Readers of the January 19, 2009 e-POSHTA were linked to the latest entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (IEU), dealing with Ukrainian folk music, as a part of an ongoing process of letting readers see IEU updates as they become available. See: http://www.encyclopediaofukraine.com/display.asp?AddButton=pagesFOFolksongs.htm
Unfortunately, the now-online article (written back in 1984 for the original print encyclopedia) concludes rather abruptly with this paragraph:
"Folk songs have provided inspiration for many Ukrainian composers, such as Semen Hulak-Artemovsky, Mykola Arkas, Mykola Lysenko, Mykola Leontovych, Stanyslav Liudkevych, Kyrylo Stetsenko, Yakiv Stepovy, and Heorhii Maiboroda. The famous Russian composers Peter Tchaikovsky, M. Glinka, Modest Mussogorsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, and Serge Rachmaninoff collected, arranged, and used Ukrainian folk melodies widely in their works."
In particular, this statement gives the idea that, beyond Ukraine, only Russian composers have used Ukrainian folk melodies. It ignores the significant uses of Ukrainian music beyond the boundaries of the Russian/Soviet empires. This includes Beethoven (German), Hummel (Hungarian),Weber (German) Malcolm Arnold (British), Franz Waxman (American), George Gershwin (American, for Cossack Love Song), Quincy Porter (American, Ukrainian Suite for Strings),  Nikolai Berezowsky (American, for Christmas Fantasy Overture), Bela Bartok (Hungarian), Khachaturian (Armenian, for his famous hopak in Gayne Ballet) Arnold Bax (British), Malcolm Armold (British) etc. etc. The article does a disservice by ignoring the significant impact of Ukrainian folk song on world music. Perhaps the original article from 1984 might be excused for ignoring contributions beyond Russia, but the IEU update should have expanded, not merely copied the older article. (Indeed, the only change I found from 1984, is that the online version has determined to drop the first name of composer Mikhail Glinka, leaving first names for all other composers.)
In addition at least three Ukrainian folk songs have been totally transformed into the American and international repertoire. Most noted is of course, Carol of the Bells (Shchedryk). Also,Yikhav Kozak za Duna/i appears in Hollywood films (eg. Inspector General, Private Buckaroo) and popular jazz recordings of the 1940s by artists such as Harry James, Dick Haymes, and Spike Jones. Oy Ne Khody Hrytsiu was adapted by Jack Lawrence as Yes My Darling Daughter and has been recorded by Dinah Shore, Glenn Miller, Gene Krupa, The Andrews Sisters, and many many others.
Readers of e-POSHTA might be interested in knowing that Ukrainian folk music, notwithstanding the suggestion of the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, has indeed reached far beyond the borders of Russia.
Denis Hlynka, Ph. D.
Department of Curriculum Teaching and Learning
University of Manitoba
dhlynka@cc.umanitoba.ca
Source: e-POSHTA/e- March 9, 2009 -- Vol.10 No. 6
Saturday, February 27, 2016
The patriarch’s new clothes
Ukrainians need no one's permission to form their own churches
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a wonderful tale entitled “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Two rogues, claiming to be gifted weavers, convinced the emperor that they could weave wonderful cloth visible only to those of pure heart and spirit. A grand procession was planned for the emperor to display his new finery. But neither the emperor nor his subjects wanted to be seen as less than pure of heart. So the emperor strode naked down the boulevard while his subjects cheered and clapped. However, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.
Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently said that Ukraine is not ready for an independent church. This statement brought back memories of the Danish fairy tale. Indeed, no one wants to tell this “emperor” that -- not only does he not have any legal standing or canonical jurisdiction, i.e. “clothes” -- over the church in Ukraine, but that he is usurping the authority granted to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1591.
Patriarch Kirill, like many of his predecessors, is convinced that the Russian Orthodox Church must be an instrument of Russian national identity, and that the establishment of independent Orthodox churches within the former U.S.S.R. would weaken both the church’s and the Kremlin’s shared imperialistic ideology. In fact, while still Metropolitan of Smolensk, Kirill once stated that “the Russian Orthodox Church holds de facto first place among all other Orthodox churches…and exercises influence in all other Orthodox churches in the Balkans as well as in those countries where Orthodox faithful represent a minority. We are rightful heirs of Byzantium.”
