FACES AND PLACES: Koba's legacy: not be forgotten (03/23/03)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Koba's legacy: not be forgotten

Stalin died 50 years ago this March and for a time it seemed his crimes against humanity would be forgotten, long buried in the dustbin of history. Russians are certainly not concerned about Koba's genocide, preferring to remember him fondly with parades and protests honoring his memory. Americans are not interested in Koba (as Stalin was called early on); they hardly know him. Ask the average college student about Stalin and you're apt to get a blank stare. Huh? Who?

Thousands of books, articles and monographs have been published about Hitler and the horrors visited upon the Jews. Movies and documentaries have been produced; school curricula have been developed; teaching seminars offered; museums built.

What about Stalin and the horror visited upon Ukrainians? Who cares about that genocide? A few books have been published. Some articles have been written. A documentary film has been produced here and there. That is about all we have about the crime of the century. No one had put together the total record, a complete and concise chronology of how the Soviet regime of Lenin, Stalin and their barbaric successors murdered some 15 million innocent Ukrainians in order to maintain their power and to crush Ukrainian nationalism. Fortunately, the truth will not be denied.

Recently, I had the opportunity to view a museum exposition titled "Not To Be Forgotten: A Chronicle of the Communist Inquisition in Ukraine, 1917-1991," currently touring the United States. Created by the Kyiv City Organization of the All Ukrainian Memorial Society named in honor of Vasyl Stus, the exposition consists of 70 large panels that create a pictorial documentary of Soviet crimes. Included are reproductions of NKVD and KGB documents, and many unique and shocking photographs never before seen by the public.

Accompanying the exposition is Roman Krutsyk, chairman of Memorial and former member of the Verkhovna Rada, who has spent much of the previous decade researching and compiling the information. "It's all there," he told me, "the site of every labor camp; the name of every camp director as well as his complete biography; every administrative dictate from Moscow; and every report back to Moscow noting fulfillment of order and asking for more orders."

"What we have is only the tip of the iceberg," he insisted. "The archives are there to be explored by scholars."

The exposition, sponsored in the U.S. by the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms for Ukraine, is divided into 11 historical periods: "The Bolshevik Coup and the Beginning of the Terror" (1917-1920); "The USSR is Born Out of Famine and Violence" (1921-1923); "The Cost of Industrialization and Forced Collectivi-zation" (1924-1931); "The Ukrainian Holocaust" (1932-1933); "The Collapse of Ukrainianization and the 'Great Terror' " (1934-1938); "The Conspiracy of Two Dictators and its Consequences" (1939-1941); "The Last Decade of Stalin's Dictatorship" (1942-1952); "Famine Strikes a Third Blow" (1946-1947); "The Thaw" (1953-1964); "Bloodless Totalitarianism" (1965-1985); "The Collapse" (1986-1991).

Although each of the panels is blood-chilling in its implication, the panels devoted to the Yezhov era (named after NKVD head Mykola Yezhov) was especially horrific to contemplate. On panel No. 22 one finds a document signed by Stalin applauding the establishment of troikas (three-person tribunals) and the creation of categories of execution. Those condemned in the first category, for example, were to suffer speedy executions. Quotas were demanded for Ukraine, and the NKVD was ordered to ferret out "enemies of the people." Having met their initial quotas, Ukraine's NKVD requested that their limits be increased to 6,000, then to 8,000, then to 10,000, and finally to 30,000. Arguing later that even these numbers were insufficient to completely annihilate all of the "enemies," the NKVD then requested a fivefold increase. On the right side of the panel are displayed four such requests. Ukraine was subjected to the highest quotas of all the Soviet republics.

The exposition is on permanent display at the Museum and Research Center of the Memorial Society in Kyiv. In February it was displayed in the Ukrainian Parliament in conjunction with the observance of the 70th anniversary of the Famine-Genocide.

According to Mr. Krutsyk, Russia has refused to acknowledge the crimes it has committed against the Ukrainian people. "The 'Holodomor' of 1932-1933 was planed in Moscow, not in Kyiv. When we hear President [Vladimir] Putin say that today's Russian leadership has nothing to do with the tsarist or Communist regimes and their crimes, someone should remind him the Russian Federation was acknowledged as the successor-state of the Soviet Union. This means Russia also is responsible for the crimes of its predecessors."

"Russia should apologize officially for these crimes," continued Mr. Krutsyk. "When Pope John Paul II apologized for the Great Inquisition, and German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski apologized for the crimes of their countries committed against the Jews, they did so because they recognized themselves as the successors of those who committed these crimes."

With financial assistance from the Ukrainian American community, the plan is to reproduce 50 sets of the exposition for permanent display in all regions of Ukraine this year. The exhibits will be part of the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of Ukraine's Famine-Genocide, as well as a counterpoint to President Leonid Kuchma's outrageous "Year of Russia in Ukraine." The exposition will also provide a historical perspective for Ukraine's electorate on the eve of the 2004 presidential election.

The exposition tour began in Chicago on March 8 and moved to the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Warren, Mich., on March 15, the Ukrainian Women's League Hall in Parma, Ohio, on March 16 and the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center in Jenkintown, Pa., on March 21. It will move to St. George Academy in New York on March 30, the SUM Hall in Yonkers, N.Y., on April 2, the Ramada Hotel in East Hanover, N.J., on April 5, the Ukrainian Center in Passaic, N.J., on April 6, and St. John the Baptist Ukrainian Catholic Church Hall in Newark, N.J., on April 13.

If these exhibits are convenient to where you live, don't miss them. If not, you may want to make a donation to assure their expansion in Ukraine. Make your tax-deductible check out to UAFF Memorial and mail it to Ukrainian American Freedom Foundation, P.O. Box 255, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: mbkuropas@compuserve.com.

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