Ukraine to unveil Holodomor memorial - The Ukrainian Weekly

2 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47ANALYSISLithuania refuses to acquiescein EU negotiations with Russiaby Vladimir SocorEurasia Daily MonitorThe European Union announced the startof negotiations on a new, expanded partnershipagreement with Russia at a summit inNice on November 14. Following Russia’sinvasion of Georgia and within days ofthreatening to target missiles at EU membercountriesallied with the United States,Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wasbeing welcomed as a “strategic partner-inwaiting”of the EU.Lithuania tried to redeem the integrity ofEU policy, but it could only uphold its own.The existing EU-Russia Partnership andCooperation Agreement (PCA), signed in1997, expired in 2007 but can be renewed at12-month intervals as long as the EU deemsit necessary. At its ill-starred summit withRussia in Khanti-Mansiisk on June 26 and27 (see Eurasia Daily Monitor, July 1, 2),the EU agreed to start negotiations on anupgraded agreement that Russia wants to beone of strategic partnership.At that summit the EU kept silent aboutRussia’s military threats to Georgia,although EU leaders had promised to raisethat issue. Barely six weeks later, Russiainvaded Georgia.On September 1 an EU summit inBrussels decided to postpone negotiationson a new agreement until Russia had compliedwith the August 12 armistice (with theSeptember 8 addenda), mediated by FrenchPresident Nicolas Sarkozy on the EU’sbehalf. Co-signed by President Medvedev,the armistice commits Russia to withdrawits forces to the lines held prior to August 7and allow international monitors intoAbkhazia and South Ossetia.Instead, Moscow tore the armistice termsto shreds. It has poured additional forcesinto Abkhazia and South Ossetia; it is buildingpermanent military bases there; it occupiesadditional areas (upper Kodori, Pereviand Akhalgori) beyond those held beforeAugust 7; it has ethnically cleansed theGeorgian populations, and it bars access tomonitors of the European Union and theOrganization for Security and Cooperation(OSCE).France quickly headed for a face-savingexit from this situation and rejoined theGerman and Italian-led group of EU countries,eager to resume business as usual withRussia. As early as late October, Mr.Sarkozy and French Minister of ForeignAffairs Bernard Kouchner were speaking ofRussia’s “overall compliance” with thearmistice terms.Mr. Kouchner and the EU’s high foreignpolicy representative, Javier Solana, tookthis line publicly when meeting withRussian Minister of Foreign Affairs SergeiLavrov in St. Petersburg. From that pointon, Russia understood that its behavior inGeorgia would have no repercussions onEU-Russia relations (see EDM, October31).Resisting such a travesty in the EU wereBritain, Sweden, the Czech Republic,Poland and the three Baltic states; but theBritish position changed suddenly as PrimeMinister Gordon Brown overruled ForeignSecretary David Miliband, siding with Mr.Sarkozy as part of building a Franco-Britishtandem on the financial crisis at the summit.Mr. Brown had hardly shown any interest inthe Georgia issue in the first place (TheEconomist, November 7). After the Britishreversal, the resistance in the EU crumbledquickly, with Lithuania a lone holdout.Writing in European Voice, LithuanianPresident Valdas Adamkus warned,“Resuming the talks now [on partnershipwith Russia] would expose the EU’s weaknessesfor all to see,” allowing Russia “oncemore to trample over European values”(European Voice, November 6).Similarly, Lithuania’s influential DeputyMinister of Foreign Affairs ZygimantasPavilionis cautioned the Germans andFrench that: “The French Presidency [of theEU] was making a serious, historic mistake.We are questioning the timing and we arequestioning this U-turn in the EU’s position.Is it the right signal to send to Kyiv, toMoldova, even to the Baltic states today,that borders can be changed by militaryforce? This is a way to legitimize occupation,and we are concerned about the powerfuleffects of this message to all neighboringcountries and to Russia itself” (DPA,November 10).On November 10, however, the Frenchline prevailed definitively at the EU’s meetingof ministers of foreign affairs. Mr.Kouchner claimed that Russia’s conduct onthe ground in Georgia was satisfactoryenough to warrant the resumption of partnershipnegotiations with Russia.For their part, Mr. Solana and ExternalAffairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner prevailed with the interpretationthat the start of partnership negotiations withRussia would not require unanimous consentwithin the EU, inasmuch as theSeptember 1 decision had merely “postponed”that start, rather than ruled it out.As Estonia’s Minister of Foreign AffairsUmas Paet noted, however, this interpretationraised questions and could not beallowed to develop into a precedent within(Continued on page 18)Yanukovych wants resignationof Tymoshenko governmentUkrinformKYIV – Viktor Yanukovych, leader ofthe opposition Party of Regions ofUkraine (PRU), has called for the resignationof the entire Tymoshenko Cabinet.Only this, he said, can improve the situationin the country.“The government continues its shatteringpolicy, destroying the economy andworsening the life of Ukraine’s citizens.We expressed our attitude toward the policyof the Tymoshenko government evenin July of this year and back then raisedthe question of its resignation in theParliament,” reads Mr. Yanukovych’sNovember 13 commentary on the Partyof Regions website.The opposition government held ameeting on November 13, but its agendawas not announced. The PRU was a maindriving force behind the ouster ofVerkhovna Rada Chairman ArseniyYatsenyuk on November 13.National Deputy Oleksander Yefremov,deputy chair of the PRU faction inParliament, claimed on November 11 thathis political force would not insist on theCabinet’s resignation right after the Radachair’s dismissal.National Book of Memory presentedKYIV – President Viktor Yushchenkoon November 18 took part in the presentationof the National Book of Memory toopen the week of mourning in observanceof the 75th anniversary of the 1932-1933Famine-Genocide in Ukraine. He emphasizedthat the National Book of Memorywas created to restore the historic truthabout the Holodomor, adding that anobjective assessment of those events mustbe part of the national dialogue. Speakingabout the Holodomor, Mr. Yushchenkodescribed as untrue allegations to theeffect that the Famine was caused byunfavorable weather. “The Famine of1932-1933 was a crime against thenation,” Mr. Yushchenko said adding that“there was a strong political context” tothose events. The president thanked theresearchers who took part in compilingthe 19 volumes of the National Book ofMemory, including the Ukrainian Instituteof National Memory headed by Dr. IhorYukhnovskyi. Mr. Yushchenko noted thatthis is just a start of the research workthat must continue until the name of eachUkrainian who fell victim to the genocideis established. The head of state alsothanked international organizations, theUnited Nations, UNESCO and theCouncil of Europe for their attention tothe Holodomor issue. The president visitedthe exhibition “Holodomor of1932-1933. Genocide of the UkrainianPeople” that was arranged by the NationalMemory Institute. The National Book ofMemory consists of a combined generalvolume and separate regional books. Itincludes the testimonies of 6,000 eyewitnesses.The number of the Holodomorvictims whose names are listed is882,510. The National Book of Memoryis the result of work by 10,000 people,authors and researchers. The total numberof witness testimonies collected in thepast few years is 204,000. (Ukrinform)Russia hampers Holodomor recognitionKYIV – Commenting on the letter ofRussian Foreign Affairs Minister SergeyLavrov addressed to foreign ministers ofUnited Nations member-states, VasylKyrylych, press-secretary at the UkrainianNEWSBRIEFSTHE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY FOUNDED 1933An English-language newspaper published by the Ukrainian National Association Inc.,a non-profit association, at 2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054.Yearly subscription rate: $55; for UNA members — $45.Periodicals postage paid at Parsippany, NJ 07054 and additional mailing offices.(ISSN — 0273-9348)The Weekly:UNA:Tel: (973) 292-9800; Fax: (973) 644-9510 Tel: (973) 292-9800; Fax: (973) 292-0900Postmaster, send address changes to:The Ukrainian WeeklyEditor-in-chief: Roma Hadzewycz2200 Route 10 Editors: Matthew DubasP.O. Box 280Zenon Zawada (Kyiv)Parsippany, NJ 07054The Ukrainian Weekly Archive: www.ukrweekly.com; e-mail: staff@ukrweekly.comThe Ukrainian Weekly, November 23, 2008, No. 47, Vol. LXXVICopyright © 2008 The Ukrainian WeeklyADMINISTRATION OF THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY AND SVOBODAWalter Honcharyk, administratorMaria Oscislawski, advertising managerMariyka Pendzola, subscriptionsMinistry of Foreign Affairs, said onNovember 17 that “this letter is amongthe best evidence of the Russian stance,which creates various obstacles for considerationby the international communityof the Holodomor in Ukraine 1932-1933.”He said the Ukrainian Ministry of ForeignAffairs was aware of the letter. OnNovember 14 a number of Ukrainiannews media published a copy of Mr.Lavrov’s letter in which he asks foreignministers of U.N. member-states “to takea compelling stand and prevent theUkrainian initiative at the U.N. GeneralAssembly” to gain recognition of theHolodomor. (Ukrinform)Prayers sought from religious leadersKYIV – President Viktor Yushchenkohas sent letters to the Vatican and Istanbulasking Pope Benedict XVI andEcumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I toremember the victims of the Holodomorin their prayers. Mr. Yushchenko notedthat this month the Ukrainian people andinternational community are marking the75th anniversary of the Famine-Genocideof 1932-1933, the national tragedy ofUkraine that took the lives of millions ofits people. The president noted that theHolodomor significantly influencedUkraine’s history in the 20th century.“Thanks to researchers’ work, we haveunquestionable evidence of the fact thatthis was genocide. The Communistregime intended to annihilate the flowerof the nation and the very roots ofUkrainians. All this was aimed to breakour will for freedom and the revival ofnationhood. However, all these effortssuffered a setback. The religiousUkrainian people, despite unprecedentedlosses, held out and won,” Mr.Yushchenko wrote. (Ukrinform)Deputies unable to elect Rada chairKYIV – Presently, there is no agreeduponcandidate for the post of VerkhovnaRada chair that would be supported bythe majority of national deputies, it wasreported on November 18, and First Vice-Chairman of the Rada Oleksander(Continued on page 14)(973) 292-9800, ext. 3041e-mail: ukradmin@att.net(973) 292-9800, ext. 3040e-mail: adukr@optonline.net(973) 292-9800, ext. 3042e-mail: ukrsubscr@att.net

No. 47The Holodomor 75 years later: The Dnipropetrovsk Oblastby Illya M. LabunkaSpecial to The Ukrainian WeeklyKYIV – When he was 10 years old, theRev. Yurii Mytsyk remembered his fathermentioning the Great Famine in passing,but assumed it was merely an isolated,one-time incident, unable to comprehendit.Then, as a young scholar in 1976, heasked his grandmother, Maria Dziuba-Mytsyk, about the 1932-1933 Faminewhen visiting her Poltava Oblast farmstead.“After I heard what she told me, myhair stood in shock and I remembered itfor the rest of my life,” said Rev. Mytsyk,a native of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblastupon which the Holodomor cast its firstdeathly shadows during the winter of1931-1932 when peasants were alreadyhiding grain from authorities.Soviet documents referred to the earlysigns of hunger as “provision-relatedcomplications.”By the Holodomor’s conclusion in1933, the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast that wasestablished in February 1932 was amongthe most devastated, losing an astonishing70 percent of its 3.2 million residents,according to Dr. Vasyl Marochko, whoserves as director of the Center forResearch of the Genocide of theUkrainian People.At the people’s expense, theDnipropetrovsk Oblast – which at thattime consisted of four urban oblast centers(the cities of Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia,Kamiansk and Kryvyi Rih) and 54 ruraldistricts – provided nearly 17 percent of allgrain and 12 percent of all barley producedby the Soviet Union in 1933.Dr. Marochko, who has been studyingand publishing material on the Holodomorsince the early 1990s and is the co-authorwith Olha Movchan of the recentlyreleased “Chronicle: The Holodomor1932-1933” (published by Kyiv MohylaAcademy), noted that by the early springof 1933 “almost 100 percent of the entireoblast had been affected by theHolodomor.”As a result of the Holodomor,THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 3Yushchenko greets Stefanyshyn-Piperon her second space shuttle missionPARSIPPANY, N.J. – PresidentViktor Yushchenko on November 17congratulated U.S. astronautHeidemarie M. Stefanyshyn-Piper ofthe National Aeronautics and SpaceAdministration (NASA) on the launchof the space shuttle Endeavour (missionSTS-12).Mr. Yushchenko wished theUkrainian American astronaut, who is acaptain of the U.S. Navy, good luck infulfilling the responsible space missionand expressed hope that her secondspace mission will be as successful asher first. “I remember warmly ourmeeting in Kyiv and hope that yourvisit to Ukraine left sweet memoriesand feelings. I would like to assure youthat the Ukrainian people are proud ofyou, support you and wish you fastestreturn to the Earth,” the congratulatorymessage reads.The launch of the Endeavour tookplace November 15. Participating in the14-day mission are seven astronauts.The Endeavour arrived at theInternational Space Station at 5:01 p.m.EST on November 16, delivering equipmentand supplies and a new crewmemberto the orbital outpost. After thehatches between the station and shuttleIllya M. LabunkaThe Rev. Dr. Yuri Mytsyk, professor of history and director of the HolodomorOral History Project at the National University of Kyiv Mohyla Academy, holdsthe latest volume produced by his project.opened at 7:16 p.m., the two crewsexchanged greetings and went to workpreparing for joint operations.STS-126 is the 124th space shuttleflight and the 27th flight to theInternational Space Station. The missionwill feature four spacewalks andwork that will prepare the space stationto house six crewmembers for longdurationmissions. This is the secondspace mission for Heidemarie M.Stefanyshyn-Piper after the September9-21, 2006 Atlantis STS-115 mission.Capt. Stefanyshyn-Piper was selectedas an astronaut candidate by NASAin April 1996. In September 2006 sheserved as a mission specialist onSTS-115, logging over 12 days inspace, including 13 hours and eightminutes in two EVAs, or extra-vehicularactivities.Now, as part of the crew of STS-126,she is to participate in several spacewalks that will modify the 10-year-oldInternational Space Station to sustain acrew of six. The Endeavor is carrying areusable logistics module, includingadditional crew quarters, a regenerativelife support system, and a Resistive(Continued on page 22)Dnipropetrovsk rural life was devastatedand never fully recovered, saidOleksander Nikiliev, an assistant professorof history at Dnipropetrovsk StateUniversity.Every aspect of a peasant’s life wasmanaged by and dependent on the government,Prof. Nikiliev said. “Also, thecultural aspect of the village completelydisappeared,” he said. “Musicians, minstrels,‘kobzari’ and poets all died. Theyjust vanished.”During the Holodomor years, 45 of the54 rural districts in the DnipropetrovskOblast consisted of an ethnic Ukrainianmajority, Prof. Nikiliev said. Of theremaining districts, three were German,two were Russian, two were Jewish, onewas Greek and one Bulgarian, and theHolodomor “did not discriminate” againstany of them, he said.In the villages “it didn’t matter if youwere Ukrainian, Russian or Jewish,” Prof.Nikiliev said, also maintaining that theDnipropetrovsk urban population sufferedsignificantly too.While some peasants tried to surviveby fleeing to wooded areas to search forfood, others migrated to the cities.In response, Soviet authorities hikedfood prices to make them unaffordableand as a result, the urban death rate rosein 1933 as compared to the previous year.Authorities didn’t discriminate withrespect to social class or employment, hesaid.“You could have been a pensioner, afactory worker, a peasant or a railwayworker and it didn’t matter, because theHolodomor wiped out everyone in itspath, thanks to the ruthlessness of theauthorities who were adamant on meetingthe quotas for grain confiscation,” Prof.Nikiliev said.The Holodomor accelerated theRussification of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast,which had already begun in the late 19thcentury when the discovery of abundantiron and manganese ore deposits launchedan industrialization drive, experts said.After the Holodomor, “urban areasstarted becoming Russified due to theRussian migration, although the villageareas remained largely settled by ethnicUkrainians,” said the Rev. Mytsyk, a historyprofessor at the National Universityof Kyiv Mohyla Academy. “Of course,the Holodomor contributed in part to theregion’s Russification.”The Holodomorin the DnipropetrovskOblast65,322 known casualties *18,288 known survivors still alive1,200-plus population centers affected**120-plus memorials**** This official figure, which grossly underestimatesHolodomor casualties, is basedon the 257 surviving ledgers that recordeddeaths in 1932 and 1933, according toAssistant Professor Oleksander Nikiliev ofDnipropetrovsk State University.** 4,500 population centers remain unaccountedfor.*** No estimate of known mass gravesexists, however memorials have beenestablished at afflicted population centers.The Ukrainian peasants didn’t go quietly.In his research of Soviet documents,Prof. Nikiliev uncovered numerous rebellions.“People began to express their dissatisfaction,staged protests and accusedthe Soviet authorities of maliciousness intheir letters and declarations, which werebeing addressed and sent to the highestauthorities on the oblast and national levels,”he said.In the village of Yatymivka for example,which is in present-day ZaporizhiaOblast, about 200 peasants successfullysabotaged a grain depository and “confiscated”200 poods (a pood is approximately36 pounds) of grain, he said.However because the Soviets confiscated,destroyed or falsified the ledgers ofbirth and death records, it will be impossibleto know many details of theThe Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Volume ofthe National Book of Memory publishedby the National Institute ofMemory.Holodomor, particularly a precise casualtyrate, Prof. Nikiliev said.Nonetheless, he said most of the youngpeople in Dnipropetrovsk consider theHolodomor a crime and an act of genocide,while only a minority, mostly due toCommunist propaganda, consider it a naturalfamine.Researchers like the Rev. Mytsyk, whodirects the Holodomor Oral HistoryProject at Kyiv Mohyla Academy, areworking to counter the lack of publicinformation about the Holodomor. Hisproject has produced seven volumes ofeyewitness accounts and it plans to publishat least 10 such volumes titled, “TheUkrainian Holocaust 1932-1933:Eyewitness Accounts of Those WhoSurvived.”