This expansionist concept of Moscow’s pretensions to primacy and interference in the affairs of other Orthodox churches was expounded by the controversial, ultra-nationalist Metropolitan Ioann after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was to become a mechanism by which the imperialistic ideology of Russia would be maintained and rebuilt. It is based on three major principles/peculiarities: territorial, ethnic/national and pastoral. Constantinople’s Patriarch Bartholomew characterized this theory as “foolish, hubristic, and blasphemous…”
We need not concern ourselves with all three principles, because only the first is supported by Orthodox canon law and tradition and determines whether Moscow’s patriarch has any standing when commenting on Ukraine’s readiness for an independent church. The other two are universally rejected by Orthodoxy.
Starting from Kyivan Rus in 988 until 1686, the metropolis of Kyiv prospered under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the 11th century it was the metropolis of Kyiv, not Moscow (a largely unknown entity at the time), that was categorically listed on the 61st position as a separate ecclesial entity in the constitutional record of metropolis, archbishoprics and bishoprics.
Even as late as 1591, Moscow laid no claim to the Kyiv See, and accepted the territorial limitations of the Golden Seal Certificate of Constantinople which validated the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate by defining the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church as the Church of Russia and the far northern parts, but excluding the metropolis of Kyiv and Lesser Rus. This territorial limitation of the Russian Church is clear and unambiguous; and remains, to this day, the primary source of the Moscow Patriarchate’s authority and jurisdiction.
However, after the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, when much of Ukraine was joined with Russia, the Ukrainian church recognized its vulnerability to absorption by the Moscow Patriarchate. Metropolitan Kosiv of Kyiv refused to send his entourage to attend treaty ceremonies, and even threatened to fight Muscovite intruders for building fortifications near St. Sophia’s Monastery. Many Ukrainian clergymen were prepared to lock themselves in monasteries and “die rather than accept the rule of the Metropolitan from Moscow.” Thirty years later, in 1685, Moscow, with the help of hetman Ivan Samoilovych, orchestrated the fraudulent election of Bishop Gideon as head of the Kyiv See -- an investiture that was recognized as illegitimate by Ukrainian clergy. Bishop Gideon, in turn, repaid the favor by accepting subordination to Moscow.
Immediately after Bishop Gideon’s election, Moscow began pressuring Dionisius, Constantinople’s patriarch, for ratification of the transfer. At first he refused to condone Moscow’s action, but the combination of “sable furs and two hundred gold coins” from the tsar, and pressure from the Ottoman Vizier (who had also received precious Moscow gifts), caused him to cede to Moscow’s wishes.
Although Patriarch Kirill characterized this scandalous history of fraud, intimidation, and bribery as the “mysterious transformation” of the Kyiv See into the Moscow Patriarchate, he conveniently forgets that -- shortly thereafter -- the Eastern hierarchs called a Church Council and forced Dionisius to step down because of his consent to the non-canonical transfer. The Council unequivocally declared that the canonical territories of the Moscow Patriarchate include only the lands under its control since its inception -- i.e. as of 1589, less Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltic states. The Ecumenical See of Constantinople never accepted Moscow’s authority over Ukraine’s Church and still recognizes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an integral part of its jurisdiction.
There is one very important element crucial to this discussion. A fundamental Orthodox ecclesiological principle is the territorial-canonical limitation of local churches. According to canons and Holy Tradition, the boundaries of every local Church are strictly defined. It is because of this principle that the Moscow Patriarchate operates as a territorial entity and is prohibited from expansion into the territory of other Orthodox Churches through political or military interference. Thus, Moscow has no canonical jurisdiction in Ukraine and its presence must be viewed as a usurpation of its patriarchal authority of 1591.
Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful need not fear Patriarch Kirill’s displeasure, but should look to their ancestral right – centuries older than Russia’s – to regain mastery of their church. After all, when it comes down to issues of canonical authority in Ukraine, Moscow’s patriarch truly has no clothes.
Hans Christian Andersen wrote a wonderful tale entitled “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” Two rogues, claiming to be gifted weavers, convinced the emperor that they could weave wonderful cloth visible only to those of pure heart and spirit. A grand procession was planned for the emperor to display his new finery. But neither the emperor nor his subjects wanted to be seen as less than pure of heart. So the emperor strode naked down the boulevard while his subjects cheered and clapped. However, the bubble burst when an innocent child loudly exclaimed, for the whole kingdom to hear, that the emperor had nothing on at all. He had no clothes.
