ABSTRACT: While contacts between Scandinavia and Kievan Rus’ in recent history have
been limited, and Scandinavian, and Scandinavian-Canadian attitudes to Ukrainians
were long characterized by an aggressive hostility and racist stereotypes. The image
of the “Galician” merged with stereotypes of Russians, which have a long tradition
in Scandinavia and
Germany. “Galicians” became synonymous with backwardness, social retardation and superstition.
As a result
of pressure to assimilate and competition for the same jobs, Scandinavian-Ukrainian
relations in Canada became strained. These attitudes took a particularly aggressive
form in the Scandinavian press in Canada. This article attempts to identify anti-Ukrainian
themes in Scandinavian and Scandinavian-Canadian literature and assess their significance
for the identity formation of the Scandinavians in Canada in the early 20th century.
RÉSUMÉ: Bien que les contacts entre la Scandinavie et la Russie dans l’histoire récente
ont été limités, et l’attitude scandinave, et scandinave-canadienne, envers les ukrainiens
a longtemps été caractérisée par une hostilité agressive et des stéréotypes racistes.
L’image du « galicien » a fusionné avec les stéréotypes concernant les Russes, ayant
une longue tradition
en Scandinavie et en Allemagne. « Galiciens » devint synonyme de retard mental, de
retard social et de superstition. En raison
de la pression de s’assimiler et de la concurrence pour les mêmes emplois, les relations
entre scandinaves et ukrainiens au Canada devinrent tendues. Ces attitudes prirent
une forme particulièrement agressive au sien de la presse scandinave au Canada. Cet
article tente d’identifier les thèmes anti-ukrainiens dans la littérature scandinave
et scandinave-canadienne et d’évaluer leur importance dans la formation de l’identité
des Scandinaves au Canada au début du vingtième siècle.
The topic of Anti-Ukrainian prejudice in Canada has been relatively well researched.
The main focus of the research has been the Anglo-Canadian mainstream. However, anti-Ukrainian
stereotypes were not the exclusive preserve of this particular community—prejudices
also influenced the relations among various groups of recently arrived immigrants.
This article studies the anti-Ukrainian sentiments in one such group, the Scandinavians,
who were among the larger immigrant communities on the Canadian prairies. As a case
study of Scandinavian immigrant narratives of Ukrainians, it aims at shedding light
on the dynamics of the relations between immigrant communities in Western Canada.
To a present-day observer, the prevalence of anti-Ukrainian stereotypes in the Scandinavian-language
publications in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century is striking.
It is also somewhat puzzling, as few Scandinavians had any experience of Ukrainians
before their arrival in North America.
In the modern era, identification with a nation is but one of the possible forms of
collective identification, yet one that tends to subsume other kinds of belonging
(Pickering 79).
“Cultural experience generates our identity to the extent that it creates an appearance
of similarity among those who more or less share it, who seem to belong to it and
feel at home within it. Culture is in this way the experience of belonging” Michael
Pickering argues (80). Jan Germen Janmaat emphasizes how the depiction of ethnic
Others is an important
aspect of history education in states with nationalizing programs. The Other is often
portrayed negatively in history textbooks, playing an important role for identity
construction. It sets boundaries which distinguish the in- from the out-group. The
harmful effects of contacts with ethnic others are highlighted, whereas positive results
are downplayed or omitted altogether. By assigning certain vices to the out-group
and certain virtues to the in-group, nation-builders can reinforce the uniqueness
and depth of the in-group’s identity and give its members the assured feeling of moral
superiority. Also, stressing the hostility of the out-group helps to sweep conflicts
within the in-group under the carpet and contributes to the latter’s cohesion (Janmaat
145). Since measuring the accuracy of stereotypes is difficult, they are better understood
in terms of “common-sense” rhetorical figures, writes Michael Pickering.
It is pointless trying to gauge whether or not they are accurate. What counts is how
they circulate, and with what consequences, as base coins in the economy of discourse
and representation; how they attain their symbolic currency among those involved in
their exchange. (25–26)
Many European nationalist movements have presented their neighbours to the east and
south of themselves as barbarians. In Sweden, the role of the Other was long filled
by the Russian, and/or the Slav (Nilsson 6). Since the time of the Great Nordic War
(1700-1721), Swedish political propaganda
emphasized the lower cultural level and the barbarian nature of Russians, who were
perceived as Asiatic, unrefined, violent and unreliable, fundamentally irrational
and culturally inferior (Blomqvist 2002). In Swedish historiography, similar notions
of inferiority, regression, and backwardness
were extended to Poles and Baltic peoples. They were defined as passive and submissive
subjects, products of serfdom and a slave mentality. The pejorative expression polsk Riksdag/polnischer Reichstag is found in both Swedish and German. Es geht zu wie auf dem polnische Reichstage means chaos and disorganization (Orłowski 36, 62). Similarly, polnische Wirtschaft is synonymous with inefficiency and primitive modes of production (Orłowski 18).
The Napoleonic Wars were a disaster for Sweden, which lost the eastern half of its
territory. Finland had not been a colony or a distant province, but an integral part
of the country since the early Middle Ages. The 1809 Peace Treaty of Fredrikshamn
extended the Russian Empire to the Åland Islands, turning Finland into a rallying
point for the Swedish political right. The year 1809 became linked to bruised national
pride and nostalgic longing for the era of Swedish Great Power. The loss of Finland
triggered responses, which vacillated between bombastic jingoism and deliberate indifference
(Berggren). The trauma consolidated anti-Russian sentiments as an integral part of
Swedish nationalism
throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The first history book on Swedes in Estonia and Livonia, written in 1846, depicts
Baltic peoples, such as the Baltic Letts and the Finno-Ugric Livs as child-like objects.
Det är oförnekligt, att Liverne och Letterne, fastän, till antalet öfverlägsna, genom
sin fulhet utgöra den mest störande beståndsdelen. Lifvets tunga börda, råhetens slöhet,
i förening med trälens skygga slughet och en dermed kontrasterande, viss ädel, sorgenhet
hafva givit deras ansigten ett visst hemskt gripande uttryck. De blicka rädda upp
till presten, liksom fruktade de, att han skulle banna dem, såsom man bannar barn,
när de varit olydiga, och förrätta alla de yttre religionsbruken med ett visst uttryck
af blygselfull själlöshet.
