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By Dr. Orest Popovych, Press, Shevchenko Scientific Society, NYC
The Ukrainian Weekly, Ukrainian National Association,
Parsippany, NJ, May 4, 2003, No. 18, Vol. LXXI
NEW YORK - Scholars from the U.S., Canada and Ukraine convened at the
Shevchenko Scientific Society (NTSh) building on April 6 in order to mark
the 70th anniversary of the "Holodomor" - the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide -
with two roundtable discussions, offering analysis of this Ukrainian tragedy
from several perspectives. The first roundtable dealt with archival
materials pertaining to the Famine of 1932-1933 while the second examined
the treatment of this subject in art and literature.
The program was opened by NTSh President Dr. Larissa Onyshkevych, who
transferred the proceedings to Dr. Yaroslav Pelensky, director of the
Institute of European Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
and president of the Lypynsky Institute of Eastern European Research, who
chaired the roundtables, introducing the speakers and their topics.
The first to speak was Dr. Taras Hunczak, professor of history at Rutgers
University, whose topic was "Materials on the 'Holodomor' in the Archives
of Ukraine." Dr. Hunczak focused on the manner in which the Famine in Soviet
Ukraine had galvanized and united those Ukrainians who lived in western
Ukraine, beyond the reach of Soviet rulers, and thus were able to act on
behalf of their starving brethren.
The initiative came from the Ukrainian parliamentary representation to the
Polish Sejm, which on July 25, 1933, created the Central Committee for the
Salvation of Ukraine, whose objective was both to collect food for the
starving people of Soviet Ukraine and to inform the Western world about
Ukraine's plight, urging intervention in defense of the Ukrainian people
through the League of Nations, the International Red Cross and other
channels.
In Halychyna, civic committees of this type were also activated at the
level of regions, towns and even villages, Dr. Hunczak continued. October
29, 1933 was designated as a day of mourning and protest, with solemn
gatherings, religious services and bells tolling throughout Western Ukraine.
A number of eloquent protest resolutions have documented these events.
The Central Committee for the Salvation of Ukraine was one of the
organizers of an international conference "to aid the starving in the Soviet
Union," which was held in Vienna in December of 1933. There were
other instances where Ukraine's tragedy was publicized in Western Europe.
Unfortunately, all of these efforts were to no avail, as Soviet authorities
steadfastly denied the existence of any famine on their territory, forbid
the importation of food for the starving and denied entry to the
International Red Cross.
In desperation, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists decided to avenge
the Famine-Genocide by assassinating the Soviet consul in Lviv. Mykola
Lemyk, a young student, volunteered for the task, and he shot and killed
one of the consular officials, but not the consul himself. Mr. Lemyk's act
was later described as "a shot in defense of millions," attesting to the
unity of the Ukrainian nation, Dr. Hunczak related.
Next was the lecture by Dr. Stanislav Kulchytsky of the Institute of History
of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine titled "Materials on the
'Holodomor' in the Archives of Ukraine and the USSR." Under the Soviet
regime, said Dr. Kulchytsky, documents pertaining to the Famine-Genocide
were marked "top secret" and the very use of the word "famine" was strictly
forbidden. With most of the archives accessible today, one can learn much
from the hundreds of local newspapers available from that time period, as
well as from documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Dr. Kulchytsky stressed the fact that simultaneously with starving to death
Ukrainian farmers, Soviet authorities perpetrated the liquidation of the
Ukrainian intelligentsia, thus investing these crimes with all the earmarks
of a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
Since November 2002 there have been many efforts in Ukraine to mark the
Famine-Genocide, with much of the inspiration coming from the activities of
the diaspora, said Dr. Kulchytsky. For the first time ever, the Verkhovna
Rada held hearings on the Famine. He offered his opinion that the Ukrainian
Parliament should petition the United Nations and other international
organizations to designate the 1932-1933 Famine in Ukraine as a genocide -
a designation that to this day is rejected by many scholars in the West.
The Institute of History in Kyiv is a major scholarly institution, employing
34 doctors of science and 80 candidates of science. It is also publisher of
books on Ukrainian history, and Dr. Kulchytsky presented several of them to
the NTSh library, significantly, a bibliography on the subject of the
Famine comprising more than 6,000 titles.
The last to speak in the first roundtable was Dr. Roman Serbyn, professor
emeritus of history at the University of Quebec. Dr. Serbyn researched
documents on the Famine at the International Red Cross in Geneva.
Unfortunately, he said, most of them pertained to the 1921-1923 Famine
in Ukraine, with only a few dealing with the Famine of 1932-1933.
Dr. Serbyn found a record of appeals to Moscow from the Red Cross and the
Catholic Church, as well as a number of Russian and Kozak ÈmigrÈ
organizations. As was mentioned before, the Soviet regime simply denied
the existence of the 1932-1933 famine. The speaker presented two of his
latest books to the NTSh library.
The second roundtable began with a lecture by Dr. Daria Darevych, a
professor at York University, and the president of the Shevchenko
Scientific Society in Canada, titled "The Theme of 'Holodomor' in Art."
While there are examples of art referring to the Ukrainian Famine of
1921-1923, the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 is virtually unrepresented
in the fine arts. Dr. Darevych surmised that art reflecting the Great Famine
was either not created to begin with, or was created, but subsequently
destroyed out of fear, under conditions of Stalinist terror.
In Ukraine, interest in this theme was awakened only in 1993, in
conjunction with the 60th anniversary of the Famine, to which a number of
artists dedicated their works, the most memorable being those of the Lviv
painter Roman Romanyshyn.
Lida Bodnar-Balahutrak, an American-born artist, applied the technique of
collage of Christian iconography with images of the Great Famine. In her
works, the sacred images are replaced by photographs of the Famine victims.
