FOR THE RECORD: Addresses at Great Famine memorial service (11/28/99)

FOR THE RECORD: Addresses at Great Famine memorial service

Bishop Basil Losten
Sen. Charles E. Schumer
Ambassador Anton Buteiko
Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko

Bishop Basil Losten

Remarks by Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.

We have gathered in this magnificent cathedral setting this afternoon to commemorate the anniversary of what one historian has called the grand "Harvest of Despair" perpetrated against our Ukrainian people and against humanity. The horrific genocide of the 1933 Great Famine in Ukraine is so inhumane because it could have been avoided altogether, had compassion and truth been heralded.

The tragedy of the deaths of some 10 million victims of this orchestrated cruelty is even greater when one considers that truckloads of relief aid, gathered under many appeals by our saintly metropolitan, the Servant of God Andrey Sheptytsky, and others, were barred from crossing the river Zbruch into the famine-beset territory of Ukraine. The Stalin regime preferred the propaganda of the Great Lie rather than revealing its true intentions.

Yes, we gather to remember all those innocent victims who perhaps were not even aware of their purpose as a political instrument. We pray that the evil done by men to them has been converted into good by our Almighty Creator who, in his time, has allowed their story to be publicly acknowledged through the dissolution of atheistic communism and the access to its secret archives. They clearly proclaim the grim truth of their sacrifice for the world to acknowledge and accept another case of man's inhumanity against his brothers and sisters.

We pray also for the souls of those responsible for such a hideous policy. Our Chistian vocation is one of healing and reconciliation. In recalling their calculated cunning and their blind adherence to an evil and deceitful policy, we pray that they also have discovered that greater wisdom from on high, which calls to "forgive those who know not what they do."

To all those united forever through the infamy of the Great Famine, we offer our prayers that their souls have discovered that place of refreshment, of green verdure and of light, where there is no pain, sorrow or mourning, but only the radiant countenance of a loving and forgiving God.

May their memory last forever among us! Vichna yim pamiat!

Sen. Charles E. Schumer

Address by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.)

"Shtuchnyi Holod," the man-made Famine, claimed an estimated 5 to 7 million victims.

The Soviet Union's government covered up and officially denied the Famine. The goal of the Famine - perpetrated by Stalin - was not to destroy a physical people, but to destroy Ukraine as a culture, society and political entity in order to allow the Communist regime to recreate Ukraine in its own image.

Millions of Ukrainians died, not by natural causes such as pestilence, drought, floods or poor harvest, but by policies designed to punish Ukraine for its aversion and opposition to the government of the former Soviet Union's oppression and imperialism, including the forced collectivization of agriculture.

When Ukraine was famine-stricken, the government of the former Soviet Union sent 1.7 tons of grain to the West, while offers from international relief organizations to assist the starving population were rejected on the grounds that there was no famine in Ukraine and no need for the assistance.

In his book "The Harvest of Sorrow," British historian Robert Conquest explains, "A quarter of the rural population, men, women and children, lay dead or dying, the rest in various states of debilitation with no strength to bury their families or neighbors."

Ukrainians see the Famine as part of the long tale of oppression which was Russian rule over their country since the 1654 Treaty of Pereyaslav.

Even today there are those, like Douglas Tottle, author of "Fraud, Famine and Fascism," who use revisionist history to deny what can accurately be called the Ukrainian holocaust.

It is crucial that we educate future generations and pass on the memories of such terrible events so they do not happen again.

Ambassador Anton Buteiko

Address by the ambassador of Ukraine to the United States, Anton Buteiko.

In the history of every nation there are tragic events. For Ukraine, one such event that stands out most prominently in the memory of our people is the artificial Famine of 1932-1933. It will forever be remembered as one of the most horrific crimes of the 20th century, on par with the genocide of the Armenian and Jewish nations.

The Famine claimed the lives of 7 to 9 million of Ukraine's citizens, hard-working farmers, children, women and people of all ages. Judging by European standards, an entire nation, an entire country was lost. This was, in fact, a war that the Stalinist Communist regime waged against its own people. While during a war at least some international conventions protect the civilian population, in 1932-1933 in Ukraine - occupied by the criminal Communist regime - no such laws applied.

The regime consciously sought to uproot the genetic source of the Ukrainian nation, to avenge resistance to collectivization and the Ukrainian farmers' aspirations for freedom in 1932-1933. The consequences of the artificial Famine are still felt today - for today there is still fear of the state, fear of famine, reluctance to own land for fear of its eventual forced confiscation.

Thousands of facts testify to this unheard-of holocaust of the Ukrainian people. There are stories that tell of family cannibalism; numerous documents that depict the events of that terrible time.