[It is undeniable that the Livs and the Letts, although numerically superior, through
their ugliness constitute the most disturbing of the (Baltic) peoples. Their laziness
is the result of their heavy burdens of life. Their lives are harsh and brutal. At
the same time, they possess the clever cunningness of a thrall. Their faces reflect
a noble sadness, something that gives their faces terribly moving expressions. They
fearfully look up to the minister, as if they are afraid that he would punish them,
the way you punish a misbehaving child. They participate in all the religious rites
with an expression of shy soullessness.]
In contrast to this description of Baltic peoples, Lutheran Minister Joachim Ekmanhas
this to say about Germans and Swedes:
Dertill äro [letternas] dåliga kläder mestadels smutsiga, alltid grå, och hänga vårdslöst
på deras svaga kroppar. Tyskarna äro dem till urseendet icke mycket olika; deras ansigtsdrag
äro blott öppnare, och en något högre intelligens talar ur deras ögon. Mot desse begge
nationer bilda Runöboerne en skön motsats. I allmänhet äro männen storvuxna, hafva
kraftig benbyggnad och äro ljuslagda: ur de öppna och friska, af vind och väder brynta,
ansigten framblicka, stora, mörkblå, trofasta ögon, håret bära de till half längd
och mestadels faller det i lockar; skägget är alldeles bortrakadt … Runöboernas qvinnor … äro inga smäktande skönheter, utan kraftiga, nordiska, hvilkas ovala ansigten mad
välbildade och skarpt markerade drag uttrycka en lugn kraft, som likväl icke går ända
till oqvinnlighet, emedan ögat derjemte uppenbarar en behaglig mildhet och oskuld.
(152–53)
[The worn-out clothes of the Latvians are mostly dirty, always grey, and hang carelessly
on their tired bodies. The Germans do not look that different, but their facial features
are more open, and a somewhat higher intelligence is discernible in their eyes. Against
these two nations the Swedes (of the Livonian island of Runö) constitute a beautiful
contrast. In general the men are stately, blond, with solid bone structures; from
the honest and open faces, hardened by wind and weather gaze large, deep blue and
faithful eyes. They wear shoulder-long hair, which often curls; they have all shaved
their beards … The Runö women are no striking beauties, but robust and Nordic. Their oval faces
have well-developed and sharply marked features which express a calm determination,
which sometimes borders on a lack of femininity. At the same time, they possess a
pleasant mildness and innocence.]
Swedish school textbooks presented a reductive picture of the Russian people. “The
Russians are a hardened, hard-working and dexterous people. They are happy, sociable
and fond of dance, song and music. Their national errors are drunkenness and dishonesty,”
the most widely used geography textbook explained.
The prominent Swedish Slavist Alfred Jensen maintained that the Russians had inherited
their “submissiveness,” “oriental fatalism,” and “thrall sprit” from the Tatars (Jensen
123). The fear of a Russian occupation was kept alive in many circles. During the
Russo-Japanese
War of 1904-1905, women’s clubs and charities in Sweden organized to collect bandages
and textiles to send to assist the Japanese side in the war (Burgman). In 1912 the
famous traveller and writer Sven Hedin published a book called
Ett varningsord [A Word of Caution] that was printed in an enormous edition of a 420,000 copies.
Hedin provided a graphic
description of what a Russian invasion of Sweden would result in.
Låt oss göra ett flyktigt besök i denna landsända, som icke längre är vår. Där är
det slut på valmötena … I skolorna införes ett främmande språk som barnen tvingas att lära … Det är förbjudet att i det fordom svenska kyrkorna förkunna och bekänna den protestantiska
tron. Gyllene helgonbilder radas upp kring våra gamla altaren, och väggmålingar från
Sturarnas och Gustaf Vasas tid målas öfver för att glömmas. Vid rätten sker icke förhöret
och förkunnas icke domen på ett för svenskar begripligt språk … Den personliga friheten är död. I städerna är varje portvakt en polis. Yttrandefriheten
har upphört. Tryckfrihetsförordningen existerar icke mer, någon justitieombudsman
står icke som en räddande angel, färdig att gripa in. Tidningarna är skrinlagda, och
om några av dem tillåts komma ut, är de fullständigt färglösa. Vissa blad, som redan
under den svenska tiden hade dåligt rykte, kryper för tyrannerna för att själva vinna
fördelar. Finlands öde har då kommit over det land vi förlorat, för att förkväva dess
kultur. (27–29)
[
Let us make a quick visit to this part of the country, which is no longer ours. There
are no more election campaigns … The schools introduce a foreign language in which the children are forced to be taught
… In the formerly Swedish churches it is forbidden to preach and confess the protestant
faith in the Swedish language. Golden images of saints are lined up around our old
altars, and frescoes from the times of the rule of the Sture family and Gustaf Vasa are painted over in order to be forgotten. At the courts the interrogations are carried
out and the verdicts announced in a language incomprehensible to Swedish ears … Personal freedom is dead. In cities every bellman is a policeman. Freedom of speech
has ceased to exist. Freedom of the press remains but a memory; there is no longer
any ombudsman to act as a guardian angel, ready to step in for our protection. Newspapers
are banned, and if any of them are allowed to publish, they are totally colourless.
Some papers, which already during the Swedish time had a poor reputation, are sucking
up to the tyrants to gain favours. The destiny of Finland has finally reached us then,
suffocating our culture].
Under the influence of Gobineau and Galton, the notion of scientific racism gained
ground in the Western World in the late nineteenth century, but particularly after
World War I. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the “otherness” of the Slavic
peoples was increasingly defined in racial terms. A pioneer in the
field of eugenics, the Swedish government established
Statens institut för rasbiologi [State Institute for Racial Biology] at the University of Uppsala in 1921 in order
to preserve “racial purity” and to document, categorize and preserve the “racial characteristics
of the Swedish nation.” The racial biologists were particularly concerned about the consequences of miscegenation,
or racial “bastardization,” which its director, Professor Herman Lundborg saw as a
key factor in the decline
of civilizations (Lundborg 1921 and 1924). The purity of the “Germanic” or “Nordic
race” was often juxtaposed to its absence among the people of the east.
