians, Belarussians, and Ukrainians in Alberta. They no longer work on the Ukrainians as so much work has been published. They started their study with the Russians and Belarussians, they hope to determine an accurate number of people of Russian and Belarussian origin in Alberta. Contention on the accurate number of Russians and Belarussians in Canada, as the definition of Russian has changed over time, with many early documents associating many non-Russian ethnic groups as Russian. Dynamics have changed with census records over the years, which still continue to be unreliable. There is thought to be far more Belarussians in Canada than official census documents would suggest.

Presentation by Mrs. Dr. Yermilla Horna University of Calgary Department of Sociology. Dr. Horna was educated in Prague and Bratislava came to Canada in ’58, taking part in the project doing the history of the Czechs and the Slovaks. She got a grant for the study of patterns of adjustment of Czechoslovaks, the so called refugees of 1968-1969. The study focused on pre-1968 settlement of Czechoslovaks in Canada to figure out if incoming refugees had a previous basis to go off of, or had to ‘start from scratch’. Research found majority of Czechoslovaks came to Alberta as miners, farmers, or other labourers, mostly from Slovakia. Greatest wave of Czechoslovak migration prior to 1968 came in 1885.

Presentation by Mr. Kostash: Talks about the function of universities. Talks about how East European and Soviet Studies at the university follows the same functions. Mentions that one who takes particular focus on the East European courses offered by the University can find themselves being skilled and knowledgeable scholars. Initiatives by professors at the university to make sure students in the field go out to the ethnic communities to get a feel for how they are. Talks about the importance of community approval and funding for new programs. Stresses transparency of activities in programs as it relates to the community.

Presentation by Mr. Duruviches, a member of the Lithuanian community, and President of the Baltic Society: Discusses the contention with the label ‘Soviet’, coming from Lithuania, and the history Lithuania has with the Soviet Union. The importance of having a place such as a University to study one’s heritage. Expects from the University that it is kept in mind that although their issues are similar at the moment, that Baltic peoples are not Slavic peoples.

Presentation by Dr. Bergin from the Faculty of Education: has a strong interest in Mennonite culture. Difficulties because of mixed loyalties on representing different groups; particularly the Mennonites, who aren’t easily identified by typical visages.

Presentation by Dr. Sukoversky: the definition of a collection, and that professors start collections. Students can start collections too. Ethnic groups can start collections.

Presentation by the Chairman of Edmonton Historical Board

Presentation by Mr. Kistner: Wasn’t prepared to present but is talking from the perspective of a foot soldier. He is Baltic German born in Tallinn Estonia. Talks about how maps often forget about the islands of Estonia. Baltic Germans is a very small group. It’s worthwhile for even very small groups to write their history and preserve their heritage. In doing work there’s lots of assistance needed, time, and footwork. Being a small group has its advantages, no need for sampling.