THE 70th ANNIVERSARY OF THE FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

Turning the pages back...

November 20, 1999

In 1999, The Ukrainian Weekly ran an editorial commenting on the memorial procession and service held in New York City on November 20. Following are excerpts from that editorial.

Stop the silence and end the lies. That was the principal message carried forth by those who participated in the Famine-Genocide memorial procession and service... Ukrainians of all ages, members of various organizations, faithful of different Churches congregated to bear witness to the man-made Famine that decimated the Ukrainian nation in 1932-1933 during Stalin's reign of terror. They came to remember the greatest tragedy that has ever befallen Ukraine and to mourn its innocent victims, to pledge that they will never forget and will tell the world about one of this century's darkest periods. That was evident from the placards they carried and from the observations they shared when questioned by a reporter.

But mostly the marchers and mourners came out of the strong conviction that this can never happen again, that others must know the truth - for it is the truth that can prevent such atrocities. ("To ignore one genocide is to invite another," said one poster.) They pledged by their presence to continue to speak out about the Great Famine, for they know that silence was one of the principal reasons this murderous act of Stalin and his collaborators in crimes against humanity was so successful.

Ambassador Anton Buteiko pointed out in his address that, even during the artificial Famine, the issue had been raised "at a forum of the League of Nations and was supported by representatives from Norway, Ireland, Spain and Germany. However, representatives of other nations insisted that the famine was an internal affair of the Soviet Union. Thus, indifference got the upper hand, and the crimes remained unpunished."

... The mourners converging on New York City also knew that another reason the Great Famine was successful was the "Great Lie," as Bishop Basil Losten called it, via which the Stalin regime and its supporters - including some notable Western journalists and intellectuals - denied that famine was raging in Ukraine.

Even today, after "Monuments were erected to commemorate the victims, secret archives made public, tens of books, memoirs and studies published," as Ambassador Buteiko noted, "the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, directed by the bloody deeds of Lenin and Stalin, is yet to bear the judgment of the nations of the world, the judgment of history. We have yet to tell the truth about artificial famine, to preach its lessons to humankind."

Source: "Bearing witness to genocide" (Editorial), The Ukrainian Weekly, November 28, 1999, Vol. LXVII, No. 48.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, November 16, 2003, No. 46, Vol. LXXI

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