1986: A LOOK BACK: Documentation of the famine (12/28/86)

1986: A LOOK BACK

Documentation of the famine

Several important developments having to do with the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 occurred this year. Perhaps the most important was the long-awaited publication of "The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine" written by Robert Conquest, a senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. This 412-page study has won worldwide acclaim since its publication October 7 by Oxford University Press. Dr. Conquest has completed a carefully researched and finely written study, according to many distinguished scholars, who reviewed the book for various newspapers and magazines.

Dr. Conquest, who is also the author of several other books having to do with the Stalinist era, including the renowned "The Great Terror," traveled nationwide on a publicity tour throughout the month of October. He was interviewed by some of the nation's most prominent newspapers as well.

The book, sponsored by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Ukrainian National Association, has gone into its second printing, which will bring total copies in print to 12,000. During his New York appearance, the author stated the main impetus for writing a book on the famine was "to educate myself."

Dr. Conquest's book was also cited as one of the 200 most notable books of 1986 by The New York Book Review.

In other events related to the famine, the award-winning documentary "Harvest of Despair" was finally shown on American television. Aired September 24 on a special edition of William F. Buckley's "Firing Line," which appears weekly on PBS, the showing of the film proved to be controversial because PBS authorities made the decision to air it only if its showing was coupled with a panel discussion on its accuracy. Thus, three guests were invited to participate in the discussion: Dr. Robert Conquest, Harrison Salisbury, longtime correspondent of The New York Times and "renowned Sovietologist," and Christopher Hitchens, Washington columnist for the London Spectator and also for The Nation magazine. On balance, the broadcast of the film plus the discussion preceding and following the film did much to enlighten the general public about the famine. At the end of its showing, Mr. Buckley, who saw the film for the first time, told the audience: "Well, that's about as harrowing an hour this side of Dachau that I can imagine" and the three guests stated that the film was accurate.

Mr. Salisbury managed to further alienate himself from the Ukrainian community this year when, during the discussion, he went into a lengthy discourse about the history of Ukraine in response to a question posed by Mr. Buckley about the relationship between Ukraine and Russia in 1932. As Dr. Conquest started replying, Mr. Salisbury interjected and began equating Ukraine with Russia.

He stated: "The Ukraine, of course, is really the cradle of Russian civilization and the Church. Kiev was the place where Russia as an entity first came into being, and the early emperors and the early Church were all centered there..."

"The Ukraine, anyway, was really the cradle of Russia. I think there is no question about that. And - we can't go over the whole history - but the first Christian part of Russia was the Ukraine."

"So when we talk about the Ukraine and Russia, we are not really talking about separate countries. We are talking about two parts of a country or a civilization that moved on different waves."

This statement prompted an angry response from many members of the Ukrainian community. After receiving numerous complaints, Mr. Salisbury sent out a form letter to those individuals who wrote him, which stated, in part: "Some of you seem to think I confuse Russia and the Ukraine. Rest assured, I understand and deeply respect the difference. As many of you well known I have traveled the length and breadth of the Ukraine. A wonderful land. Kiev is one of my favorite cities in the whole world.

"Some of you seem to object to my description of Kiev, as 'the mother city of all the Russians.' Were I of Ukrainian origin I would proudly acclaim Kiev's role in Slavic civilization, culture; religion, the arts. If Kiev is not first - then who is?"

There is still no indication from any of the networks that they are interested in airing "Harvest of Despair," which was produced for the Ukrainian Famine Research Committee of Canada by Slavko Nowytski and Yurij Luhovy in 1983. The film has won several awards in the United States and Canada in the past two years, and garnered an Academy Award nomination.

Yet another important first occurred in regard to the famine. An educators' institute which focused on the famine was held on November 8. One hundred and eighty-six teachers, 154 of them non-Ukrainians, attended the one-day seminar held in Chicago. Twenty-six participants took the seminar for graduate credit through Northern Illinois University.

The seminar, which was organized by Dr. Myron B. Kuropas, vice-president of the Ukrainian National Association, was officially called "The Ukrainian Forced Famine: An Institute for Educators." It was designed to provide teachers and administrators with information to teach about the famine that killed some 7 million people in Ukraine.

The seminar attracted teachers mostly from northern Illinois, as well as teachers of Ukrainian origin from as far away as Los Angeles, Miami, Toronto and Rochester, N.Y.

