The weekend of Nov. 17-18 sees the culmination of events in the U.S. commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Holodomor, the artificially-engineered famine which claimed the lives of millions Ukrainians in the early 1930s.
The American events began in November 2017 as the U.S. diaspora’s share of a worldwide year of remembrance of the tragedy whose 85th anniversary – marking the 1932-33 peak years of starvation – will culminate later this month in Ukraine itself as it will celebrate Holodomor Remembrance Day on Nov. 24.
The events were broadly held in coordination with the government in Kyiv but Ukrainian diaspora groups marked the Holodomor with a range of independent and imaginative initiatives such as concerts, screenings of various films and documentaries related to the famine, and numerous academic forums examining various aspects of the famine.
The events were intended to not only honor the memory of the countless who died (literally so as precise estimates of the death toll have been impossible to calculate and have varied from four to 10 million) but to publicize the genocidal crime emanating from a Moscow ruled by Joseph Stalin, which was largely kept hidden from the wider world during the Soviet era. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s regime has continued disinformation and black propaganda attempts to stifle the truth about one of the darkest chapters in Europe’s 20th century history.
Many of the events were organized by the largest diaspora group in the U.S., the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA), and its branches throughout the country. However, many other bodies including the Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches, the Ukrainian National Association, which has branches in the U.S. and Canada, the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC, the Ukrainian Museum in New York, diaspora professional associations and financial institutions held events.
Ukrainian women’s groups, either as separate organizations or as part of larger umbrella groups, worked intensively to advance awareness about the Holodomor. The world federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations held a commemorative event at their 70th congress in the city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania last month.
On Nov. 16, the Washington chapter of the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America together with the Holy Family National Shrine Library scheduled a discussion with Andrea Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American author, activist and screenwriter. She is putting the finishing touches to her film called ‘Gareth Jones’ about a young Welsh journalist of that name who was one of the few brave reporters, based in the Soviet Union of Stalin in the 1930s, who defied communist censors and intimidation to report about the Holdomor.
The film is scheduled to be released early next year. Another film that is already being shown and has been widely acclaimed is ‘Hunger for Truth: The Rhea Clyman Story’ about a woman Canadian journalist who also risked her life to report on the man-made tragedy ravaging Ukraine. The film, which interweaves Clyman’s 1930’s fake-smashing reporting with contemporary events, will be screened in New York this weekend.
U.S. groups took part enthusiastically in a schedule drawn up by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the World Congress of Ukrainians to hold candlelit vigils each evening in different locations around the world in the 85 days leading up to Remembrance commemorations in Kyiv, with the International Holodomor Forum on Nov 22-24.
UCCA spokesman Andrij Dobriansky said many years of advocacy and persuasion paid off in 2018 “in finally attaining a resolution passed by the United States Senate, which officially recognized the final report of the United States Government’s Commission on the Ukraine Famine, and its conclusion that the victims of the Holodomor were ‘starved to death in a man-made famine’ committed by Joseph Stalin.” The resolution clearly labels the Holodomor “genocide against Ukrainians in 1932–1933.” The House of Representatives is expected to pass a similar resolution before the end of this year.
Ukrainian communities across the U.S. lobbied their state legislatures to recognize the Holdomor as a genocide and resolutions doing so were passed by Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.
The U.S. Committee for Ukrainian Holodomor Genocide Awareness continues to lobby for more states and other local government bodies to recognize the famine and promote public information about it.
Democratic Congressman Sander Levin, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 1983, has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout that time. UCCA President Andrew Futey told the Kyiv Post that Levin would attend the commemorations in Ukraine and had been invited to address the Ukrainian Parliament. He said Sander, Representative for Detroit, Michigan, and U.S. Senator John McCain, another long-time champion of Ukraine, who died this summer, would receive awards from the World Congress of Ukrainians, taking place in Kyiv to coincide with the Holodmor Remembrance commemorations.
In September a joint effort by the Ukrainian diaspora in the U.S. and Canada funded a plaque at the Ukrainian Institute in New York to acknowledge the early, vitally important contribution to labeling the Holdomor as a genocide by prominent Jewish lawyer and thinker Raphael Lemkin.
In 1948, Lemkin’s legal definition of genocide, as a crime against humanity, was formally recognized in a United Nations convention. Five years later, in a speech before 15,000 people in New York, Lemkin lent his immense authority to Ukrainian efforts seeking recognition of the famine by unequivocally condemning it as a “classic Soviet genocide.”
On Nov. 15, Ukrainian foreign minister Pavlo Klimkin gave the keynote address at an event marking the Holodomor organized by the Ukrainian Embassy with Conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. Others who spoke at the Heritage Foundation’s DC headquarters included Ukrainian Ambassador Valeriy Chaly, Assistant secretary of State for Europe and Eurasian Affairs, Wess Mitchell, Lee Edwards from the Foundation, and a number of Congress members.
A planned candlelit vigil at the nearby Holodomor Monument was cancelled because of an unexpected snow storm. However, Klimkin was determined to pay his respects despite the cold and swirling wet snow, and accompanied by several others, went to stand in silence for a moment before the bronze monument depicting sheafs of wheat.
Klimkin was visiting Washington for two days of meetings with senior U.S. administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss many facets of America’s relationship with Ukraine including economic and military help and diplomatic cooperation.
The Ukrainian community in the U.S. has for many years, as its main event of Holodomor remembrance, held a march through New York City followed by a service at New York City’s main Roman Catholic shrine, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. This year the cathedral is expected to be packed as Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic bishops take part alongside Jewish and Muslim clergy in an ecumenical service. Those attending will include Ukrainian community leaders and American politicians as well as representatives from the diaspora across America.
This Sunday most Ukrainian Orthodox and Catholic Churches throughout the U.S. will hold special services commemorating the Holdomor. Saint Andrew Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral, in Silver Spring, Maryland, just outside the capital, will hold an ecumenical memorial service and later show the Washington D.C. premiere of a mini-documentary entitled “When We Starve” on Nov. 18.