Studera vi åter förhållandena på närmare håll i Europa, kunna vi ej undgå att märka,
att i de delar, varest befolkningen är uppkommen genom blandningar i stor utsträckning
mellan européer och asiatiska folk: hunner, tatarer, turkar o.a., såsom t. ex. på
Balkanhalvön och i stora delar av Ryssland, där européer av mer ren stam knappast
förekomma i något store antal, samfundsfärhållanden, lagar och styrelsesätt äro allra
sämst och befolkningen i hög grad rå och omänsklig. Det synes för dit inkallade organisatörer
från andra länder i Europa nästan tröstlöst omöjligt att bland dessa “halvasiater”
få ordning och skick införda. Det dåliga folkmaterialet lägger härvidag stora hinder
i vägen … En blandning åter mellan svensk befolkning och exempelvis lappar, som äro alltför
olikartade, är avrådlig. Av samma orsak må vi söka förhindra slaviska folk av undermålig
beskaffenhet, vidare ryska judar o.d. att här få fast fot, ty sådanda blandningar
komma med all säkerhet att sänka det svenska folkets kvalitet. Vi må alltmer få klart
för oss, att svenskarna av jämförelsevis ren nordisk stam äro ett rasfolk i biologisk
mening. Härför må vi vara tacksamma, ty det är endast ett mindre antal folk i världen,
som i detta hänseende äro lika gynnsamt ställda som vi … Svenskarna, liksom övriga germaner, äro högt skattade på grund av sina många goda
egenskaper. Vi kunna därför, med skäl vara stolta over vår härstamning, utan att behöva
hemfalla åt oberättigat högmod. (1922 145-146)
[
If we return to the conditions in our European neighbourhood we cannot fail to notice
that in the parts in which the population to a large extent is the result of miscegenation
between Europeans and Asiatic peoples (Huns, Tatars, Turks, and others, as for instance
on the Balkans and in large parts of Russia, where Europeans of pure stock hardly
exist in any higher number), the social conditions, laws, and system of governance
are the worst and the population brutal and inhumane. It seems, for invited organizers
from other countries in Europe, sadly nearly impossible to introduce order and decency
among these “semi-Asiatics” … Miscegenation between the Swedish population and Finns and Lapps, who are of Mongolian
origin, is undesirable. For the same reason we ought to prevent Slavic peoples of
inferior qualities, Russian Jews and others, from establishing themselves here, since
such miscegenation would with all certainty lower the quality of the Swedish people.
We need to keep in mind that the Swedes, who are an entirely pure Germanic people,
are a people of noble racial stock, and well-born from a biological point of view.
For this, we ought to be thankful, since only a lesser number of peoples in the world
are as lucky as ourselves … The Swedes, like other Germanic peoples, are highly valued for their many good qualitites.
We therefore have good reason to take pride in our lineage, without having to resort
to unwarranted arrogance. ]
In the 1920s, eugenicists began an ambitious project to “scientifically” classify
the ethnic groups around the Baltic Sea. They operated within a framework
in which peoples from the east were associated with racial and cultural inferiority
(Hagerman 352, 372). In his 1922
Rasbiologi och rashygien, Lundborg explicitly warned about the dangers of Slavic immigration to Sweden:
Åt invandringen måste vi också ägna stor uppmärksamhet, så att ej undermåliga individer
av främmande folkslag obehindrat få inflytta och bosätta sig i landet. Blandning mellan
rasbiologiskt högt stående folk (som de skandinaviska) och sämre kvalificerade folkelement,
t. ex. zigenare, galizier, vissa ryska folkslag o.d. är avgjort förkastlig. (1922
40)
[
We have to pay much attention to immigration, so that racially inferior individual
of alien stock will not settle in the country. Miscegenation between a racially valuable
people (such as the Scandinavians) and less qualified racial element, for instance
Gypsies, Galicians, certain Russian tribes and others, is, clearly undesirable.]
These attitudes were well represented in the Swedish government. The somewhat confused
and muddled briefings from the Swedish embassy in Warsaw to the government in Stockholm
explain the difference between the Polish majority population and the east Slavic
minorities in the eastern borderlands as racially determined:
Polska nationens känslor gentemot den ryska ställa sig helt olika allt efter som det
gäller det mer nordliga Ryssland eller de sydligare delarna av landet. Polackerna
erkänna icke invånarna i norra Ryssland såsom stamfränder. De äro olika polackerna
till ras (ansiktsbildning och hudfärg), till språk, religion, seder och allmän livsuppfattning.
Bysantinism, mysticism och fatalism beteckna denna sistnämnda vad moskowiterna angår
på ett sätt, som icke har ringaste motsvarighet hos polackerna, vilket tydligen framgår
bl.a. vid en jämförelse mellan den ryska och den polska literaturens mest betydande
verk
… Under det polackerna äro slaver av så ren ras, att vissa av nationens fel, (t.ex.
dess brist på kraft och uthållighet) kunna anses bero just härpå, äro nordryssarna
av ytterst blandad ras (tatarer, mongoler, finnar, judar, m.m.), i vilken det slaviska
elementet endast ingår med några få procent
… Helt annorlunda är förhållandet med invånarne i södra Ryssland, dit då framför allt
bör räknas Ruthenien eller Lill-Ryssland, som för övrigt alldeles oegentligt blivit
kallat Ukraina. Dessa äro otvivelaktigt slaver och trots vad som skiljer gör sig rasgemenskapen
vis à vis polackerna gällande. Härigenom förklaras hela det starka inflytande, som
polackerna haft på Wolhyniens och Ukrainas civiliserande. Före världskriget voro nästan
alla de stora godsägarna där polacker, likaså större delen av ingenjörer, läkare,
lärare och överhuvudtaget utövarne av de borgerliga yrkena. Förhållandet mellan dessa
polacker och de lill-ryska invånarne var synnerligen gott. Nu äro dessa polacker bortdrivna
ur landet och dess civlisation lider oerhört härunder. Men polackernas hopp är, att
en gång, kanske snart nog, det ryska väldet skall uppdelas i flera stater, och att
då tiden åter skall komma för en union mellan Polen och Ukraina med dess 35 miljoners
befolkning och för en ny fruktbringande polsk kolonisation av det sistnämnda så rika
landet.
Om det s.k. Ost Galizien, som f.n. hör till Polen, skulle bli autonomt, skulle detta
ur polsk synpunkt ha föga att betyda. Den separatistiska tendens i Ost Galizien, som
väckt så mycket buller, är åstadkommen med artificiella medel, penningutdelning och
bolsjevikisk propaganda.
[The Polish nation, in its relation to the Russians, makes a distinction between the
northern and southern parts of the country. The Poles do not recognize the inhabitants
of Northern Russia as a kindred people. Their race is different from that of the Poles
(shape of face and skin pigmentation), much like their language, religion, customs
and general attitudes toward life. As far as the Muscovites are concerned, they are
best described in terms of Byzantinism, mysticism and fatalism. These have no equivalents
whatsoever among the Poles, something that becomes abundantly clear in a comparison
of the most significant works of Polish literature … Since the Poles are Slavs of a pure origin, some of the faults of the nation can
be seen to be found herein (for example its powerlessness and lack of tenacity). In
contrast, the Northern Russians are of extremely mixed race (Tartars, Mongols, Finns
and Jews, and others) in which the Slavic element only constitutes a small percent
… The situation among the inhabitants of Southern Russia is entirely different. In
particular within this group we should include the peoples of Ruthenia or Little Russia,
which is often erroneously referred to as the Ukraine. Despite their differences these
people are undoubtedly Slavs, and their racial similarities with the Poles are obvious.
