Almost annually the Canadian Institute of
Ukrainian Studies (CIUS), sponsors the Bohdan Bociurkiw Memorial
Lecture, with
this year’s lecture taking place on December 6 at the University of
Alberta (U
of A). Marco Carynnyk delivered the lecture after being introduced by
Jean-Paul
Himka the director of “The Research
Program on Religion and Culture” of CIUS. The provocative
title of the
lecture was “Ministers of Righteousness? Greek Catholic Clergymen and
Poles and
Jews during World War II”. Both Carynnyk and Himka belong to a cabal of
pseudo-historians, of which Himka is a ringleader.
In assessing the appropriateness of the
speaker and the contents of his lecture, some background on the late
Prof.
Bociurkiw will provide guidance. He taught political science (1956-69)
at the U
of A with emphasis on Soviet politics, Soviet Ukraine and church-state
relations. In 1969 he moved to Ottawa to Carleton University where he
taught
until 1992, and where he founded the Institute of Soviet and East
European
Studies, serving as its first director. He was a founding father of
CIUS and
after his death his family donated his books and archives to CIUS
establishing
the Bohdan Bociurkiw Library. This was a coup for CIUS and the library
remains
a valuable research resource.
In his youth Prof. Bociurkiw became of member
of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), was arrested by
the Polish
secret police and later imprisoned by the Gestapo for his activities in
that
movement, ending up in the Flossenburg concentration camp in Germany.
After the
war he immigrated to Canada where he completed his studies before
becoming a
professor. Throughout his life he belonged to the Ukrainian Greek
Catholic
Church (UGCC), and the magnum opus of his scholarly work was a book
entitled “The Ukrainian Greek Catholic
Church, and
the Soviet State (1939-1950)”, published in 1996, which dealt
extensively
with the liquidation of the UGCC after WWII by the Soviet government.
He was
highly esteemed not only in academic circles, but throughout the
Ukrainian Diaspora,
regardless of organizational or religious affiliation.
In introducing Carynnyk, Himka credited him
with “outing” Walter Duranty the notorious American journalist who
provided
false accounts of the Holodomor, and whose positive assessments of
Stalin’s
Soviet Union, influenced America’s decision to grant diplomatic
recognition to
the USSR.
Silly me! I had believed that the people who
exposed Duranty were people like: Malcolm Muggeridge, Gareth Jones,
Joseph
Alsop, Zora Witkin, and Robert Conquest. Himka’s misrepresentation of
history
was indicative of what was to follow.
Carynnyk began his talk by indicating that
“Ministers of Righteousness” is a biblical reference taken from St.
Paul’s
second letter to the Corinthians(11-15) which refers to “False
Apostles”. For a
minute I fantasized that Carynnyk would expose the current Russian
Orthodox
Church (ROC), led by Patriarch Kirill, who has anointed Putin (the
“Butcher of
Chechnya”), a “gift from God”, and hoped he might explain how the ROC
works
with Putin to undermine Ukrainian national identity, Russify Ukraine,
and
undermine the aspirations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in all of
its
manifestations, and the UGCC. I even fantasized about him exposing the
Russian
campaign of attempting to create divisions in the Ukrainian Orthodox
Church in
Canada. But alas, all Carynnyk ultimately showed was that his claim to
the
distinction of “false apostle” is greater than anyone he referred to in
his
lecture.
Using a photograph of Jews (according to him)
hurriedly carrying a stretcher bearing the corpse of a Ukrainian victim
of the
NKVD in a cemetery, he highlighted that there were two Ukrainian
Studite monks
in the background watching all of this and doing nothing, suggesting
that they
were accomplices to what was transpiring because they seemed
indifferent. The
photograph did not show who may have been standing guard with guns.
Perhaps he
expected the monks to lift their cassocks, pull out guns and put a stop
to
whatever was happening. He chose the most slanderous explanation
without
considering that the monks may have been there to bury the dead,
perform a
panakhyda and seal the grave, in accordance with Ukrainian Catholic
rites. They
may also have been there to bear witness and ensure that nothing worse
would
happen. Priests beware! Someone may photograph you in a cemetery and 70
years
later suggest you were indifferent to the plight of the pall bearers
and the
deceased.
Carynnyk has only a BA in English literature,
which might qualify him to write fiction, but he seemed unaware of
history. Blessed
Hieromartyr Klymentiy Sheptytsky, Archimandrite of the Studite monks of
the
UGCC, martyred by the Soviets in Siberia, is included in “The Righteous
among
Nations” at Yad Vashem in Israel, together with another Studite monk,
Daniil
Tymchyna. They were not indifferent monks, and saved Jews during the
Nazi
occupation of Ukraine, where harbouring Jews was punishable by death,
as it was
in Poland. Perhaps Carynnyk only wanted to cast a negative light on His
Eminence Cardinal Lubomyr Husar, former Patriarch of the UGCC, once
considered
a papabile (worthy of being elected Pope) in 2005, who also served as
Archimandrite of the Studite Monks, from 1978 to his elevation to
Patriarch of
the UGCC in 1995. Such facts may be unknown to Carynnyk but are easily
accessible on the internet, and should have been researched before
criticizing
the Studite monks.