Monuments were erected to commemorate the victims, secret archives made public, tens of books, memoirs and studies published. Nevertheless, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, directed by the bloody deeds of Lenin and Stalin, is yet to bear the judgement of the nations of the world, the judgement of history. We have yet to tell the truth about the artificial Famine, to preach its lessons to humankind.

The dark lesson of the artificial Famine is that in 1932-1933 the world turned a blind eye to the tragedy of the Ukrainian nation and remained indifferent to the suffering of millions of people, while ships carrying cheap Ukrainian bread sailed from Odesa to destinations in Europe and the United States.

Entreaties to the U.S. government on behalf of Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky were disregarded, and a dishonest journalist named Walter Duranty convinced the American public that there was no famine in Ukraine.

It is not only our duty to remember the horrors of the artificial Famine, but also to honor those who spoke out on behalf of the victims.

Courageous are the deeds of a well-known Ukrainian Galician, Milena Rudnytska, the head of the Union of Ukrainian Women, and a member of the Polish Sejm in the '30s.

She brought up the issue of the artificial Famine at a forum of the League of Nations, and was supported by representatives from Norway, Ireland, Spain and Germany. However, representatives of other nations insisted that the Famine was an internal affair of the Soviet Union. Thus, indifference got the upper hand, and the crimes remained unpunished.

Only under the influence of the Ukrainian community in the U.S. such members like Lev Dobriansky, Bohdan Fedorak, Myron Kuropas, Ulana Mazurkevich, and others, in 1984-1988 the United States Congress created a special commission headed by Rep. Daniel Mica. A Senate committee headed by Sen. Jesse Helmes also took up investigation of this matter. James Mace headed a scholarly research group.

The establishment of an independent Ukrainian state is the best guarantee that the tragedy of 1933 will never recur. The existence of an independent Ukraine testifies to the immortality of the Ukrainian nation, and its love of freedom that stood the test of Stalin's terror and Hitler's occupation.

Today, we bow our heads in memory of our fathers and grandfathers who perished in 1932-1933, in memory of millions of our compatriots.

Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko

Address by Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations.

It is a great honor to be here today for a solemn yet sad occasion commemorating one of the most tragic chapters in the history of Ukraine: the anniversary of the man-made Famine of 1932-1933.

Placed in the middle of Europe and effectively divided between major empires, Ukraine - the land so generously endowed by the nature and the cradle of the Christian democratic Kozak republic - was trampled for centuries by various oppressors who tried to eradicate the very spirit of its people. Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Ukrainians were deported to Siberia and other uninhabited parts of the Russian Empire, while other peoples were resettled to the Ukrainian territories. It was a deliberate policy of Russian emperors and Soviet dictators to suppress any expression of the Ukrainian political and cultural identity. This policy was continued through a wave of a forced collectivization of the early '30s aimed at eliminating Ukrainian farmers who were the bearers of the nature and practice of economic freedom, a concept unacceptable for the totalitarian state.

To this end, the political elite of the former Soviet Union elaborated and implemented the most terrible and the most cruel misanthropic action in the history of the contemporary Europe: the artificial hunger. According to the most modest estimates, it took some 7 million innocent lives. In some areas the total population was decreased by one-third; and in many cases entire towns and villages were depopulated. It is hard to imagine that all of this happened in a country called "the breadbasket of Europe." Such a horrible harvest of people's deaths.

Some experts say that if not for this Famine, as well as Ukraine's losses in the second world war, the population of contemporary Ukraine would be close to 100 million people, this is, twice bigger.

In spite of all this, our nation did not melt away or dissolve in the ocean of other peoples, as had often been the case in the history of mankind. Ukrainians survived, saving their dignity and faith, saving their culture, customs and traditions, saving their own country. Today, using our historic chance, we created a new democratic independent state in the center of Europe, where there should be no place for intolerance, discrimination, injustice, violations of human rights. Our people paid an extremely high price for its independence and freedom. We shall never forget it, and we shall do our best to prevent similar tragedies elsewhere.

More and more people in the world learn the truth about the calamity experienced by the Ukrainian people. Last year, for the first time in the history of the United Nations, I shared information about this genocide against the Ukrainian nation in 1932-1933 with the representatives of more than 180 countries at a session on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention of Genocide held in the U.N. General Assembly.

Ukrainians in New York and in other cities of the United States commemorate these tragic events every year. And, every year, more and more Americans join us to learn and understand better Ukrainian history, the Ukrainian spirit, the hopes and aspirations of the Ukrainian people. It makes us stronger.

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