OPINION: Ukraine faces a "cultural Holodomor" (09/05/04)

OPINION: Ukraine faces a "cultural Holodomor"

by Peter Borisow with Jack Palance

Jack Palance rejected the Russian award he was slated to receive during the "Russian Nights" recently organized in Los Angeles because it was just another step in the ongoing Russian Empire's genocide of Ukraine - this time cultural - one of many efforts throughout history to pass off as Russian what they can and then to destroy the rest. Mr. Palance will have no part of this cultural Holodomor.

Mr. Palance's rejection was more than a personal statement that he is Ukrainian and not Russian. Like so many Ukrainians in "the (film) business," Mr. Palance is tired of hearing Ukrainians mislabeled and slandered as a matter of course. His statement was, in fact, his declaration to the world that he is joining the battle to save the Ukrainian identity from complete destruction by the Russian Empire.

Just like every Russian knows there can be no Russian empire without Ukraine, every leader of the "Evil Empire," be it the tsar, Stalin or Putin, knows well that Ukraine will never meld into the Russian empire as long as the Ukrainian identity exists. For them, it was and is of utmost importance to continue the cycle of destruction of the Ukrainian language, culture and history, while taking useful bits of the Ukrainian heritage and passing them off as Russian.

Hence the fraud of Kyivan Rus' being the antecedent of Russia, the fraud of Kozaks being Russian cavalry (except during pogroms, when they're conveniently Ukrainian), the fraud of the Ukrainian genocide being passed off as a "famine," the fraud of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church being just a subset of the Russian Church, the fraud of brilliant and successful Ukrainians (from Gogol to Sikorsky to Dovzhenko and countless others) being passed off as Russians. Mr. Palance will not be part of this fraud.

Ukraine has gone through so many cycles of genocide that it's hard to keep track of them all. Cycles of killing and physical destruction are intermingled with cycles of destruction of the language, the literature, the physical history, the traditions, the family structure - all calculated to destroy the very essence of the Ukrainian soul. While words speak for the brain, it is language that speaks for the soul. Kill the Ukrainian language, and the Ukrainian Soul will no longer have its voice.

Today, despite the siren song of a free and independent Ukraine, all evidence points to a full court press by the Russian empire to buy and control everything Ukrainian and then guarantee its destruction. Nowhere is this more evident than in "the business," both here and in Ukraine. While the Russian empire spends lavishly to finance the fraud overseas - the festival was co-sponsored by the Russian Ministry of Culture - back home in Ukraine, the last vestiges of Ukrainian film and television are being deliberately starved to death in a cultural Holodomor.

While Ukrainians in the United States reveled to see "Mamai" as Ukraine's first submission for the Academy Awards, back in Ukraine, it was a different story. Hanna Chmyl, the vice minister of culture, who supported both Yurii Illienko's "Mazepa" and Oles Sanin's "Mamai," was fired. No distributor would touch "Mamai," while "Mazepa" was bought by Russian money and buried. Theater owners would not even rent theaters for a guaranteed flat rate if the film to be shown was "Mamai." Having no possible outlet in Ukraine, "Mamai," which was submitted for the 2003 Academy Awards, is popular at international festivals, but few Ukrainians will ever see it.

While Ukrainians in the U.S. applauded the Ukrainian Parliament's vote mandating certain minimum hours of Ukrainian language on Ukrainian television, back in Ukraine the manipulation is evident to anyone who watches Ukrainian television. Only a minimum of popular shows are actually in Ukrainian. The dominant voice is overwhelmingly Russian. The legal requirement is met in some tricky ways. If you want to see something in Ukrainian, better watch in the middle of the night. Or, watch an American movie dubbed into Russian and accompanied by Ukrainian subtitles that are so tiny and flash by so fast that no one can see or read them - viewers just listen to the Russian.

While Ukrainians in the U.S. await the next Ukrainian film to be presented to the Academy, the Russians are preparing a big surprise for them. The next Ukrainian submission for the Academy Awards may well be a Russian movie. "Vodii Dlia Viry" (Driver for Vera) is being promoted as Ukraine's submission. The film was made by Alexander Rodnyansky, an international businessman who found fame and fortune in Ukraine running 1 + 1 TV and then moved his business to Moscow and became a Russian film-maker. "Vodii Dlia Viry" is a Russian movie, filmed entirely in the Russian language, while using locations in Crimea and some hired talent from Ukraine.

According to the producers, that's only fair since Russian is the real everyday language of Ukraine. They claim hardly anyone speaks Ukrainian anymore, that Ukrainians now speak Russian. Besides, no Ukrainian-language films were even made this year, so there's nothing to submit in Ukrainian anyway.

Those in "the business" in Ukraine claim the reason no Ukrainian-language films were made last year was purely economic - no one wants to see them. Never mind that it's virtually impossible to get financing for them (even willing investors are afraid of business repercussions) and equally impossible to get them shown in motion picture theaters in Ukraine, at any cost. Ukrainians have no influence over distribution - it's all controlled from Moscow.

The major studios sell film and television products to Ukraine as part of a Russian-language package, including Belarus and other bits of the Russian empire. They argue that it's cost effective and there is no demand for Ukrainian-language distribution. If the government required films in Ukraine to be shown in Ukrainian, the distributors would do so. Today, films play only in Russian. In time, the people get used to Russian and it becomes O.K., even fashionable. To a large extent, that is why Russian has become so popular with the youth of Ukraine, especially in the large cities - it's what their heroes speak on film and TV.

