Kul’chyts’kyi’s Analysis, 2005

In 2005, Kul'chyts'kyi once again returned to the issue of the Famine with a six-part series in the newspaper Den', which refined his earlier works and offered a new perspective on why Stalin killed Ukrainians.

Part one begins with a rather unusual plea to historians, namely that they “must” reach the legal and political conclusion “that the Holodomor was an act of genocide.” They must take on such a task, in Kul’chyts’kyi’s opinion, because politicians failed, in that the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly did not make it explicit that the Soviet regime exterminated Ukrainians. Its conclusion was founded on the testimony of survivors rather than documents. Earlier some progress had been made in this regard after the World Congress of Free Ukrainians prompted the convening in 1989 of an international commission to investigate the causes of mass famine in Ukraine.

In Part 2, Kul’chyts’kyi notes that leaders of the outside world were made aware of the tragedy in Ukraine but for various reasons they chose to keep silent. Among the main culprits in this regard were the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, and US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Some observers confuse the situation in 1932 and that in 1933, the author continues. In the former, there was no genocidal famine. Some 144,000 people died from hunger in that year, but the government tried to assist the hungry by supplying addi­tional grain. In 1933, however, the situation was very different, and the gov­ernment tried to conceal the Famine. In the West, there were some channels of information. One was through the US newspaper for Ukrainians, Svoboda.

Another was through the journalistic endeavors of Malcolm Muggeridge, who published the findings of his unsanctioned trip through Eastern Ukraine in the Manchester Guardian. This same newspaper also carried an article by a former aide to Lloyd George, the Prime Minister of Britain during the First World War, Gareth Jones.

Part 3 begins with another apparent non-sequitur: Kul’chyts’kyi states that Soviet historians began to recognize Soviet stereotypes and reject them, “which enabled them to elicit the true cause-and-effect relationships in the problem of the Holodomor.” But were Soviet stereotypes the only problem in studying the Famine? He describes how he found himself on an anti-Famine commission established by the Communist Party of Ukraine in the fall of 1986, but sent a report demanding that the tragedy be recognized officially. It is necessary today, he continues, to cease playing on emotions and deal with facts that can be sup­ported. In this respect, the national aspect needs to be highlighted. The first figure of note to pay attention to the national issues in Ukraine, he adds, was the writer Yurii Shcherbak. In July 1988, the Writers’ Union of Ukraine gave Volodymyr Manyak the task of preparing a commemorative book containing the testimonies of Famine survivors, though the initiative for this project came from Maniak himself. Maniak, with the backing of the Writers’ Union, sought the support of the Institute of History, and the two agencies joined forces to produce a large book of memories entitled Famine 1933: the People's Memorial Book, under the editorship of Maniak and his wife Lidiya Kovalenko. A second book was commissioned with the approval of the then Ukrainian Party leader (1989-90), Volodmyr Ivashko, Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: through the eyes of Historians and the Language of Documents, published in September 1990 by Politvydav Ukrainy for the Institute of Party History of the CC CPU.

In Part 4, he recounts how he and two younger colleagues published the book Stalinism in Ukraine, which he feels probably had a limited impact on people of his generation. In general, the impact of the Famine on Ukrainian society is dependent on the actions and propaganda of the state, he feels. A good beginning was made following the August 1991 declaration of independ­ence by the Ukrainian Parliament, when “sovereign communists” led by Leonid Kravchuk tried to persuade voters that they had made the correct de­cision by using information about the horrors of the Holodomor. However, in the ensuing fifteen years, the Ukrainian leaders have not proved willing to support the republication of the three volumes of testimony gathered by the Mace Commission. The question of Russia is also dealt with in this section and Kul’chyts’kyi commendably offers both a warning against stereotyping of Russian perspectives and an explanation of how the official commemoration of World War II as a Russian legacy has led Russian officials to throw a cloak over Stalin’s crimes. This section also includes comments on Conquest and Mace, again including the statement that Mace was unable to find employ­ment in the United States. Kul’chyts’kyi relates also how a revisionist school in the West, including Wheatcroft, R. W. Davies, and Lynne Viola, has re­jected the Famine as genocide theory, even though it was upheld at an impor­tant international conference in Vicenza, Italy, in October 2003, which was attended by Ukrainian and Russian historians, as well as Italians.⁸⁵