Not content to limit himself to only one
Sheptytsky brother, Carynnyk went on to insinuate that Servant of God,
Metropolitan Archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky, was also an indifferent
accomplice to
the plight of Jews under the Nazi occupation, disregarding the fact
that he is
credited with personally saving hundreds of Jews, and issuing a
pastoral letter
“Thou shalt not kill” protesting Nazi atrocities. If Carynnyk reads
newspapers
at all, he should have been aware that on April 24, 2012, the Canadian
House of
Commons unanimously passed a motion honouring his courageous efforts to
save Jews.
This was done in the presence of a delegation from Ukraine consisting
of
leaders from various religions, including the Jewish Chief Rabbi,
Islamic
Mufti, Roman Catholic bishop, president of the Evangelical Baptists,
and the
heads of the both the Autocephalous and Kyiv Patriarchate Ukrainian
Orthodox
churches, together with Patriarch Sviatoslav of the UGCC. The only
major
religious leader missing was the Orthodox Metropolitan of the Moscow
Patriarchate in Ukraine. The event was facilitated by the Ukrainian
Jewish
Encounter (UJE), which seeks healing of the past and forging improved
relationships.
Carynnyk included allegations of atrocity by
OUN, by quoting from a Jewish woman’s testimony in which she stated
that
members of OUN engaged in atrocities against Jews. When asked how she
could
know that someone was a member of OUN, which was an underground
conspiratorial
organization organized on the basis of five person cells, whose
identities were
only known to each other, and whose members did not wear any insignia,
tattoos,
or uniforms and were sworn to secrecy about their membership in OUN, he
simply
replied that many members had been deconspired and their identities
were known
in 1941. His explanation showed that his analysis and facts are
counter-intuitive,
as members of OUN had been hunted and persecuted by the Polish secret
police
from 1929 to 1939, then again by the Soviet NKVD during from 1939 to
1941, and
again soon after the Nazi invasion by the Gestapo. An actual member
would not
come out as a member of OUN because this was contrary to the oath
he/she took
and would put them in danger of arrest and death. There may have been
wannabes
who falsely claimed membership to impress others, but other than those
who had
been outed by the police and convicted, true members would have kept
their
identities secret.
In commenting on the scholarly work of Prof.
Bociurkiw, Carynnyk stated that Bociurkiw had been “forced” to overlook
the
history of the UGCC during the Nazi occupation. By innuendo he implied
that it
was now he, Carynnyk, who would fill this void. When confronted by a
question
asking who had forced Bociurkiw to overlook history and that no one
could force
him to overlook anything, Carynnyk simply replied that Bociurkiw had
not had
access to archives and documents that are now available. This answer
disclosed
another distortion, as Prof. Bociurkiw did indeed have access to
Soviet,
Ukrainian and church archives after 1992 until he completed his magnum
opus in
1996.
Carynnyk droned on for almost one and a half
hours, and despite the provocative title of his lecture, and his
comment that
he would disclose the attitudes of nuns, monks, and laypeople showing
them to
be anti-Semites; he failed to provide credible evidence to support his
theory. Indeed,
many Poles and Ukrainians had negative attitudes towards the Jews, and
as
Carynnyk stated, “Jews considered Poles and Ukrainians, as the scum of
the
earth”. He simply related several instances where Jews were mentioned
in church
archives, innocuously, and did not provide any credible evidence that
Ukrainians or Poles were possessed by “exterminationalist
anti-Semitism”, of
the kind pursued by the Nazis. Carynnyk seems to believe that he has
discovered
America with his research, but does not at all delve into the reasons
for
mutual antipathy among these groups. The quote of American philosopher
Henry Thoreau
comes to mind: “There are a thousand men
hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking as the root.”
Most revealing of his bias and attitude on
the topic was his statement that “Saints
should always be guilty until proven innocent”.
Unfortunately, he seems to
ascribe to the pirate’s adage, “Dead men tell no tales”, and it is
unimaginable
how anyone that Carynnyk defames can ever prove they are innocent as
they are
all dead and easy targets for revisionist history. In most civilized
countries,
where there is rule of law, it is always incumbent on the accuser to
prove
guilt of criminal conduct beyond a reasonable doubt. It is too easy to
defame
dead people, knowing that they can’t defend themselves, and Carynnyk’s
lecture,
and his other scandalous writings, reveal a propensity to accuse
without
proving, and convict by innuendo and not credible evidence.
