Jacyk Center's director criticizes Times for affront to victims of Great Famine

Following is the text of the letter to the editor sent to The New York Times by Dr. Frank Sysyn of the Peter Jacyk Center for Ukrainian Historical Research, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

To the Editor:

Under the moving photo of President Bill Clinton standing before the Ukrainian Famine Monument in Kyiv (news article, June 6), a caption mentions "thousands who died in a famine in 1932 and 1933." In fact, thousands died daily in those years, and scholars today are trying to establish just how many millions died.

It is disheartening that The New York Times, which printed the false reporting of Walter Duranty at the time, thereby unwittingly abetting Stalin in covering up the Famine, has still not come to terms with the magnitude of the tragedy. (See Robert Conquest, "The Harvest of Sorrow," 1986, chapter 17).

Perhaps the present affront to the victims of the Famine will stimulate a reassessment of the way the paper deals with its Pulitzer Prize winner Duranty and its own reporting on the Famine.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, June 18, 2000, No. 25, Vol. LXVIII

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