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LEVEL OF DESCRIPTION: Fonds
No.: PR3363
TITLE: Anthony Hlynka fonds
CREATOR: Anthony Hlynka
DATE RANGE: 1939-2007
EXTENT: 0.96 m of textual materials. -- 62 photographs. -- 1 VHS cassette.
ADMINISTRATIVE
HISTORY/BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: Anthony H. Hlynka was born in the village of Denysiv, Ternopil County, in Halychyna (Galicia), Western Ukraine, on May 28, 1907, the son of Harry Hlynka and Katherine Krywaniuk. The Hlynka family came to Canada from Ukraine in 1910. He attended public school at Delph, Alberta, before studying at Edmonton Technical High School, Alberta College. A founding member of the Ukrainian National Federation (UNF) in 1932, he helped with organization and with subscription drives for its publication, Novyi shliakh (New Pathway). He published his own magazine, Klych (The Call), written in both Ukrainian and English, between 1935 and 1940. In 1937, Hlynka joined the Social Credit party and began editing the party's Ukrainian-language newspaper, Suspilnyi kredyt (The Social Credit.) He also began working for the Provincial Government of Alberta in 1938 in the Bureau of Information as a translator and interpreter. Hlynka became the Member of Parliament for Vegreville in 1940, running as the Social Credit Candidate, only the second person of Ukrainian descent to serve as an MP in the House of Commons. From 1940-1945 he was also the only Ukrainian elected member of a democratic parliament in the world. He was re-elected to Parliament in 1945 before being defeated in a contentious re-election race in 1949. During his time as an MP Hlynka championed the rights of displaced persons and refugees following the end of the Second World War and spoke out against forced repatriation, touring displaced persons camps in Germany, Austria, and Italy, in late 1946 and early 1947. He also advocated for the creation of a free Ukrainian state after the end of the Second World War, speaking on the subject both in Canada and abroad. After losing his seat Hlynka returned to Alberta and briefly practiced insurance before running again, unsuccessfully, as the Social Credit Candidate for the Vegreville seat in 1953. After the election, Hlynka began writing an autobiography in Ukrainian focusing on his life in politics and various Ukrainian Canadian issues but it was not completed. Anthony Hlynka died on April 25, 1957. Hlynka married Stephanie Cholevka on Nov. 27, 1943. They had two children, Gloria Alexandra and Eugene Anthony. After her husband's death, Stephanie Hlynka pursued the publication of his memoir, resulting in a Ukrainian language edition being released in 1982 and a translated English language edition being released through the University of Calgary Press in 2005. She currently lives in Scarborough, Ontario.
CUSTODIAL HISTORY:The materials were deposited at the Provincial Archives of Alberta by Stephanie Hlynka in 2008.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: The fonds consists of materials created during and after Hlynka's political career including original memoir manuscripts, typed and handwritten, diary entries, correspondence between Hlynka and various people, typed and handwritten speeches, materials related to his activism for displaced persons during the Second World War and from his post war tour of Europe, materials related to his marriage, scrapbooks of newspaper clippings and other materials related to his career, marriage, election loss, death, and legacy, official Hansard copies of speeches he gave in the House of Commons, and various photographs (1939-1957). The fonds also includes materials related to the publishing of his memoirs, the Ukrainian edition in 1982 and the English edition in 2005, including correspondence between Stephanie Hlynka and numerous people, published copies of the memoirs, materials related to, and a video recording of, a lecture given at the University of Manitoba Centre for Ukrainian Studies in 2002 on "Ukrainian Immigration to Canada: Anthony Hlynka and the Third Wave, 1940-1949", and materials regarding other members of the Hlynka family including Anthony Hlynka's brother Dr. Isydore Hlynka and Stephanie Hlynka's uncle Volodymyr Klisch, a pioneer in Polish aviation.
ASSOCIATED MATERIAL: Additional information on Anthony Hlynka can be found in the Alberta Liberal Association fonds at the Glenbow Archives.
GENERAL NOTE:

Information for the administrative history/biographical sketch sourced from the fonds.

A copy of Anthony Hlynka's memoirs in Ukrainian and in English is available in the Provincial Archives of Alberta Library.

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