This can be explained by the strong influence the Poles have had on the civilizing
of Volhynia and Ukraine. Before the World War almost all large land owners were Poles,
and so were the lion’s share of engineers, doctors, teachers and the bourgeois professions
in general. The relations between these Poles and the Little Russian inhabitants were
particularly good. Now these Poles have been expelled from the country and the (Ukrainian)
civilization is suffering immensely as a result. The Polish hope is that the Russian
empire will break up into several states. Perhaps this will happen soon enough, leading
to the establishment of a union between Poland and Ukraine, opening for a fruitful
Polish colonization of Ukraine and its population of 35 million people.
If the so-called Eastern Galicia, which currently belongs to Poland, would become
autonomous, this would be of little consequence from the Polish point of view. The
separatist tendencies in Eastern Galicia, which have caused so much tension, are artificial,
brought about by Bolshevik propaganda and funding.]
Attitudes sharply critical of Slavs were prevalent also within the Swedish labour
movement. Socialism reached Sweden from the German-speaking world. Anti-Slavic attitudes
were prominent in the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, who dismissed Slavs
as “non-historical peoples—reactionary, pig-headed, barbarian peoples, counterrevolutionary
by nature and doomed to extinction.” It is hard to assess the impact of these attitudes on the Swedish worker at the grass
roots level. The import of cheap manual labour from Galicia during the first decade
of the twentieth century, when farmers and land owners systematically recruited underpaid
seasonal workers from Austrian Galicia to work at the sugar beet plantations in the
province of Skåne (or Scania) in southern Sweden seems to have had more of an impact
on the shaping of popular attitudes. The farm labourers’ union widely perceived this
as deliberate sabotage. This, in turn, led to a serious conflict with the employers,
but also generated animosity towards the Galician guest workers (Blomqvist 191).
Politically conservative commentators, concerned about immigration, described the
Galician seasonal workers as a “most vile” people, a textbook example of backwardness
and retardation. However, most of the criticism came from the political left. Social Democratic papers
described this “Galician danger” as a “modern assault of the Huns.” The description
of the Galician scabs was aggressively hostile. The socialist paper
Arbetet described the arrival of the Galicians in the following way:
Småväxta, med intetsägande ansikten, böjda under bördan av stora klädbylten, stego
främlingarna i land, framdrivna av ett par grovhuggna, knölpåksklädda karlfigurer.—Polacker,
galizier till betjätten! … Eländigt klädda, slöa och rådvilligt livliga, som en hop boskap, representerande
det lägsta stadiet av varan—arbetskraft.
[
Short, with nondescript faces, bowed under the burden of large packs of clothes, the
strangers disembarked the ship, led by a couple of coarse-looking men with clubs.—Poles
and Galicians at your service! … Miserably clad and lazy but in possession of a confused energy, (these people resemble)
a herd of cattle.]
The Socialist Press contrasted “the celebrated, honest and solid Swedish worker” with
the Ukrainian:
en samling utländska trasproletärer, okunniga, förfallna och förslöade stackare, angripna
av smittkoppor och andra vidriga sjukdomar, färdiga att sälja kropp och själ för ett
brännvinsrus. Sverige åt svenskarne—så lyder frasen. Sverige åt galizierna, svält
och smittkoppor åt svenskarne—så lyder verligheten.
[lumpenproletarians, ignorant, decayed and lazy scoundrels, carriers of smallpox and
other disgusting diseases, eager to sell their bodies and soul for a bottle of vodka.
Sweden for the Swedes goes the slogan. Sweden for the Galicians, famine and smallpox
for the Swedes, is the reality.]
The prominent socialist Fabian Månsson wrote that
Det säger sig själf att befolkningen i orten icke med de blidaste ögon ser denna invasion
af ociviliserade slaver … Genom hvarje svenskt sinned mans ådror går en skälfning af raseri och man får en
obetvinglig lust att tvätta sina hander i utländska skojares blod. (Olsson 274)
[It goes without saying that the local population does not regard this invasion of
uncivilized Slavs kindly … Through the veins of every Swedish-minded man goes a tremble of rage. You get an
irrepressible urge to wash your hands in the blood of these foreign scoundrels.]
The socialist press approvingly cited the well-known Swedish writer and poet K. G.
Ossiannilsson’s comments on the Galician question, lamenting that “Swedes [live under
conditions of harsh] labour, starvation, and oppression,” having to compete with labourers
of inferior cultures, “descendants of barbarian peoples, those our ancestors met as
enemies.” Protest meetings across Sweden, organized by the socialist labour movement, condemned
employers for forcing Swedes to emigrate and replacing them with Galician “slaves”
of a “considerably lower moral stage” than the Swedes, referring to Galicia as “a
small piece of land in Poland, where the people still live under semi-barbarian
conditions.” Leaders of the Swedish Social Democrats urged their members to “unite
to throw the Galicians out of the country and demand: Sweden for the Swedes!”
Without making any distinction between Ukrainians and other East Slavs, the leader
of the Swedish Social Democrats, the future Prime Minister Hjalmar Branting, denounced
the Galician seasonal workers as a Russian “horde of thralls.” Prominent socialist
activist Kata Dalström contrasted Sweden, as a “cultured country” “[kulturstat],”
with Russia, which she characterized as a “barbarian state, far inferior to us.”
The presence of the temporary Galician farm labourers was an exception from the rule.
Before World War II immigration into Sweden was considered undesirable and kept at
a low level. Rather, at the turn of the last century, and until the 1920s, Sweden
was a net emigrant country. Along with other Scandinavians, very significant numbers
of Swedes emigrated, primarily to North America. In this process, Norway lost one
third of its population, Sweden nearly one quarter. The net emigration from Denmark,
while much smaller, still meant a considerable depletion of the population (Hatton).
