THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

Opening remarks by Bishop Basil Losten

Below is the text of remarks delivered by Bishop Basil Losten of the Stamford Eparchy of the Ukrainian Catholic Church during services at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

My Dear Friends:

Man's inhumanity to man has never been more apparent than in the instances of genocide that have besmirched the history of civilization. Whenever a crime against humanity is perpetrated, right-thinking people are appalled, for it is so beyond our comprehension and contrary to human nature.

In 1932-1933 Lazar Kaganovich spearheaded Stalin's artificially orchestrated famine intended to drive independent farmers into collectivized Soviet agriculture and to crush Ukraine's growing national identity. Propaganda, manipulation of the truth, secrecy and even denial shrouded the starvation of 7 million Ukrainian peasants. They had no champion to give voice to their plight, and others like The New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Walter Duranty who should have brought the genocide to the world's attention either engaged knowingly in a shameful cover-up or turned a blind eye to its horrors.

It is now 70 years since this human depravity was visited on the innocents of our native land. The victims are, for the most part, unknown; but, if they were known, they would be too numerous to be counted - however, not too numerous for tearful remembrance.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 23, 2003, No. 47, Vol. LXXI

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