Patriarch Kirill, leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently said that Ukraine is not ready for an independent church. This statement brought back memories of the Danish fairy tale. Indeed, no one wants to tell this “emperor” that -- not only does he not have any legal standing or canonical jurisdiction, i.e. “clothes” -- over the church in Ukraine, but that he is usurping the authority granted to the Moscow Patriarchate in 1591.
Patriarch Kirill, like many of his predecessors, is convinced that the Russian Orthodox Church must be an instrument of Russian national identity, and that the establishment of independent Orthodox churches within the former U.S.S.R. would weaken both the church’s and the Kremlin’s shared imperialistic ideology. In fact, while still Metropolitan of Smolensk, Kirill once stated that “the Russian Orthodox Church holds de facto first place among all other Orthodox churches…and exercises influence in all other Orthodox churches in the Balkans as well as in those countries where Orthodox faithful represent a minority. We are rightful heirs of Byzantium.”
This expansionist concept of Moscow’s pretensions to primacy and interference in the affairs of other Orthodox churches was expounded by the controversial, ultra-nationalist Metropolitan Ioann after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was to become a mechanism by which the imperialistic ideology of Russia would be maintained and rebuilt. It is based on three major principles/peculiarities: territorial, ethnic/national and pastoral. Constantinople’s Patriarch Bartholomew characterized this theory as “foolish, hubristic, and blasphemous…”
We need not concern ourselves with all three principles, because only the first is supported by Orthodox canon law and tradition and determines whether Moscow’s patriarch has any standing when commenting on Ukraine’s readiness for an independent church. The other two are universally rejected by Orthodoxy.
Starting from Kyivan Rus in 988 until 1686, the metropolis of Kyiv prospered under the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In the 11th century it was the metropolis of Kyiv, not Moscow (a largely unknown entity at the time), that was categorically listed on the 61st position as a separate ecclesial entity in the constitutional record of metropolis, archbishoprics and bishoprics.
Even as late as 1591, Moscow laid no claim to the Kyiv See, and accepted the territorial limitations of the Golden Seal Certificate of Constantinople which validated the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate by defining the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church as the Church of Russia and the far northern parts, but excluding the metropolis of Kyiv and Lesser Rus. This territorial limitation of the Russian Church is clear and unambiguous; and remains, to this day, the primary source of the Moscow Patriarchate’s authority and jurisdiction.
However, after the Treaty of Pereyaslav in 1654, when much of Ukraine was joined with Russia, the Ukrainian church recognized its vulnerability to absorption by the Moscow Patriarchate. Metropolitan Kosiv of Kyiv refused to send his entourage to attend treaty ceremonies, and even threatened to fight Muscovite intruders for building fortifications near St. Sophia’s Monastery. Many Ukrainian clergymen were prepared to lock themselves in monasteries and “die rather than accept the rule of the Metropolitan from Moscow.” Thirty years later, in 1685, Moscow, with the help of hetman Ivan Samoilovych, orchestrated the fraudulent election of Bishop Gideon as head of the Kyiv See -- an investiture that was recognized as illegitimate by Ukrainian clergy. Bishop Gideon, in turn, repaid the favor by accepting subordination to Moscow.
Immediately after Bishop Gideon’s election, Moscow began pressuring Dionisius, Constantinople’s patriarch, for ratification of the transfer. At first he refused to condone Moscow’s action, but the combination of “sable furs and two hundred gold coins” from the tsar, and pressure from the Ottoman Vizier (who had also received precious Moscow gifts), caused him to cede to Moscow’s wishes.
Although Patriarch Kirill characterized this scandalous history of fraud, intimidation, and bribery as the “mysterious transformation” of the Kyiv See into the Moscow Patriarchate, he conveniently forgets that -- shortly thereafter -- the Eastern hierarchs called a Church Council and forced Dionisius to step down because of his consent to the non-canonical transfer. The Council unequivocally declared that the canonical territories of the Moscow Patriarchate include only the lands under its control since its inception -- i.e. as of 1589, less Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, and the Baltic states. The Ecumenical See of Constantinople never accepted Moscow’s authority over Ukraine’s Church and still recognizes the Ukrainian Orthodox Church as an integral part of its jurisdiction.