The fifth and sixth parts of the lengthy series are by far the least satisfac­tory. Part 5 opens positively when Kul’chyts’kyi states that he cannot restrict his analysis to the socio-economic and national dimensions of the genocide, but must also encompass the ideological dimension.

Kul’chyts’kyi’s lack of clarity, nevertheless, is an apt reflection of the posi­tion of both the Ukrainian government and Ukrainian society on the issue of the Famine and its role as a key event in the modern state. One can draw three main conclusions. First, the Famine of 1932-33 has not yet attained the sort of status in Ukraine that is warranted by the scale of the event and the suffering incurred. Its political implications are evident. Recognition of the Famine as an act of genocide has already alienated some Russians, and the Russian government has declined to accept any responsibility for what oc­curred under the Soviet leadership.

Second, there remain wide gaps between the perception of the Famine among the Ukrainian Diaspora, non-Diaspora Western scholars, and popular opinion in various parts of Ukraine. Ironically it is in Western Ukraine, an area untouched by the Famine, as it was not under Soviet rule until the outset of the Second World War, that the Famine-Genocide concept is most readily accepted because in Western Ukraine national discourse laced with a dis­tinctly anti-Russian hue has a long history—a factor discussed at some length in Kul’chyts’kyi’s article. Though Diaspora views on the Famine are more widely accepted in Ukraine today, they are far from representing a consensus. In the West, one can say that the two sides are as far apart as ever, i.e., the schools of thought represented by US or British academics (such as Mark Tauger or Stephen Wheatcroft) on one hand; and Diaspora scholars (such as Roman Serbyn and George Liber) and non-Diaspora scholars formerly known for their anti-Soviet views (such as Robert Conquest) on the other. James Mace’s quest to unite Ukrainian views and perspectives on the Famine has had an impact, but it has not been an unqualified success, as the apparent dis­interested voting in the Ukrainian Parliament on this issue reflects. Third, various aspects of the Famine have been well covered by Ukrainian academ­ics, including eyewitness accounts and collections of documents that are now appearing at the regional level. However, the metamorphosis from academic text to school curriculum has been both slow and hesitant, as exemplified by the appearance of new national textbooks on Ukrainian history. The 70th an­niversary may thus have been a landmark, but one can posit that only with the 75th anniversary in 2008 will some of these issues and debates be resolved, and only after heated discussions.

Notes

1 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Skeletons in the Closet in the Light of Perestroika,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 4 December 2001; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/268404/].

2 Mark Tol’ts, “Skol’ko zhe nas togda bylo?” Ogonyok, No. 51 (December 1987): 10-11.

3 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Pam’yat’ pro trydtsyat’ tretii,” Istoriya Ukrainy, No. 24 (June 1998): 4.

4 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Do otsinky stanovyshcha v sil’s’komu hospodarstvi URSS u 1931­1938 rr.” Ukrains'kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, No. 3 (March 1988): 16.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid., p. 17.

7 Ibid., p. 22.

8 Ibid., pp. 24-25.

9 Dr. Yurii Shcherbak, a medical doctor and writer, was a founder and former chairman of the Ukrainian ecological association Green World, as well as the Green Party of Ukraine. He has served as Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, the United States, and Canada.

10 V. Savel’ev, “V poiske istiny: k voprosy o prichinakh goloda 1932-1933 godov na Ukrainy,” Pravda Ukrainy, 8 July 1989, p. 2.

11 See, for example, Yar Slavutych, “Holodomor buv splanovanyi,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 3 No­vember 1990, p. 2. Slavutych, a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta, is a famine survivor.

