PARSIPPANY, N.J. – Nigel Linsan Colley, an independent researcher of the legacy of Gareth Jones, the first journalist to report on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, died on February 1 after a brief battle with cancer. He was 57.
Mr. Colley was a grandnephew of Jones, the young Welsh journalist who traveled to Ukraine in March 1933 at the time of the Holodomor and reported his findings. For that, Jones was branded a liar by none other than Walter Duranty of The New York Times, who famously wrote: “There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation, but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.”
Jones responded, and his reply was published as a letter to the editor in The Times. He stated in part: “[Moscow] Journalists are allowed to write, but the censorship has turned them into masters of euphemism and understatement… May I in conclusion congratulate the Soviet Foreign Office on its skill in concealing the true situation in the USSR?”
In 1935 Jones was kidnapped in inner Mongolia and then murdered under mysterious circumstances on the eve of his 30th birthday. As Mr. Colley related in one of his research papers about his great-uncle, “…his premature death deprived the world [of] the wisdom of a true humanitarian and silenced one of the very few Western witnesses of the 1932-1933 Holodomor. There is no doubt that Gareth was, as [former British Prime Minister David] Lloyd George remarked, ‘a man who knew too much.’ “
Mr. Colley underscored: “With his murder the only reliable Western witness to arguably Stalin’s greatest atrocity had effectively been silenced and like the Holodomor itself was effectively airbrushed out of history until after the fall of Communism in the 1990s.”
Dr. Margaret Siriol Colley and her son Nigel knew the story of their courageous uncle and great-uncle – but not all of it. What they knew was that Jones was murdered, allegedly by bandits, while he was traveling in Manchukuo, as Japanese-occupied Manchuria and Inner Mongolia were called.
“He was a legend in our family, and a mystery,” Dr. Colley, a physician, explained when she and her son visited the editorial offices of The Ukrainian Weekly in 2003. “We wanted to find out why he was murdered, and then we worked back from there,” added her son. And thus, the two began to research Jones’s life and work. The result was Dr. Colley’s book “Gareth Jones: A Manchukuo Incident” (2001). Mr. Colley provided additional materials and editing for the book, and was responsible for the website dedicated to Gareth Jones (www.colley.co.uk/gareth jones). The book “Gareth Jones: A Grain of Truth” was published four years later. Written by Dr. Colley with her son as collaborate and editor, it was a biography of Jones that also focused on his articles about the USSR and his groundbreaking reports on the Holodomor in Ukraine.
In 2003 the Colleys wrote a letter to The Pulitzer Prize Board with “a personal plea to revoke the 1932 Pulitzer Prize from the infamous journalist, Walter Duranty.” They argued that “the Pulitzer Prize should be revoked from Walter Duranty, not just for his falsification of Stalin’s ruthless execution of the Five-Year Plan of Collectivization, but also for his complete disregard for journalistic integrity. Through abusing his position of authority as The New York Times’ reporter in the Soviet Union, he villainously and publicly denigrated the truthful articles of my uncle, and ashamedly did so, whilst being fully aware of the ongoing famine. Indeed, if you were seeking a means of restoring the international prestige of the Pulitzer Prize, then you ought to consider bestowing the award posthumously to Gareth Jones for his valiant and truthful international exposure of the Soviet Genocide-Famine of 1933, and in doing so help commemorate all the defenseless victims of Stalin’s inhumanity.”
That year Dr. Colley wrote also to the publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr.: “In view of the fact that Walter Duranty must have known the true state of affairs in Ukraine in 1930 and by his denial of the famine as ‘Stalin’s Apologist,’ then I totally support the campaign requesting you to return his Pulitzer in the name of my uncle, Gareth Jones, and all those who sadly perished in the Holodomor of 1932-1933.”
In 2005, speaking at the Holodomor commemoration in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York, Mr. Colley stated: “To the list of the millions of Ukrainian peasants who lost their lives due to Stalin’s man-made Famine, the name of the only Welshman, my great-uncle, Gareth Jones, should perhaps now be added.” He noted that newly discovered evidence at the British Public Records Office “points the finger of blame for Gareth’s murder in 1935 in the direction of Moscow, quite probably in retribution for his international exposure of the Holodomor.” Mr. Colley said Jones’ only crime was his “dogged pursuit of truth.”
Mr. Colley was born on June 20, 1960. He held a bachelor of science degree in biochemistry from York University in the United Kingdom, and he worked in the field of computers.
The resident of Nottinghamshire, England, once noted “I only have a degree in biochemistry and no history qualifications whatsoever…,” yet he became an indefatigable researcher. He went on to speak at various academic conferences and universities in Europe and North America, as well as at the United Nations. He was a featured speaker also at Ukrainian community events and was interviewed by the news media. He was a researcher for Ray Gamache’s book, “Gareth Jones: Eyewitness to the Holodomor.”
At the National Press Club on November 21, 2011, Mr. Colley presented the story of his great-uncle and information on his latest findings about the Holodomor based on Jones’ diaries and letters. He noted that Jones was convinced there was a famine in Ukraine and that he had to see it first-hand and report on it, so that the Soviets couldn’t continue to deny its existence.
Mr. Colley’s talk was dedicated to his mother, Dr. Colley, who had died the previous day.
Writing about the passing of Nigel Colley in the National Review online, Andrew Stuttaford said: “Nigel Colley died last week, far, far, too soon. …in his own modest, determined way, he played a part in changing the course of history. He did so by a making a significant contribution to the way that a terrible story is now remembered, with results that not only changed how we see the past, but will also help shape the future.”
Mr. Stuttaford also noted that Mr. Colley “was determined to reinsert his great-uncle into the historical record and, alongside that, to do his part to make sure that the genocide Jones had witnessed should never again be allowed to be ‘forgotten’ in the way that its perpetrators – and their successors – have tried to ensure. Nigel wanted to do right by Jones and he wanted to do right by Ukraine. He succeeded on both counts.”
Funeral services for Mr. Colley were held on February 15 in Nottingham at Calverton Village Hall.
Michael Sawkiw Jr., chairman of the U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness, wrote: “Nigel was a true friend of the Ukrainian Holodomor. His goal was to bring the truth about the Holodomor, and those who wrote about the genocide in the 1930s, to the attention of the world. Nigel will always be remembered for spreading awareness of the Holodomor and the works of his [great] uncle, Gareth Jones.”