6 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLYRussia and the HolodomorOn Saturday, November 22, Ukraine hosts an international forum dedicated to the75th anniversary of the Holodomor. It is part of weeklong observances of the Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933, perpetrated by Joseph Stalin and his henchmen, that killedmillions of people in Ukraine and the ethnically Ukrainian Kuban region of theRussian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic.According to the latest information from Kyiv (as cited by Ukrinform), among thecountries whose presidents have said they will attend are: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania,Georgia, Poland, Macedonia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. We’ve just learned today(Thursday, November 20) that Canada will be represented by its Minister ofCitizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney, who will be accompaniedby Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, a Ukrainian Canadian. No word, as of this writing,on who will represent the United States. Over 20 national delegations are expected toparticipate in commemorative ceremonies in Kyiv.Russia will not be represented. In fact, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev hasaccused Kyiv of using the Holodomor to drive a wedge between Ukraine and Russia.Furthermore, he urged the two countries to forge a common position on what he refersto as “tragic events” and suggested that Kazakhstan, Belarus and other ex-Soviet statesaffected by the Famine be asked to join the effort.In a letter sent to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the Russian presidentaccuses Ukraine of using “the tragic events of the early 1930s… to achieve immediateshort-term political goals,” and argues that these efforts “seek to divide our peoples…united by many centuries of historical, cultural and spiritual ties, by special feelings offriendship and mutual trust.” Moscow completely rejects Ukraine’s “interpretation” ofthe Holodomor, and the tone of the Medvedev letter, is condescending, to say the least.(For the full text log on to http://www.kremlin.ru/eng/text/docs/209178.shtml.) Mr.Medvedev accuses Ukraine’s president and other officials of distortion, manipulationof data, imposing “a single interpretation on this history” and “trying to give a nationalistsubtext to a common tragedy.” He also charges that “the slogan ‘condemnation ofthe genocide of Ukrainians’ belittles the tragedy of other affected peoples of the formerSoviet Union.”At the same time, the Kremlin has been working in various international bodies tothwart Ukraine’s attempts to gain official recognition of the Holodomor as a genocidein accordance with the Convention on Prevention and Punishment of the Crime ofGenocide, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.Most recently, according to Ukrinform, Russian Foreign Affairs Minister SergeyLavrov sent a letter to foreign ministers of U.N. member-states, in which he askedthem “to take a compelling stand and prevent the Ukrainian initiative at the U.N.General Assembly” to gain recognition of the Holodomor. Mr. Lavrov chargedUkraine with attempting to misuse the U.N. for its own political purposes and misleadingthe international community by distorting history. According to Russian newsmedia, the Foreign Affairs Ministry of Russia would neither confirm nor deny theexistence of the Lavrov letter. However, a high-ranking diplomat did admit toKommersant that “we have committed a diplomatic demarche to impede introducingthe issue of the Holodomor to the U.N. General Assembly.” Ukraine’s Foreign AffairsMinistry has stated that, “The Russian Federation, using its gears of influence as a permanentmember of the U.N. Security Council, by means of open blackmail and pressure,is trying to deprive a U.N. member-country of its right to put an important issueon the agenda of the U.N.”Thus, while Ukraine is asking the world to join it in remembering the millions ofHolodomor victims who died as a result of deliberate Soviet policy, Russia is workinghard to sabotage any and all commemorations. But, just as the Soviets ultimately failedin concealing the Holodomor, so will the Russians fail in concealing its true nature.Nov.282006Turning the pages back...Two years ago, on November 28, 2006, Ukraine’s Parliamentpassed a Holodomor bill that declared the Holodomor of1932-1933 was a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The billpassed with 233 votes from the Our Ukraine and YuliaTymoshenko blocs and the Socialist Party of Ukraine – sevenmore votes than was necessary.On November 29, 2006, President Viktor Yushchenko signed the bill into law, declaringit a historic moment in Ukraine’s history.Previously, the Verkhovna Rada just barely passed a resolution in May 2003 thatdeclared the Holodomor an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. In order to getthe designation codified as Ukrainian law, advocates stressed the moral need for the nationto come to grips with its terrifying, tragic past in order to move forward.Mr. Yushchenko wanted to make it illegal to deny the Holodomor in Ukraine, subject tocriminal punishment and a petty fine of $36. However, Mr. Moroz’s compromise eliminatedsuch a provision.The main conflict over the bill on November 28, 2006, was from the Communist Partyof Ukraine in accepting the term of “genocide” in referring to the Holodomor. TheCommunists claim the Famine was the result of crop failure and refers to the Holodomoras an American-sown myth.Only two members of the Party of Regions (PRU), Taras Chornovil and Hanna Herman,voted in favor of the bill. The majority of the party recognized the Holodomor as a tragedyand not a genocide, and blamed Stalin’s regime and not the Communist government. SomePRU deputies accused their opponents of exploiting the Holodomor for political gain andre-igniting ethnic tensions in Ukraine.Oleksander Moroz, leader of the Socialist Party of Ukraine and a former Communistduring the years prior to Ukraine’s independence in 1991, was adamant that the bill includethe phrase “genocide against the Ukrainian people” instead of “genocide against the(Continued on page 11)NEWS AND VIEWSHolodomor of 1932-1933:Those who survived knewby Lubomyr LuciukThose who survived knew that theFamine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine wasa deliberate, politically engineered catastrophewhose victims numbered in the manymillions, yet few dared to even whisperabout this devastation of their nation to othersin the generations following.It was not until the late 1980s as theSoviet empire stumbled into the dustbin ofhistory and an independent, internationallyrecognized Ukraine re-emerged in Europethat restored freedom allowed for the truthto be set free. Until then those who hadendured the horror now known as theHolodomor remained trapped in the veryplace where it could not be spoken of.Meanwhile, those in the Ukrainiandiaspora who had grasped the Terror-Famine’s mainsprings and weight foundtheir admonitions largely ignored, completelyunaware that intelligence reports aboutconditions in the USSR, compiled by severalgovernments, often corroborated theirunderstanding of the causes, course andconsequences of this man-made famine. Yet,knowing what they did, those very sameWestern governments sent no relief andlodged no formal protests with Moscow,even as millions starved.A British Foreign Office mandarin confidedwhy: “the truth of the matter is, ofcourse, that we have a certain amount ofLubomyr Luciuk is a professor ofpolitical geography at the Royal MilitaryCollege of Canada and editor of theforthcoming book, “Holodomor:Reflections on the Great Famine of1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine” (Kingston,Ontario: Kashtan Press, 2008).Memorandum of Ukrainian organizationsto U.S. President Franklin D.Roosevelt concerning the recognition ofthe USSR. The full text of the memorandumwas published in Svoboda onOctober 30, 1933.The PresidentWashington, D.C.Sir,The time has come when you shall decideone of the most important problems ofAmerica’s foreign policy: the question of theofficial recognition by the United States ofthe Union of Socialist Soviet Republics.Hitherto this question of recognition hasbeen decided negatively, for the UnitedStates government had no desire to have anyofficial connection with a state whose ruleover the Russian people, as well as over itssubjugated and enslaved peoples such as theUkrainians, was based upon direct forcealone. We have grown accustomed to regardthe Soviet Republic as a state whose mainpurpose is the wholesale destructionthroughout the entire world of those principlesof democracy upon which ourConstitution is based. We have come toregard the Soviet Republic as a state which,through the medium of its subservient tool,the Third International, disseminatesBolshevist propaganda throughout theUnited States for the purpose of overthrowingby violent means our democratic institutionsand our social order.information about famine conditions… andthat there is no obligation on us not to makeit public [but we] do not want to make itpublic… because the Soviet governmentwould resent it and our relations with themwould be prejudiced.”Brave, and few, were the survivors who,just after the second world war, tried toremind the West of this atrocity, expectingtheir witnessing to find fertile soil during theCold War. They were mistaken. Ukraine’sgenocidal Great Famine was not accepted asa reality and remained mostly unknown as asubject of historical inquiry until quiterecently.Indeed those attempting to till its memorywere subjected to a barrage of defamation,denounced as embittered émigrés – eitherNazi collaborators or apologists for suchmiscreants. Echoes of those prejudices persist.Where testimony could be given aboutthe Famine it was usually rejected or ridiculed.A noticeable resurrection in the debateover the causes and impact of the faminewas precipitated in 1984 by the film“Harvest of Despair,” followed in 1986 bythe release of Robert Conquest’s book, “TheHarvest of Sorrow,” by the 1988 Report toCongress of the U.S. Commission on theUkraine Famine and, in 1990, by the FinalReport of the International Commission ofInquiry into the 1932-1933 Famine inUkraine.Even so, for almost a decade afterUkraine’s independence was secured, in1991, no more than token initiatives weremade to commemorate the Great Famine.Succeeding Ukrainian governments likewisedemonstrated no interest in bringingthe perpetrators and enablers of Communist(Continued on page 18)FROM THE ARCHIVES: Memorandumto FDR regarding recognition of the USSRThe truth of this assertion has beenrepeatedly confirmed by the investigationsof our government. It has been the motivatingcause of the recent resolution of theAmerican Legion – a body whose membersfought to defend our democratic institutions– to oppose the recognition of the SovietRepublic by the United States government.The American Federation of Labor hasrecently also expressed its opposition to thisproposed recognition, basing its action uponthe ground that in no other country in theworld is the laboring class so mercilesslyexploited as in Soviet Russia. The federationhas repeatedly pointed out that the recognitionof Soviet Russia by America wouldgive the former an unprecedented opportunityof gaining American credit and loans bymeans of which Soviet trade would greatlyincrease, as a result of the further and greaterexploitation of their enslaved workers, andthe underselling of their competitors, includingAmerica. And finally, as the AmericanFederation of Labor points out, the recognitionof the Soviets by America would automaticallyopen America’s door to the hordesof Bolshevik propagandists who, as alreadyhas been proven, would stoop to any meansto create dissensions and troubles among theAmerican workers, seek to dominate thelabor unions, and thus retard the progress ofAmerican reconstruction and make imposiblethe cooperation between capital and(Continued on page 19)

