LONHIN PENCAK

Architect

Date and Place of Birth: 1934 in Domaninka, Ukraine

Date of Interview: Thursday June 30, 2016

Place of Interview: Toronto, Ontario

Interviewer: Kassandra Luciuk

Length of Interview: 01:29:22 (raw)

(Excerpt):

I went, by the way, for two months, during the independence [1991], for the voting of independence, spent two months there, to see if I could be of some help and so on, and so, totally involved in trying to help, because I still had a good position, and they said, hey, we could gain something from that. I had a hotel, I don’t know if you’re familiar with Kyiv at all, anyway, I had, from my hotel which was Lybid, I had to walk on Boulevard Shevchenka [Taras Shevchenko Boulevard], to Bazar and then alongside Khreschatyk [Street], to Motherhood [monument] you know to the other hotel, Kyiv eventually up again, and I walk along Boulevard Shevchenka, and I hear now and then Ukrainian, very rarely, mostly it’s all Russian. That used to bother me, that used to really bother me, but people said well have to understand and all this.[Then] I go after the referendum, same streets, same voices, same language and I understood. Because at that time I said 92% of those people voted for independence of Ukraine, I get a little emotional about that, you know…sorry guys. I wake up on Sunday after the referendum, spending the night you know, in different offices, listening what’s happening here, what’s happening there, you know. Especially with Zhytomyr, there was a whole battalion, or whatever you call it group, division, of the Ukrainian army. The old army is standing there and they were waiting for the result on the phone and around 4 o’clock they say they have the answer, and you know now what happened there. And the fellow who was on the phone, you know, looked kind of sad, and he said we have the answer. We said, “Oh my God.” He said, “Well now, 92% voted for [independence]!!!” Hurrah!

CROSS REFERENCES:

• Lonhin Pencak mentioned in Newspaper article  "Unveil Plans for Revenue Building Oshawa." The Canadian Statesman [Bowmanville] 5 Sept. 1979: 9. Web. 11 July 2016.