12 Grigoriy Koinash, “Etot strashnyi 32-i,” L'vovs'kaya pravda, 15 May 1990, p. 3.

13 Viktor Polozhin, “Fil’m ‘Holod-33’ u roboti,” Literaturna Ukraina, 21 March 1991, p. 6.

14 Yelena Pozdnyakova, “Narodnyi fil’m: Snimayut ukrainskiye kinematografisty o golode 1933 goda,” Pravda Ukrainy, 13 June 1991, p. 3.

15 Volodymyr Tatarenko, “A koshty peredaty zhertvam...,” Literaturna Ukraina, 20 June 1991, p. 2.

16 Commission on the Ukraine Famine, Report to Congress: Investigation of the Ukraine Famine 1932-1933 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1988), p. vii.

17 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Vitchyznyana istoriya u shkolakh i VNZ Ukrainy: ostannye de- syatyrichchya,” in Istoriya Ukrainy, No. 15 (2003): 3. See also Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Nerozv’yazani problemy vykladannya istorii u serednii shkoli,” in Istoriya Ukrainy, No. 11 (1998): 1-2.

Orest Subtelny, Ukraine: A History, 3rd edition (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), p. 415.

Cited in Serhiy Makhun, et al, “History as Taught in Schools: time to decide,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 14 October 2003; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/261121/].

Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Mizh dvoma viinamy (1921-1941 rr.),” Ukrains'kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, No. 9 (September 1991): 3-17.

Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Mizh dvoma viinamy (1921-1941 rr.),” p. 6.

Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Mizh dvoma viinamy (1921-1941 rr.),” p. 7.

Yurii Shapoval, “Stalinizm i Ukraina,” Ukrains'kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, No. 8 (August 1991): 32.

Vitol’d Kyrylyuk, “Chas hromadyty kaminnya: rozmova s holovoyu Ukrains’koi asotsiatsii “Holod-33” Lidiyeyu Kovalenko-Manyak,” Literaturna Ukraina, 6 August 1992, p. 2.

Ivan Drach, “Henotsyd Ukrainy—vyklyk XX stolittya,” Literaturna Ukraina, 3 September

1992, p. 3.

Ivan Drach, “Henotsyd Ukrainy—vyklyk XX stolittya,” p. 1.

V. Kyrylyuk, “I vdaryat’ dzvony pam’yati,” Literaturna Ukraina, 25 March 1993, p. 1.

Vasyl Mazorchuk, “Henotsyd na Chornozemakh,” Osvita, No. 21-22, (1993): 10-12.

Ivan Drach, “Chy pokaets’ya Rosiya?” in Taras Hunczak, ed. Tysyacha rokiv Ukrains'- koi suspil'no-politychnoi dumky," Vol. 9 (1989-2001) (Kyiv: Dnipro, 2001), pp. 282, 284.

Vasyl Marochko, “Holodomor v Ukraini: prychyny i naslidky (1932-1933),” Osvita, No. 21-22, (1993): pp. 3-9.

Ibid.

Dmytro Brylins’kyi, “Ya perezhyv Holod,” Samostiina Ukraina, No. 25, (June 1992): 3. Oleksii Kuz’menko, “Na Holod pishly svidomo,” Osvita, No. 21-22, (1993): 12.

Yaryna Mytsyk, “Holod u Vyshnopoli,” Osvita, 10 September 1993, pp. 14-15.

Oles’ Berdnyk, “Na rynkakh u Kyevi likari provodyly lektsii,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 2 October

1993, p. 3.

Ivan Rudenko, “Trahediya Kozats’koho,” Za vil'nu Ukrainy, 23 October 1993, p. 4.

Kateryna Marchenko, “Mama proty ‘chervonoi’ valky,” Ukraina moloda, 26 June 2003, p. 11.