As a destination, Canada was less popular than the United States. Within Canada
the vast majority of the Scandinavian immigrants settled in the prairie provinces. In 1911, Germans and Scandinavians formed the largest non-British minorities in the
region, making up respectively eleven and eight per cent of the total Alberta population
of 374,000 people. The massive influx of Ukrainians was soon to alter the population
balance, as 170,000 Ukrainian peasants arrived in Canada between 1896 and 1914 alone
(Palmer 26-27). The public attitudes to the arrival of the Ukrainians were generally
negative. Conservative
Albertan papers denounced the Ukrainian immigrants, citing concerns over their culture
and “race,” not to mention the fear that the Eastern European immigrants overwhelmingly
voted
for the Liberal Party. Reports of smallpox among the Ukrainian immigrants elicited
personal concerns among the locals. The Calgary Herald described the Ukrainians as
“dirty hordes of half-civilized Galicians who came lacking everything but dirt.”
In his 1929
The Central European Immigrant in Canada Robert England approvingly cites a Anglo-Canadian teacher in the Ukrainian block
settlement to the effect that
Undoubtedly, if one can believe half of the stories one hears, there has been much
exploitation of the non-English vote. Also, there is direct everyday evidence to show
that the large number of illiterate voters, who are non-progressive and even retrogressive,
can, and do, impede the betterment of the nation. One is continually filled with pity
for the vast amount of ignorance one encounters among the non-English, and one can
excuse many of their short-comings on the score of ignorance, but none the less, we
cannot get away from the fact that this “vast amount” constitutes a serious menace
to our own civilization. (England 85)
The bulk of Slavic immigrants entered the proletariat, something that was reflected
in North American fiction and folklore. The picture of the Slavic working man in North
American fiction is hardly flattering. Their communities were portrayed as nests of
moral vices of “alcoholism, drug addiction, thievery, pimping, prostitution, gambling
dereliction,
bigotry, and stupidity” (Wtulich 135). In early twentieth-century Alberta, politicians,
clergy, social reformers and scholars
alike agreed that Ukrainians were a “primitive people with extraordinary proclivities
for crime and vice” (Robinson 139). Some observers objected to the Slavic newcomers’
reluctance to conform to the mainstream
Canadian norms of behaviour, for example, their avoidance of amenities such as banks,
preferring to hide their money in their mattresses (Robinson 153). Others complained
that the Ukrainian even fought in a different way, leading to
accusations that he did not know “how to fight like a white man.” The Slav would “always
pick something up in a fight—rock, knife, or a piece of two-by-four,” making him a
brute in the eyes of the Anglo-Canadian. The Ukrainians were seen even
to lack the good taste to know when and where violent brawls were appropriate. Mainstream
Canadians fought at bars, but Ukrainians fought at weddings and other Christian events,
something deemed deeply inappropriate (Robinson 173; England 84). Mainstream Anglo-Saxon
Canadian opinion regarded wife-beating and “Galician weddings”—drunken orgies that
degenerated into bloody brawls—as the epitome of Ukrainian backwardness
(Swyripa 36). Even Ukrainian proverbs seemed to condone domestic violence: “An unbeaten
wife is like an unsharpened scythe” (Robinson 157). Emily Murphy’s view that Slavs
could not be expected to behave in other than a barbarian
fashion was rather representative for her generation of Anglo-Saxon Canadians (Robinson
172). The Anglo-Canadian teacher, interviewed by Robert England in 1929 about her
experiences
of the Ukrainian bloc settlement, echoes these sentiments.
I would say that the women and children of the district are distinctly under-privileged
and that this is a characteristic of Ruthenian homes. I would also say that if they
were given a chance, in many cases, the home would improve. Certainly the women do
more work than the men, and do it without complaint. The women and children do all
the “chores” and in May when the roads were so bad, I have often seen the women-folk
in bare feet trudging through the deep mud laden with full sacks. There are exceptions,
but this is the general rule. I have been shocked many times at what they expect in
the way of work from growing young children … It is all very well to say that these people know no better, but the fact is that
they have been with us for twenty-five years. (84)
It should be said that these attitudes were not limited to the Anglo-Scandinavian
mainstream society. The elite of the Ukrainian community, in Ukraine as well as among
the emigrants shared similar concerns about ignorance and backwardness within their
own community (Swyripa 41-42). The conceptualization of the gulf between the modern
world and the traditional culture
as a dichotomy, juxtaposing the conscious
svidomyi Ukrainian with the darkened
temnyi or apathetic
baiduzhnyi muzhyk was a central theme in Ukrainian nationalist discourse. Leonid Heretz has illustrated this dichotomy in a set of contrasts:
| Svidomyi |
Temnyi |
| Schooled |
Illiterate |
| Rational/Scientific |
Superstitious |
| Progressive |
Backward |
| Active/assertive |
Passive |
| Hygienic/fit |
Squalid/malnourished |
| Strong |
Weak |
(Heretz 6)
Thus, “conscious” Ukrainians were often dismayed at the behaviour of recent Ukrainian
immigrants. Reverend
Nestor Dmytriw, visiting Ukrainian settlements in Western Canada in 1897 complained
about the women’s slovenliness and the foul habits of their unsupervised children,
urinating and defecating in public, something Dmytriw felt made Ukrainians look “worse
than Indians” in Anglo-Canadian eyes (Swyripa 57-58).
Whereas the perceived backwardness of the Ukrainian immigrants was a point of concern
for the “conscious” elite in the Ukrainian community, it was also noted by other immigrant
communities
to Canada.
Identifying Galician Ukrainians as the principal Other on the prairies, the Scandinavian
press in Canada presented the “Galician” in an unflattering light. Different reasons
for the backwardness were given. The
Norwegian language paper Vikingen in Edmonton referred to the Galicians—“the Russians”—as semi-barbarians, or halvvilde, and explained this barbarism as a consequence of their the Greek Catholic religion
(Lee [Lie] 1913). The perception of Greek Catholicism as an authoritarian, immoral,
and uncaring church
that failed to provide proper spiritual leadership was not unique to Scandinavian
Lutherans; Protestants of other denominations in Canada shared similar views (Swyripa
44-45, 47). The perceived Ukrainian “inferiority” was also explained in racial and
cultural terms. The largest Scandinavian paper in
Canada, Svenska Canada-Tidningen, described Ukrainians as belonging to an “entirely different culture and an alien
race, the Slavic race” (Lager), contrasting the cleanliness of the British and Scandinavian
immigrants with the
residences of the Southern, Central Europeans, and the Galicians. The Galicians “are
not used to any excessive cleanliness,” the Winnipeg paper complained. The immigration
authorities would do well to scrub
and disinfect the halls in which the Galicians have stayed, since “many of their guests
do not arrive alone, but bring their friends, whose names we
probably need not mention.” Svenska Canada-Tidningen questioned the Galiciansʼ ability to restrain their sexual urges, with which they
were thought to struggle, and approvingly cited the immigration authoritiesʼ policy
of keeping the sexes strictly separated.