There is one very important element crucial to this discussion. A fundamental Orthodox ecclesiological principle is the territorial-canonical limitation of local churches. According to canons and Holy Tradition, the boundaries of every local Church are strictly defined. It is because of this principle that the Moscow Patriarchate operates as a territorial entity and is prohibited from expansion into the territory of other Orthodox Churches through political or military interference. Thus, Moscow has no canonical jurisdiction in Ukraine and its presence must be viewed as a usurpation of its patriarchal authority of 1591.
Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful need not fear Patriarch Kirill’s displeasure, but should look to their ancestral right – centuries older than Russia’s – to regain mastery of their church. After all, when it comes down to issues of canonical authority in Ukraine, Moscow’s patriarch truly has no clothes.
Author: George Woloshyn, a native of Kupnovychi, Ukraine, is an American citizen living in Linden, Virginia. He can be reached at gwol@embarqmail.com.
If you can't be happy where you are, maybe you need to move
By: Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D.
Every time I give a talk about life transition, someone invariably calls to say, "I believe happiness is inside us. If you can't be happy here, you can't be happy anywhere."
I have to resist the temptation to shout, "Aaargh!"
We all know people who never seem to be happy. They move from one town to another. Maybe they keep changing jobs. It's tempting to say something like, "People your age always have trouble when they move to a new community." Or, "Very few people enjoy their jobs -- get used to it!"
Both of those statements are true. However, some people really will be happier in New York City than in a small town in Iowa, and vice versa. Some people have managed to choose a career that clashes with their personalities, talents and needs. When they move, they're happier almost immediately.
But don't be too quick to tell yourself (or your friend), "So, move already! Stop complaining!"
If you've had several unhappy moves, identify the underlying cause. You may simply be a restless person who needs a career and lifestyle that offers variety. You may be an outgoing, lively person, in a career or town that rewards quiet, reserved communication.
At the first sign of discontent, begin some reality-testing. Ask at least six people (the Goodwin Rule of Six) how they feel. Word your questions carefully: "I love it here. What do you think?" Newcomers can find themselves labeled M for "malcontent," even when they ask the most innocent questions.
You may need only a quick fix. I've seen people blossom when they transfer to a new department or move six blocks away. But you may have identified a deeper discontent.
Once you've identified the source, find a friend you trust. Tell that friend, "If I tell you I'm tempted to move again, remind me why I was miserable here."
Most friends -- along with many professional advisors -- are reluctant to become wet blankets who smother your dreams. Yet if you're trying to avoid repeating a mistake, a large bucket of ice water may save you from drowning when you dive into your next pond.
Every time I give a talk about life transition, someone invariably calls to say, "I believe happiness is inside us. If you can't be happy here, you can't be happy anywhere."
I have to resist the temptation to shout, "Aaargh!"
We all know people who never seem to be happy. They move from one town to another. Maybe they keep changing jobs. It's tempting to say something like, "People your age always have trouble when they move to a new community." Or, "Very few people enjoy their jobs -- get used to it!"
Both of those statements are true. However, some people really will be happier in New York City than in a small town in Iowa, and vice versa. Some people have managed to choose a career that clashes with their personalities, talents and needs. When they move, they're happier almost immediately.
But don't be too quick to tell yourself (or your friend), "So, move already! Stop complaining!"
If you've had several unhappy moves, identify the underlying cause. You may simply be a restless person who needs a career and lifestyle that offers variety. You may be an outgoing, lively person, in a career or town that rewards quiet, reserved communication.
At the first sign of discontent, begin some reality-testing. Ask at least six people (the Goodwin Rule of Six) how they feel. Word your questions carefully: "I love it here. What do you think?" Newcomers can find themselves labeled M for "malcontent," even when they ask the most innocent questions.
You may need only a quick fix. I've seen people blossom when they transfer to a new department or move six blocks away. But you may have identified a deeper discontent.
Once you've identified the source, find a friend you trust. Tell that friend, "If I tell you I'm tempted to move again, remind me why I was miserable here."
Most friends -- along with many professional advisors -- are reluctant to become wet blankets who smother your dreams. Yet if you're trying to avoid repeating a mistake, a large bucket of ice water may save you from drowning when you dive into your next pond.