The last speaker was Dr. Onyshkevych, who discussed "The 'Holodomor' as
Presented in Drama." According to Dr. Onyshkevych, drama is usually the
last genre, after poetry and prose, to which writers turn on any subject,
and in the case of the Famine-Genocide there was also the strict prohibition
against this subject under the Soviet rule in the period of 1932-1991.
Nevertheless, a direct reference to the Famine did manage to sneak into one
play by Yuriy Yanovsky, "Potomky" (Descendants), published in 1939, although
in order to conform to the party line, the author had to restrict the Famine
and the blame for it to the class of "kurkuls" (kulaks), the well-to-do
farmers who were the first to be liquidated by the Soviets.
A couple of plays on the Great Famine were published in the United States.
The first, named "Velykyi Zlam" (The Great Break), was written in 1943 and
published in 1950 by Serhiy Kokot-Ledianskyi, an eyewitness to the famine,
who saw half the people of his village near Kyiv starve to death.
His play has some graphic depictions of the horrors of the "Holodomor,"
ending with an accusation directed at his fellow Ukrainians: "We die in
captivity, because at the critical moment we don't act, only keep silent and
hesitate, or just simply submit to the enemy, because he is strong."
The second play published in the United States was "Hunger 1933" by Bohdan
Boychuk, written in 1961-1962. Mr. Boychuk was not an eyewitness to the
Famine, but he gives an intensely emotional account of the subject,
extending its significance to the general issue of man's inhumanity to man.
What Dr. Onyshkevych found striking about the last two plays was the lack
of any blame, accusations or any call for revenge against the perpetrators
of the crimes of the Famine. She wondered if this attitude was typical only
of the two playwrights, or generally characteristic of Ukrainian culture.
In his summary of the program, Dr. Pelensky opined that studies of Ukraine's
Famine-Genocide have only now begun in earnest, and that they are
facing three formidable problems: 1) The existence of a literature of denial
of the "Holodomor," reflecting an attitude that is prevalent in Russia and
also among some scholars in the West. 2) The lack of assignment of
responsibility for these crimes, beyond the present generalities of blaming
Stalin or Stalinism. 3) The fear of eyewitness survivors of the Famine, many
of whom have been reluctant to tell their stories, even in the diaspora.
The Ukrainian Weekly, May 4, 2003, No. 18, Vol. LXXI,
Roma Hadzewycz, Editor-in-Chief, 2200 Route 10, PO Box 280
Parsippany, NJ 07054, archives www.ukrweekly.com
SHEVCHENKO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY
63 Fourth Avenue, New York, NY 10003, USA
(tel) 212-254-5130 T (fax) 212-254-5239
www.shevchenko.org
The Shevchenko Scientific Society (SSS) is an organization of learned men
and women dedicated to scholarship. It is the oldest Ukrainian academy of
arts and sciences whose activities have been the mainstay of Ukrainian
cultural life for over a century.
Founded in 1873 in the city of Lviv, Ukraine, the Society was liquidated by
the Soviet regime in 1939; however, it was reestablished in 1947 in Western
Europe and in the United States, and in 1989 in Ukraine. The headquarters
of the Society in the US is located in New York City; besides offices and
lecture halls, it contains a specialized library, a depository of archives
pertaining to Ukraine and the Ukrainian diaspora, and an art collection.
The Society has chapters in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, PA, Chicago, IL,
Detroit, MI, and Cleveland, OH. National Shevchenko Scientific Societies
exist also in Australia, Canada, Poland, Slovakia, and one headquartered in
Sarcelles, France, for members in Western Europe. The work of all Shevchenko
Scientific Societies is coordinated by a quadrennially elected World Council
with offices in Lviv, New York, and Toronto.
The scope of the Society is international. Its membership, past and present,
includes many distinguished foreign scholars, among them the physicists
Albert Einstein and Max Planck, and the French scholar André Mazon.
Starting in 1892, the Society has published over 230 volumes of The Memoirs
of the Shevchenko Scientific Society (each volume contains articles on a
particular topic or discipline), a considerable number of scholarly works in
various languages, e.g., three multi-volume encyclopedias of Ukraine, and
is now publishing an Encyclopedia of Ukrainian Diaspora.
The Society has also published over 120 scholarly volumes (some jointly
with other scholarly presses), among them Ukraine and Ukrainians in the
World (1994), Towards An Intellectual History of Ukraine: An Anthology
of Ukrainian Thought from 1710 to 1995 (1995, in Ukrainian), and a 2-vol.
Ukrainian-Czech Dictionary (1994-96 ). Members receive a 20% discount
on books published by the Society.
In the United States, the Society organizes and sponsors scholarly
conferences, colloquia, symposia, and weekly public lectures. It is an
affiliate member of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic
Studies (AAASS), the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), and
a consortium of the greater New York scholarly institutions involved with
Ukrainian Studies. The Society participates in national and international
scholarly conferences and congresses on Ukrainian and/or Slavic Studies.
It also provides research grants for scholars and stipends for qualified
students.
While the main function of the Shevchenko Scientific Society in the United
States lies in the areas of scholarship and education, at its headquarters
in New York, it also provides for the general public: information for
students on institutions of higher learning; facilities for neighborhood
educational programs, and poetry readings.
The Shevchenko Scientific Society, USA, is exempt from Federal Income
Tax under the provision of section 101(6) of the Internal Revenue Code.
Receipts for tax purposes are provided for all donations to the Society.
The library catalogue is accessible in English or Ukrainian on the Society's
home page: www.shevchenko.org.
Shevchenko Scientific Society, 63 Fourth Avenue, NY, NY 10003-5200
Tel. (212) 254-5130; Fax (212) 254-5239, e-mail: info@shevchenko.org
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