There were also economic reasons for the rivalry. The steady stream of Ukrainian immigrants
kept the wages low and set Scandinavian and Ukrainian unskilled labourers against
one another. In the early 1910s the Scandinavian community in Alberta lobbied the
Liberal Party—traditionally the recent immigrants’ party of choice—to sharply curtail
Slavic immigration. Vikingen was concerned that salaries were depressed as a result of the influx of “Russians,
coming here to work for $1.50 a day” (Lee [Lie] 1914).
Swedish immigrants to North America generally perceived Ukrainians as such an “unusual”
nationality that they even lacked a Swedish term to describe them, borrowing the
English term “Galician” instead, a word they used very imprecisely. Whereas this name applies properly only to immigrants from the Hapsburg province
of Galicia, Scandinavians employed it as a derogatory term for “all Slavic people,
and it is indiscriminately used for others, including Greeks. Swarthy,
bearded people who do not speak English are Galicians.” as Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose observed in 1927 during a tour sponsored
by the Canadian Pacific Railroad (Hale 2005 1). While Ukrainian-Scandinavian relations
in Western Canada were tense, he found them
particularly tense in Alberta. “The Scandinavian calls [the Ukrainian] ingratiating,
a payer of lip service, dishonest,
lying, vindictive and intemperate,” Sandemose writes in his correspondence.
I’d had it with this perpetual racial talk! … Even the least prejudiced farmers had objected to the fact that the Galicians built
their houses differently. Why did the Galicians do that? And why couldn’t they learn
proper English?
The farmers didn’t know that the Galicians asked the very same questions. Why can’t
these Swedes build their houses like ordinary people? Why can’t they learn proper
English? Neither group could speak English. Each individual thought he spoke “fluent
English,” but to Canadians it was some strange language. The Scandinavians spoke a
tongue with a Nordic wash of waves—the Galicians one with a Slavic undertone …
“What do these people mean, calling us Swedes?” asked the Danes indignantly. And the
Hungarians and Ukrainians wrinkled their eyebrows when they heard the word “Galician.”
“Why do the Swedes call us that?” … Immigrants in America discover very quickly that they are not regarded as people
of the highest degree. But they are powerless when faced with the natives’ enormous
majority and established security. Therefore they create their own pecking order.
There is no limit to how a Swede, Dane or Norwegian after three months’ stay in Canada
or the U.S. can feel himself raised above the Poles. It’s a self-importance of such
monstrous dimensions that there’s nothing to do except look for the explanation in
the man’s own mind.
(Hale 2005 143)
Fortunately for Canadians of Scandinavian and German descent they were indeed considered
the best of Canada’s new citizens, for they were regarded as industrious and culturally
close kindred to the Anglo-Saxons. Robert England gives the following description
of Scandinavians in his 1929 discussion:
The Scandinavians do not constitute a problem. They readily inter-marry with Germans
or Anglo-Saxons, and by reason of their close kinship to people of Anglo-Saxon origin
in traditions, history, and ideals, they are easily Canadianized. Accustomed to the
rigours of a northern climate, clear-blooded, thrifty, ambitious and hardworking,
they will be certain of success in a pioneer country where the strong, not the weak,
were wanted. (49–50)
The Winnipeg Free Press described the Scandinavians as model immigrants: “In the evening,
when the lights are lit and every home becomes a happy combination
of library and workshop, you will most likely find the humble Yon Yonson leaned over
‘Paradise Lost’ or a work by H. C. Andersen.”
Sir Charles Tupper, the High Commissioner for Canada in London, noted that “The Scandinavian
becomes at once an ideal immigrant who is not surpassed by any other
nation, not even by the pick of emigrants from the United Kingdom” (Jalava 3).
The Canadian Magazine contrasted the excellent quality of Icelanders and Scandinavians to that of Galicians,
depicting the latter as
the unfortunate products of a civilization which is one thousand years behind the
Canadian … They do not share the Canadians’ respect for life and freedom, nor their perception
of cleanliness. Therefore they need to be put under surveillance … Their dirty and overcrowded dwellings are without doubt a breeding ground for crime
and vice. (Chapman)
Perceived as model immigrants, Scandinavians were under strong pressure to assimilate
into the Canadian mainstream. This process of assimilation was difficult for many
Scandinavian pioneers, particularly the women, who found it painful to witness their
children losing the language of the old country, a phenomenon observed by Sandemose:
Later there is the tragedy with the children. English is soon their language of preference.
They hear only a limited number of people speaking Danish and consequently their language
of birth becomes impoverished and colourless. Their stock of Danish words and expressions
diminishes. Standard Danish or other dialects are often unintelligible to them. They
can read Danish only with difficulty and would prefer not to do so at all. When the
children are seven years old they are taken to the school, where they learn English,
Canadian history, etc. They are indoctrinated with a patriotic feeling for Canada,
pride in being part of the British Empire. They are sure to be Danish-Canadians, but
mostly Canadians. This is a deadly blow to a Danish and Danish-speaking mother. She
feels she is standing in her children’s way. Whatever they are happy about she doesn’t
understand. They quarrel with her, that strange creature who can’t speak the only
proper language. Soon they move about in what for her is a distant haze. She is a
helpless, strange bird to her children. She cannot assist them and doesn’t know whether
what’s happening to them is good or evil.
It grows worse as the years pass. The children sit in the room with her and speak
English if they don’t want her to understand something. She thinks they are talking
about her … The new land has robbed her of everything. The first year she complains and suffers
openly. Then she becomes silent. But anyone who denies the tragedy of the first generation
woman is quite simply blind.
(Sandemose 1928b in Hale 2005 56-57)
While a high percentage of all Nordic immigrants to Canada intermarried with other
ethnic groups, this trend was particularly strong among the Danes. Métis and other
Native populations on the prairies often assisted the Danish colonists, and the relations
between the two communities were generally good. After having visited a Danish settlement
in Alberta, Sandemose rehearsed his conversation with a local farmer in his diary
“What would you say if your son came one day and introduced a half-blood as his sweetheart?”
“She would, at any rate, if she were decent in other respects, be more welcome than
a Galician girl,” answered the Danish farmer (Sandemose 1927).
The animosity occasionally took violent forms. Staying with a Danish farmer in Holden,
Alberta in 1927, Sandemose experienced this first hand.
It happened that fate caught up with me. I was walking up to the farm from the town
with that pleasant feeling of human worth being equipped with new boots gives one.
