NEWS AND VIEWS: Build the Holodomor complex now (09/17/06)

NEWS AND VIEWS

Build the Holodomor complex now

by Morgan Williams

Among the major crimes committed against the Ukrainian people, the Holodomor of 1932-1933 (death by forced starvation) stands apart and forms a category of its own.

It fits the criteria for genocide according to the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The 75th anniversary commemoration of the Holodomor takes place in 2007-2008.

The deliberate starvation of millions of Ukrainian citizens and the horrible suffering endured by millions more is seen as the most destructive and costliest in terms of human lives in Ukraine's history. Its main target was the peasantry, the mainstay of the Ukrainian nation.

A large portion of the Ukrainian peasantry died, and the Kremlin engineered the execution of a large part of Ukraine's national elites (cultural, educational, religious, political).

Millions of these victims died from starvation, others were executed with a shot to the head or sent to the gulag to die.

The genocide against the Ukrainian nation as a whole included the Ukrainian minority living in the Russian SFSR, especially the Kuban region of the Northern Caucasus, where the Ukrainian peasantry was starved to death and a large part of the Ukrainian elites physically exterminated. This Ukrainian ethnic minority also should be remembered.

Holodomor complex

Dr. James Mace, outstanding U.S. scholar of the Holodomor, called for the establishment of a Holodomor commemoration, educational, research and historical complex in Kyiv. Sadly, Dr. Mace's many calls fell on deaf ears.

Leaders in Ukraine and around the world have felt strongly it was important for the Ukrainian genocide to find its proper place in the collective memory of the Ukrainian nation and the world community after being covered up and denied by the Soviet government for 55 years.

In 2002 the Ukrainian World Congress called for the building of a complex. I wrote an opinion piece in the Kyiv Post back on November 28, 2002.

On February 12, 2003, the vice prime minister for humanitarian affairs at that time, Dmytro Tabachnyk, representing the government in a hearing before Parliament, called the Famine a voluntary terrorist act that claimed the lives of up to 10 million people and turned Ukrainian villages into "a horrible social reservation the size of which shocked the entire world."

Minister Tabachnyk announced that the government was planning to build a national Famine memorial complex to include a monument, museum and a historical research center.

President Viktor Yushchenko told the fourth World Forum of Ukrainians recently that he would make sure a Holodomor complex is built by fall 2008. He said the complex would be appropriate to the level of the tragedy.

Build it now

The Holodomor complex needs to be built now. It must be a separate, stand-alone institution, not combined with another facility or an organization that covers other repressive events or periods in Ukrainian history. It must be wholly devoted to the Ukrainian genocide.

The historical complex should be a world-class structure with a research center, library, exhibition hall, museum, monument, chapel, archive center, bookstore and memorial gallery, as in the leading historical centers of the world.

There are precedents for this type of genocidal commemorative structures. Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, in Israel and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington are devoted exclusively to the Holocaust and not to other crimes the Jewish people have suffered.

Thus, the Holodomor complex must be focused on the Ukrainian genocide, otherwise its role in the education of Ukrainian youth and its testimony to the world will be greatly diminished.

Institute of memory

The Institute of Memory, created recently by the Cabinet of Ministers, is said to be devoted to the crimes against the Ukrainian nation committed by various regimes in the 20th century. There are two main concerns about the Holodomor complex being included under the aegis of this institute.

Firstly, the 20th century is full of tragic moments for the Ukrainian nation. Crimes were committed by the tsarist regime, the Polish regime in western Ukraine between the two wars, the Soviet regime (three famines, mass deportations around World War II and at other times), and German atrocities in 1918 and during World War II, including the Holocaust.

Secondly, an institute devoted to a whole century of Ukraine's national history must not delve exclusively into the tragic moments of the country's past.

This is certainly not a healthy or sound way to cultivate national consciousness, especially among the younger generation.

The Institute of Memory should also include heroic moments of the Ukrainian struggle for independence or such joyous moments as the proclamation of Ukrainian independence in 1918 and 1991.

The Holodomor complex, representing the most destructive event in Ukraine's history, could get lost and just become one more event in the long list of destructive and heroic moments in Ukraine's history if it is subsumed by the Institute of Memory.

The Holodomor monument

The Holodomor complex design jury met last week in Kyiv to review the final designs and it met on September 8 to make the final decision. The complex is to be built underground, with a large monument on top.

The monument should make a major, dramatic and strong statement against communism and its henchmen in the name of the people, families and nation who suffered under this horrible tragedy and it should pay tribute to those who died.

The monument itself can become a world-recognized symbol for the Holodomor - one that moves the human mind and heart to remember the evil systems of the past and to point to present governments that destroy millions of lives.

Most current Holodomor monument models focus mainly on the victims, look like church structures and do not make a strong enough statement about the crime.

When one looks at the Holodomor monument it is important that it not be easily confused with or mistaken for a church monument. It should clearly signify to the viewer that this is the Holodomor monument and become a world-recognized symbol of the Holodomor, the crime and its victims. Officials should work with the winner of the design competition to develop a design that focuses on the crime and the victims.

President Yushchenko should issue the appropriate orders now, negotiate the necessary political deals and ensure that the complex is indeed completed by the end of 2008.

The construction of the Holodomor complex can provide the momentum for the Famine-Genocide's 75th anniversary commemoration programs around the world and become a world center for the rememberance of the most tragic event in Ukraine's history.

No more speeches or promises please. Just actions that deliver results.

Morgan Williams is director of government affairs, Washington Office, SigmaBleyzer Private Equity Investment Group. He is a member of the Organizational Committee of the 75th Anniversary of the Holodomor appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers; trustee of the Holodomor Exhibition Collection; and chairman of the Mace Holodomor Memorial Fund of the Ukrainian Federation of America. He is the publisher and editor of the Action Ukraine Report (AUR). A version of this article was originally published in the Kyiv Post on September 7.

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