ACTION
UKRAINE REPORT - AUR
An International Newsletter, The Latest,
Up-To-Date
In-Depth Ukrainian
News, Analysis and Commentary
Ukrainian History, Culture, Arts,
Business, Religion, Economics,
Sports, Government, and Politics, in Ukraine and Around the
World
ACTION
UKRAINE REPORT - AUR - Number 920
Mr. Morgan
Williams, Publisher and Editor, SigmaBleyzer
WASHINGTON,
D.C., FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2008
INDEX OF ARTICLES ------
Clicking on the
title of any article takes you directly to the
article.
Return to Index by
clicking on Return to Index at the end of each article
Holodomor is a Ukrainian invention
By Conor Sweeney, Reuters, Moscow, Russia, Friday,
Dec 19, 2008
By Maria Kulczycky, Chicago, Illinois, Saturday, December 6,
2008
Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Washington, D.C., Friday,
December 19, 2008
By Zoreslaw Bayduk, Voice of America (VOA), in
Ukrainian, Wash, D.C., Tue, Dec 2, 2008
English translation by Borys Potapenko, Detroit,
Michigan, AUR, Wash, D.C., Dec 18, 2008
Review & Outlook Editorial: Wall Street
Journal Europe, NY, NY, Tue, Nov 25, 2008
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16
. RUSSIAN
FEDERAL SECURITY SERVICE GENERAL DENIES HOLODOMOR
Says
Holodomor is a Ukrainian invention
By Conor Sweeney, Reuters, Moscow, Russia, Friday, Dec 19,
2008
MOSCOW - A Federal Security Service general on Thursday
dismissed as an "invention" a 1930s famine that Ukraine has asked
Russia to recognize as genocide after Kiev urged the Kremlin to join in
commemorations for millions of dead.
The dispute over the Holodomor, or mass famine, of the 1930s, in which
historians believe 7.5 million died, is one of many pitting the Kremlin
against Kiev's pro-Western leaders.
President Dmitry Medvedev stayed away from ceremonies to mark the 75th
anniversary of the calamity last month and accused Ukrainian President
Viktor Yushchenko of distorting history for political gain.
"The Holodomor is a Ukrainian invention," General Vasily Khristoforov,
head of the registration and archives department at the Federal
Security Service, or FSB, told Interfax. "Ukraine is trying to prove
that the 1930s famine was an act of genocide that the Stalinist
leadership committed against Ukrainians.
"Archive documents show undeniably that there was no deliberate
genocide against the Ukrainian people. We have not found a single
directive that would have even hinted about deliberate genocide against
the Ukrainian people."
Researchers, Khristoforov told Interfax, had proven beyond all doubt
that a famine in the late 1920s and 1930s did grip various southern
Soviet regions.
"Yes, it did, but not only in Ukraine," he said.
About a dozen countries have recognized the Holodomor, one of three
famines to hit Ukraine last century, as genocide. Addressing a
gathering last month at the opening of a monument to the famine,
Yushchenko denied any suggestion Russia was to blame for the famine.
But he called on Moscow to denounce Stalinism and join in
commemorations for the dead.
Millions were left to starve in their homes throughout Ukraine as
Soviet authorities trying to bring independent farmers to their knees
imposed impossible harvest quotas and requisitioned grain and
livestock. Soviet authorities denied for decades that the famine had
even occurred.
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17
. CHICAGO
UKRAINIANS CONCLUDE HOLODOMOR 75TH COMMEMORATION WITH
SOLEMN ECUMENICAL GRAND REQUIEM IN CITY CENTER
By Maria Kulczycky, Chicago, Illinois, Saturday, December 6, 2008
Action Ukraine Report (AUR), Washington, D.C., Friday,
December 19, 2008
CHICAGO - Chicago’s legendary wind whipped brisk and cold as bundled
groups formed in Washington Park, the historical site for public debate
and eloquent discourse that faces Newberry Library, a storied
genealogical research center. People held on to
flags, banners, signs and emblems as the wind bent and unfurled them.
For weeks, radio stations, leaflets, church bulletins,
posters, email postings and other information channels had been
inviting, encouraging, and exhorting Ukrainians all over the city and
suburbs to come to the city center on Saturday morning, November 15, to
join the procession down Chicago’s central avenues heading for Holy
Name Cathedral, the seat of the vast Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Chicago.
The community had planned a Solemn Ecumenical
Requiem to mark the end of the its year-long commemoration of the 75th
anniversary of the Ukrainian Genocide-Holodomor.
The Soviet-organized and meticulously executed genocide was launched to
crush Ukrainian political aspirations and maintain the integrity of the
Soviet Union, a strategy that has resonance in current
events.