Cathy Goodwin, Ph.D., author of Making the Big Move, offers straightforward career and business consulting to midlife professionals. *When your career means business." Your Next Move ezine: http://www.cathygoodwin.com/subscribe.html" target="_blank">http://www.cathygoodwin.com/subscribe.html
Website: http://www.cathygoodwin.com" target="_blank">http://www.cathygoodwin.com
Website: http://www.cathygoodwin.com" target="_blank">http://www.cathygoodwin.com
Source: www.officialiwant.com
The Holodomor (Forced Great Famine)
EMBASSY OF UKRAINE IN AUSTRALIA
Suite 12:1 St George Centre
60 Marcus Clarke Street
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia 04, April 2008
MEDIA RELEASE
The 1948 UN Convention on the prevention of the crime of genocide and its punishment defines genocide as actions carried out with the aim of destroying completely or partially some national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Such actions include:
1) Killing the members of such a group;
2) Inflicting serious bodily or mental harm upon members of such a group;
3) The intentional creation for the members of such a group of living conditions which are meant to result in its complete or partial annihilation;
4) Actions intended to prevent childbirth within such a group;
5) The forced transfer of children from one human group to another.
Seventy-five years ago, in 1932-1933, the people of Ukraine -- a country whose territory incorporates 30% of the world's most fertile black soils -- became the victims of a terrible, inhuman crime: the Holodomor (forced Great Famine), which was artificially orchestrated and organized by the totalitarian communist regime of the then USSR. When researchers refer to the Holodomor, they mean the period from April 1932 till November 1933. It was within these 17 months or about 500 days that between 7 and 10 million people perished in Ukraine almost half of which were children.
The Holodomor peaked in the spring of 1933. At that time in Ukraine 17 persons were dying every minute, 1000 every hour and almost 25,000 every day.
The Kharkiv and the Kyiv Regions (today -- Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv and Zhytomyr Regions) suffered most. They account for 52.8% of the death toll. The death rate in these regions exceeded the average level by 8-9 and more percent. The hunger stretched through the entire Center, South, North and East of contemporary Ukraine. In place of Ukrainians claimed by the Holodomor, members of other ethnic groups were actively transferred by the Soviets into Ukraine from other parts of the USSR.
It is impossible to explain, moreover to justify, how so many people could die of hunger in the 20th century in Ukraine -- "bread basket of Europe", a country with strong agricultural traditions where hunger was never registered throughout all of its millennium-long history. Nature itself defies hunger on this soil.
The existing historical data and the one being declassified today by the Ukrainian Security Service from the times of the Soviet KGB/NKVD (Soviet secret police) clearly testify that the Holodomor was precisely directed by the totalitarian communist regime of the then USSR against the Ukrainian nation. This criminal act was executed in two ways: by the confiscation of foodstuffs under the cover of carrying out of the grain procurement plan or by the forced police isolation of villages and regions. Such measures were not taken anywhere else in the then USSR. It was then that the notion of "ghetto" had appeared -- long before Hitler, Stalin had introduced the hunger ghettoes in Ukraine and in Kuban, the neighboring district of Russia which at that time was inhabited mainly by Ukrainians. Simultaneously with the Holodomor, when millions were dying in Ukraine, the Soviets ware engaged in selling abroad large quantities of grain and other agricultural products and foodstuffs -- mainly via Ukrainian sea ports. Plentiful proof of this practice is publicly available in the form of trade and other and government statistics. Also at that time, Ukrainian alcohol producing factories were busily using grain to make vodka for export.
The annihilation of religion, private ownership and of ethnic communities constituted the foundation of the theory of Marxist Communism. Hitler, who in the 1920s sympathized with the communists and was supported by the Soviet Bolsheviks, introduced in reality only one of the three postulates of Marxist communism: racial and ethnic genocide. Stalin went much further ahead than Hitler. His genocide of the Ukrainian nation had a total, absolute character and unified three kinds of genocide: religious and cultural; economic; and racial and ethnic. It is vitally important to understand this for the determination of the Ukrainian Holodomor as one of the most heinous crimes against humanity of the 20th century.