They were good boots with thick soles, and also I had got them for a good price after
the necessary bargaining. And there came Jim [the Danish farmer’s dog] flying across
the field to greet me. He rushed up straight as an arrow … It wasn’t easy for me to realize that Jim had come to take my life … The snow lay trampled where Jim and I concluded our friendship. I still have white
scars on my hands and arms after the battle … Finally the farmer came and got a rope around the dog’s hind legs … In the kitchen I had my wounds cleaned with iodine and bandaged … There in the kitchen came the explanation. For after I was bandaged and was sitting
over a cup of coffee following my fright, I showed off the new boots I had bought
in town. Jim had unfortunately sunk his teeth into them too, and faint traces of them
could be seen on my feet. Then the farmer understood everything, “You bought those
boots at the Galician’s!” Yes, indeed I had. But the Scandinavians in the colony didn’t
usually shop there, and they often let the man feel their contempt. “What a smart
dog Jim was! A hell of a dog! He caught the scent of a Galician when you came in with
those boots! Good dog!” I was a bit confused on account of the turn the matter had
taken. People were bragging about Jim to high heaven. There you can definitely see
proof that there is something wrong with these Galicians! Even dumb animals understand
that … At the time I was for my part aware that Jim understood nothing. It has been for
him a source of eternal wonderment why he got a whipping and was not supposed to kill
me. Poor common SA man that he was. With brilliant logic the people placed the damned
critter on a level with themselves and far over the Galicians, because they had succeeded
in bringing him up with their prejudices, and on account of the nature of the case
he could never come higher up the ladder than to the dirty job of executioner. But
now they talked about instinct, about the whisper of the blood and about the nobility of the soul so that I as a noble human being stood quite humiliated.
Perhaps the most aggressive anti-Ukrainian attitudes are found in the writings of
the Swedish immigrant author Karl Gunnarson.
Gunnarson refers to Poles as “locusts” (1942 173) and Ukrainians, or “Bohunks, as
this swarthy riff-raff is called in Canada” (1949 35) as a horde of barbarians:
Polacker och galizier, dessa svartmuskiga mullvadsmänniskor, smutsiga, stinkande,
fulla av ohyra, utgöra huvudparten av emigranter till Kanada. När vi komma 3,000 svenskar,
komma dessa lika många hundratusen. I ett arbetslag på 1,000 man därute bestå 900
av dessa svartingar som man knappast erkänner som vitt folk. I ett settlement, där
galizier och polacker slå sig ned, fly alla andra nationer för att komma undan detta
tjuvaktiga, smutsiga pack, som sedan århundraden vants att arbeta under slavpiskan
och framleva sitt liv under de uslaste förhållanden. Deras levnadsstandard är så låg
att de kunna livnära sig på en lök och litet bröd för dagen och kunna därför arbeta
för några cent i dagsavlöning. Om förmännen misshandla dem i arbetet, om en flock
av dem gasas och krossas i gruvornas schakt och blir borta frågar ingen efter. Det
kommer tusen för en istället, krypa sig till arbete, krypa under de förra i avlöning.
(1942 24-25)
[Poles and Galicians, these swarthy mole people, dirty, stinking, full of vermin,
constitute
the majority of emigrants to Canada. If 3,000 of us Swedes arrive, one hundred times
as many people of this kind arrive. In a work team of 1,000 men out there 900 of them
are these swarthy people who can hardly to be regarded as white people. If these Galicians
and Poles move into a settlement, all other nations flee in order to get away from
this thieving, dirty rabble. For centuries, they have been used to working under the
whip of a slave driver and living their lives under the most miserable of conditions.
Their standard of living is so utterly low that they can live a whole day on an onion
and a little bread. They can therefore work for only a few pennies a day. Nobody cares
if their foremen physically abuse them at work, or if a flock of them were to be gassed
or crushed in the mineshafts and disappear. For every one that is killed, thousands
more arrive, crawling to work, cringing for a salary lower than the previous ones
had.]
Gunnarson describes his first encounter with these people upon his arrival in Halifax.
[De galiciska immigranterna] kom ned i väntsalen med sina trasbylten. De spredo en
fruktansvärd stank omkring sig, luften i hallarna blev som i en förpestad kloak. Instinktivt
skockade vi skandinavier ihop oss och drogo oss bort i salens friskaste hörn. Föga
anade skandinavgruppen, där vi den dagen stodo i våra rena, snygga kläder, att dessa
stinkande människor skulle bli våra arbetskamrater, att vi genom vidriga förhållanden
på arbetsmarknaden skulle stickas in i deras led hos de stora bolagen, att vi skulle
arbeta sida vid sida med dem, äta vid samma matbord, dela bäddar med dem, få våra
kläder myllrande av deras loss och våra kroppar ätna såriga av deras ohyra … Det långa emigranttåget, som skulle gå som extratåg ända till Winnipeg, körde fram.
Och jag måste säga till emigrationsmyndigheternas heder, vi skandinaver fingo verkligen
verkligen ta plats först på tåget. Först de skandinaviska flickorna, tyskorna voro
också med, så vi män, och man sörjde väl för att vi fingo god plats.
Galizierna höllos tillbaka av polis. Sedan skandinavkontingenten fått tillräckligt
med vagnar och utrymme sig tilldelat öppnades poliskedjan, som hållit svartfolket
tillbaka. Massan vällde ut genom dörrarna, män, kvinnor, ungar och knyten om vartannat
och stormade tåget. Men det fanns plats för dem alla även om en familj på 8 personer
fingo nöja sig med samma utrymme som 4 av oss skandinaver. (1942 24-25)
[(Galician immigrants) came down into the waiting hall with their bundles. They stank
terribly, and the air in the hall became like a rotten sewer. We Scandinavians huddled
instinctively and withdrew to the freshest corner of the hall. Few of us in the Scandinavian
group could have guessed, when we that day stood there in our clean, proper clothes,
that these stinking people would become our working colleagues and … that we would work side by side with them, eat at the same tables, share beds with
them, get our clothes infested by their lice, and our bodies covered by scabs and
puss after having them eaten by their vermin … The long, special emigrant train which would bring us all the way to Winnipeg was
brought up. I have to say that to the credit of the emigration [sic] authorities,
we Scandinavians were allowed to board the train first. First the Scandinavian girls,
and the German girls with them, then us men, and they took particular care to make
sure that we were given plenty of space. The Galicians were held back by police. Only
after the Scandinavian contingent had been given enough coaches and space did the
police cordons, which had kept the swarthy riff-raff back, open. The mass flooded
through the doors, men, women, children and baggage in a mess stormed the train. But
there was space for all of them, even if a family of eight people would have to make
do with the same space as four of us Scandinavians.]