No. 47THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 7Let’s talk about itBY YARO BIHUNfaces and placesby myron b. kurpoasFaces and Placesby Myron B. KuropasWaiting for ObamaA truly great editorial cartoon does notcome along very often in your local newspaper.But when it does, you know it. And Iknew it when I saw Dan Wasserman’sBoston Globe post-presidential-election cartoonreprinted a few days later in theWashington Post. In it, two somewhat portlygentlemen are shown exiting a polling place.As they walk past a line of would-be votersstill waiting to enter, one asks the other,“Did you have to wait long?”“Only a few hundred years,” he replies.That response places the election of anAfrican American — Barack Obama — asthe next president of the United States intothe context of its long and torturous history,as this country continues, albeit ever soslowly, on the road to building the trulydemocratic and just society it said it wouldbe in its founding documents more than twocenturies ago. No, we are not there yet — ifwe were, that cartoon would not have beendrawn — but we are closer. One can hopethat with minor alterations Mr. Wassermanwill be able to recycle this cartoon in thenot-too-distant future when this countryelects its first woman, Latino and other“hyphenated” Americans, and maybe even a“gay” to the White House.On the day before the election, I had thepleasure of visiting our great TarasShevchenko — his statue, that is, inWashington. I was going to the BBC studiosa few blocks down the road to be interviewedabout the election. I had visitedShevchenko a number of times earlier in theyear: when President Viktor Yushchenkopaid his respects in September, on his birthdayin March and the 40th anniversary ofMartin Luther King’s death in April.Why on King’s anniversary? Since hedoesn’t have a monument in Washington asyet, I thought it would be appropriate tohonor him at the monument to another“dreamer” about a better future for his people.(There was a brouhaha recently over theprojected King statue’s facial expressionbeing too stern and the fact that it was beingmade by a Chinese sculptor.)Indeed, it was on that particular visit thatI began feeling uneasy about Shevchenko’soft-repeated yearning for Ukraine to have itsown George Washington “with his new andrighteous law.” That excerpt from his“Yurodyvyi” (1857) is inscribed on themonument.As I suspect most every UkrainianAmerican, I, too, had always thought thiswas a particularly appropriate quote to puton his monument in Washington. But wetend to view it through rose-colored glasseswhich filter out some very inconvenientfacts that contradict the righteousness ofWashington’s law in practice. Unfortunately,it’s a habit shared by most other Americansas well. Without those glasses, it becomesobvious that Shevchenko may have read orheard something about this country’s foundingdocuments, but probably nothing aboutwhat was actually going on here. (He wouldmeet and befriend the African Americanactor Ira Aldridge in St. Petersburg twoyears later, in 1859.)Having been born a serf, wouldShevchenko have penned these words in1857 if he knew the following?• The American economy was fueled bythe slave labor of close to four millionAfricans.• President Washington owned more than100 slaves in Virginia (a larger numberbelonged to his wife’s estate) and that hebrought nine of his slaves to attend to hisneeds at the President’s House inPhiladelphia, with the government coveringthat expense.• During 50 of this country’s 72 yearsbefore the election of Abraham Lincoln,eight more southern presidents also broughtsome of their slaves with them to the presidentialexecutive mansion.• Two years earlier, the future presidentwho would later abolish slavery, AbrahamLincoln, had penned these lines after theKansas-Nebraska Act allowed the westernexpansion of slavery: “Our progress indegeneracy appears to me to be pretty rapid.As a nation, we began by declaring that ‘allmen are created equal.’ We now practicallyread it ‘all men are created equal, exceptnegroes.’ When the Know-Nothings getcontrol, it will read ‘all men are createdequal, except negroes, and foreigners, andCatholics.’ When it comes to this I shouldprefer emigrating to some country wherethey make no pretence of loving liberty – to(Continued on page 22)Yaro BihunA construction crew — all Black Americans — hurries to complete theShevchenko monument grounds in time for its dedication ceremony to take placeJune 27, 1964 — one week before President Lyndon Johnson would sign thelandmark Civil Rights Act outlawing racial segregation in the United States. Itwould be another year until the Voting Rights Act outlawed all discriminatoryvoting practices used against Black Americans in the United States.Ukrainian Village mayorIf you’re a Ukrainian living inChicago, you know Roman T.Zajac. You can’t miss him. He’severywhere in Ukrainian Village.Literally!Lesia and I are in Chicago atleast once a week and we invariablyrun into Roman Zajac...somewhere, somehow... walkingdown Chicago Avenue, viewingan exhibit at one of ourUkrainian museums, attending arally, picnic, banquet, luncheonor fund-raiser, talking to seniorcitizens at Selfreliance. Smallwonder he’s often called “themayor of Ukrainian Village.”Ukrainians outside of Chicagolearned of Roman Zajac for thefirst time last September whenhe was honored by Ukraine’sPresident Viktor Yushchenkowith the Order of Merit(Ukraine’s third highest civilianhonor) for his volunteer work on behalfof Ukraine. Mr. Zajac is a worthy recipientof this prestigious recognition as wellas all the other awards he’s received.Mr. Zajac is that rare Ukrainian whodoesn’t complain, whine or put peopledown. He’s upbeat, contributes time andtreasure and, most important of all, he’sout there, getting things done efficiently.Is he quiet? No. Mr. Zajac doesn’t wastewords. He’ll tell you what he thinks.What you see is what you get, as theysay.A civil-structural engineer by profession(he retired in 2000 after 46 years onthe job), Mr. Zajac has been an active andvisible member of the Chicago communitysince his arrival from the East Coast in1956. He is a lifelong member of Plast, (aproud senior member of the ChervonaKalyna fraternity) and a participant ofnumerous scout camps and jamboreesover the years. In 2007, Mr. Zajac wasawarded the Plast Order of the EternalFlame (in gold) for his many years ofloyal service to Ukrainian youth.Mr. Zajac has also served as administratorof the Roman Zavadovych LiteraryFund, the Ukrainian Children’s Choir(Moloda Dumka), and the UkrainianSchool of Ballet and Folk Dance; he wastreasurer of Chicago’s Rukh chapter andClub 500, the organization that initiallyfunded the Consulate of Ukraine.Along with his beloved wife, the lateHalyna Harasowska, Mr. Roman Zajacco-directed the Ukrainian CommunityCamp in Round Lake, Ill., for some 30years. For their dedication to the community,Mr. and Mrs. Zajac were honored as“Persons of the Year” by the UkrainianCongress Committee of America in 1994.As secretary of UNA Branch 472, Mr.Zajac continues a hallowed fraternal traditionof helping newly arrived immigrantsfrom Ukraine. He assists ForthWave Ukrainians with job applications,visa extensions, translations, INS interventions,visits to medical facilities, courtappearances and sundry other activitiesassociated with adjustment to a new lifein the United States. During UkrainianIndependence Day celebrations in 1997Mayor Richard M. Daley surprised Mr.Zajac with the Mayor’s Recognition ofService to Chicago Award for his years ofdedicated volunteer work.Soon after Ukraine became independent,Mr. Roman Zajac was on the groundRoman T. Zajac receives an award fromPresident Viktor Yushchenko.assisting people with extraordinary needsin a personal and up-close manner.Ukrainians helped by Mr. Zajac include42-year old Alina Stepanenko, sufferingfrom cerebral palsy whose apartmentneeded a new heating system; 3-year-oldAlina Fedycka, born deaf and mute, whounderwent successful surgery thanks to$30,000 raised by Mr. Zajac; 6-year-oldNastia Ovchar, who suffered burns over80 percent of her body in rescuing her3-year-old sister from a fire and nowreceives burn treatments in Boston thanksto $9,000 raised by local Ukrainians;22-year-old Chrystia Avdonina, whosebrain tumor was successfully removed asa result of surgery paid for by moniesraised by Mr. Zajac.Currently, Mr. Zajac is collecting fundsfor Oles Matsiovsky, suffering from cerebralpalsy; 6-year-old twins Liuba andNadia Karuk, suffering from epilepsy andcerebral palsy; Petro Tychynsky, sufferingfrom leukemia; and RoksolanaMolodniak, another victim of leukemia.Mr. Zajac’s beloved wife, Halyna, succumbedto cancer in 2001. Rather thanflowers for her funeral, Mr. Zajac and histwo children, Yuriy and Nadia, decided tocollect donations in Halyna’s memory foryoung people living in the small town ofSebechiw, north of Lviv, where she wasborn and spent her early childhood. Mrs.Zajac visited her village in 1995 and wasshocked by the condition of the school.The Zajac family raised enough money torenovate the school building and, thanksto the teachers and principal, had theschool officially renamed the HalynaHarasowska-Zajac Elementary School.In his spare time, Mr. Zajac sings withthe Surma choir and serves on the churchcouncil of Ss. Volodymyr and OlhaUkrainian Catholic Church, and the boardof directors of the Ukrainian NationalMuseum.Mr. Zajac is a model UkrainianAmerican – one we could all emulate. Heis living his life in the best fraternal traditionof the Ukrainian NationalAssociation, and it is for that reason that Ibelieve one more honor should bebestowed on this outstanding individual,the title of “Fraternalist of the Year.” Noone deserves it more.Myron Kuropas’s e-mail address iskuropas@comcast.net.

8 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47FOR THE RECORD: One Holodomor survivor’s accountFollowing is the testimony of HolodomorWitness Mary Horbatiuk Piatnochka (transcribedas told to Ruth P. Griffith), presentedat Kean University at the Ukraine Famine-Genocide Educational Conference ofOctober 10.Good morning. My name is MaryPiatnochka. I was born Mary Horbatiuk inUkraine, in the village of Shkarbinka, in theoblast of Odesa. Even though my father’sfamily had lived in that village for generations,I lived there for only one year.My father’s parents – my grandparents –had been leaders in the farming communityof Shkarbinka. The Soviet governmentwould call them kurkuls or kulaks, becausethey owned a cow and a horse. When myfather was 7, his parents sent him to the cityto live with his aunt so that he could get agood education.After he finished his schooling, hereturned to Shkarbinka and became a villageleader, an accountant, and he handled thevillage paperwork.I don’t know much about the politics of1932. How could I? I was barely a year old.What I do know is that my father was arrestedfor allowing villagers to pick up thewheat that was left behind on the fields afterthe harvest had been given over to the Sovietcollectors.My mother told me the story when I gotolder. People were hungry. There was abountiful harvest, but all the grain had beentaken away. After the grain was seized, therewas nothing for the villagers. So, my fathertold the villagers they could go back to thefields and glean what was left behind, justlike in the Old Testament when Boazallowed Ruth to glean the fields after hisharvesters left some grains behind. InShkarbinka, there was not much left, but thelittle they gleaned gave the villagers hopeI want to honorthose who did notsurvive, those likemy father and myinfant brother,and the millionswho died a painfuldeath.for a little bread to see them through thewinter. And it was for this act that my fatherwas arrested.My father’s death a few months later wasgruesome. He was only 28 years old. It isdifficult to talk about the way the prisonerswere tortured, and it was with great difficultythat my mother shared the account of hisdeath. As a matter of fact, anything dealingwith that time period was difficult for mymother to talk about. It was better not toremember and not to dwell on the suffering.She told me that my father was stripped ofall human rights, stripped of dignity, as hedied chained to other men, some who hadalready died, and others who would die soonafter him. Then they were all buried togetherin a mass grave.My mother, however, survived. She wasnot yet 20 years old when my father wasarrested. She left me in Shkarbinka with myfather’s parents and went to work on a statedairy farm in another village where her relativeslived.When she returned to Shkarbinka amonth or so later, she found me sitting onthe floor with my belly swollen from hun-Markian HadzewyczMary Horbatiuk Piatnochka speaks at Kean University.ger, and my eyes bulging on my skeletalframe. I was on the verge of death. Mygrandmother had disappeared – she wasnowhere to be found and no one couldaccount for what became of her. My grandfathersat on a chair unresponsive. Therewas no food in the house. There was nofood anywhere in the village. My mothertold me there was total silence in the village– no sounds of children, no birds, nothing.My mother grabbed me and left immediatelyfor the dairy collective. Slowly, shebrought me from the brink of death by feedingme small amounts of food at a time.Eventually I recovered as we lived on thediary farm. I then lived with my mother’smother, but life in our region was very difficult.A few years later my mother escapedwith me to Soviet Georgia in hopes of findinga more livable situation. I did not returnto the land of my birth for some 60 years.During my first trip to Ukraine, my villagewas “closed.” No foreigners were allowedthere. Then, in 1993, my husband, mydaughter Ruth and I were able to get to thevillage and even to find the mass gravewhere my father was buried.What affect did the Holodomor have onme? Obviously, it took away my father, whoI’m told loved me very much. I have oftenwondered what he was like. My mother saidhe was a very kind and tender man, and Iwish I had even a photo of him. With hisdeath, and his parents’ death, I lost all thefamily history that had been passed downfrom generation to generation in theHorbatiuk household.The Holodomor also cost me my education.From the time I was 3 – from 1935 on– my mother was on the move, and therewas no time for me to go to school. We werenever in one place long enough for me to getto know other children. While we lived inSoviet Georgia, my mother married MikhailDemsyn, a Russian man who adopted meand led my mother and me through Belarus,Poland, the DP camps in Germany afterWorld War II, and finally to the UnitedStates. It was in the DP camp, when I was ayoung teenager, that I first had a chance tostudy. But so much of my life had beenspent without books, without formal education.All of my childhood and adolescentyears were spent in loneliness.I am not telling you about the Holodomorbecause I want you to feel sorry for me.Actually, I feel God has blessed my life.After we came to the United States, I metand married Timothy Piatnochka, who thismonth celebrates his 60th anniversary ofcoming to America as a DP. Together wehave had a wonderful life in America raisingour five children and now enjoying our ninegrandchildren. We’ve been married 55years.Our “formal” education came around thefamily dinner table as our children enthusi-(Continued on page 18)14 countries’ parliaments recognize HolodomorUkrinformKYIV – The Foreign Affairs Ministry ofUkraine has done everything possible sothat the memory of millions of victims ofthe Holodomor was honored on bilateraland regional levels around the world andwithin the framework of international organizations’work, said Vice Minister ofForeign Affairs Yurii Kostenko at aNovember 18 press briefing.He noted that participating in the internationalforum in Kyiv dedicated to the 75thanniversary of the tragic events of1932-1933 will be foreign heads of statesand governments, and representatives oflegislative and executive authorities – a totalof over 20 delegations numbering 150 representatives.As of the date of the briefing,Mr. Kostenko said the presidents ofMacedonia, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia,Lithuania, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovinahad indicated they would attend.Mr. Kostenko also noted that the parliamentsof 14 counties had recognized theHolodomor as genocide. These are:Australia, Georgia, Estonia, Ecuador,Canada, Columbia, Latvia, Lithuania,Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, the UnitedStates and Hungary, as well as the Vatican.“In May 2008 Canada established a certainprecedent – it became the first worldcountry to adopt a law establishing a Day ofMemory of the Holodomor Victims inUkraine,” Mr. Kostenko underscored.Many international organizations alsorecognize the Holodomor as genocide of theUkrainian people, he added.Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, Mr.Kostenko said, is working hard to disseminatethe historical truth about theHolodomor, as well as to ensure recognitionof this tragedy on the part of the internationalcommunity in the form of various documents.As a result, resolutions have beenpassed by UNESCO and the ParliamentaryAssembly of the Organization for Securityand Cooperation in Europe. In addition, theHolodomor “has been qualified as a crimeagainst humanity in a very important documentadopted in October of this year by theEuropean Parliament,” he said.

