1988: A LOOK BACK

Information about Great Famine

This was the year that the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine reported its findings that the Great Famine of 1932-33 was premeditated genocide against Ukrainians perpetrated by Joseph Stalin and those around him. Other findings presented on April 23 to the U.S. Congress included: that the U.S. government had ample and timely information about the famine but failed to take any steps which might have ameliorated the situation and that New York Times reporter Walter Duranty lacked journalistic integrity in not submitting stories about the famine when he was aware of its existence and magnitude.

The commission agreed at its April 19 meetings that, given the explosive findings of the report and their effect on global perception of the USSR, the commission's life must be extended beyond June (when the body was to expire) in order to provide for fuller dissemination of its findings and further works on oral history of the famine as provided by survivors.

On April 20, Sen. Bill Bradley and Rep. James J. Florio, both of New Jersey, introduced legislation to prolong the life of the commission, albeit without government funding, for two more years. That bill passed and was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on June 17.

At the same time, conferences on the famine continued to be organized around the country. Among them were a March 6 symposium at Rider College in Lawrence Township, N.J., a May 7 workshop organized by Chicago area Ukrainian heritage schools and a May 16 teachers' workshop at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J.

In Ukraine and the entire USSR, meanwhile, more and more was being written about the famine in the Soviet press, and the matter was even raised at the Communist Party conference. Glasnost was beginning to affect this tragic chapter in history.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, December 25, 1988, No. 52, Vol. LVI

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