The Bolsheviks, after seizing power in the October coup of 1917, destroyed large-scale private land ownership of land in practically no time. But the peasants' ownership of land and the numerous ethnic communities living in the Russian Empire prevented them from proceeding immediately to the further implementation of Marxist teachings. The Ukrainian ethnic community was the most numerous and the strongest among them and the one most committed to private land ownership into the bargain. Ukrainians appeared to be the obstacle in the way of social restructuring on the basis of the totalitarian communist ideology. Ukraine was the biggest single ethnic part of the Soviet empire and, thus, the most dangerous one for it. It had become evident at the beginning of the 20th century that the Russian tsarist policy of assimilation was a disaster. The Ukrainian population was rapidly growing. Ukrainian peasants bore clear signs of a Ukrainian ethnic identity, the Ukrainian language in the first instance. These signs began to acquire concrete political character. It became especially evident in the course of the national liberation campaign of 1917-1923 in Ukraine when Ukraine made attempt to separate from the Russian Empire falling apart following the examples of Poland and Finland. At that time, according to Trotsky's account, Ukrainian insurgents, devoid of an elite, elementary organization and communication logistics, held down three times as many Bolshevik forces as the Entente's entire intervention force. The war with the Bolsheviks continued in Ukraine much longer than in any other part of the USSR. It stopped only after Lenin took account of the danger of uprisings in conditions where there was a threat of outside intervention, and sanctioned the introduction in Ukraine of the NEP (New Economic Policy) and Ukrainization.
Stalin had started the Ukrainian Holodomor, by annihilating the national intellectual elite. Out of more than 500 of the most talented Ukrainian poets, thinkers, scientists and writers only 36 were left alive. Entire villages mainly populated by Ukrainians, were forcefully moved from the Kuban region to Siberia. The removal of the Poltavskaya village, as well as others, was the first case of the application of the genocidal practice of mass people resettlement in the USSR.
The Bolsheviks did not finish their business and annihilate Ukrainians completely because without its population Ukraine, as "the bread basket" and industrial center, would have lost its economic value for the Soviet government. The complete annihilation of Ukrainians could not also have been guaranteed as Moscow at that time did not control almost one quarter of the Ukrainian population which lived in Western Ukraine, beyond the borders of the USSR (linked to USSR in 1939). That is why it was much more effective for the Kremlin to break Ukraine's backbone than to annihilate all Ukrainians physically.
However, even after the Holodomor, the Ukrainian "threat" to the Soviet communist empire was permanently before the eyes of its leaders. This fact might explain Georgiy Zhukov's infamous 1944 decree -- fortunately, never implemented -- on the resettlement of all Ukrainians to Siberia.
It is true that in Soviet Ukraine the Holodomor was inflicted not only on ethnic Ukrainians but on representatives of other minority ethnic groups historically living in Ukraine -- Azov Greeks, Germans, Moldavians, Russians and Jews. Though, certainly, the prevailing majority of the inflicted people were the representatives of the title nation-Ukrainians.
The fact is that the period of Ukrainian People's Republic and the following brief period of Ukrainization that Lenin unwillingly sanctioned in the 1920s and at the beginning of the 1930s had substantially changed the world outlook of a considerable part of ethnic non-Ukrainians in Ukraine, especially young people, many of whom began to identify Ukraine as their motherland and to speak the Ukrainian language.
In other words, potentially all the youth of Soviet Ukraine was infected with "bourgeois-nationalist" sentiment, especially the peasants and the intellectual elite. The decree of 14 December 1932 "On grain procurement in Ukraine, the Northern Caucasus and the Western Region," issued by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) and the Council of the People's Commissars of the USSR, gave an unambiguous order to stop the "incorrectly conducted" policy of Ukrainization in Ukraine. Hence, the Holodomor was directed against the entire population of Ukraine, as well as against ethnic Ukrainians outside Soviet Ukraine (in the Kuban region of Russia).
Today some of the "die hard communist totalitarian imperialistic hawks" try to whitewash the Soviet totalitarian history, to present the inhuman dictator "uncle Joe" Stalin as a white pigeon, benefactor, father of the nations colonized by the Russian Empire, almost the "Messiah of the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth". But historical proof is unbeatable - the Holodomor was caused not by "good intentions", neither by drought, nor by “miscalculations” in the economic policies of the Soviet authorities, nor by the drive for speedy industrialization of the USSR.
