American from Kansas is passionate advocate of Holodomor Memorial Complex in Ukraine (09/17/06)

American from Kansas is passionate advocate of Holodomor Memorial Complex in Ukraine

by Zenon Zawada
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - Like most Americans, when Morgan Williams first arrived in Ukraine in 1992 as an agricultural and food distribution expert, he hadn't even heard of the Holodomor.

Ukraine's beauty, and its tragic past, which he began to study, deeply intrigued the Kansas native.

"When you're in the food business, you're always interested in what causes famines and food shortages," Mr. Williams said. "In this case, it was mostly the policy of the Soviet government to crush private farms and collectivize land and property."

More than 14 years later, Mr. Williams has emerged as among the most passionate, active and effective advocates for a Ukrainian Holodomor Memorial Complex.

He spent August and early September meeting with the key Ukrainian officials who will lead the complex's development, including President Viktor Yushchenko, Assistant State Secretary of Ukraine Markian Lubkivskyi and National Council for Cultural and Spiritual Issues Chair Mykola Zhulynskyi, among others.

Ever since 1995 Mr. Williams has been on a mission to inform the world, as well as ignorant Ukrainians, about the artificial famine and ethnic genocide wrought by Joseph Stalin.

A fellow American who was dedicated to documenting the Holodomor, Dr. James Mace, provided the inspiration.

"I told Jim several years ago that I was not a researcher, scholar or writer," Mr. Williams said. "He said, 'Morgan, then your job should be to tell the world about the Holodomor.' "

He began collecting Holodomor posters and artwork that had only begun to emerge in Ukraine in 1988, when Soviet totalitarianism began to ravel and Ukrainians began to express themselves more openly.

Much of his vast collection of 300 items, which also includes Holodomor artwork from the Ukrainian diaspora, is currently on a yearlong tour through museums throughout Ukraine.

Mr. Williams also became involved in the drive to have the Ukrainian Parliament recognize the Holodomor as a genocide against the Ukrainian people, - something that finally happened with a resolution passed in May 2003.

The planning, design and construction of the Holodomor Memorial Historical Complex is Mr. Williams' current concern.

Repeating Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko's words delivered in August to the fourth World Forum of Ukrainians, Mr. Williams has stressed that the complex "should be commensurate to the level of the tragedy."

In his criticisms of the memorial's design, he urged the complex's organizers and developers to make a firm statement against dictatorial, totalitarian and oppressive governments.

"They were murdered by a political system and people who were out of control. So I think Ukraine has to make a strong statement against the system which murdered all these people," he said.

A memorial for visitors and tourists, the complex should also include a research center, library, book store, genealogical center, as well as provide support to Holodomor researchers and scholars throughout the world, he added.

Mr. Williams said he's particularly concerned about the current legislative drive to recognize the Holodomor as an artificial famine and genocide as part of Ukrainian law.

In May 2003, the Verkhovna Rada passed a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, a victory that was hard-fought and sufficient, in his view. In most countries around the world, a resolution is all a government typically resorts to in order to recognize a tragic historical event, he explained.

Writing recognition of genocide into law is typically done to pursue reparations, something that neither the Russian nor the Ukrainian government would ever agree to, Mr. Williams said.

The timing of such a legislative drive may create a backlash in the Russophile coalition government against the planned Holodomor complex, Mr. Williams said.

In explaining why Holodomor commemoration experts and leaders were pushing for a law, Pavlo Movchan told a September 8 press conference that the law is needed for international recognition, particularly by the the United Nations. No attempts to pursue reparations will be made, he told reporters.

Mr. Williams has also been very active in gathering, preserving and researching government archives concerning the Holodomor.

When he contacted the Security Service of Ukraine, he found out that the country's top intelligence agency had not a single photograph of the Holodomor. "Photographs of the Holodomor were either never taken or entirely destroyed," he said.

At a Holodomor roundtable discussion at the World Forum of Ukrainians Mr. Williams urged diaspora Ukrainians not to use any photographs that have been typically associated with the Ukrainian Holodomor.

These photographs were taken by international relief agencies along the Volga River in Russia in 1921 and 1922 and then used by Nazi Germany as part of an anti-Soviet propaganda campaign in 1935 to falsely depict the Ukrainian Holodomor. The photos made their way into American newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst and then became widespread in the diaspora.

Continuing to use such photographs will only help Holodomor detractors, he said.

No known photographs exist of the Holodomor, he said, adding that he had even repeatedly offered to pay $100 for any such photos.

When he's not in Kyiv, Mr. Williams is in Washington "advocating Ukraine's issues and moving its agenda forward."

He's a longtime associate of former U.S. Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.), and served as his presidential campaign manager during the 1979 Iowa caucuses.

Mr. Williams currently serves as the director of government affairs for SigmaBleyzer, an investment bank very active in Kyiv, and chairs the executive committee of the board of directors at the Ukraine-U.S. Business Council.

Amidst his activities, he also finds time to edit the Action Ukraine Report, an electronic mail list-serve that compiles and distributes English-language news reports about Ukrainian affairs.

In some ways, Mr. Williams views his work as giving back to Ukraine what it gave to Kansas.

In 1860 German Mennonite settlers began leaving southern Ukraine for the U.S., bringing with them hard red winter wheat seed. "Kansas prospered from that wheat seed brought from southern Ukraine," he said.

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