Decades-long secrecy about the tragedy was enforced on
victims and reinforced with a blockade on travel and a muzzling of the
press, making it the largest unknown genocide of the 20th
century. The anniversary milestone was a link in an
international campaign to bring attention to the horrific event and to
acknowledge it as a genocide.
As yellow buses disgorged their occupants, many traveling from distant
suburbs, the park filled. Monitors nudged and shaped the
crowd into groups by affiliation—parishes, youth groups, civic
organizations, Ukrainian schools, the Ukrainian consular staff, and the
general public of seniors, parents holding the hands of small children,
families with strollers. Uniforms and embroidery, as well as
black ribbons, adorned many participants.
The procession stepped from the part and into the wide street
cordoned by police patrol cars. It moved slowly along the
route to the cathedral. In the lead were young men and women
in Ukrainian folk ensembles carrying a birch cross festooned in black
ribbon. Three thorn wreaths came next, then a 10-foot blue
and yellow banner, followed by a coffin, draped in black with a large,
stark lettering “10,000,000 VICTIMS.”
A large group of clergy from Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox parishes
followed the coffin. Then came Ukrainian and American flags
carried by veterans. The procession of orderly, somber
participants stretched for city blocks as the park emptied.
The mood grew exuberant as the marchers looked
forward and back and realized what had happened! They saw
friends, colleagues, and neighbors, but also at faces they didn’t
recognize. They were all united, making a statement with
their large ranks, their number calling attention of
passersby: We ask the world to recognize our genocide, our
national tragedy.
As the procession crossed State Street and moved to the stairs of the
cathedral, the massive central doors stood closed, cold,
forbidding. Then the bells began to intone a rhythmic, grim
chant, a funereal peal. The procession stopped, stood for
interminable minutes, buses and traffic piling up on either side.
Suddenly the great doors were flung open, and within, four hierarchs
stood in full religious raiment, inviting the marchers
inside. The cross, wreaths, coffin, flags and clergy entered
and proceeded down the main aisle as the marchers, 2,000 by some
counts, silently streamed into the cavernous sanctuary.
Nestor Popowych, chairman of the 75th Anniversary Commemoration
Committee, welcomed the assembled crowd and introduced Cardinal Francis
George, Archbishop of Chicago, for whom Holy Name Cathedral is the home
parish. This was the first public event at the cathedral
since a long renovation had kept the main sanctuary shut to services.
The cardinal came to the lectern and cited St. Paul, remarking on the
ecumenical nature of the service. He inveighed against all
totalitarian regimes, particularly the communist terror that destroyed
millions. Next, the new bishop of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian
Orthodox Church, Bishop Daniel (Zelinsky) addressed the
crowd.
An impassioned speaker, he quoted Shevchenko’s poem, “The
Plague,” noting how it foreshadowed the horror and suffering of
Holodomor of 1932-33. His shout, “10 million!” rang out
through the cathedral, to the 65-foot rafters. “We have to
teach our succeeding generations. And we can never forget!”
he charged.
Archbishop Alexandr (Bykovetz) of Detroit, a survivor of Holodomor,
spoke in Ukrainian about the loss of future generations, both in
numbers and in potential, “the Sheptytskys, Mazeppas, Vyhovskis,
Petluras, and Bandery,” as well as the artists, musicians, writers, and
other lights of the community that were extinguished before they could
be born.
The hierachs returned to the altar and the requiem service began:
lyrical, melodic incantations in the Kyivan style of the Panakhyda
(requiem) sung by a choir collected from the best voices of the
numerous Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic parishes throughout the
region.
It was conducted by Dr. Vasyl Truchly, noted for his deep
and comprehensive study and propagation of knowledge about Ukrainian
liturgical music, assisted by Michael Holian, a conductor, musician and
teacher. The music resonated through the sanctuary, supported
by the responses of the bishops and the 20 priests surrounding them,
and melding the spirits of the assembled crowd.
Photographers, reporters, and cameramen from the local NBC and ABC
affiliates and Ukrainian media wandered through the cathedral,
capturing the uplifted faces, the rows of Holodomor survivors in the
front pews, the youth organizations in uniforms, and the sleeping baby
in a mother’s lap.
Bishop Richard (Seminack), head of the Western Ukrainian Catholic
Eparchy and pastor of St. Nicholas Cathedral, concluded the service
with a moving recollection of the ritual of baking bread that his
grandmother practiced, “blessing and praying at each step, picking up a
crumb that fell to the floor and kissing it,” he recalled.