No. 47by Peter T. WoloschukBOSTON – Under the auspices of theGreater Boston Committee to Commemoratethe 75th Anniversary of the Holodomor andthe Ukrainian Congress Committee ofAmerica, Boston branch, the local Ukrainiancommunity solemnly marked the anniversaryof the Holodomor with an ecumenical“panakhyda” and remarks at the PaulistCenter on Saturday, November 15. The centeris located in downtown Boston adjacentto the historic Boston Common and stepsaway from the Massachusetts State House.The panakhyda was concelebrated by theRev. Roman Tarnavsky, pastor of St.Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church ofBoston; the Rev. Jaroslav Nalysnyk, pastorof the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Christthe King in Boston; the Rev. MonsignorRoman Golemba, pastor of St. Michael’sUkrainian Catholic Church of Woonsocket,R.I., and St. John the Baptist UkrainianCatholic Church in Fall River, Mass.; theRev. James Morris, pastor of St John theBaptist Ukrainian Catholic Church of Salem,Mass.; the Rev. Paul Donald Huesing, CSP,director and superior of the PaulistCommunity in Boston; Hierodeacon VasylJanick, St. Andrew’s Ukrainian OrthodoxChurch, Boston. The event drew almost 100participants. A combined choir from St.Andrew’s and Christ the King, under thedirection of Eugene Moroz, sang theresponses.At the conclusion of the panakhyda, masterof ceremonies Paul T. Rabchenuk, committeechairman, and vice-president ofUCCA, welcomed the participants, thankedthe Paulists for the use of their chapel, all ofthe priests for their presence and support,and the 30 choristers for the beauty that theyadded to the service. He then called on theRev. Tarnavsky to begin the formal programwith an invocation and remarks.Father Tarnavsky said it is important tospeak out on behalf of the innocent victimsof the Holodomor and to make the worldaware of the tragedy so that it would neverbe repeated. He then went on to say thatthese regular commemorations do have animpact and then emphasized that “trulyunexpected things are happening as theresult of people speaking out.”“Last week in Kyiv, for example, theEpiscopal Synod of the Ukrainian OrthodoxChurch of the Moscow Patriarchate unanimouslydeclared that the 1932-1933 Faminein Ukraine was indeed genocide,” he said.“This is nothing less than an amazing andhistoric step forward.”Anatoliy Grytsenko, former defense ministerof Ukraine (2005-2007), current memberof parliament of the Our Ukraine-Peoples’ Self-Defense bloc, and chair of theParliamentary Committee on NationalDefense and Security, was the main speaker.Speaking in English and Ukrainian, hereminded the audience of the fact that SovietTHE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 9Greater Boston Ukrainian community commemorates 75th anniversary of the HolodomorHolodomor commemoration participants in front of the Chornobyl memorial tree.Russian officials denied the Holodomor fordecades and almost succeeded in envelopingthe tragedy in a cocoon of silence.“Yet because of this continual attempt atcover-up, memory of the Holodomor grewever stronger and ultimately exposed the lieof the Soviet Union and the entireCommunist system,” said Mr. Grytsenko.[Mr. Grytsenko, whose name has beenspelled “Hrytsenko,” has advised that theofficial spelling of his last name is“Grytsenko.” – ed.] “Since independence,Ukraine has been working to make theworld aware of this horrific tragedy not onlyto honor the memory of its millions of victimsbut to make sure that nothing like thisever happens again in the history of mankind.”“We must also remember that, while theorder to confiscate grain came fromMoscow, very often it was Ukrainian handsthat manned the guns of the brigades thatwent village to village taking everything thatthe people had,” he continued. “My owngrandmother quietly pointed out the peoplein our village who had participated in therequisitions and who were responsible forthe deaths of many of their fellow villagers.She also commented on the fact that manyof them had fine homes and were honoredby the [Communist] party.”“There are still Russian officials todaywho deny that the Holodomor ever happened,”Mr. Grytsenko noted, “and yet myown grandfather and five of my father’sbrothers and sisters died of hunger within athree-day period.”“Ukrainians understand hunger, and theyunderstand tragedy, and because of all theyhave been through they have a sacred obligationto help those who are sufferingtoday,” Mr. Grytsenko said.Vsevolod Petriv“According to the United Nations’ officialstatistics, more than 800 million men,women and children go to bed hungry everysingle day. Ukraine has a tremendous grainsurplus, and it is incumbent on the governmentand the people to work with other governmentsthroughout the world to seriously(Continued on page 22)Service at the Paulist Center on November 15.

10 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47UCRDC marks 75th anniversary of the Famine-Genocideby Oksana ZakydalskyTORONTO – The Ukrainian CanadianResearch and Documentation Center(UCRDC) held an “open doors day” onOctober 26, inviting friends and the communityto come and hear about its workin studying and disseminating informationabout the 1932-1933 Holodomor inUkraine.The program was developed and presentedby the UCRDC’s archivist, IroidaWynnyckyj.The consul general of Ukraine,Olexander Danyleyko, greeted the gatheringand mentioned that the Consulate-General in Toronto had ordered 1,200copies of the trilingual (English, Frenchand Spanish) DVD of the film “Harvestof Despair,” produced by the UCRDC.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs ofUkraine is now distributing the DVD toembassies and diplomats both in Ukraineand at the United Nations to make theworld aware of the Ukrainian calamity.Dr. Oleh Romanyshyn, president of theLeague of Ukrainians in Canada (LUC),presented to the UCRDC a completepackage of the exhibit “Holodomor:Genocide by Famine,” created by theLUC and premiered in Toronto in April ofthis year. It has been shown in citiesacross Canada, the United States (currentlyon view at The Ukrainian Museumin New York) and Ukraine. It was producedin cooperation with the MemorialSociety in Kyiv and with the assistance ofthe UCRDC.The fifth volume of the book series“Ukrainskyi Holokost” (UkrainianOksana ZakydalskyDr. Oleh Romanyshyn presents the exhibit Holodomor: Genocide by Famine toarchivist Iroida Wynnyckyj of the UCRDC.Orest Zakydalsky speaks about the Book of Memory project.Holocaust) – edited by the Rev. YuriiMytsak, a historian, and published thisyear in Ukraine, comprises 58 transcriptsof audio and video testimonies ofHolodomor witnesses. The original testimoniesare part of the UCRDC archivesand were prepared for publication by thecenter, which is also one of the funders ofthe book. The presentation of the bookwas made by Prof. Wasyl Janischewskyand was available for purchase.In answer to President ViktorYushchenko’s appeal on his last visit toCanada, the UCRDC, together with theUkrainian Canadian Congress, is preparingstatistical data, a databank of personsand recording interviews with survivorsof the Holodomor who are living or havelived in Canada. This register, togetherwith similar registers from other countries,is to be disseminated as a Ukrainiangovernment document under the name“Book of Memory.”Orest Zakydalsky, who is working onthe project, explained that the informationcollected in Canada will be put on a specialwebsite about the Holodomor – sureto become a valuable source for teachers,students and researchers.At a recent exhibit of the works ofsculptor Kateryna Nemyra, a group ofseven women benefactors bought anddonated to the UCRDC a ceramic monochromaticconstruction called “Kukil” (aweed with poisonous seeds that grows inwheatfields), which depicts three pictureson ceramic tiles on the theme of famineand which are framed by a black woodencross.Dr. Christine Suchocky explained thesymbolism of the construction, which hasbecome part of the UCRDC’s art andposter collection on the Famine. For theevent, artists Halyna Nowakiwska andAndrii Babich loaned some of their paintingson the theme of the Famine whichhung on the main wall.At the conclusion of the presentationof the UCRDC’s work, the more than 100visitors to the “open doors day” saw anedited version of the two-hour documentaryfilm “Holodomor. UkrainaXX-stolittya. Tekhnolohia Genocidu,”produced by the National TelevisionCompany of Ukraine with funding by theUkraine 3000 International CharitableFund. The film ably combines the historicalcontext of the Holodomor with contemporaryinterviews of survivors of theFamine.Ukraine to unveil...(Continued from page 1)all 12,000 villages ravaged by theHolodomor will be etched into a memorialwall.The initial cost of the “Candle ofMemory” monument was budgeted atover $14.8 million (U.S.), and the fundsfor the project were allocated by theCabinet of Ministers.Originally, the entire UkrainianHolodomor commemorative project wasenvisioned to consist of two phases. Thesecond phase of construction is expectedto produce a world-class historical complexto include a museum, a research centerfor Holodomor scholars, a library,archival space, an exhibition hall and anelectronic database system providingstate-of-the art access to information onthe Holodomor.A number of Ukraine-based and internationalactivists had, over the years,expressed their preference that the historicalresearch complex should be completedprior to the “Candle of Memory” monument.However, their requests and suggestionsfell on deaf ears. As a result,additional competitions for the bestdesign will soon be initiated.The final stages of the entireHolodomor complex project will be guidedby the Institute of National Memory.Illya M. LabunkaA view of the “Candle of Memory.”“We are forming the vision of what thecomplex should ultimately look like,”said Oleksander Ivankiv, the institute’sfirst deputy director.It is estimated that the final cost of theentire Holodomor complex will beapproximately $24 million (U.S.).

No. 47Service at St. Patrick's...(Continued from page 1)landmark cathedral. Cardinal Egan calledthe Holodomor “one of the horrors of the20th century” that ought to be recognizedas genocide. “May all the world learn fromthis event,” he said.Representing the Ukrainian CatholicChurch were Metropolitan-ArchbishopStefan Soroka, Bishop Paul Chomnycky,Bishop John Bura and Bishop emeritusBasil Losten, and representing theUkrainian Orthodox Church wasArchbishop Antony. The Dumka Chorusof New York sang the responses.After the welcome and prior to thememorial services, Archbishop Antony,eparch of New York, in his remarksdescribed a Thanksgiving Day dinner andasked the audience to “imagine if youwill” if all of the food were confiscated bygodless government troops and multiplythat scene millions of times “until the populationof your city, your county, your statewas left with nothing to eat and nowhereto find sustenance for life.”We are fortunate to live in the abundancethat our forebears in Ukraine neverknew, the archbishop reminded the audience,but “if we fail to stand for and preservethe sanctity of life – all of it createdby God Almighty – then we will be participatingin the creation of all the necessarycircumstances for the horror to occuragain, for the forces of evil to arise oncemore.”Ukrainian Congress Committee ofAmerica President Tamara Gallo-Oleksyrecalled the events throughout the year thatfocused on the Holodomor and the needfor international recognition and education.“Today as we gather within the sacredTHE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 11walls of this magnificent cathedral to markthe culmination of the 75th anniversaryyear – we must vow to continue our workto educate the public about the Holodomorand remember the countless victims whosuffered and died as a result of this viciouscrime against humanity,” she said.Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) calledthe Holodomor “the worst of Holocausts”and called the silence of the free worldduring this time “a tragedy.” The extent ofthe Holodomor was concealed for too longand needs to be recognized on an internationallevel, he said. Rep. Hinchey encouragedthe Ukrainian community to “informthe world” about this unknown genocide.In addressing the audience, Dr.Shamshur thanked the U.S. governmentfor its work in designating federal land fora Holodomor monument in Washingtonand urged everyone to attend the groundbreakingceremonies, scheduled for 11a.m. on December 2 located at the intersectionof North Capital Street,Massachusetts Avenue and F Street, NW.(For more information contact202-547-0018 or unis@ucca.org)A letter from the White House was readby Ms. Oleksy. President George W. Bushrecalled the Ukrainian Famine as a crimeagainst humanity and acknowledged thework of the Ukrainian community inbringing awareness of the dark chapter inhistory.“I appreciate all those who honor thevictims of the Ukrainian Famine. Throughyour efforts, you remind us all of thepower of good to triumph over the darknessof evil,” wrote President Bush.Yuriy Sergeyev, ambassador of Ukraineto the United Nations, spoke about theinternational community’s work to havethe United Nations recognize thePresident’s message on the HolodomorFollowing is the text of the November13 message from U.S. President GeorgeW. Bush that was read at the Holodomorcommemoration in St. Patrick’s Cathedralin New York on November 15.I send greetings to all those observingthe 75th anniversary of the UkrainianFamine. On this occasion, I join my fellowAmericans in remembering this crimeagainst humanity.More than seven decades ago, millionsof innocent Ukrainians starved to deathwhen Stalin’s regime deliberately causeda devastating famine. This solemn occasionis an opportunity to reflect on thoseTurning the pages back...terrible events, remember the individualswho perished, and underscore our commitmentto confront tyranny.Today, the people of Ukraine are freeand they are contributing to the advancementof liberty in the world. The UnitedStates is proud to call Ukraine a friendand we will continue to stand in solidaritywith her people.I appreciate all those who honor thevictims of the Ukrainian Famine. Throughyour efforts, you remind us all of thepower of good to triumph over the darknessof evil.May God bless you all.George W. Bush(Continued from page 6)Ukrainian nation.”On November 21, 2006, in Lviv, Mr. Moroz recounted how nearly half of the residentsof his native village of Buda died as a result of the Holodomor. “People ate other people.That’s why for me personally it is a genocide.”Mr. Moroz’s actions were also motivated by the prospect of international recognition bythe United Nations. If the phrasing of the bill did not indicate that the Holodomor wasdirected against the Ukrainian people, then it would not fall under the definition of genocideaccording to U.N. standards.Another point of contention was the perpetrator of the Holodomor. Instead of theCommunist Party or government, Mr. Moroz suggested that the blame be directed againstthe “totalitarian, repressive, Stalinist regime.”Western Ukrainians, who most fervently fought for the Holodomor bill, are from regionsthat were largely unscathed by the genocide. Meanwhile, eastern and southern Ukrainians,who live in regions where the Holodomor was most acute, opposed the legislation.Many of those who settled in the industrialized cities of eastern and southern Ukrainemay have been born in Ukraine, but their parents are from the Russian Federation, and sotheir ethnicity is mixed. They consider themselves Ukrainian, but acknowledge theirnationality as Russian.Since the Holodomor didn’t directly affect their families, and because they have personalaffinities for Russia and its culture, they lack an ability to empathize with or comprehendthe Holodomor’s meaning for ethnic Ukrainians, deputies said.Source: “Rada passes bill recognizing the Holodomor as genocide,” by Zenon Zawada,The Ukrainian Weekly, December 3, 2006.Holodomor as genocide and urged theaudience to remind others of this humantragedy.Educating Americans about theHolodomor has the potential to “changethe consciousness of U.S. society,” saidMichael Sawkiw Jr., chairman of theNational Committee to Commemorate the75th Anniversary of the UkrainianGenocide of 1932-1933.Bishop Chomnycky, eparch ofStamford, Conn., recounted the memoriesof Victor Tracz, a Holodomor survivor. Hedescribed the gnawing hunger that wouldnot go away as soldiers confiscated everylast morsel of food, every grain of wheat,Now at a special price!The two-volume “Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia,”an essential reference work publishedfor the Ukrainian National Associationby the University of Toronto Press.Volume I (1963): General Information; Physical Geography andNatural History; Population; Ethnography; Language; History;Culture; Literature.Volume II (1971): The Law; The Ukrainian Church; Scholarship;Education and Schools; Libraries, Archives, Museums; BookPublishing and the Press; The Arts; Music and Choreography;Theater and Cinema; National Economy; Health and MedicalService and Physical Culture; The Armed Forces; UkrainianAbroad.Now offered at a clearance price of $37.50 for each volume,plus $5.00 postage.To order, send check to:Svoboda Book Store2200 Route 10Parsippany, NJ 07054.every kernel of corn, every chicken, everycow, every pig, and watched as the weakestmembers of his family died in a painfullyslow manner, or government officialsbursting into his house on the morning ofMr. Tracz’s eighth birthday and said “in avoice full of surprised annoyance, as if atsome vermin caught in a trap: ‘What!? Areyou still alive?’”Bishop Chomnycky concluded hisremarks with a prayer asking for healingfor the survivors, forgiveness for the perpetratorsand those who fail to acknowledgethe Holodomor and for the repose ofthe millions who died as a result of theFamine-Genocide.Marchers as they enter St. Patrick’s Cathedral.Matthew Dubas

12 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47

No. 47THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 1375th anniversary of the Holodomor marked in NYCPeter Steciuk, Andrew Demidowich and Peter Borejko carry the banner.Marchers line up for the procession to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.Matthew DubasCardinal Edward Egan.Ukraine’s Consul-General of New York Mykola Kyrychenko and Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United StatesOleh Shamshur view the outdoor photo exhibit at Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza.Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.).Officiating hierarchs at St. Patrick’s Cathedral included Bishop John Bura, Bishop Paul Chomnycky, Metropolitan-Archbishop Stefan Soroka, Archbishop Antony and Bishop emeritus Basil Losten.

