The upcoming commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the Babyn Yar massacre will attract hundreds of foreign visitors and dignitaries from around the world. Many will be coming to Ukraine for the first time.
A large delegation will arrive from New York and will be largely made up of political dignitaries, representing the state of New York and New York City.
Their primary goal, of course, will be to commemorate the 33,000 Ukrainian Jews that were massacred at this site over a two-day period in September 1941, a killing field that eventually saw the murder of thousands of Ukrainian nationalists, communists and others at the hands of the invading Nazis.
This commemoration is supported by many of Ukraine’s Western friends and partners, an important act of recognition of the murder of so many helpless Jewish families.
As Yale historian and author of the seminal history book, “Bloodlands” Timothy Snyder has said, “After Babyn Yar they (Germans) understood that they could massacre… Auschwitz was later…they just changed the technology with use of gas chambers. It was just Babyn Yar which showed that the Holocaust was possible”. The attendance of so many will be a recognition of the suffering soul of the Ukrainian nation, both Jews and Gentiles and of the massive suffering that took place on Ukraine’s lands.
But it will also be the sharing of communal “corporate grief” with other civil societies, which Ukraine is in the process of becoming and with which it hopes to articulate shared values for the dignity of human life. Finally realizing the fact that such commemorations unite civil societies and help form ‘communities of shared understanding’.
For decades, the massacre had been denied by the Communists. Though the reasons are many, it is largely because they didn’t have the philosophical wherewithal, nor the values to admit the value of human life and the respect for individuals. Thus, one lesson that will be reiterated this weekend in Kyiv is that all authoritarian governments are inherent liars, not only truth deniers, but active contradictors of fact especially when they perpetrate atrocities on fellow human beings.
That said, this gesture of commemoration will be more than just an event of recognition. It will be a communal act of remembrance by all Ukrainians, of all faiths, political affiliation, of all languages with the support of Ukraine’s friends. But at the same time, it will also be an act of defiance against the authoritarian deniers, both Nazi and Communist, past and present, who have lied for decades about the atrocity that had been committed at Babyn Yar.
This anniversary comes during a key phase in Ukraine’s development into a civil society, for this public act of defiance against those that would destroy human life, probably would not have been possible without the visionary recognition that has permeated Ukrainian life after the “Revolution of Dignity”. Ukraine is full of such “death stages”, where its ground has been stained by the blood of millions of innocents. This event should both announce teach that Ukraine will no longer accept or tolerate such barbarianism on its independent and sovereign lands.
Commemorating Babyn Yar is a statement that is especially being made by Ukrainians, in association with the civilized world, declaring that such moral atrocities are unacceptable and are an anathema to civilized societies and that the ethic of tolerance should be pursued.
But in addition, it is also a declaration, even a statement of faith if you will, that Ukraine is ready to join the community of civil and law-abiding nations, making a hearty attempt to fulfill the axiom as stated by Timothy Snyder, “Where there is civil society, there are always people who care about history, A functioning civil society is always concerned with the truth about the past.”
To put it more philosophically, the very act of commemorating this event is a ‘historic act of memorialization’ for the people of Ukraine, the most human of compassionate acts towards the dead that condemns such atrocious crimes against humans in the present while affirming the principle of the sanctity of individual human life for the future. The commemoration of Babyn Yar will be a civics lesson in a way as to how to do “history” in the new Ukraine.
“Of course, the main goal of the short mission to Ukraine by the New York State delegation is to honor the lost of the Babyn Yar massacre,” says Leonard Petlakh, a community organizer and a one-time professor of Jewish history at New York University and one of the leaders of the delegation. But in addition, it is also an educational trip. There will be meetings with various political leaders, religious and cultural leaders.”
The upcoming trip to Ukraine was a result of some cultural diplomacy undertaken by Ukraine’s consul-general in New York, Oleksii Holubov.
“The time with the consul general was invaluable,” Petlakh adds. “For them the conversations that they had with him were very educational. They were intrigued and wanted to know more about Ukraine and so, in light of the Babyn Yar anniversary, a visit was organized. I think this is a wonderful example of ‘cultural diplomacy’.”
It is only recently that Ukraine is seeing the fruits of a form of diplomacy that pursues the use of ‘soft power’ for the purpose of exchanging ideas, experiences, information in order to foster mutual understanding.
Seeking and taking advantage of opportunities that provide a context where people can gain an understanding of Ukraine’s ideals and its emerging democratic institutions is essential if it is to take its place in the community of democracies. Put most profoundly and essentially, Ukraine must aggressively pursue a diplomacy of culture that reveals “the soul of a nation”.
Those who will be visiting Kyiv in the next weeks will be exposed and experience the most up-to-date understanding of modern Ukraine.
They will be given an opportunity to establish for themselves, Ukraine’s unique national and cultural identity. To conceive of its new growing national identity and confidence as an emerging democracy, exuding a new national narrative that will replace, and hopefully, eliminate any connection with Russia in people’s minds.
But perhaps most of all, they will be provided with an untainted portrait of a Ukraine that is based on a foundation of facts and not on propagandist lies.
The commemoration of the Babyn Yar massacre will go a long way in establishing Ukraine’s relevance in the establishment and even extension of liberal democratic values in the region and affirm Ukraine’s growing desire to affirm international standards of law-based world order.
Yuri Polakiwsky is a writer who resides both in Toronto and Kyiv. He is the author of the book, “Ukraine — A Lament of a Promise” and a member of the Association of Ukrainian Writers and Poets in Kyiv.