Tamara Ruchko, “A bratyk plakav, prosyv isty...'' Ukrains'ke slovo,” 24-30 July 2003, p. 13.

Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Pam’yat’ pro trydtsat’ tretii,” Istoriya Ukrainy, No. 24 (June 1998): 4.

Ibid.

Mykhailo Hoyan, “Na rodyuchii zemli pomyraly khliboroby,” Ukraina moloda, 8 September 1998, p. 12.

Dana Romanets’, “Pochatkom 1937-ho roku v Ukraini stav 1933-i,” Ukraina moloda, 1 De­cember 2000, p. 5.

Yaroslava Muzychenko, “Z choho pochynalasya ‘Rodina’?” Ukraina moloda, 17 May 2002, p. 5.

Yaroslava Muzychenko, “Holod proty voli,” Ukraina moloda, 22 November 2002, p. 4.

M. Savchenko, “70-richchya holodomoru v Ukraini: metodychni porady do provedennya zakhodiv pam'yati zhertv holodomoru 1932-1933 rokiv v Ukraini,” Istoriya Ukrainy, No. 3 (January 2003): 17-19.

Robert Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). Conquest (b. 1916) is a British born academic and not of Ukrainian ancestry. As such he might more logically be included in group b) below. However, his work belongs more properly in the first group, as it was commissioned by a Ukrainian institute and specifically for the anniversary of the Famine of 1932-33.

The chairman of the commission and (as noted in Chapter 1) one of the initiators of the campaign was Dr. Lubomyr Y. Luciuk, a political geographer and professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.

On Duranty, see, for example, Sally J. Taylor, Stalin's Apologist: Walter Duranty, the New York Times' Man in Moscow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).

Though the distinction between academics of Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian ancestry is somewhat arbitrary I have opted to use it for convenience. In general, it is fair to say that there are several academics of non-Ukrainian ancestry who do not regard the Famine as genocide; whereas it is extremely rare to find an academic whose ancestry is Ukrainian of the same opinion. Conquest, perhaps the closest to the perspective of the genocide school, does not make such a specific attribution in his book Harvest of Sorrow.

See, for example, Mark B. Tauger, “The 1932 Harvest and the Soviet Famine of 1932­1933,” Slavic Review, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Spring 1991): 70-89, and Tauger's attack on James E. Mace and Taras Kuzio: Mark B. Tauger, “What Caused Famine in Ukraine? A Polemical Response,” RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report, 25 June 2002; [http://www.rferl. org∕reports∕pbureport∕2002∕06∕25-250602.asp].

Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2001), p. 305.

Martin, who is preparing a book on the Ukrainian Famine, has since amended his views somewhat in the light of new archival evidence, noting that the nationalities factor in fact played a major role from 1932 in Stalin's thinking and policies. He cites a letter from Ka­ganovich to Stalin about the disruption of grain requisitions by “agents of counter­revolutionary Ukrainian organizations and Petlyurites” who were working alongside Pilsud­ski and other “agents of world imperialism.” Terry Martin, “The Great Famine in Ukraine: New Documentation on the Thought Process of Stalin,” paper presented at Harvard Ukrain­ian Research Institute, October 2003. Dr. Martin provided the author with a copy of this paper. Incidentally, Martin's revised view brings him closer to a scholar who can be associ­ated with the Ukrainian Diaspora in the United States, George Liber. See George O. Liber, Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR 1923-1934 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 165-166.

Stanislav Kul'chyts'kyi, “Velykyi holod,” Istoriya v shkolakh Ukrainy, No. 3 (2003): 51­52.

Ibid., p. 52.

Ibid.

Stanislav Kul'chyts'kyi, “Kryza kolhospnoho ladu,” Ukrains'kyi istorychnyi zhurnal, No. 5 (May 2003): 5-25, and especially page 11.

Yurii Shapoval, “The Famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine: What do we know about it today?” Paper presented at the Ukrainian Youth Centre in Edmonton, Canada, 16 November 2003.