No. 47NEWSBRIEFS(Continued from page 14)48.416 million – 32.538 million in citiesand 15.878 million in rural areas.(Ukrinform)Future of Chornobyl projectsKYIV – The world financial crisis willnot affect fulfillment of internationalChornobyl projects financed through theEuropean Bank for Reconstruction andDevelopment (EBRD), EmergencyMinister Volodymyr Shandra told aNovember 13 briefing. According to Mr.Shandra, that day a meeting of the JointWorking Group Ukraine-EBRD tookplace, at which the state of fulfillment ofinternational projects was discussed,including the plan on measures at theshelter facility, construction of a new safefoundation for the Chornobyl nuclearpower plant, and construction of storagefacilities for spent fuel and a plant forprocessing radioactive waste. Mr. Shandraemphasized that as a result of this meetinghe can confidently state that constructionof a new foundation for theChornobyl plant will start in July-June2009 and will end in 2012. The approximatecost of the construction in today’sprices is $800 million (U.S.). He alsonoted that all construction materials forthis facility will be exclusively Ukrainianmade.“In this way we will support theIt is with deepest sadness that we informour friends of the loss of a beautifulhuman being – our Husband, Father,Son, Brother and UncleDanylo Danylo E. Husiak,Ph.D. E. Husiak, Ph.D.THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 15Ukrainian commodity producer,” heexplained. The emergency minister alsosaid that an important stage in stabilizationof the shelter construction has beencompleted. “Now, thanks to the fact that afull complex of measures was carried out,we have managed to achieve a decreasein the risk of damaging this facility for aminimum of 15 years,” Mr. Shandra said.(Ukrinform)Protest against anti-Ukrainian videoKYIV – The Ukrainian Foreign AffairsMinistry on November 12 summonedVsevolod Loskutov, the envoy of theRussian Embassy in Ukraine. The ministryissued a decisive protest to the Russiandiplomat because the Russian Embassy inUkraine had participated in organizing anopenly provocative and anti-Ukrainianevent. The issue is a video about the militaryconflict in Georgia, which had to beshown with the participation of theRussian ambassador and diplomats at theHyatt Hotel in Kyiv. However, the hotel’sadministration has banned the presentationof the video. Titled “The Art ofBetrayal,” the video, according to theUkrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry wasforged by Russian special agencies. Thevideo alleges that Ukrainian citizens participatedin the Russian-Georgian conflictand that Ukraine supplied weapons toGeorgia. The Russian envoy was told thatsuch steps taken by the Russians areunacceptable and conflict with the statusof the Russian Embassy and generallyrecognized international standards. TheSecurity Service of Ukraine (SBU) determinedthat the video was forged on thebasis of misleading allegations by theRussian Internet publication www.russia.ru; the SBU also found that Russian lawenforcement and special agencies wereinvolved in the making of the video.(Ukrinform)Moratorium may be continuedKYIV – Verkhovna Rada First DeputyChairman Oleksander Lavrynovych saidon November 13 that the Party of Regionswould not support the cancellation of aWith deepest sorrow we are sharing the sad news of the loss onNovember 1st of our beloved husband, father, gradnfather, brother,uncle, and cousinAndrew BlahitkaAndrew was born in Lviv in 1942. He was President of Andrew Blahitka &Associates Structural Steel Design. One of his projects was the design ofthe steel reinforcement for the Statue of Liberty, as mandated by theHomeland Security initiative.In bereavement are:moratorium on the sale of farmlandbeginning on January 1, 2009. “The Partyof Regions supports a moratorium on thesale of farmland, because, unfortunately,two years ago there were no laws thatmight have ensured the functioning of theland market in Ukraine, and there are nosuch laws today. The cancellation of thismoratorium will obviously be directedagainst Ukrainian peasants who directlywork their own land,” he said. Ukrainehas over 60 million hectares of land,including 41.8 million hectares of farmland.President Viktor Yushchenkobelieves it is necessary to draft a law andlift the moratorium on the sale of farmlandin 2009. (Ukrinform)Wife JoanneDaughters Karen Beyke with husband GregSharon Toris with husband JoeSon Steven with wife DebbieGrandchildren Madison and Kevin BeykeSisters Christine Balynsky with husband Yurij and familyLydia Stec with husband Andrew and familySister-in-law Pauline, wife of the late brother AlexanderBlahitka and familyAunt Anna Blahitka, in UkraineCousins Alexander KizymaBohdan Blahitko, in UkraineMarta Kozak, in UkraineDanylo was born January 28, 1947, in New YorkCity. He was long time member of Plast, “LisoviyChorty”, served in the Peace Corps in SierraLeone, held a Ph.D. in Chemical Physics, and cofoundedStrativa a business management consulting firm in Irvine, CA,where he lived with his wife of fifteen years, Luba Dmytryk-Husiak. Hepassed away October 18th, 2008 in Newport Beach, CA, at the age of 61.Vichna Pamyat!Danylo Husiak was a person who touched many lives with kindness andgenerosity. He was a bright shining light in the lives of his family and friends.Danylo always brought the spirit of joy, optimism and laughter to honor andcelebrate the meaning of Family. He was respected by his business associateswho appreciated his integrity, intelligence, creativity and ability to bringopposing views together to work towards a common goal. He will be sadlymissed and never forgotten.In bereavement are:Wife Luba Dmytryk-HusiakDaughter Laryssa HusiakMother Tekla HusiakBrothers John Husiak with wife Caroleand children Emily, Kathryn and EliasStephen Husiak with son MichaelAnd other family members in the US, Canada and Ukraine.The Panachyda was held at Peter Jarema Funeral Home in New York Cityon Friday October 24th, 2008. Requiem services were held on Saturday,October 25th, 2008 at St. George Ukrainian Catholic Church in Manhattan,followed by internment at Holy Spirit Cemetery in Hamptonburgh, NY.A memorial service was held November 1st, 2008 at The Nativity of theBlessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church in Los Angeles, CA. Inmemoriam, donations are being collected for “Plast Camp - Vovcha Tropa”c/o Strativa 2082 Business Center Dr., Ste. 240, Irvine, CA 92612. Attn: DanHusiak MemorialVichnaya Pamyat!DEATH ANNOUNCEMENTSDeadline: Tuesday noon before the newspaper’s date of issue.Rate: $7.50 per column-inch.Telephone, (973) 292-9800, ext. 3040; e-mail, adsukrpubl@att.net.Please include the daytime phone number of a contact person.

16 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47Former defense minister...(Continued from page 1)economy, the international monetary crisis,threats to its sovereignty and, mostimportantly, the loss of confidence in thegovernment by the overwhelming majorityof the residents of the country,” Mr.Grytsenko continued.“If they don’t come to their sensessoon and begin to put the country first, Imay need to stand for office in theupcoming presidential elections,” headded.Speaking extemporaneously, Mr.Grytsenko displayed his mastery of currentUkrainian politics; gave an in-depthanalysis of the war in Georgia; andaddressed Ukraine’s relations the RussianFederation, the European Union, NATOand the United States.Mr. Grytsenko said that it was time for“the Ukrainian government to act in theinterests of its people, to negotiate oilprices that make sense for the state andthe people and not the oligarchs; and togive residents of the country a stake inthe future so that they are not seekingpassports from other countries.”“Ukraine has the potential to be astrong state and to play a major role inworld affairs,” Mr. Grytsenko maintained,“but it needs to be united and speak withone voice and its needs to take itself seriously.”“Residents of the Crimea and residentsof Luhansk would not even look atRussian or other passports if they felt thatUkraine had something to offer them,” hesaid.In discussing relations with Russia,Mr. Grytsenko said, “When I was ministerof defense my relations with myRussian counterpart were correct and fairand balanced, but never fraternal, andthey should serve as a model for all ourrelations with that country.”“It is impossible to have fraternal relationsbetween countries,” Mr. Grytsenkopointed. “The word, by definition, refersto a relationship between two humanbeing born of the same parents. And wemust remember that there can be seriousand even permanent disagreementsbetween them. It has nothing to do withrelations between countries.”“As we have seen, Russian leadershave repeatedly insisted on fraternal relationsand yet, in spite of written agreements,they did not hesitate to triple theprice that Ukraine has to pay for oil andgas,” he pointed out. “In 2006, a group ofus made a recommendation to the governmentthat the remaining debt to Russia of$1.2 billion should be paid off and thenworld market prices should be chargedfor the lease of the lands of the Russiannaval base in Sevastopol. According tocurrent estimates these rents shouldamount to some $800 million to $1.2 billionannually, and yet neither the presidentnor prime minister were interested.”“Russia will always act in its own selfinterestand will continue to do so,” Mr.Grytsenko continued. “However, weshould always keep 19th century GermanChancellor [Otto von] Bismarck’s dictumin mind that ‘Russia is never as strong asit pretends to be nor as weak as itappears.’ ”He pointed out that the current“Russian government is using energy as apolitical tool in its dealings with Europeand the rest of the world, something thateven at the height of the Cold War theSoviets never dared to do.”“Gazprom negotiates all of its pricesbilaterally with each client country individuallyand as a result has a tremendoushold over the international politics ofWestern Europe,” he explained. “Andbecause of this, it is clear that France andGermany will block any attempt to giveUkraine a plan for accession to theTymish HolowinskyLeysa Sochor (left), Katrina Parry, David Parry at the Zenovia Sochor ParryMemorial Lecture.European Union in December,” he added.“However, it only makes sense thatUkraine should be implementing thechanges that a plan for accession wouldmandate unilaterally because it wouldultimately involve a rise in living standardsfor all of its residents.”“If it were up to me,” Mr. Grytsenkosaid, “each minister would have to prepareand then be responsible for implementingthe equivalent of a plan foraccession in his or her own sector. Then,once a month a minister would go toBerlin, Brussels and Paris to meet withhis/her counterpart and discuss the progressthat Ukraine was making. I guaranteethat after six months of this, the countriesthat are now blocking Ukraine wouldgive in, if only to stop the visits.”“We should always remember thatRussia said that accession of the Balticsand Poland to the European Union andNATO was a threat to its security andnational interests, and yet they are nowmembers of both organizations,” henoted. “We should also remember thatboth Bulgaria and Romania have livingstandards not much better than those thatprevail in Ukraine and yet they wereadmitted to both organizations in spite ofthis fact.”In looking at both organizations Mr.Grytsenko pointed out that “neitherNATO nor the EU were of much help toGeorgia, In fact, more than a week passedbefore the ministers of the EuropeanUnion were even able to convene anemergency session. He then went on todiscuss the war in Georgia and said that itwas clear that the Georgian leadershiphad made a number of mistakes.“Russia had begun to assemble its 58thArmy as early as April, and it took them(Continued on page 17)

