FACES AND PLACES: Venona and more (07/11/99)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Venona and more

During the Soviet-inspired anti-Ukrainian defamation campaign of the 1930s and 1940s, it was The Ukrainian Weekly that consistently defended the Ukrainian community. It was not an easy task, especially after Great Britain allied itself with the Soviets against Hitler. Reacting to growing condemnation by America's left of Ukrainian pounding of Stalin and the Bolsheviks, The Weekly responded on July 18, 1941.

"We fail to see the point," the UNA newspaper declared. "The fact that Stalin is fighting Hitler does not change our opinion of him in the least. We still think he is Freedom and Democracy's Public Enemy No. 1 - with Hitler, of course, a close second. We gave Pal Joey precedence here because his Reds have been far longer in power than the Nazis, their brutalities have been more cruel and on a far greater scale, their persecution of the Church much worse ... So long as Moscow continues to thus brutally enslave and despoil our kinsmen in their native land, Ukraine, so long as it blocks their centuries-old movement to establish a free and independent and democratic Ukraine, so long will we and all other true friends of freedom and democracy keep up our fight against it."

Louis Adamic, a Slovak American liberal, took umbrage with the above editorial and cited it in its entirety in his book "Two Way Passage." Repeating Bolshevik allegations regarding the "Nazi" character of Organization for the Rebirth of Ukraine (ODVU), Ukrainian Hetman Organization (UHO) and the Ukrainian National Association (UNA), Mr. Adamic labeled the passage a "tragedy," a statement that he believed was issued "not from a balanced heart and mind, but from the compulsion rife among people, wherever they may be, who feel insecure." Offering no further documentation, he wrote that "there are about 5,000 'Ukrainians in America' who are active in the Ukrainian cause in a pro-Nazi way." These few may have influenced other Ukrainian Americans to become "anti-Russian and to that extent, pro-Hitler."

The Ukrainian Weekly responded on October 20, 1940. "We have long had a warm spot in our heart for Mr. Louis Adamic," the UNA organ editorialized, especially for "his manifest sincerity and honesty, ... his keen insight into immigrant problems, his painstaking research and labors, and his power of expression." Observing sadly that in his treatment of Ukrainians, Mr. Adamic was "singularly lacking in all of these qualities," The Weekly rebutted his allegations point by point.

It now appears that giving Mr. Adamic the benefit of the doubt was laudable but misplaced. In their book "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America," John Early Haynes and Harvey Klehr list Louis Adamic who, although not identified in the Venona cables, was, nevertheless, a U.S. resident involved in covert relationships with Soviet intelligence agencies.

Another evil chapter in the defamation history of Ukrainian Americans was the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on September 27, 1939. Appearing before HUAC was Emil Revyuk, an assistant editor of Svoboda. Led by one J.B. Matthews, the questioning revolved around the activities of ODVU, UHO and the UNA in the U.S. It is important to emphasize here that Mr. Matthews' interrogation of Mr. Revyuk was not only tendentious but grossly unethical. The witness, who had no attorney to advise him, was led throughout his testimony while HUAC members sat by idly. Mr. Matthews attempted to substitute the term "totalitarian" for "authoritarian" when the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists was discussed. He also insisted that the OUN headquarters were located in Berlin (not true) and that Luka Myshuha, the Svoboda editor, was denied a visa to England because he was a "political agitator" (also a fabrication). Mr. Matthews attempted to insert German words for Ukrainian words into the testimony: "fuehrer" for "vozhd," "der Tag" for "the day," and "heil" for "slava" in his references to mistranslations of Ukrainian articles and documents. An account of this can be found in my book "The Ukrainian Americans: Roots and Aspirations."

Who was this HUAC investigator, J.B. Matthews? In his book "The Cause That Failed: Communism in American Political Life," Prof. Guenter Lewy identifies Mr. Matthews as "a Methodist clergyman known for his leftist views, secretary of the pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation, and known as an ardent fellow traveler." "Strongly attracted to the (Communist) Party," Dr. Lewy writes, Mr. Matthews and ACLU director Roger Baldwin "participated in so many Communist fronts that they came to known as the 'united front twins.' "

Another HUAC investigator was John C. Metcalfe, who traveled around the country speaking to various groups about the Nazi menace in America and the role played by ODVU, UHO and the UNA. Learning that he would be addressing the Minneapolis Junior Chamber of Commerce on January 10, 1940, ODVU President Alexander Granovsky asked for a meeting. Mr. Metcalfe agreed. Dr. Granovsky arrived with a reporter to publicly challenge the HUAC regarding ODVU. Given the kind of slander that was being bandied about regarding ODVU and the UNA, Dr. Granovsky's confrontation was an act of great courage. Although he was a tenured professor at the University of Minnesota, challenging the HUAC at that time was not a career-enhancing move.

Was Mr. Metcalfe a Communist or a fellow traveler? I have not been able to find any definitive information either way, but I suspect that if nothing else he was, as Lenin would describe him, "a useful fool."

In addition to "Venona" and "The Cause that Failed" we are being treated to other studies of the insidious influence of Soviet spies who infiltrated the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Worthy of mention are "The Heyday of American Communism" by Harvey Klehr, "The Soviet World of American Communism" by Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes and Kyrill M. Anderson, and "The Secret World of American Communism," by Harvey Klehr, John Early Haynes and Fridrikh Igorevich Firsov. All provide valuable information suggesting that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was not all that wrong regarding Soviet infiltration of our government.

Unfortunately, none of the above books regarding Soviet espionage and disinformation tactics in the U.S. mentions the role of those ethnic Americans, especially Ukrainian Americans, who confronted, challenged and rebutted the slander being perpetrated and were called "Nazis" for their troubles. That story needs to be told before we can even begin to say the story of what really happened, and why, is complete.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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