Carynnyk is working on a book entitled, “Furious
Angels: Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles
in the summer of 1941”. If the lack of substance in his
lecture and
conviction by innuendo are any indication of how his book will turn
out, then I
suspect he will have trouble finding a reputable publisher to publish
his book.
In case he is unfamiliar with the “Russkyi Mir Foundation”, a
propaganda arm of
Russia’s government, I suggest he contact them and they will surely
publish his
book. He need not thank me for this suggestion.
Carynnyk and the cabal of pseudo-historians
he belongs to, constantly moralize and profess to be champions of the
truth, but
fall short of this goal themselves. Surely, if one criticizes others
for lack
of righteousness then one must live up to one’s own standards or risk
being
perceived as a hypocrite. If one criticizes someone for being an
accomplice
through indifference, and yet himself is indifferent to the plight of
Ukraine
today, and focuses on past injustice without speaking out against
current
injustice, then the best advice that can be proffered to such people is
“Physician heal thyself!” which can be the only advice applicable to
Carynnyk
and others in the cabal. However, I doubt that they will engage in
introspection unless someone gives them a research grant to do so.
Putin’s Russia is waging a campaign of
brotherhood, the fratricidal brotherhood of Cain, against Ukraine and
the
Ukrainian nation. They finance a fifth column in Ukraine to undermine
Ukraine’s
independence, and resort to “soft power” to pursue this campaign, with
the ultimate
goal of reincorporating Ukraine into a renewed Russian empire, or at
the least,
partitioning Ukraine so that some oblasts reincorporate into Russia and
others
remain in a smaller Ukraine. In waging brotherhood, Russia leaves no
stone
unturned resorting to economic, political, cultural, educational,
linguistic
and religious weapons. The recent language law in Ukraine granting
Russian
greater status, is merely the tip of the iceberg.
In waging this campaign of brotherhood,
Russia also resorts to defamation, disinformation and distortion as it
did
during Soviet times, when the most efficient Soviet industries were
espionage,
terror and propaganda. Historical memory is important to building
national
consciousness and state building. Russia seeks to distort historical
memory to
widen fissures between oblasts in Ukraine, to create dissention among
the
people of Ukraine and to create a negative image of Ukraine before the
world. The
age old tactic of “Divide and rule” is again being used to create
friction among
various minority groups in Ukraine and the Ukrainian nation, including
but not
limited to Ukrainians and Jews. Carynnyk and his fellow travelers from
the
cabal of pseudo-historians assist Russia in this process.
The identity of the members of the cabal is
well-known as are their writings, which cannot all be refuted in a
single
article as it requires a book, and many have already addressed many of
their
allegations. Himka is a ring leader of this cabal and abused his
position as
director of “The Research Program on Religion and Culture” of CIUS to
invite
his crony and fellow member of the cabal, Carynnyk, to deliver this
lecture,
presumably using scarce CIUS resources to pay him an honourarium.
Customarily, memorial lectures in honour of
renowned deceased scholars should do them honour and not cause them to
proverbially spin in their graves. Prof. Bociurkiw’s memory deserved
much
better than this travesty. Notwithstanding that Himka went behind the
backs of
other CIUS officials, ultimately the leadership of CIUS must address
the fiasco
that transpired, which brought the reputation of CIUS into disrepute.
When groups such as the Ukrainian Jewish
Encounter, financed by a major contributor to CIUS, James Temerty, and
educational institutions such as the Ukrainian Catholic University in
Lviv, are
working to improve relations between these two groups, then surely CIUS
should
not sponsor lectures which are counter-productive to such projects.
CIUS should
recall their own publication, “Ukrainian-Jewish Relations” published in
1988
which resulted from a “conference on Jewish-Ukrainian Relations” which
took
place in 1983, and of which CIUS was one of the joint organizers.
Surely, the famous quote from Queen Elizabeth
I of England, that “The past cannot be
cured” can provide some insight for CIUS. The words of
Israeli president
Shimon Peres, delivered during his recent visit to Ukraine, words that
were too
narrowly interpreted by some, “Too much
attention to history can impede thinking about the future and prevent
steps
that are really important today.” When the stated mission of
the U of A is “The uplifting of the whole
people shall be
its final goal”, the Carynnyk lecture failed miserably in
furthering this
goal. This lecture should be the swan song of Himka, and the words of a
song
popularized by Italian tenor, Andrea Bocelli and English soprano, Sarah
Brightman, entitled “Time to Say Goodbye” should be sung by CIUS.