No. 47Former defense minister...(Continued from page 16)months to fully mobilize and be ready tomove,” he maintained. “And to get thisArmy to Georgia, the Russian high commandhad to strip barracks from militaryinstallations around the country, includingthose tasked with the defense of the capitalitself.”“However, the entire invasion wasmore like a 19th century operetta than awar,” Mr. Grytsenko pointed out. “To getinto Georgia, the Russian Army had tocome through a long tunnel and they didso in parade formation. Where was theGeorgian resistance? What was President[Mikheil] Saakashvili doing holdingopen-air meetings in the capital when theRussian Air Force was dominating theskies and strafing buildings?”“However, everyone needs to understand,”Mr. Grytsenko continued, “thatUkraine is not Georgia. We have one ofthe largest standing armies in Europe,even after our cutbacks, which actuallyinvolved more personnel than the combinedarmies of Belgium andLuxembourg.”“Ukraine is a rich country, it has itsown oil reserves, coal reserves that willlast for more than 400 years, some of thebiggest rivers in Europe with tremendouspotential for hydroelectric energy, naturalunderground storage facilities for gas,and yet it remains totally dependent onoutside sources for its energy,” Mr.Grytsenko pointed out. “And on top of allthis, the country is wasteful with its useof energy, using five times as much ascountries in Western Europe.”“Energy independence should havebeen one of our primary goals right sincewe first gained independence, and yet ourTHE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 17current leaders are not looking to thefuture and are simply content to maintainthe status quo which benefits no one butthe oligarchs,” he said.“In the current global economic recession,Ukraine has been particularly hardhit,” Mr. Grytsenko pointed out, “and theeconomy is in bad shape. Our positionhas been exacerbated by the fact that noneof our leaders have taken any decisivemeasures and over the last few years theyhave regularly overstated economicgrowth for political capital.” They raisedwages without solid financing behind it,he noted.“As a result of our crisis, many of ourmost strategic industries are being boughtup cheaply by countries and companieswith accumulated capital, and yet ourgovernment is standing by and letting thishappen,” Mr. Grytsenko said.“Unfortunately, our governing elitedoesn’t know what to do next, and thepeople who came out in such numbers todefend Ukrainian democracy on the‘Maidan’ have been disillusioned andhave stopped applying pressure forchange and reform,” he said.On a positive concluding note, Mr.Grytsenko pointed out that bilateral relationswith the United States were goodand that even under Prime MinisterYanukovych work went on to bring theUkrainian military into line with the beststandards in the world.He concluded that he can be contactedvia the official Verkhovna Rada portal atgrytsenko.anatolii@rada.gov.ua and thathe welcomed questions, comments, interest,and support.Mr. Grytsenko, 51, is a native ofUkraine’s Cherkasy region. He graduatedfrom Kyiv’s Higher Military AviationEngineering Military School in 1979 andduring his 25-year military career servedas a lecturer a higher military educationalinstitute as well as in senior positions inUkraine’s Ministry of Defense. He alsoheaded the Directorate of MilitarySecurity Issues and the DevelopmentSection of the Scientific Research Centerof the General Staff of the Armed Forcesof Ukraine.In 1993 Mr. Grytsenko graduated fromthe U.S. Department of Defense’sLanguage Institute and in 1994 from theoperational-strategic faculty U.S. AirUniversity. A year later he graduated fromthe National Academy of the ArmedForces of Ukraine.Mr. Grytsenko became the director ofthe Olexander Razumkov UkrainianCenter of Economic and PoliticalResearch, Ukraine’s leading think-tank,in December 2000 and two months lateralso assumed duties as a consultant to theVerkhovna Rada’s Committee on NationalSecurity and Defense. In November ofthe same year he was appointed to theadvisory board of the President’s Cabinetfor domestic/political issues.Possessing a Candidate of TechnicalScience degree, Mr. Grytsenko is theauthor of more than 100 scientific workswhich have been published in Ukraine,Belgium, the Netherlands, the UnitedStates of America, France andSwitzerland. He is married to YuliyaMostova, deputy editor of DzerkaloTyzhnia, the leading newspaper inUkraine, and resides in Kyiv.The Zenovia Sochor Party Memoriallecture, the fifth in its series, was cosponsoredby HURI and the FellowsProgram at Harvard’s Weatherhead Centerfor International Affairs. Additional fundswere also provided by Harvard’s John F.Kennedy School of Government.In 2000 Dr. Sochor Parry’s family andfriends established a fund with theUkrainian Research Institute at HarvardUniversity to underwrite the cost of theZenovia Sochor Parry Memorial Lecturein Ukrainian Politics. Dr. Sochor Parrywas a professor at Clark University. Shewas a significant and respected scholar inthe field of Soviet and East European historyand politics. From the early 1980suntil her death in February 1998, she wasalso an Associate of HURI.The goal of the fund is to raise enoughmoney to endow an annual lectureship(currently the lecture is presented biennially)that will attract world-class scholarsand to make possible the publication ofthe annual address. The lecture is free andopen to the general public.Since its inception, four lectures havebeen delivered as part of the memorialseries. In 2000 Ashton B. Carter, FordFoundation Professor of Science andInternational Affairs and co-director, withformer Secretary of Defense William J.Perry, of the Harvard-Stanford PreventiveDefense Project, spoke on “Ukraine andU.S. Foreign Policy”; in 2001 ShermanGarnett, dean of James Madison Collegeat Michigan State University and formerU.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense,spoke on “The Geopolitics of MuddlingThrough”; in 2003 Timothy Snyder, thenassistant professor and now full professor,department of history, Yale University,spoke on “Ukraine and Enlarging theWest,” and in 2006 Angela Stent, professorof government and foreign serviceand director of the Center for Eurasian,Russian and East European Studies atGeorgetown University, spoke on “Afterthe Rada Election: Ukraine’s Challengesand Choices.”The Svoboda Book Store is closing its doors.Everything must go!TITLE AUTHOR PRICE• A Voice from the Wilderness* J.M. Lazarenko 1.00• An Orthodox Pomjanyk of Moshe Altbauer (ed.) 1.00Seventeenth-Eighteenth Centuries*• Before the storm: Soviet Ukrainian George Luckyj 1.00fictions of the 1920s*• Cataract* Mykhaylo Osadchy 1.00• Commission of Inquiry on War Hon. Jules Deschenes 1.00Criminals Report, Part 1*• The Conquerors of the Prairies* Yar Slavutych 1.00• Echoes of Glasnost in Soviet Ukraine* Romana Bahry (ed.) 1.00• The Economic Factors in the Nicholas Chirovsky 1.00Growth of Russia*• Father Agapius Honcharenko* Theodore Luciw 1.00• For a Better Canada* Senator Paul Yuzyk 1.00• For them the bells did not toll* Oleksa Hay-Holowko 1.00• From Three Worlds* Ed Hogan (ed.) 1.00• Funny Tears Mykola Ponedilok 1.00• Glossary of Business Terminology* Y. Havrylyshyn and O. Karkoc 1.00• The Hidden Nations: The People Nadia Diuk and Adrian Karatnycky 1.00Challenge the Soviet Union• Life in America 1.00• The Man-Made Famine in Ukraine published by AEI 1.00• Moses and Other Poems Ivan Franko 1.00• Mykhailo Hrushevs’kyi Bibliographic Lubomyr Wynar (ed.) 1.00Sources 1866-1934• Report from the Beria Reserve* Valentyn Moroz 1.00• Revolutionary Voices* Slava Stetsko (ed.) 1.00• The Saga of Ukraine: Age of Royalty Myron Kuropas 1.00• The Saga of Ukraine: Age of Heroism Myron Kuropas1.00• Selected Short Stories * Volodymyr Vynnychenko 1.00• The Truth About the Lie Roman Dublan 1.00• Ukrainians Abroad Volodymyr Kubijovyc (ed.) 1.00• Ukrainians in North America* Myroniuk and Worobec 1.00• The USSR vs. Dr Mikhail Stern* August Stern (ed.) 1.00• Was it really Russia that was Cardinal Myroslav Lubachivsky 1.00Christianized in 988?• UNA Jubilee Book (1936) Luke Myshuha 1.00/ Пропам’ятна Книга УНС• Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, Vol. I UNA 37.50• Ukraine: A Concise Encyclopedia, Vol. II UNA 37.50• Ukrainian-American Citadel: Myron Kuropas 20.00The First One Hundred Yearsof the Ukrainian National Association(*) indicates very limited quantities.Prices do not include postage and handling.Postage and handling: $3.00 for up to 4 books, $5.00 for 5+ books.To place an order please send a check to:SVOBODA BOOK STORE2200 Rt. 10Parsippany, NJ 07054.

18 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47Holodomor of 1932-1933...(Continued from page 6)war crimes and crimes against humanity tojustice, a negligence sometimes excused byreference to the post-genocidal nature ofpost-Soviet Ukrainian society. This indifferencepersisted until November 2004 when,as the world watched, democracy prevailedduring Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Butwhat also became apparent is just how fragilethe country’s sovereignty and territorialintegrity are.So, while Ukraine played no official rolein the 2003 campaign to have WalterDuranty’s Pulitzer Prize revoked for hismendacious reporting – an effort that unexpectedlyharvested extensive and overwhelminglypositive coverage internationally,by 2006 the Verkhovna Rada had, atPresident Viktor Yushchenko’s urging, promulgateda law defining the Holodomor as agenocide. Kyiv then undertook diplomaticefforts to build international recognition forthis position. One modest success occurredwhen Canada formally recognized theFamine’s genocidal nature, earlier this year.Yet, as even more archival evidenceabout the Holodomor and its authors beganemerging from long-sealed repositories,voices of protest were heard from theRussian Federation whose advocates don’tdeny that a famine occurred but insist it hadno particularly Ukrainian focus.Contemporary Ukrainian efforts aimed atenshrining the Holodomor as a foundationalexperience in Ukrainian history while gleaninginternational sympathy for Ukraine as avictim nation reflect Kyiv’s gradual awakeningto a critical geopolitical certainty:Ukraine may be in Europe but its placethere, perhaps even its right to exist, are farfrom secure.Just how many perished during the GreatFamine may never be calculated precisely,but that millions were scythed down asUkrainian resistance to Soviet rule was consummatedis no longer in doubt. Even if thevictim total was “only” 2.6 million (a figurebased on the most recent demographic studiesof Soviet Ukraine, not including theKuban region, that counts only those whoactually died of hunger), and it was likelyhigher, the intensity of mortality in SovietUkraine over a duration of less than a yearconfers upon the Holodomor the unenviablestatus of being a crime against humanityarguably without parallel in European history.That is not well understood but somedayit will be, everywhere.BC Ukrainian studentsto sponsor two eventsNEWTON, Mass. – The Boston CollegeUkrainian Students Society will sponsor apresentation of the play “Be Well andProsper My Beloved Ukraine” (BuvaiZdorova Liuba Ukraino) on Thursday evening,December 4, beginning at 7 p.m. at St.Ignatius Church on campus.The play honors the memory of the victimsof the Holdomor and will be performedby noted actor, vocalist and UkrainianCatholic priest the Rev. Edward Evanko ofBritish Columbia. An ecumenical “panakhyda”and reception will follow.On Saturday, December 6, at 10:15 a.m.,the society is sponsoring an end-of-semesterUkrainian liturgy honoring St. Nicholas.The liturgy will be celebrated in St.Clement’s Chapel on campus and again willbe followed by a reception featuringUkrainian foods.Both events are free and the general publicis invited to participate.On November 15 the Ukrainian StudentsSociety marked the beginning of Adventwith sung vespers in St. Clement’s Chapel.Officiating was the Rev. Augustinus dePaulo, a graduate student at BC’s School ofTheology, from the Ukrainian CatholicEparchy of Parma, Ohio.Following vespers, members of the societytook part in the annual Unity Dinner forall of the international student clubs on campus.The Ukrainian students served morethan 400 varenyky and 300 holubsi. Theyreceived help in preparing the food fromKsenia Fedoriw and Olha Kondratiuk-Babij.Lithuania refuses...(Continued from page 2)the EU (BNS, November 10).The ministerial meeting seemed to ignoreGeorgian Prime Minister GrigolMgaloblishvili’s appeal from Tbilisi: “Todayto declare ‘mission accomplished’ and returnto business as usual with Russia couldencourage Russia to continue its aggressiveactions against Georgia and Europe’sEastern neighborhood” (Civil Georgia,November 10).The article above is reprinted fromEurasia Daily Monitor with permission fromits publisher, the Jamestown Foundation,www.jamestown.org.One Holodomor...(Continued from page 8)astically shared what they were learning inschool. I was a classroom mother and so Iwent on educational trips with my childrenand their classmates. As our children wentto college, they shared their learning withme. I had the joy of discoveringShakespeare, attending seminars and goingto museums. Today we enjoy learning fromour grandchildren, who visit us and alsoshare what they are learning in school.I am here this morning because I want tohonor those who did not survive, those likemy father and my infant brother, and themillions who died a painful death.But I also want to remind you that todaythere are people without human rights, thatthere are people who are being starved, whoare unjustly arrested and who are robbed oftheir family. There are children who aredenied an education. I don’t want you tothink about them all as numbers in a distantcountry. They are individuals, like me andlike the other survivors you will hear fromtoday. We cannot be slow to help these individualswho are starving to death and wholive in fear.

No. 47by Oleh SkubiakCHICAGO – The PobratymyFoundation hosted its 10th Annual PlastOpen at the Renwood Golf Club in RoundLake, Ill., on Saturday, September 20.The participants were 44 men and womengolfers for the tournament and the posttourneyanniversary festivities.As in previous years, the proceedsfrom this very successful and enjoyableevent will be dedicated to support theongoing activities of Plast UkrainianScouting Organization in both the UnitedStates and Ukraine.Using a shotgun start and a scrambleformat, participants enjoyed 18 holes ofgolf on a beautiful fall day and afterwardsjoined family and friends at Self-RelianceResort down the street for awards, camaraderie,music, steaks and refreshments.The program included a “walk downmemory lane” with a slideshow of actionshots and participants from the all 10 golfevents.The following prizes were awarded:best women’s team score – HalynaTraversa, Roksolana Tymiak-Lonchyna,Roma Wowchuk;best men’s team score – OrestChryniwsky, Vassyl Lonchyna, BillYoung;longest drive – women: ChristineHryhorczuk;longest drive – men: NicholasSosenko;closest to the pin – women: RoksolanaTymiak-Lonchyna;closest to the pin – men: DanielHryhorczuk; andputting champion – Luba Skubiak.The Pobratymy Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation, was establishedin 1992 by members of the PlastTHE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 19Plast Golf Outing marks 10 years of fund-raising for youth activitiesPobratymy fraternity for the purposeof supporting the developmentalactivities of Plast. ThePobratymy Foundation is limitedto making contributions to Plastand other 501 (c) (3) organizationsthat support the stated purposesof the fraternity: to renewand strengthen Plast; to encourageexcellence and self-improvement;to encourage identificationand cooperation amongUkrainian youth; and to informothers about Ukraine.Plast Chicago and thePobratymy Foundation thankedall volunteers and the individualand organizational sponsors fortheir generous contributions tothe event.The 11th Annual Plast Open isscheduled for late September2009.Chicago Plast Golf Outing participants.The Chicago Plast Golf Outing’s organizers, the Pobratymy Fraternity of Plast, at their2008 annual meeting.Memorandum...(Continued from page 6)labor, towards which goal the NationalRecovery Administration is striving today.And it is because of these reasons thatwe, American citizens of Ukrainian descent,are also strongly and unequivocally opposedto the recognition of the Union of SocialistSoviet Republics by the United States government.And in addition to these very pertinentreasons as brought out by the AmericanLegion and by the American Federation ofLabor, we beg leave to add one more, to wit:During the past year several millions ofthe inhabitants of Soviet Ukraine, the landof our ancestors, have died from starvation.The existence of this terrible famine inUkraine has been repeatedly proven by theleading European and American press. It isimpossible to given the exact figures as tothe total number of deaths from this greatfamine, principally because of the rigid censorshipin Soviet Russia. Just recently theAssociated Press correspondent during hisinterview in Kharkiv with AlexanderAsatkin, a Moscow political overlord inUkraine, managed to obtain some officialfigures as to the number of famine victimsin Ukraine, only to have these figures, whichwere considerably lower than reported in theoutside world, refused transmission toAmerica by the censor in Moscow.It will be sufficient for us, however, toaffirm the well-authenticated reports ofimpartial American and European newspapercorrespondents that during the past yearseveral million inhabitants of Ukraine havedied a terrible death from starvation, andthat even cannibalism was discovered inseveral sections of the country; all of this ina land which is regarded as one of the mostfertile in the world.As to the cause of this terrible famine inUkraine, even the foreign correspondents inSoviet Russia do not attempt to hide the factany longer that the famine is a result ofSoviet policy. They regard the famine asanother step taken by Moscow directedtowards the breaking down of the oppositionof the Ukrainian peasantry, which at alltimes was and still is, uncompromisinglyhostile to the Communistic system, as wellas to the occupation of Ukraine byMoscovschyna (Russia proper).The American Ukrainian press is filledwith reprinted letters from Ukraine whichsomehow managed to elude the strict Sovietcensorship, and which contain patheticappeals for help against this terrible foe –hunger. They implore us and others toappeal to the American sense of humanityand justice and have America aid the strickenUkraine once more, as it did back in1921.All of these foregoing reasons have ledus to send a delegation to the President ofthe United States, in order to inform theUnited States government of our opinionconcerning the recognition of the Union ofSocialist Soviet Republics by the UnitedStates government. We regard this task ofexpressing our unprejudiced opinion on thismost important problem as our patrioticduty. And because of the reasons alreadycited, we respectfully recommend to thePresident to conduct any further necessarynegotiations with the Soviets on the subjectof the recognition only on the condition thatthe Soviet Republic permits the sending ofan impartial Special American Mission toSoviet Russia, particularly to Ukraine, forthe purpose of investigating the conditionstherein, and to ascertain the direct cause ofthis terrible famine which during the pastyear mowed down millions of victims inUkraine.We are firmly convinced that the faminein Ukraine is not a result of poor crops ordrought, but on the contrary, is a result of thepolitical and cultural conflict betweenUkrainian nationalistic aspirations andMoscow’s imperialistic and centralizingdesigns; and also because of the Ukrainianpeasants’ opposition to Moscow’s economicexploitation of Ukraine and to its forciblyimposed collectivization and otherCommunist experiments practiced upon theUkrainian people. The famine is the culminationof that unremitting and ferocious persecutionof the Ukrainian people by Moscowdictatorship, which beginning back in 1918– when the Bolsheviks forcibly seizedUkraine which, in accordance with the willof its inhabitants and their desire for selfdetermination,had been formed into theUkrainian National Republic – has continuedwith unabated force to this day.The Bolshevik dictatorship over Ukraine,from its very beginning up to the presenttime, has always and without any interruptionswhatsoever been maintained by brutalforce alone against the will and wishes ofthe Ukrainian people. And in order to breakthis opposition, and to quell forever theunceasing struggle of the Ukrainian peopleto free themselves, the Soviets fostered duringthe past year this famine which has takensuch a terrible toll of human life.And therefore, in view of all of these circumstances,we believe that at least from thestandpoint of humanity an investigation ofthese terrible conditions in Ukraine underthe Soviets be immediately undertaken bythis proposed Special American Mission.Only after a thorough investigation ofthese conditions – as enunciated by theAmerican Legion and American Federationof Labor, and finally by Ukrainian people –can the question of the official recognitionof the Union of Socialist Republics by theUnited States government be finally decidedin accordance with the world renownedAmerican principles of justice and humanity.In view of the fact that the Ukrainianpeople have repeatedly declared, throughtheir legal representatives, that they do notrecognize the Russian occupation of Ukrainenor treaties and obligations entered into bythe Moscow government concerningUkrainian territories, and in view of the factthat under present Soviet Russian oppressionthe Ukrainian people are unable toexpress themselves freely upon questionsvitally affecting them, we owe it to theAmerican government as loyal citizens tocall its attention to those facts.Respectfully submitted,United Ukrainian Organizations of theUnited States:Emil Revyuk, PresidentDr. Luke Myshuha, SecretaryUkrainian National Association:Nicholas Murashko, PresidentAnthony Curkovsky, SecretaryThe Providence Association ofUkrainian Catholics in America:Rev. Anthony Lotovych, PresidentAnthony Curkovsky, SecretaryUkrainian National Aid Association:Peter Kudla, PresidentJohn Soroka, SecretaryUnited Ukrainian-AmericanDemocratic Clubs of State of New York:Michael Piznak, PresidentWilliam F. Wagner, SecretaryRelief Committee for StarvingUkraine, Chicago, Illinois:Dr. Emil Tarnavsky, PresidentP. Zaporozets, SecretaryCentral Committee of UkrainianAmerican Organizations of GreaterNew York:Andrew Borak, PresidentB. Wintonyak, Secretary