Bread is holy to Ukrainians, and this bread, the basis of their diet,
was taken away from them, he noted. Their resulting
starvation created a wound that hasn’t healed through succeeding
generations.
Bishop Richard thanked all the participants who so massively
participated in the solemn ceremony, concluding right at high noon. The
crowd filed out, a little more noisily now. All had been
visibly inspired by an event that will rank among the most memorable
and affirming expressions of a community message in the city’s history.
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18
. SITE OF FUTURE
MONUMENT TO VICTIMS OF HOLODOMOR BLESSED IN
WASHINGTON
By Zoreslaw Bayduk, Voice of America, in Ukrainian,
Washington, D.C., Tue, Dec 2, 2008
English translation by Borys Potapenko, Detroit,
Michigan, AUR, Wash, D.C., Dec 18, 2008
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A ceremony took place in Washington, D.C. to bless
the site of the future monument to the victims of the Ukrainian
Holodomor. Permission to erect the future monument was signed by
President George Bush. Participating in the ceremony was the First Lady
of Ukraine, Katerina Yushchenko.
The clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches
blessed the site in the center of the American capital where the
monument to the victims of the Ukrainian tragedy will stand.
The ceremony was the culmination of a host of programs and projects of
the Ukrainian community to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the
Holodomor. The yet to be completed monument project began many years
ago. The President of the UCCA, Tamara Gallo noted that the Ukrainian
community has been working on this for over 15 years.
Efforts to secure permission to erect the Ukrainian monument in the
center of the American capital were aided by Congressman Sandy Levin
from the State of Michigan. He was the sponsor of the necessary
resolution that was signed by President Bush: “We have
gathered to tell the world that this blessed site will become a symbol
not only for Ukrainians or Americans but for the whole world.”
The First Lady of Ukraine, Katerina Yushchenko, for whom the question
of the Holodomor is personal, as her whole family suffered the tragedy,
also thanked Levin, who is a long time close friend of the Ukrainian
community:
“I am very grateful to all, who participated in this, especially
Congressman Levin, as well as my gratitude goes out to the community
for the many years of work to secure this beautiful site.”
Participating in the ceremony blessing the site for the future monument
were Ukrainian and American diplomats, survivors of the Holodomor and
those who came to Washington from various corners of America. Borys
Potapenko came from Detroit: “Praise God that on this land in
Washington, D.C. will stand a monument. Now, no professor will dispute
that my family suffered, that the whole Ukrainian nation suffered.”
Soon a competition will be announced in Ukraine that will end with the
government of Ukraine erecting in Washington, D.C. a monument that will
remind the world about the little known tragedy.
LINK:
http://www.voanews.com/ukrainian/2008-12-02-voa4.cfm--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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19
. SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF
LITHUANIA VALDAS ADAMKUS IN KYIV AT THE
INTERNATIONAL
FORUM TO COMMEMORATE THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE
HOLODOMOR
OF 1932-1933 IN UKRAINE "MY PEOPLE WILL LIVE FOREVER"
Address by H. E. Valdus Adamkus, President of the Republic of Lithuania
International Forum to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the
Holodomor, Kyiv, Ukraine
President of Lithuania Website, Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, November
22, 2008
AUR
EDITOR'S NOTE: Five heads of state spoke at
the International Forum to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the
Holodmor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, "MY PEOPLE WILL LIVE FOR EVER" held
in Kyiv on November 22, 2008. The Presidents of Ukraine, Poland,
Georgia, Lithuania and Latvia all made presentations that were
powerful, very strongly supported Ukraine and spoke out clearly and
forcefully against the evils of totalitarian regimes, brutal Soviet
policies, and the many Stalinist and Soviet crimes against humanity.
Below you will find the speech by the President of Lithuania, Valdus
Adamkus, who spent many years in the United States while the Soviets
occupied his country,
http://www.president.lt/family/biografija.
KYIV, UKRAINE - Mr. President,
Excellencies,
Dear People of Ukraine,
Today as we remember the suffering and the tragic fate of millions of
people in Ukraine, we bear witness to the power of human and national
memory. This memory does not allow to conceal, distort or forget the
cruel actions and policies of totalitarian regimes and their crimes
against humanity.
We will never forget the genocide that killed tens of millions of
people in Europe and worldwide: the brutal Soviet policy that doomed
hard working Ukrainians to famine seventy five years ago, and Communist
repressions against the peaceful inhabitants of the Baltic States,
Hungary, Poland, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Russia, and many other
countries.
Historical truth always finds its way in defiance of hindrances and
prohibitions. The Stalinist and Soviet crimes against humanity
concealed for long decades are now well known and deplored by many
nations.