V. M. Danylenko and M. M. Kuz'menko, “Naukovo-pedahohichna intelihentsiya v roky holodu,” Ukrains’kyi Istorychnyi zhurnal, No. 5 (May 2003): 145-155.

Vasyl Marochko, “Holodomor v Ukraini: prychyny i naslidky (1932-1933),” Osvita, No. 21 (1993): 3-9.

Yakov Konigsman, “Golodomor 1933 goda i upadok yevreiskogo zemledeliya,” Evreiskiye vesti, No. 17-18 (September 1993): 4.

Ibid.

Etia Shatnaya, “Pod rodnym nebom,” Evreiskiye vesti, No. 21-22 (November 1993): 15.

Iosif Shaikin, “Na yuge Ukrainy,” Evreiskiye vesti, No. 1-2 (January 1994): 6.

Vasyl Marochko, “Holod u natsional'nykh rayonakh Ukrainy,” Evreiskiye vesti, No. 15-16 (August 1996): 1-2.

See, for example, the article by my PhD student at the University of Alberta: Per Anders Rudling, “Organized Anti-Semitism in Contemporary Ukraine: Structure, Influence, and Ideology,” Canadian Slavonic Papers, Vol. 48, No. 1-2 (March-June 2006): 81-118.

V. M. Chyrkov, ed., Holodomor 1932-33 rokiv yak velychezna trahediya ukrains'koho narodu (Kyiv: MAUP, 2003).

Vasyl Mazorchuk, “Henotsyd na Chornozemakh," Osvita, No. 22, (1993) 10-14.

Pavlo Chemerys, “Nasha plata ‘nayvnym'...,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 11 September 1993, p. 3.

Pavlo Chemerys, “Operatsiya Holod,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 28 September 1996, p. 2.

Erik Margolis, “Zhaduyuchy nevidomyi holokost Ukrainy,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 6 February 1999, p. 2.

Ibid.

Pavlo Skochii, “Nadislannyi tsar-holod,” Za vil'nu Ukrainu, 9 April 1998, p. 2.

James E. Mace, Communism and the Dilemmas of National Liberation: National Communism in Soviet Ukraine, 1918-1933 (Cambridge, Mass: distributed by Harvard University for the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in the U. S., 1983).

Stanislav Kul'chyts'kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians?” The Day Digest, No. 37 (22 November 2005). As noted above, Taras Kuzio has made the same assertion.

James Mace, “Denying the undeniable,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 28 May 2002; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/259000/].

James Mace, “Dealing with 1933,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 12 November 2002; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/259745/].

James Mace, “Truth and Fact,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 26 November 2002, [http://day.kiev.ua/259821/].

Ruslana Pisots'ka, “Inodi treba vse zhadaty, shchob vyduzhaty,” Ukraina moloda, 4 March 2003, p. 5.

Tetyana Nykytyuk, “A candle lit in memory and hope,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 25 March 2003, [http://day.kiev.ua/260363/].

James Mace, “Facing past suffering,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 28 November 2000; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/266745/].

“Internet-konferentsiya Dzheymsa Meysa,” [http://www.maidan.org.ua], 11 February 2003.

Stanislav Kul'chyts'kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians?” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, Number 33, 25 October 2005; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/151228/].

83 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians? Comprehending the Holodomor,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, Number 34, 1 November 2005; [http://www. day.kiev.ua/151682/].

84 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians: Comprehending the Holodomor. The position of Soviet historians,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 8 November 2005; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/152116/].

85 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians: Comprehending the Holodomor. The position of Soviet historians,” Den; The Day Weekly Digest, 22 November 2005; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/153028/].

86 Stanislav Kul’chyts’kyi, “Why did Stalin exterminate the Ukrainians? Socioeconomic and national dimensions of the Famine,” Den'; The Day Weekly Digest, 6 December 2005; [http://www.day.kiev.ua/153901/].