20 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47Matinee program features music recital and art exhibitby Bozhena OlshaniwskyIRVINGTON, N.J. – On a sunny Sunday afternoon,October 19, in the community center in Irvington, N.J., aMatinee Concert and Exhibition of Paintings took place.The occasion was a double feature comprising a musicrecital of students and members of the Ukrainian MusicInstitute of New Jersey and an art show by DoraOlshaniwsky Homann.The music recital was in commemoration of a belovedmusic teacher, Prof. Daria Hordynsky Karanowych, organizedand directed by president of the New Jersey Branchof the Ukrainian Music Institute (UMI), Prof. TaisaBohdansky.It has become a tradition in the Newark-Irvington communitythat Mrs. Bohdansky organizes and directs musicalconcerts in the fall and in the springtime. She isalready planning her future concerts at the next anniversaryof the Chornobyl nuclear accident on April 26, 2009,and a concert/reunion of former students of the UMI onOctober 18, 2009.The program of the concert consisted of piano and violinrecitals of music by a variety of composers. Most ofthe performers were young students of the UMI: MarichkaSoroka, Sarah Adamu, Ales Bihuniak, Tania Bihuniak,Sofiyka Soroka, Ola Bihuniak, Volodya Stashchyshyn,Andriy Havrysh, Inia Iwashko and Sviatoslav Lesko. Theadult performers were: Nastia Antoniw (violin) and EllaRomanyshyn (piano), Prof. Taisa Bohdansky (piano),Ulita Olshaniwsky (piano) and Roman Tsymbala (tenor).In addition to the musical renditions, several individualsspoke about the late Mrs. Karanowych, who wouldhave been 100 years old. They lauded her sunny dispositionand friendly attitude and remembered how sheencouraged the young, had a healthy sense of humor, etc.Among the speakers were: Prof. Bohdansky, RomanSawycky, Jr., Bohdanna Volansky, president of the UMI,Rafael Wenke, Sister Bernarda and Ms. Homann.Many individuals helped Mrs. Bohdansky in arrangingthe concert, selling and collecting tickets at the door, preparingfoods for the buffet, and the printing and writing ofprograms and tickets. The lion’s share of work was doneby Orysia Soroka. The Newark-based SelfrelianceUkrainian American Federal Credit Union sponsored theThe late Daria Hordynsky Karanowych.Creditprinting of the program and donated a generous gift tocover the costs.The net profit of the event was $600, which will beused to issue a CD of piano performances by virtuosoRoman Sawycky, Sr., the founder of the Ukrainian MusicInstitute in the United States.Ms. Homann exhibited 17 paintings – oils and watercolors– during the concert. The dominant theme of hershow were oil paintings of three female figures in differentposes and circumstances on large canvasses.The “Prima Donna” painting represents a beautifulwoman standing in front of a piano in a haughty proudpose. This woman knows that she is beautiful and talented,and she uses her attributes to her benefit. She takes“Prima Donna” by Dora Olshaniwsky Homan.advantage of the moment when she reaches her pinnacleof perfection and demands and expects love, admiration,devotion and obedience.A female represented in another painting is a beautifulwoman seated with her legs crossed. This paining is in thecubist style. The woman is resting in a contemplativestance, and there is a drink in front of her. She is alone,but does not want to be alone for too long. She is waitingfor a rendezvous, a conversation, a flirtatious encounter,an opening for an affair, a proposal of marriage or just alift home after a long evening. We do not know exactlywhat she is waiting for, she has spent a tidy sum on her(Continued on page 22)

No. 47THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 21NOTES ON PEOPLEWins first UkrainianMath CompetitionKYIV – A young Ukrainian mathematician,Oleksij Teplinsky, was awardedfirst place in the 2008 UkraineMathematics Competition, the first annualcompetition sponsored by the U.S.-Ukraine Foundation and the ShevchenkoScientific Society of America.The competition is also supported bythe Ukraine and Kyiv MathematicalSocieties, along with Roman Popadiuk,the first U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine.Mr. Teplinsky received his award and aprize of $5,000 at a ceremony during ameeting of the Kyiv MathematicalSociety on August 22.The goal of the mathematics competitionis to help young mathematicians whoare working at research institutions inUkraine, and to stimulate the interest ofyoung people in pure and applied science.The competition is open to citizens ofUkraine who are working permanently inUkraine, are no more than 35 years old,and who are either candidates or doctorsof science in physical-mathematical sciences.Mr. Teplinsky is described as being a“deep and original young mathematician”who “works on difficult and interestingproblems related to dynamical renormalizations.”He has jointly published animportant paper in “InventionesMathematicae” that was an importantcontribution to the Herman theory.Ukrainian mathematician OleksijTeplinsky.Overall, he has shown great researchpotential and is well deserving of thecompetition’s award.For more about the 2008 UkraineMathematics Competition readers maylog onto http://www.shevchenko.org/MatPhysTech/competition.htm or http://www.mathsociety.kiev.ua/news.html.More information on next year’s competitionwill soon be made available;announcements will be published in theUkrainian Mathematical Journal andother scholarly publications in Ukraine.Three woodcarvershonored by Tucsonby Ihor KunaszTUCSON – Every year the City ofTucson hosts “Tucson Meet Yourself,” anevent organized by the Tucson CulturalExchange Council. Along with manyother nationalities, Tucson Ukrainian artistsparticipated and truly shined withtheir demonstrations of wood carvingsand pysanky art.As a result of their long-time participationin this event, our famous woodcarverswere recognized by Tucson MayorRobert Walkup, who issued an award ofappreciation to Steve Tkachyk, ZenonKorytko and Volodymyr SkibickyThe award of appreciation “ToExtraordinary Citizens” to each reads:“This copper plate is presented in recognitionof your work sharing an ancientart form in Tucson. You brought the complexart of Ukrainian woodcarving. Youcontinued creating beautiful objects whilespreading information about Ukraine’sheritage to the citizens of this community.Thank you for sharing your belovedUkraine’s woodcarving techniques herein our desert community and for brighteningthe lives of our citizens.”Unfortunately Mr. Tkatchyk, whotaught the woodcarvers this fine craft,had a serious stroke and was unable toattend the presentation. His grandsonaccepted the award in his name.Mr. Tkatchyk was part of the famousBrody Division, which kept the Soviets atbay for more than one month and delayedthe Soviet advance into Germany. Out ofa force of 11,000, Mr. Tkatchyk was oneof the 3,000 survivors who made it toRimini, Rimini where he taught himselfwoodcarving and passed it on to his twofriends in Tucson.“Notes on People” is a feature geared toward reporting on the achievements of members ofthe Ukrainian National Association and the Ukrainian community. All submissions shouldbe concise due to space limitations and must include the person’s UNA branch number (ifapplicable). Items will be published as soon as possible after their receipt.Need a back issue?If you’d like to obtain a back issue of The Ukrainian Weekly,send $2 per copy (first-class postage included) to:Administration, The Ukrainian Weekly,2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054.

22 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47Matinee program...(Continued from page 20)clothes, her jewels, her shoes, her grooming.The third painting depicts a woman whois standing on the shore – at the edge ofthe land and the sea, with the waves breakingat her feet. She is looking toward thesea – the endless blue-green expanse ofwater, the endlessness of the blue sky.Another series of oils are paintings ofwinterscapes titled “Through MyWindow.” These paintings depict thechanging conditions of winter – weather,ice, sleet and snow – on Lake Mohawk inSparta, N.J. The series is impressionistic,romantic and soothing. In the backgroundof the lake low hills surround the lake.(One of the lake paintings was donatedby the artist as a prize for the afternoon’sraffle.)The exhibition also included a series offlowers in oil: roses, lilacs and a bouquetof mixed flowers. Another set of paintingswas portraits of the artist’s son, husbandand a friend. The likenesses are naturaland realistic, and capture the character ofYushchenko greets...each model.Two paintings of landscapes of Hunter,N.Y., completed the exhibit: a Hutsulchurch and a brook with a cascade of falls.Ms. Homann was born in New Jersey,where she received her primary and secondaryeducation. She was a student ofProf. Karanowych, majoring in piano, andbelonged to a variety of youth organizationsof the community: Chormorska Sitch(volleyball), the ballet school of RomaPryma Bohachevsky, Plast UkrainianScouting Organization, Ukrainian StudiesSchool, etc.She received her art education at theParsons School of Design – New Schoolin New York City. There she studied paintingin abstract, minimalism, expressionism,impressionism, graphics, contemporaryrealism, etc. In addition she studiedtraditional skills with Riley League inWestchester, N.Y.She resides in Sparta, N.J., with herhusband, Henry, and two children, teachespiano and paints. She belongs to variousart societies, and exhibits her paintings attheir shows.(Continued from page 3)Exercise Device (RED).On November 18, during the first ofher spacewalks of the current mission,Capt. Stefanyshyn-Piper encounteredsome back luck. About halfway into thespacewalk, one of the grease guns shewas preparing to use on the space station’sSolar Alpha Rotary Joints releasedsome grease into the tool bag spacewalkersuse during their activities. As she wascleaning the inside of the bag, it driftedaway from her and toward the aft andstarboard portion of the InternationalSpace Station.Capt. Stefanyshyn-Piper’s next spacewalkwas scheduled for November 20.Also aboard the shuttle are CommanderChris Ferguson, Pilot Eric Boe and missionspecialists Don Pettit, Steve Bowen,Shane Kimbrough and Sandra Magnus.Sources: Ukrinform, NASA.Greater Boston...(Continued from page 9)look at the pressing needs and come up witha way to help these people while at the sametime aiding the agricultural workers ofUkraine.”Anna Raniuk, a Holodomor survivor whonow lives in Boston, then spoke. “Evenbefore the Holodomor began, theCommunist Party declared 22 families inmy native village of Onekievka in theMalovysovskyj Region of the KirovohradOblast out of 150 to be kurkuls and enemiesof the people and sent them to Siberia,” shestated. “When I was six my father learnedthat he was also about to be listed and disappearedfrom the village one evening. Wordspread that he had headed for the relativesafety of the Caucusus, but, in fact, he settledin Dnipropetrovsk. Eventually he managedto get word to us that he was there,”she said.“Even so, my mother was still going tobe driven out of our home with me and mysister, but she pleaded with the party authoritiesthat she had been deserted by my fatherand that she certainly wasn’t a kurkul. Therequisitioning committee took everythingthat we had, but allowed us to stay in ourhome,” Mrs. Raniuk continued.“It did the same with all of the other villagers,and almost immediately hungergripped the entire village,” she said.“Because our village was fairly rural, peoplehad nowhere to turn, and they were notallowed to go searching for food. People livingin villages nearer the railroad tracks andthe cities had the possibility of seeking workthere and saving themselves and their familieswith the rations issued to factory workersand city residents.”Zenovi Prots, president of the Bostonbranch of the UCCA, spoke next andthanked everyone for their participation andstressed the necessity of using the memoryof the Holodomor to prevent such barbarismand inhumanity in the future. He alsoreminded everyone that “at the height of theUkrainian Genocide, villagers were dying ata rate of 25,000 per day, while the Sovietregime dumped 1.7 million tons of grain onthe Western markets, exporting nearly 400pounds for every Ukrainian who starved todeath.”The Rev. Nalysnyk offered the benedictionand prayed, “Merciful Father, give comfortto all those who lost their beloved onesin this tragedy and heal their wounds…,give us hope that something good will comefrom this evil…, forgive those who causedthis tragedy as Your Son forgave those whocrucified Him…, give us wisdom so that weare able to build our societies on the principlesof respect for human dignity, the sanctityof life, and human justice…, give us courageto speak the truth where there is injustice,violation of human rights, and the lossof freedom…, bless our endeavors in preventingviolence, war, and genocide.”He was followed by Alex Gamota, presidentof the ad hoc Committee to RememberChornobyl, who reminded everyone that,unfortunately, the Soviet Union neverlearned its lesson and not only continued tocover up and deny the Holodomor to its lastday but continued to do the same thing withother tragedies, including the Chornobylnuclear accident, which also primarilyimpacted Ukrainians.“The fact is that the Soviet Governmentdenied the catastrophe and even orderedlarger than normal May Day celebrations” afew days after the accident. of the reactors.“People were ordered out into the streets ofKyiv in spite of high levels of radioactivityto give the air of normalcy,” he pointed out.“This is why continual reminders of thesecover-ups is necessary – so that they arenever allowed to happen again.”He then invited the assembled crowd tocross the street to the Boston Common,where a tree honoring the victims ofChornobyl was planted by his committeewith the support of UCCA Boston under thepresidency of Orest Szczudluk on the fifthanniversary of the disaster. The tree hadtaken root and is flourishing. At the tree, theRev. Morris led the people in a moment ofsilence and then offered prayers for all of thevictims.At the conclusion of the events Mr.Grytsenko did an extensive interview withWBZ Radio, Boston’s CBS affiliate, whichhas the strongest signal in New England. Thepiece aired repeated throughout the day andevening, and on Sunday morning as well.Waiting for...(Continued from page 7)Russia, for instance, where despotism canbe taken pure, and without the base alloy ofhypocrisy.”Emancipation freed the slaves in thiscountry but, as we well know, did not bringabout the full equality for all. Integration,voting rights and other attributes of a truedemocracy had to wait another 100 years.Ironically, while Sen. Obama is the firstAfrican American to be elected president ofthe United States, he is not a descendent ofits slaves. He was born to Ann Dunham, a“white” American from Kansas, and BarackObama Sr., a foreign student from Kenya.Luckily, and not without some additionalirony, his parents met, were married andbrought him into this world in 1961 inHawaii. If they had been living in Virginiaor any of 15 other American states, theywould have been dissuaded from getting toknow each other, marrying and parentingthe future president of the United States withthe threat of arrest and imprisonment underthe still-operative miscegenation laws.Indeed, they would be subject to arrest andimprisonment if, as a married couple, theyhad tried to move into Virginia before 1967,when the Supreme Court finally overturnedthose laws in its Loving vs. Virginia decision.That’s what happened in 1958 to MildredLoving and her white husband, Richard,both of Virginia, who were married in theDistrict of Columbia. Upon their returnhome, they were arrested while in bedtogether. They accepted a plea bargainarrangement that substituted a one-year prisonsentence with an agreement to leave thestate and not return together or at the sametime for a period of 25 years.When Mrs. Loving could stand it no longer,she appealed the case, which resulted inthe 1967 Supreme Court decision strikingdown the existing state miscegenation laws.The southern states were forced to bringtheir constitutions and laws into compliance.Some did it sooner that others. Alabamafinally cleaned up its constitution in 2000.Mrs. Loving died in her her home inCentral Point, Va., on May 2 of this year —six months and a couple of days before theson of another interracial marriage carriedher southern state in winning the presidentialelection.The cartoonist Mr. Wasserman drew thegentleman who “waited a few hundredyears” to be an African American by darkeninghis complexion. But did he really haveto? There are and have been whiteAmericans, including some UkrainianAmericans, who went to the polls that daywith similar feelings. For example, I couldeasily visualize Boris Bachynskyj in thatposition. He’s the world chess master,Philadelphia-area school teacher, UkrainianPlast scout counselor and civil rights activistwho got himself arrested during a protestmarch in Florida in the 1960s.Like Barack Obama’s grandmother andMildred Loving, however, he had to witnessthat historic moment from the other side. Hedied earlier this year, on January 16, the dayafter Martin Luther King’s birthday.