In 2003, representatives from different parts of the world issued a
joint declaration at the United Nations remembering the victims of the
Holodomor. In 2005, the Seimas of Lithuania condemned the genocide in
Ukraine.
Last year, UNESCO adopted a resolution on the Holodomor and
its horrific consequences, and this year the European Parliament paid
tribute to those who were starved to death by the Great Famine.
The people of Lithuania identify themselves with the people of Ukraine
in their painful memories of Soviet totalitarian crimes. We too
experienced Soviet repressions and brutality: mass deportations and the
killing of innocent people that decimated one fourth of Lithuania’s
population.
Next year we will commemorate the 70th anniversary of the
shameful Nazi-Soviet deal: the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and its secret
protocols.
After the two totalitarian regimes partitioned Europe, Lithuania – like
many other European countries – was invaded and occupied.
However, despite long decades of deception and Soviet
propaganda, the memory of the Lithuanian nation – passed on from
generation to generation – had kept our love of freedom and spirit of
independence alive throughout the entire period of occupation.
After long years of oppression we restored independence and
made a free choice for Euro-Atlantic integration.
Today we strongly support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
Ukraine, the resolve of its people to build their future in the family
of democratic nations.
Today we say with strong commitment: “Nobody can take away
the right of an independent European state to choose its path of
freedom and security.”
We are ready to share the historical memory of our nations with the
world: the memory of Ukraine’s deep cultural roots in Europe, the
sacred memory of Ukrainian freedom fighters, and the painful memory of
Stalinist atrocities to suppress freedom and liberty.
The contemplation and spread of historical truth is not directed
against a specific nation or country. Saying the truth means
identifying and condemning the crimes of totalitarian regimes.
Therefore, I believe that a time will come when nobody will
ever attempt to deny the cruelties of the Soviet regime unleashed in
Ukraine and claim that 25 thousand people were starved to death per day
by a mismanaged economy or poor harvest.
The Nazi and Soviet-committed crimes against humanity, casting a long
and deep shadow on the history of the 20th century Europe, will be
equally condemned and their victims remembered and commemorated.
It is the last indispensable precondition for Europe’s moral
and spiritual unity on the road towards mutual openness and genuine
solidarity among the nations.
In the name of our fallen parents, brothers and sisters, in the name of
those who fought for the independence of our countries, in the name of
our future and the future of our children, we have to preserve and
spread that memory of our shared past.
We must raise our own and global awareness, deepen respect for human
life and dignity. It is the only way that we will stop the spread of
totalitarian ideologies and prevent such experiments with nations and
people like the Holodomor from ever happening again.
LINK:
http://www.president.lt/en/news.full/9878--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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20
. A EUROPEAN
GENOCIDE
REVIEW & OUTLOOK EDITORIAL: Wall Street Journal
Europe, NY, NY, Tue, Nov 25, 2008
Among the past century's horrors, the Great Famine in Ukraine manages
to stand out. First, for the scale of the mass starvation inflicted by
Stalin on millions of people in Europe's agricultural breadbasket.
Second, for how little the world knows about this genocide. A now-free
Ukraine wants to change that and just marked the 75th anniversary of
the 1932-33 "terror famine," or Holodomor.
Starting in the late 1920s, Stalin set out to collectivize and hobble
the Soviet peasantry. His aim was to crush "the peasantry of the
U.S.S.R. as a whole, and the Ukrainian nation," wrote Robert Conquest
in his groundbreaking book, "The Harvest of Sorrow." An estimated 14.5
million people starved to death in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus when
farmland was collectivized and harvests requisitioned. The submission
of Ukraine to Moscow helped prolong the Soviet Union's life for another
60 years.
The Stalinist regime and its ideological soulmates denied the famine at
the time and later. Walter Duranty, the New York Times's longtime
Moscow correspondent, was Stalin's chief apologist, sending false
dispatches from Ukraine; he won a Pulitzer Prize. The left-leaning
academy condemned Mr. Conquest and the late James Mace, the leading
researcher of the famine, when their work appeared in the 1980s. The
Berlin Wall's collapse shamed some of the denialists. "I want to
express my deepest appreciation to all who refused to be silent,"
President Viktor Yushchenko said Friday.
The exception is the current Russian leadership. Ahead of the official
commemoration this past weekend, President Dmitry Medvedev accused
Ukraine of seeking to achieve "opportunistic political goals" based on
"manipulations and distortions, falsification of facts about the number
of dead." As in Stalin's day, Ukraine's independent identity and
nationhood stands in the way of a resurgent Russian imperium. By
remembering the Holodomor, Ukrainians say -- Never again.
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