LOOKING BACK: Major newspapers' coverage of Shevchenko monument unveiling (06/27/04)

ARAS SHEVCHENKO IN WASHINGTON: 1964-2004

LOOKING BACK: Major newspapers' coverage of Shevchenko monument unveiling

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - Looking over yellowed, 40-year-old clippings of Washington and New York newspapers that covered the unveiling of the Taras Shevchenko monument here on June 27, 1964, one is struck, on the one hand, by the amount of coverage it received - in the Washington papers at least - and, in most cases, by the prevalence of erroneous perceptions and interpretations in the coverage.

The capital's paper of record, The Washington Post, covered the event in its June 28 Sunday edition with a large, three-column photograph of the unveiling ceremony on top of the front page, along with a short lead story about the event, which, however, focused not on the unveiling and its meaning but on traffic and other logistical problems that it caused for Washingtonians. The two-line headline read: "36,000 Ukrainian-Americans March in Heat to Unveiling of Poet's Statue."

Two more stories followed on page 11, with three more large photos from the parade spread across eight columns atop that page. There was a 13-paragraph piece about the unveiling that highlighted former President Dwight D. Eisenhower's appearance at the ceremony, headlined "Ukrainians Make Eisenhower Feel 'Like I Were Back in Politics.'" In it, the Post reporter wrote about the reverence Ukrainians have for Shevchenko and noted the Cold War aspects of the Shevchenko unveiling: "The parade and ceremonies were a demonstration against communism, as well as a tribute to Shevchenko."

Beneath it was a six-paragraph sidebar about Ukrainian Americans and their forebears, who "brought with them freedom-seeking traditions inherited from Cossacks and peasants." The sidebar noted, parenthetically, that many of those approached by Post reporters seemed to remember the newspaper's long-standing editorial opposition to the erection of the Shevchenko monument in Washington and responded to their questions with "invective, sneers or cold silence."

Indeed, on the day of the unveiling, the Post added a brief comment on its editorial page in which it paraphrased somewhat Shevchenko's oft-repeated words about Washington, as it asked: "When shall we in Washington receive a new and righteous law?" which would regulate the erection of statues in the nation's capital and "would halt the present hit-and-miss procedure."

[The Washington Post got Ukrainian Americans' ire up again four years ago, when in a guest commentary, "Let's evict the has-beens to elevate the worthy," John Matthews listed Shevchenko's among the monuments that should be removed, noting that "in the early 1960s, opponents of the memorial said Shevchenko was not only an idol of Soviet Communists but an anti-Semite and anti-Polish to boot."]

The Post's competitor, The Evening Star, being an afternoon paper, managed to get a picture of the parade from the White House to Shevchenko's monument on the front page of its Saturday final night edition, accompanied with a straight report about the weekend's events on page 22, headlined "Parade and Dedication Here To Honor Ukrainian Poet."

The Star's coverage on Sunday continued on page 4 with two more photos and another comprehensive story of the unveiling, which noted that, despite the searing heat, President Eisenhower remained at the ceremony to the end - for almost five hours. The story also noted that Washington's deputy police chief estimated 35,000 people marched in the parade and 100,000 jammed the monument grounds during the unveiling ceremony. The headline read: "Shevchenko Statue Here Unveiled by Eisenhower."

The Evening Star journalist who wrote these reports, Robert J. Lewis, had covered the Shevchenko monument story for a number of years as it progressed through the government approval process. He was honored with one of the six Shevchenko Freedom Awards presented during the banquet following the dedication of the monument.

The New York Times covered the event in a 10-paragraph story, below a two-line, one column headline "Eisenhower Raises Issue of Freedom." It was accompanied by a United Press International photo of the unveiling. The Times' writer, Ben Franklin, focused on the East-West, Captive Nations aspect of the monument to Shevchenko, a "19th century Ukrainian poet and patriot (who) is regarded as the George Washington of his country but is not widely known in the United States."

He noted that speeches by President Eisenhower and others were carried by the Voice of America and Radio Liberty, "a privately financed propaganda organization," and that the ceremony was "the climax of a long and sometimes bitter dispute over Shevchenko's role in the cultural and political cold war with the Soviet Union over 'the captive nations.'"

The Times reporter quoted from the Washington Post's earlier editorial on the subject, which referred to Shevchenko as an artist "of no universal significance" and called the monument organizers a tiny group that managed to "convert an errant private passion into a public cause, the implausible goal of Ukrainian nationhood."

The New York Herald Tribune ran a UPI story and photo on page 3, headlined "Ike Unveils Ukrainians' Anti-Soviet Statue." The report noted in the lead that the Shevchenko monument, which former President Eisenhower unveiled, "bears an anti-Russian slogan, designed to make Soviet Premier Khrushchev see red."

At a recent unveiling of a statue of Shevchenko in Moscow, the story notes, Mr. Khrushchev said that socialism was the poet's "true heir." "But the poet's anti-Communist supporters here hailed the bard as a 'freedom fighter' and a Ukrainian George Washington," the UPI story said.

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