No. 47THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008 23OUT AND ABOUTNovember 28Whippany, NJChornomorskyi Ball, Plast Ukrainian ScoutingOrganization’s Chornomortsi Fraternity, UkrainianAmerican Cultural Center of New Jersey,973-585-7175November 29 – Art exhibit, “Mysteries of Ancient Ukraine: TheMarch 22, 2009 Remarkable Trypillian Culture (5400 – 2700 BC),”Toronto Royal Ontario Museum, 416-589-8000November 30Silver Spring, MDConcert by the Polyanytsi female trio of Kyiv, St.Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral,301-593-5316 or 301-384-9192November 30 International Holiday Festival, Ukrainian EventMinneapolis, MN Center, 612-379-1956November 30 Christmas concert, the Ukrainian Dumka Chorus,New York St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 718-896-7624December 2New YorkDecember 2TorontoConference, “Visualizing the Holodomor: TheUkrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 on Film,”Columbia University, 212-854-4697Lecture by Yevhen Zakharov, “The Evolution ofCivil Society in Ukraine: 1987-2008,” ShevchenkoScientific Society of Canada, 416-946-7326December 3Film screening, Holodomor documentary “TheCambridge, MA Living,” Harvard University, 617-495-3549December 4OttawaDecember 5WashingtonDecember 6Christmas dinner and dance, UkrainianProfessionals and Businesspersons Association,Marconi Center, 613-262-3405Lecture by Vladyslav Hrynevych, “Politics andMemory: How the History of World War II isPerceived and Changed in Ukraine After 1990,”U.S.-Ukraine Foundation, 202-514-1822or 703-242-4245Wacky Tacky Christmas Sweater Party, DniproBaltimore, MD Ukrainian American Sports Club, 410-598-4935December 7New YorkInternational conference, “The Legacy of GeorgeY. Shevelov,” Ukrainian Academy of Arts andSciences in the United States, Ukrainian Instituteof America, 212-222-1866December 7St. Nicholas program, Immaculate ConceptionHillside, NJ Ukrainian Catholic Church, 908-289-0127December 7Christmas concert, “Koliada and Hutsul Music,”New York The Ukrainian Museum, 212-228-0110December 7Yonkers, NYChristmas Bazaar, Ukrainian National Women’sLeague of America Branch 30, St. MichaelUkrainian Catholic Church, 914-522-4676December 7Christmas Bazaar, Levada Choir, St. NicholasToronto Ukrainian Catholic Church, 416-239-1685POSTPONED fromNovember 25, date TBA Lecture by Sen. Raynell Andreychuk, “The FamineOttawa(Holodomor) and the Political Battle forRecognition,” University of Ottawa,613-562-5800 ext. 3692Entries in “Out and About” are listed free of charge. Priority is given to eventsadvertised in The Ukrainian Weekly. However, we also welcome submissionsfrom all our readers. Items will be published at the discretion of the editorsand as space allows; photos will be considered. Please note: items will be printeda maximum of two times each. Please send e-mail to mdubas@ukrweekly.com.Wherever you are,The Ukrainian Weekly can be there with youCheck out THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY online atwww.ukrweekly.comChristmas Greetings 2008/09Continue your tradition...Use the UNA’s publications to send holidaygreetings and wishes of goodwill, prosperityand the season’s blessings. Please note, toaccommodate all of our advertisers and themany holiday obligations and deadlines, wemust strictly observe the following dates...PUBLICATION DATES & DEADLINESChristmas IssuePublication DateAdvertisingDeadlineThe Weekly December 21 December 8Svoboda December 19 December 8The Weekly January 4 December 20Svoboda January 2 December 201/16 page – $35; 1/8 page – $50; 1/4 page – $100;1/2 page – $200; full page – $400All advertising correspondence, reservations and payments should be directedto Mrs. Maria Oscislawski, advertising manager, tel. 973-292-9800, ext. 3040,e-mail: adukr@optonline.netKindly make checks payable to The Ukrainian Weekly or Svoboda, as appropriate.Please send payment to The Ukrainian Weekly, or Svoboda,P.O. Box 280, 2200 Route 10, Parsippany, NJ 07054

24 THE UKRAINIAN WEEKLY SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2008No. 47Soyuzivka’s DatebookNovember 27 – Thanksgivingdinner; rooms available inMain House building onlyTo book a room or event call: (845) 626-5641, ext. 140216 Foordmore Road P.O. Box 529Kerhonkson, NY 12446E-mail: Soyuzivka@aol.comWebsite: www.Soyuzivka.comBeing Ukrainian means:❏ Malanka in January.❏ Deb in February.❏ Sviato Vesny or Zlet in May.❏ Soyuzivka’s Ukrainian Cultural Festival in July.❏ “Uke Week” at Wildwood in August.❏ Back to Ukrainian school in September.❏ Morskyi Bal in New Jersey in November.❏ Koliada in December.❏ A subscription to The Ukrainian Weekly.To subscribe to The Ukrainian Weekly, fill out the form below, clipit and mail it to: Subscription Department, The Ukrainian Weekly,2200 Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054.Or simply call 973-292-9800, ext. 3042.PREVIEW OF EVENTSSunday, November 30NEW YORK: The Ukrainian ChorusDumka will usher in the Christmas seasonwith a Christmas Concert at 2 p.m. at St.Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue between50th and 51st Streets. The event is free andopen to the public. For more informationcall 718-896-7624.Friday, December 5WASHINGTON: The ShevchenkoScientific Society, District of ColumbiaBranch, presents “Polityka i Pamiat: Yak vUkrayini Dyvliatsia na Zminenu IstoriyuDruhoyi Svitovoyi Viyny po 1990 Rotsi,”by Dr. Vladyslav Hrynevych of theUniversity of Kyiv. The talk, which will bein Ukrainian, includes a video presentation.It will take place at 6 p.m. at theU.S.-Ukraine Foundation, 1701 K St. NW,Suite 903, Washington, DC 20006(entrance on 17th Street). Metro stations:Farragut North (Red Line); Farragut West(Orange and Blue Lines). Admission free,donations accepted. For further informationcall 703-242-4245 or 202-514-1822.Sunday, December 7NEW YORK, NY: “Koliada and HutsulMusic”presented by Yara Arts Group, featuringthe Zelenchuk Koliadnyky fromKryvorivnia, the Tafiychuk family–acclaimed musicians from the CarpathianMountains – and the Svitanya EasternEuropean Women’s Vocal Ensemble. Theywill be joined by Yara artists and friendswho will sing “koliady” (winter songs)and present Hutsul winter rituals. 2:00 p.m.at The Ukrainian Museum, 222 E. SixthSt. Admission (includes refreshments):$15; $10 for museum members andseniors; $5 for students. To make reservationscall 212-228-0110 or e-mail info@ukrainianmuseum.org. For additionalinformation visit www.ukrainianmuseum.org.HILLSIDE, N.J.: You, your family andfriends are invited to visit with St.Nicholas at 12:45 p.m. in the church hallof Immaculate Conception UkrainianCatholic Church located at the intersectionof Liberty Avenue and Bloy Street. Theparish children will present an informalbilingual entertainment program. OdarkaPolanskyj-Stockert will also perform severalholiday pieces on the harp.Complimentary refreshments will beserved. For those attending the Sundaydivine liturgy at 10:45 a.m., a light lunchwill be provided after the liturgy. If youwould like to attend the luncheon, contactMike Szpyhulsky, 908-289-0127, MariaShatynski, 973-599-9381, or e-mail theparish at ICUkrainianCatholic@yahoo.com by December 1. Additional informationand directions to the parish may befound on the parish website, www.byzantines.net/immaculateconception.YONKERS, N.Y.: The annual ChristmasBazaar sponsored by Ukrainian NationalWomen’s League of America Branch 30will be held at 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at St.Michael’s Ukrainian Catholic Church, 21Shonnard Place. this is a great opportunityto view and purchase original artwork,handicrafts, “gerdany,” ceramics, embroidery,Christmas cards, honey, wheat, poppyseed,baked goods and more. For additionalinformation call 914-522-4676.Saturday, December 13NEW YORK: The Ukrainian ChorusDumka will perform Christmas Music at 7p.m. at Our Lady of Refuge RomanCatholic Church, 2020 Foster Avenue,Brooklyn, NY 11210. The public is cordiallyinvited. For additional informationcall 718-896-7624.Saturday, December 20BETHESDA, Md.: The Taras ShevchenkoSchool of Ukrainian Studies will host aSviatyi Mykolai Show and HolidayBazaar. Students will present a St.Nicholas program at noon and SviatyiMykolai (St. Nicholas) will then meet witheach grade/age group. The HeavenlyOffice will be open at 9:15-11:45 a.m.;please bring only one item per child ($2fee) and have it clearly labeled (child’s fullname and grade/age). The bazaar, scheduledfor 9:30 a.m. to noon, will includehome-baked goods, varenyky and vushka(frozen), books, gift items, etc. Location:Westland Middle School, 5511Massachusetts Ave., Bethesda, MD 20816.For further information visit www.ukieschool.orgor contact Lada Onyshkevych,lada2@verizon.net or 410-730-8108.ADVANCE NOTICESaturday, February 21-Saturday, February 28, 2009BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: Theannual regatta of the Ukrainian AmericanNautical Association Inc. is sailing theBritish Virgins Islands. Share the experienceof sailing; savor the local culture andcuisine of the Caribbean; and enjoy thesun and surf away from the winter chill.No sailing experience is necessary. Spaceis limited. Contact wdowychyn@msn.comor nbobak@septa.org for more information.PREVIEW OF EVENTS GUIDELINESPreview of Events is a listing of community events open to the public. It is aservice provided at minimal cost ($20 per listing) by The Ukrainian Weekly to theUkrainian community.To have an event listed in Preview of Events please send information, in English,written in Preview format, i.e., in a brief paragraph that includes the date, place, typeof event, sponsor, admission, full names of persons and/or organizations involved,and a phone number to be published for readers who may require additionalinformation. Items should be no more than 100 words long; longer submissionsare subject to editing. Items not written in Preview format or submitted without allrequired information will not be published.Preview items must be received no later than one week before the desired date ofpublication. No information will be taken over the phone. Items will be publishedonly once, unless otherwise indicated. Please include payment for each timethe item is to appear and indicate date(s) of issue(s) in which the item is to bepublished. Also, senders are asked to include the phone number of a person whomay be contacted by The Weekly during daytime hours, as well as their completemailing address.Information should be sent to: Preview of Events, The Ukrainian Weekly, 2200Route 10, P.O. Box 280, Parsippany, NJ 07054; fax, 973-644-9510; e-mail,preview@ukrweekly.com. NB: If e-mailing, please do not send items asattachments; simply type the text into the body of the e-mail message.