Spotlight on Sacramento Ukrainians

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – During the Cold War, thousands of Ukrainians were introduced to America by a voice that came across the Pacific Ocean and into their shortwave radios.

The voice was that of Paul Demetrus, a radio preacher in Sacramento who delivered Christianity to a community clinging to its faith in the officially atheist Soviet Union.

When Soviet emigration restrictions were eased in the 1980s, many of Demetrus' listeners joined a flight toward religious freedom and headed toward a place they knew: Sacramento.

There are now an estimated 75,000 Ukrainians and Russians living in the Sacramento metropolitan area, out of an overall population of 1.8 million.