LETTERS TO THE EDITOR (08/10/03)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

A letter from 1990 about Duranty's prize

Dear Editor:

Over 12 years ago, on October 3, 1990, I wrote a short, desperate letter to Michael Sovern, president of Columbia University:

"Mr. Sovern:"

I understand that you have the power to withdraw/nullify Walter Duranty's Pulitzer Award for Journalism. Given all the research and facts surrounding the Ukrainian famine that are now appearing, Walter Duranty's reporting amounted to only lies, not observable facts. I am sure you are well aware of the horrible errors and distorted facts Mr. Duranty published while serving with the New York Times.

"Your conscience should dictate your nullification and withdrawal of any prizes to journalistic liars like Walter Duranty!"

On October 17, 1990, I received a polite and positive acknowledgment to that letter from Robert Christopher, administrator, The Pulitzer Prizes:

"Thank you for your letter of October 3 which President Sovern felt should be considered by me in my capacity as administrator of The Pulitzer Prizes.

"Your assumption that President Sovern as an individual possesses the authority to withdraw the Pulitzer Prize awarded Walter Duranty in 1932 is not correct. That step could only be taken by a majority vote of the Pulitzer Prize Board on which President Sovern holds one of 16 voting seats.

"Your feelings concerning the Duranty prize, however, are shared, as you are certainly aware, by a number of other people as well, and the issue has been given new currency by the publication of S.J. Taylor's book 'Stalin's Apologist.' I think it quite likely therefore that the matter will be on the agenda of the Pulitzer Prize Board in November when that body holds its next meeting. What, if any, action the Board may decide to take I cannot now predict, but certainly letters such as yours will be taken into consideration."

Who knows what ever happened at that November 1990 meeting to which Mr. Christopher referred? How many at that session were Duranty apologists?

Maybe The Ukrainian Weekly letter writer, Dr. Andrew Senkowsky, (July 20) got it right! Forget Duranty and focus on discrimination.

Nancy Melny
Rochester, N.Y.

Duranty review a step toward accountability

Dear Editor:

The tenacity with which Walter Duranty's fabrication denying the Stalin-made famine in Ukraine 1932-1933 had been protected by the New York Times these past 70 years was proportional to the need to diffuse the impact of America's recognition of the USSR during the Stalin-made famine in Soviet-controlled Ukraine, 1932-1933. Technically, the United States cannot be held accountable for breach of protocol, as in recognizing the USSR while it was engaged in genocide, if the person in authority, namely Duranty, denied that a genocide even existed.

Plausible deniability, however, will not absolve America of its moral responsibility for recognizing a corrupt government at the expense of millions of innocent lives. Other sources of information were available to challenge Duranty's lie. The United States was encumbered to seek deeply the bedrock of the truth and to confront the evil where it lay.

One explanation for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's decision to recognize the USSR in 1933, the year of the Famine and the year in which the Nazis came to power in Germany, hinges on his acumen as a world leader. If his decision was that of a statesman who believed the immediacy of the Nazi threat to the status quo superceded the festering threat of Communism, then his decision served the national interests of the United States. An ally on Germany's eastern front, even an immoral one, could help neutralize the danger posed by the Nazis.

The question remains, however, was recognizing both the USSR and the Famine mutually exclusive? Could not the U.S. have come down hard on the Soviets over the Famine in return for its recognition of the USSR? Or, in another scenario, could not the U.S. have intervened during the Famine on behalf of Ukraine's independence in return for its good will and support against the Nazis? A proactive American policy in Eastern Europe on the side of justice could well have served as a significant deterrent to the Nazi quest for hegemony over the heartland of Europe.

The answers to these questions lie in America's foreign policy toward Ukraine, which was based on a convenient misunderstanding that Ukraine was integral to Russia and on a prevailing attitude that domestic matters pertaining to a foreign nation were beyond the providence of American involvement. Assuming Ukraine to be part of Russia denied Ukraine its history, ethnicity and legitimacy as a nation and thus robbed it of a national defense against the Stalin-made Famine in Ukraine.

Duranty's lie endured so long after the Famine because it served as a linchpin in the denial of Ukraine herself.

Through the actions and inactions of European nations and American foreign policy decisions since the Treaty of Versailles (1919) Ukraine's bid for self-determination was denied, and Ukraine was remanded to an imperialist totalitarian regime where Ukrainians suffered mayhem at the hands of their merciless captors. This inescapable reality is fundamental to Ukraine's right to claim compensation for its losses from all parties concerned.

Nations, too, must bear the burden of their culpability in turning a "blind eye" on grave injustice. This is a principle of international indemnity, one practiced since before the time of the Congress of Vienna, which must be satisfied. Today the European Community can make restitution for turning away from Ukraine in her moment of despair by accepting Ukraine as a full-fledged member of NATO and the European Union. The United States, in turn, could extend most-favored-nation status to Ukraine. Such restitution dispenses accountability in a just and constructive manner.

The announcement that the Pulitzer Prize Board will review the case of Walter Duranty, who denied the Stalin-made Famine in Ukraine, indicates a willingness to hold him to account and marks an important step in accepting Ukrainians as worthy of justice and recognition, and Ukraine as a dignified sovereign nation in the pantheon of nations.

Christine Hoshowsky, Ph.D.
Rochester, N.Y.

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