WASHINGTON – The long-awaited large bronze depiction of a receding field of wheat, memorializing the millions of innocent people who perished during Joseph Stalin’s 1932-1933 Famine-Genocide in Ukraine, arrived here on August 4 and was affixed as the main part of the Holodomor Memorial being erected not far from the U.S. Capitol building.
The 6-foot-high-by-35-foot-long bronze casting of the art, titled “Field of Wheat,” created by architect/sculptor Larysa Kurylas was transported to Washington that morning from the Laran Bronze Foundry in Chester, Pa., and, with the help of a dozen professional handlers and a huge crane, the five-ton piece was affixed to the stainless steel bolts in the monument’s foundation.
Though some complications arose, they were resolved within less than three hours – much to the delight of an estimated 50 persons who came to witness the event.
Among those witnesses were Ukraine’s new ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, who had presented his letters of credence at the White House to President Barack Obama on the previous day, and Michael Sawkiw, who heads the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor Genocide Awareness 1932-1933, which has been in the forefront of getting U.S. government to authorize the building of the memorial on what is now National Park land.
The memorial is located on a small, triangular plot at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and North Capitol Street – one block away from Union Station and a short walk from the Capitol, where the U.S. Congress in 2006 authorized the building of the memorial by the government of Ukraine. After all of the technicalities were resolved, a solemn groundbreaking ceremony took place here on December 4, 2013, and some of the preliminary construction of the memorial was started.
Asked when the Holodomor Memorial will be finished, Ms. Kurylas said that there are a number of tasks that still must be completed, among them adding some stone and bronze metal caps, the placement of etched-stone panels inspired by early 20th century folk textile designs by Ukrainian artist Vasyl Krychevsky, as well the planting of Nankeen shrubs and seven purple-leaf Redbud trees behind the monument, which cannot be done before mid-September.
She said that the memorial should be completed and the fence surrounding the monument grounds will probably come down by the end of September. The official dedication of the memorial is scheduled for November 7.
Among the noteworthy persons who may have wanted to be here when the monument arrived August 4 and to participate in that official dedication in November but could not and will not be able to is Dmytro Firtash, the Ukrainian gas tycoon who donated more than $2 million for the construction of the memorial. The U.S. government has asked Austria to extradite him to the United States on corruption charges, but was turned down by the Vienna government.
Another potential attendee, the prominent researcher of Stalinism Dr. Robert Conquest, one of whose major works, “The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine,” focused on the Holodomor in Ukraine, died in Palo Alto, Calif., on August 3, the day before the monument’s bronze casting arrived in Washington. He was 98.
Yaro Bihun
Ukraine’s new ambassador to Washington, Valeriy Chaly (center), discusses the main section of the Ukrainian Holodomor memorial in Washington with its designer, Larysa Kurylas, after its installation not far from the U.S. Capitol. Standing behind them and studying the new monument is Michael Sawkiw, head of the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor Genocide Awareness 1932-1933.