COMMENTARY: Ukraine's Victory Day will come when the truth about Communist villains and victims is known (05/22/05)

COMMENTARY

Ukraine's Victory Day will come when the truth about Communist villains and victims is known

by Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk

Fittingly, my father was first. Then my mother did it. Then me and my sister. We signed postcards. They are in Kyiv by now.

It is not likely that Ukraine's president, Viktor Yushchenko, will see them. Yet I am certain he will get the message. Thousands of people from around the world, and from within Ukraine, are sending them, reminding him that the truth is the only thing that can set Ukraine free.

And it all began from Kingston, Ontario.

Twentieth century Ukrainian history being what it was, many Ukrainians ended up abroad. Most were political refugees or, like me, the issue of the exiles. Our ranks swelled after 1991, as hundreds of thousands of economic migrants, decent folk dismayed by the continuing corruption of post-Soviet society, joined us.

Then came last December's Orange Revolution. Unambiguously, millions demonstrated their deep yearning for Ukraine's return to its rightful place in Europe, for recovering what was stolen under Soviet and Great Russian hegemony. And they began to understand that undoing the economic failures of communism was not enough. Their even more urgent chore remains the lancing of a carious Communist legacy.

It is not that the butcher's bill was unknown, here or there. The distinguished British historian, Norman Davies, has written of how Ukraine lost more of its people than any other European nation in Nazi-occupied Europe, added to the many millions who perished during the genocidal Great Famine of 1932-1933, the Holodomor.

Most of the perpetrators are beyond reach, left to the judgement of history, or God. Take your pick; take both. But not all who did the killing have escaped this mortal coil, not quite yet. Some still dwell among us.

Which is why President Yushchenko is now getting lots of mail, asking him to establish an official Commission of Inquiry on Soviet War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. This is Ukraine's last chance to document the nature and extent of Communist crimes, and bring a few of those responsible to account.

We raise this clarion not only for Ukrainians. As the world marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe, May 8, 1945, we must remember who our friends were, and who were our foes. The war began September 1, 1939, when Poland was invaded by the Nazis, then by the Soviets. Soon thereafter the Baltic states were betrayed, France and the Low Countries over-run, and the Battle of Britain joined, with British and Canadian airmen and American volunteers dying to preserve freedom. And, even as the gates of Hell opened at Auschwitz, "Uncle Joe" Stalin fueled the Fuhrer. Obligingly, the NKVD turned Jewish refugees over to the Gestapo, an often-forgotten Soviet contribution to the Shoah.

Stalin's apologists, and even some Russians today, are partial to forgetting that the "Great Patriotic War" began only after Hitler ordered his legions to attack his ally, June 22, 1941. The Nazi plan was to create an eastern European lebensraum, a living space for the Aryan master race cleansed of untermenschen - subhumans like Ukrainians and other Slavs.

Retreating before the Wehrmacht's onslaught, the Reds transported anyone they guessed was anti-Soviet, or, if time did not allow, slaughtered their captives. Local collaborators aided them. My father was denounced to the NKVD and would likely have been murdered save for the Luftwaffe bombing the tracks out of Lviv. That raid gave him his chance to escape. I do not think that the Judas who gave him up deserves quarter, even now. An eye for an eye.

Some will respond that too much time has passed, that even if such scoundrels survived they are now elderly, that we should forget. The "world's foremost Nazi-hunter," Dr. Efraim Zuroff, disagrees: "It's utterly retarded to feel sorry for these people just because they are old. They showed no mercy whatsoever." I agree with the huntsman.

Others reply that even if hereabout there are NKVD, SMERSH and KGB veterans - men and women who voluntarily served Stalin, there aren't many. To that a superior answer exists: One is too many.

And there are, sadly, a few trying to avoid this issue, alleging that those calling for the prosecution of Communist killers are drawing resources away from Nazi-hunting. Not true. We do not discriminate among war criminals, not by ethnicity, religion, race, political affiliation, or the period or place where a war crime or crime against humanity was committed. More importantly, we insist that only individuals can be found guilty of war crimes and reject as a racist blood libel all attempts to stereotype entire tribes, faith groups or nations as somehow being culpable for the crimes of a few. We certainly do not elevate the suffering of the Ukrainian nation above all others. We hallow all victims.

The postcards dispatched bear a simple message, one that resonates across centuries: "And know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." If President Yushchenko heeds John the Apostle, then the truth will finally be known about the villains, and their victims. That will be Ukraine's Victory Day.

Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk is research director of the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association.

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