Mary Kardash (born Mary Kostaniuk; 1913 – 1994) was a

Communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

and

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

activist in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.PROPAGANDA AND PERSUASION IN THE COLD WAR: THE CANADIAN SOVIET FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY, 1949-1960
J Anderson, PhD thesis, Carleton University, 2008

Biography

Kardash was born in Winnipeg and was of

Ukrainian Canadian Ukrainian Canadians ( uk, Українські канадці, Україноканадці, translit=Ukrayins'ki kanadtsi, Ukrayinokanadtsi; french: Canadiens d'origine ukrainienne) are Canadians, Canadian citizens of Ukrainians, Ukrainian desce ...

background. Her parents were both active in the Ukrainian Labour-Farmer Temple Association (ULFTA, a left-wing organization within the Ukrainian Canadian community) and her father was a Communist organiser. Mary herself was active in the ULFTA's youth movement and worked as a YCL organiser. She was active in the Communist Party's predecessor, the

Labor-Progressive Party The Labor-Progressive Party (french: Parti ouvrier-progressiste) was the legal Front organization, front of the Communist Party of Canada from 1943 to 1959. Origins and initial success In the 1940 Canadian federal election, 1940 federal elect ...

, before becoming "an important ommunistParty worker in Manitoba".''Dreams of Equality: Women on the Canadian Left, 1920–1950'', by Joan Sangster Kardash became secretary of the

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

branch of the Canadian-Soviet Friendship Society. She travelled to Moscow in 1949 as part of the Canadian delegation from the Congress of Canadian Women to the

Women's International Democratic Federation Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) is an international organization with the stated goal of working for women's rights. It was established in 1945 and was most active during the Cold War. It initially focussed on anti-fascism, worl ...

(WIDF), a post-war international for women's organizations from the Communist bloc. As one of a group of long-lived Winnipeg communist municipal politicians, after several attempts, Kardash was first elected to the Winnipeg

school board A board of education, school committee or school board is the board of directors or board of trustees of a school, local school district or an equivalent institution. The elected council determines the educational policy in a small regional are ...

in 1960, and she served as a member intermittently until 1986, being elected as a

Communist Party of Canada The Communist Party of Canada (french: Parti communiste du Canada) is a federal political party in Canada, founded in 1921 under conditions of illegality. Although it does not currently have any parliamentary representation, the party's can ...

candidate. She supported radical reform and particularly programs to support aboriginal children, notably during a period of Conservative rule in Manitoba from the late 1970s. It was her retirement from the Winnipeg school board in the late 1980s that ended several decades of Communist representation in the city. Mary met her future husband,

Bill Kardash William Arthur Kardash (June 10, 1912 – January 17, 1997) was a politician and member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba from 1941 until 1958. He served as Winnipeg MLA from 1941 to 1958, as Worker's Candidate at first, then as a represe ...

, in 1939 and they married in March 1940, later having two children, Ted and Nancy. Bill was also a Communist leader and represented the party in the

Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba (french: Assemblée législative du Manitoba) is the deliberative assembly of the Manitoba Legislature in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Fifty-seven members are elected to this assembly at provincial gener ...

from 1941 to 1958. Mary ran in north Winnipeg as a Communist candidate for the

in the 1973 provincial election (in Burrows), and for the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

in the 1974 federal election (in

Winnipeg North Centre Winnipeg North Centre was a federal electoral district in Manitoba, Canada, that was represented by a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons of Canada from 1925 to 2004. It is a largely working class riding in Winnipeg and has tradition ...

), but won under 200 votes in both attempts. In the 1980s, Mary Kardash courted controversy by questioning the generally accepted account of the 1932/3

Ukrainian famine The Holodomor ( uk, Голодомо́р, Holodomor, ; derived from uk, морити голодом, lit=to kill by starvation, translit=moryty holodom, label=none), also known as the Terror-Famine or the Great Famine, was a man-made famin ...

and opposing a proposal that the history of the famine be included in the educational curriculum. The Communist Party acknowledged that many Ukrainians died by famine in the early 1930s, but they and she denied that

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secreta ...

's government was responsible for an act of

genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...

.http://ukrweekly.com/archive/1984/The_Ukrainian_Weekly_1984-10.pdf Mary and Bill Kardash resisted efforts to dissolve the Communist Party of Canada after the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991. Mary died in 1994. The St. Cross Child Care Centre of Winnipeg was renamed the Mary Kardash Child Care Centre in her honour in 1995.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kardash, Mary Canadian socialists Communist Party of Canada (Manitoba) candidates in Manitoba provincial elections Canadian people of Ukrainian descent Women in Manitoba politics Manitoba school board members Politicians from Winnipeg 1913 births 1994 deaths