EDITORIAL: Re: airbrushing history (11/16/03)

THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

EDITORIAL

Re: airbrushing history

Will the airbrushing of history related to the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine continue in this, its 70th anniversary year?

We speak to developments on two fronts.

First, of course, is the case of the infamous Walter Duranty of The New York Times, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning dispatches in the 1930s from Stalin's paradise upheld the party line and denied that a Famine was raging in Ukraine. The New York Times, via its publisher and other spokespersons, has expressed concern that revoking Duranty's Pulitzer is akin to airbrushing him out of history, much like the Soviets used to airbrush personae non gratae out of the picture, both figuratively and literally.

But as Prof. Mark von Hagen (the full text of the letter he sent to the Times appears on the facing page) and others have argued, what those who want Duranty's Pulitzer rescinded seek is exactly the opposite: not the airbrushing of history, but an exposé of the full truth - that the Famine-Genocide did take place and that Duranty was among those complicit in denying that fact.

There is also the case of the highly significant Senate Resolution 202, which unequivocally states that the Great Famine was genocide. We've written before about the Russian government's opposition to the measure via the interventions of its Embassy personnel in Washington. And we know that Russia was opposed to any statement at the United Nations that would use the word "genocide" in relation to the Famine. Now it appears there's more to it.

We now know there is opposition to the characterization of the Famine as genocide from the Bush administration, most notably from the National Security Council. Whether the reason for this opposition is President George Bush's good buddy Vladimir [Putin], we do not know. But we do know that the resolution - which has strong bipartisan support and has more co-sponsors than most Senate resolutions do - is stuck in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where Chairman Richard Lugar is being pressured by the administration to not let the resolution stand as written. Though the resolution, which is a "sense of the Senate" resolution, does not express the policy of the Bush administration, the administration nonetheless wants it to be watered down, with references to the Famine as genocide removed. A touch of airbrushing? Meanwhile, S. Res. 202's sponsor, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, is standing firm, which makes him all the more courageous a figure as he is going against the wishes of the Republican leadership.

What can you do? If your senators are not among the current 23 co-sponsors (Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Mark Dayton have joined the list since our last report), ask them to sign on. Contact the National Security Council to express your dismay over this position of the Bush administration.

It's time to call things by their true names, to stop the airbrushing, to tell the whole truth about the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933.

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