Nu ville olyckan att man under natten kopplat in restaurationsvagnen mitt i tågsättet,
vi hade flera galiziervagnar att passera för att ta oss dit. Det var någonting rysligt
när man kom in i dessa vagnar. Luften stod tjock så man kunde skära sig fram i den
förfärligaste stank. Jag höll på att tappa andan och ville vända … Fram klättrade vi också vagn efter vagn bland svartmuskiga människor i olika åldrar.
Där var ruskiga karlar som spelade kort med svarta, solkiga lekar. Där var mödrar
som sutto halv-nakna med dibarn vid brösten. Unga, granna, mörkögda flickor, endast
iförda solkiga linnen. Folk som lågo i buntar på bänkarna, barfota kvinnor och män
i kalsongerna. Högar av ungar, ungar som rullade nakna på golvet, ungar som slogos
och skreko och ungar som sutto på spottkopparna och gjorde sitt tarv!
[
We had the misfortune that during the night the restaurant car had been placed in
the middle of the train; we had to pass several Galician cars to get there. Entering
these cars was something horrible. The air was so thick that one could cut oneself
through this most horrendous stench. I was about to lose my breath and wanted to turn
around … We climbed through car after car among swarthy people in different ages. There were
terrifying men playing cards with dirty, soiled decks of cards. Half-naked mothers
were breast-feeding infants. Young, pretty, dark-eyed girls, wearing only dirty undergarments.
People were lying in droves on the benches, barefoot women and men in their underwear.
Piles of kids, kids who rolled around naked on the floor, kids who fought and screamed
and kids who sat on the spittoons and attended to their natural needs!]
Gunnarson’s popular account of his immigrant experiences in Canada appeared in four
editions.
A more multi-faceted and sympathetic view of the Ukrainian-Canadians can be found
in the writings of one of most popular modern Swedish writers, Sven Delblanc (1931-1993). Born in Swan River, Manitoba, Delblanc described his childhood and his parents’ immigrant
experiences in “Kaanans Land” [The Land of Canaan] (1984) and “Agnar” [Chaffs] (1992).
Here, Delblanc’s Ukrainian neighbours are portrayed with sympathy. The hostile
Anglo-Scandinavian neighbours frowned upon the fact that the Ukrainians had built
houses in the style of the old country, with the house connected to the barn and having
pigs and chickens running in their kitchen.
“Finast var de infödda kanadensarna, helst om de härstammade från brittiska öarna.
Något mindre fina var skandinaverna, britternas enkla kusiner från landet, i rang
jämställda med holländare och tyskar. Nordborna hade ett rykte om sig för enfald,
kanske för att de lätt kunde luras i affärer. Irländarna var ganska sällsynta. De
flydde helst en neslig lydnad under engelska kronan för att uppsöka sina otaliga fränder
i USA. Lägre än tyskar och skandinaver kom sydeuropéer, “dagos” och “wops” och vad
de nu kallades, ännu längre kom östeuropéernas brokiga skara av “russkies,” “bohunks,”
“polaks,” ett myller av folkslag som ofta buntades ihop under samlingsnamnet “galicier.”
Negrerna var fåtaliga och förekom mest som tågmästare och sovvagnskonduktörer, och
man kunde därför skryta med att inte ha några “negerproblem” eller fördomar … Judeproblemet horde storstaden till, den “gula faran” spökade mest på västkusten.
(74–75)
[
The most superior were the native Canadians, especially those who derived from the
British Isles. Somewhat less superior were the Scandinavians, their simple cousins
from the countryside, in rank equal to the Dutch and the Germans. The Scandinavians
had a reputation of being naive, perhaps because they could be easily fooled in business
transactions … Below the Germans and the Scandinavians were southern Europeans, the “dagos” and
“wops” and whatever they were called. Lower still was the motley group of eastern
Europeans,
the “ruskies,” “bohunks,” “polaks,” a multitude of people who were often labeled as
one group—“Galicians.” The negroes were few and figured mostly as train inspectors
and sleeping car conductors
of night trains, and one could therefore brag about not having any “negro problem”
or prejudices … The Jewish problem belonged to the big cities, the “yellow peril” was mostly a spectre
of the west coast.]
Delblanc describes another part of the Ukrainian-Canadian experience—how his Ukrainian
neighbours were integrated into Canadian society over the years. While the depression
forced many Scandinavian and German immigrant farmers to pack up and leave as single-crop
commercial farming became unprofitable, the Galicians, with their old-world, diversified,
and self-sufficient farming, rode out the storm. As the depression forced Delblanc’s
family to abandon their homestead and return to Sweden, Delblanc presents the Ukrainians
as the most dedicated Canadians. They proved their tenacity and loyalty to the new
land by their grit, staying on the land during the difficult years of the depression,
while the preferred, Northern European immigrants left. In a final, ironic twist,
the Galicians acquired the farms the Swedes had abandoned, which constituted a turning
point in the Ukrainian immigrant experience in Canada. Following the depression, anti-Ukrainian
attitudes recede as the Ukrainians established their Canadian credentials. As the
Ukrainians entered the Canadian mainstream, the anti-Ukrainian comments fade. Already
by the 1950s, this discourse has all but disappeared.
The emergence and decline of anti-Ukrainian stereotypes within the Scandinavian
immigrant community of the Canadian prairies illustrates some of the dynamics of the
socio-economic rivalry
between two immigrant communities. It confirms Pickering’s observation that the stereotypical
fixity of the Other is never absolutely achieved, nor is it permanent and unchanging
(170).
During the first third of the twentieth century, “Galician” came to represent the
Slavic, Catholic, brutal, foreign, illiterate and regressive
Other, the antipode to the Scandinavian and Scandinavian-Canadian self-image as the
ideal, progressive, enlightened, integrated, and loyal immigrant. For many Scandinavian
immigrants to Canada the image of the Galician Ukrainian quickly merged with the established
stereotype of the crude and barbarian “Russian,” the backwardness of whom was interchangeably
articulated in cultural, religious,
and “racial” terms. By emphasizing the otherness of the Ukrainians the Scandinavians
made themselves
appear less exotic, keeping nativist calls for assimilation at bay. The preoccupation
with the perceived Galician backwardness was shared by “conscious” Ukrainians, but
with a different aim. To many Scandinavian immigrants, struggling
to find their place in the new country, the image of the backward Galician pointed
at a community of interest between the Scandinavian immigrants and Anglo-Saxon majority
society, facilitating their integration of into mainstream Canadian society.