The U.S. government's Commission on the Ukraine Famine had a busy year, gathering testimony throughout the country from survivors of the famine. Dr. James E. Mace of Harvard University's Ukrainian Research Institute was named staff director on January 29. Then, the week of March 10, six Ukrainian public members of the commission were also named, thus completing the composition of the U.S. government-funded body. The six are: Bohdan Fedorak, 52, of Warren, Mich.; Myron B. Kuropas, 53, of DeKalb, Ill.; Daniel Marchishin, 51, of Bound Brook, N.J.; Ulana Mazurkevich, 41, of Elkins Park, Pa.; Anastasia Volker of Royal Oak, Mich.; and Oleh Weres, 35, of San Francisco, Calif. Ms. Volker replaced Lubow A. Margolena, 83, of Washington, who declined the appointment.

The commission's members have met several times this year, including regional meetings in Chicago, Detroit and Glen Spey, N.Y.

A major flap occurred this year in relation to the famine which pitted the Boston Ukrainian community against the Massachusetts governor's wife, Kitty Dukakis, and eventually resulted in an apology from Gov. Michael S. Dukakis and the inauguration of a famine commemoration day.

The episode started in July 1985 when Gloria y'Edynak, then information officer of the Ukrainian Studies Fund at Harvard, wrote to the hosts of a planned state ceremony - which commemorated the victims of the Holocaust, the Armenian massacre and the Cambodian genocide - Mrs. Dukakis and speaker of the House of Representatives George Keverian. She asked that the Ukrainian famine be commemorated alongside the other major genocides of the 20th century.

Mrs. y'Edynak received a reply from the governor's wife which stated that it was "necessary to limit participation" and thus the Ukrainian famine would not be marked. Letters from other individuals yielded the same response. Angered that the 1932-33 famine would not be commemorated at the ceremonies, the Ukrainian community decided it would attend the ceremony on May 9 in protest. The press began to pick up on the story, and blasted the governor's decision to bypass the Ukrainian famine in the ceremonies.

The pressure paid off. On May 9, Speaker of the House Keverian welcomed the 30 Ukrainians who attended the ceremony and read a resolution about the Ukrainian famine that had been passed by unanimous vote in the House the previous day.

Gov. Dukakis then welcomed the Ukrainians and apologized. "Both Kitty and I want to apologize for any misunderstanding that may have taken place," he said. While the Ukrainian famine was not honored as part of the ceremony, a proclamation was read which declared May 11 Ukrainian Famine Commemoration Day in the state of Massachusetts.

In other news The New York State Education department issued, as part of its Human Rights Series, a 166-page book titled "Case Studies: Persecution/Genocide." One hundred forty-two pages are devoted to the Ukrainian famine. The guide outlines the history of the famine and human-rights violations in Ukraine.

This year also saw the vandalization of the famine monument in Edmonton, which was twice defaced by vandals, first with the words "Lies" and then "Nazi Lies" sprayed on it. The Ukrainian Canadian Committee and the Jewish Federation of Edmonton issued a joint statement after the second incident, which occurred on April 6, in which they condemned the act as "an outrageous act of political vandalism" that brings back memories of an era when Jewish synagogues and cemeteries were defaced.

Additionally, a famine monument was dedicated this year at the Los Angeles County Government Center on May 18. A greeting from President Ronald Reagan was read there by actor Jack Palance.

And finally this year, the question was posed to New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger if the newspaper would return the Pulitzer prize awarded in the 1930s to its Moscow correspondent, William Duranty, in the light of evidence that he covered up the famine in his reporting while privately telling British intelligence he believed over 10 million people had died in the man-made famine. In a letter sent to Times shareholder and radio talk show host Les Kinsolving, who originally raised the question, Mr. Sulzberger replied that despite the allegations, "what we report has to stand, for better or worse, as our best contemporary effort."

"What then, do I think of Mr. Duranty's reporting from the Soviet Union?... Perhaps he was too trusting of Soviet sources he should never have trusted. Perhaps his private political views impermissibly clouded his judgment or distorted his dispatches. The Times itself ran reports contradicting his at the time..."

"That contemporary Pulitzer jurors thought him worthy of a prize for the things he did write from Moscow is a judgment I am neither equipped nor entitled to second-guess at this date. In any event, it is not a prize The Times can take back."

The saga continues.

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