The Ukrainian market is about the size of France or Germany. Can you imagine films being shown routinely in France exclusively in German? What is happening in Ukraine is that the Russian empire is taking back what it considers its own. The empire is striking back, everywhere.

The submission of a Ukrainian film for the Academy Awards will be made by the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture. "Vodii Dlia Viry" stars Bohdan Stupka, himself a former minister of culture. If the government does decide to submit a Russian film as Ukraine's candidate, then the Ukrainian government and symbolically its people will be declaring Russian the language of Ukraine. Mr. Stupka has so far failed to say that he is Ukrainian and not Russian, and is apparently content to sing whatever song the Muscovites pay him to sing. So far, Mr. Stupka has been silent on this issue.

Submitting a Russian film as Ukraine's candidate for the Academy Awards would be disastrous for Ukrainian identity and yet another victory, brilliantly manipulated and financed, by the Russian Empire. It would be a replay of the old fraud at the United Nations, when Ukraine supposedly had its "own" vote.

If there is no Ukrainian-language film to submit, then Ukraine should submit nothing. It is better to pass one year than to suffer the humiliation of submitting a film in a foreign language. Not every country submits a film every year; it's O.K. to skip a year. And, then, Ukraine should help make Ukrainian-language films for 2006.

There is, however, no indication that this will happen. While everyone looks in the other direction, the back lots of Dovzhenko Studios are being sold off for apartments Dovzhenko Studios and other elements of the Ukrainian film and television industries are converted to nothing more than cheap places to make Russian movies. Sort of like Mexico is to Hollywood - only Hollywood does not submit its movies as Mexico's candidates for the Academy Award.

At Dovzhenko and other studios in Kyiv, no one speaks Ukrainian. Even transplanted Ukrainian Americans from New York and Philadelphia speak either Russian or "surzhyk," a bastardized jargon of Russian mixed with Ukrainian. They say, "Hey, what do you want from me? It's business!"

The Russian empire is succeeding in buying Ukraine because so many Ukrainians are willing to sell. They're happy to see Russians coming to Ukraine with cash. They must think that Judas came to the Last Supper with a bag of silver coins because he was going to pick up the check.

Another troubling aspect of the cultural Holodomor in Ukraine is the apparent indifference to it by U.S. government officials, just like the Holodomor of the 1930s. At a recent conference on Ukrainian media, a senior Voice of America official suggested that Ukrainian as the dominant language in Ukraine may not be realistic, that Ukrainians may need to start considering "the Irish solution." Another speaker suggested there was really nothing wrong with a "bilingual Ukraine," citing Canada as an example.

The problem, however, is not with the bilingual bit itself. If there was a movement for English to become the second language of Ukraine, it wouldn't be such a problem. The problem is that Russian was the language of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide - a genocide for which Russia still refuses to apologize. It's like proposing that Armenia adopt Turkish as its second language or that Israel adopt German.

In other areas of "the business," the onslaught on Ukraine is equally offensive (if that's possible). When being Ukrainian is acknowledged, it is usually a negative. In 2003 Ukrainians were linked to nuclear terrorism in Ben Affleck's "The Sum of All Fears." Now, Elijah Woods has some blatant rabidly Ukrainian-hating lines in Liev Schreiber's "Everything is Illuminated."

Explaining why his grandmother hates Ukraine, Jonathan, the lead character played by Woods, says, "The Ukrainians were terrible to the Jews. They were almost as bad as the Nazis. At the beginning of the war, a lot of Jews ran to the Nazis for protection from the Ukrainians."

Contacted by several Ukrainians, Mr. Schreiber and his financier/producer, Marc Turtletaub, have refused to remove the hate-baiting lines. Driven by ignorance and distorted history, unfounded hatred is once again the winner. The movie, currently filming in Prague, is set to be distributed by WIB, part of Warner Brothers.

Instead of gathering sympathy for the victims of Chornobyl, another producer, Anatoly Fradis, has teamed with director Ellory Elkayem to film parts of "Necropolis: Return of the Living Dead, Part 4" using Chornobyl as the backdrop. Far from becoming a battle cry against blatant disregard for Ukrainian life by the Russian empire, Chornobyl is becoming "cool" among those who pimp low-end entertainment to kids.

The September issue of GamePro magazine (page 90) reviews a new game called "S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl," developed by GSC Game World. "As a Stalker, your job is to get into the Zone, the area around the site of the disaster, and scavenge artifacts for fun and profit." To do this the player must shoot his way through Ukrainian guards and deal with the zombies who now inhabit the Zone. The game's target release date is winter 2004, just in time for Christmas.

Mr. Palance's rejection of the Russian award was intended to make a statement. It was to stand up and say, "Damn it, I am Ukrainian. I am proud to be Ukrainian and I won't take this c - - - any more!"

The genocide of Ukrainian culture and identity is relentless. History has shown that those who fight genocide can survive it. Those who fail to resist go down the dustbin of history. On this, at least, our fate is in our hands. It is up to each and every Ukrainian, each and every one of us to stand up and say, "I'm Ukrainian. I'm proud to be Ukrainian and I will fight for Ukraine, for its voice and for its soul."

Then, live what you say.

Peter Borisow and Jack Palance are, respectively, president and chairman of the board of the Hollywood Trident Foundation based in Los Angeles.

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