The "First Canadian Agricultural Commune" in Myhai, north of Odesa, was founded in 1922 by a group of Ukrainians emigrants that returned from Canada. This lecture examines the history of the commune through a multitude of sources from Canadian, Ukrainian, and Russian archives. Letters and personal accounts of the Canadian communards shed light on the young enthusiasts who envisioned their future in the new Soviet state. However, they soon became disappointed with Soviet reality. The Myhai commune was widely covered by the Ukrainian Canadian press, as it was an early test case for the credibility of the Ukrainian Left in Canada.
Dr. Matthias Kaltenbrunner earned his Ph.D. from the University of Vienna in 2015. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Kule Folklore Centre, University of Alberta. His research interests include migration history, especially within the Ukrainian-Canadian context. He is currently working on a book project titled "The Globally Connected Village: A Ukrainian-Canadian History."