The Ukrainian Holocaust was a carefully designed, systematic communist-fascist genocide. It was directed first of all at the destruction of the Ukrainian mentality, identity, culture, and the Ukrainian ethnic community as a whole. The Holodomor’s main motive was the policy of the totalitarian Stalinist regime aimed at the subjugation of the Ukrainian nation which was striving for its own statehood.
The truth is evident in the fact that in 1932-1933, of the entire USSR, it was only in Ukraine and in the areas inhabited by Ukrainians in Kuban region of Russia that the authorities were undertaking the police operations: the territories where the Holodomor was being organized were surrounded by military screens; people were not allowed to pass through them to save themselves from death by hunger. Entire regions of Ukraine as well as the border of Ukrainian SSR itself were sealed off. Military detachments prevented people from going to other regions of the USSR and from villages and towns -- to the big Ukrainian cities. There is plentiful archival evidence of this, as well as the evidences of the eyewitnesses. Nothing similar happened in the Povolzhi’e region of Russia, nor in any other region of the USSR. That is why the hunger embraced the entire territory of Ukraine within the USSR, but did not touch the neighboring regions of Belarus and Russia. It was in respect of the population of Ukraine that a Communist Party and government Decree was adopted which introduced the requisitioning not only of food or seed grain from the peasants, but of all foodstuffs without difference. Again, nothing like that happened in any other regions of the USSR. The grain procurement process in the Povolzhi’e region and other territories of the USSR, where the lack of foodstuffs was also felt, was different in principle. Troops were not used to isolate the hunger-struck areas.
The organization of international assistance to the "hunger-struck victims of Povolzhi'e" is widely known. Besides, the Povolzhi'e hunger and the postwar hunger in Ukraine of late forties were always acknowledged by the USSR, whereas decades after the Holodomor anyone who mentioned the word "hunger" in connection with the years 1932-1933 in Ukraine was sure to be imprisoned. And this was in a situation where the Holodomor was remembered by the entire adult population of Ukraine.
What are the consequences of the Holodomor for Ukraine? The Holodomor was the largest Russian Empire - USSR genocide throughout its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, the rate of population growth in Ukraine was compared with that of China. Today, after a series of demographic catastrophes of the 20th century (hunger of the 1920s and at the end of the late 1940s, the Holodomor of the 1930s, human losses -- the greatest in the USSR -- numbering many millions during the Second World War), Ukraine has one of the world's highest rates of population decrease. The USSR's second population census was completed in 1939, but its figures were never published. Evidently, the picture appearing behind the figures was too terrifying. The next census was conducted in the USSR only in 1959. From 1926, that is within 33 years, the number of Ukrainians had increased by only 1,5 millions, while the number of Russians had increased within the same period by 56,9%. This is taking into account the fact that after the Second World War Ukraine acquired a significant influx of Ukrainian population as the result of incorporating into its territory of the Western Ukrainian lands (Volyn, Eastern Halychyna, Transcarpathia and Northern Bukovyna) with about six million people.
There is no doubt that between the censuses of 1926 and 1959 there was a nationwide catastrophe in Ukraine. The correlation of the USSR population between 1926 and 1937 (without taking the Ukrainians and the Kazakhs into the account) constituted 119.4%. This figure among the inhabitants of Ukraine was 84.7%, that is, in 1937 there turned out to be 70.9% of inhabitants of Ukraine as against the expected quantity.
Such demographic abysses also influence the size of the next generation. The demographic situation in Western Ukraine, which also suffered much from Bolshevik deportations, KGB repressions and resettlements but was not touched by the Holodomor, is significantly better now than in the remaining territory of Ukraine. We must understand this and remember.
This is the truth confirmed by thousands of facts. This is why the Holodomor should without any doubt be qualified as the genocide that it is -- the mass annihilation of the people on the basis of their ethnic origin. The Great Famine/Holodomor, organized in Ukraine by the Soviet communist regime, stands alongside the fascist gas chambers in both scale and essence. The Holodomor falls squarely for its definition within the terms of its UN Convention for Prevention of the Crime of Genocide and Punishment. Significantly, that was also the opinion of Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who conceived the Genocide Convention. That is why the legislative bodies of increasing number of countries of the world are recognizing the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian nation. The aim of initiating international acknowledgement of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide is the condemnation of the crimes of the totalitarian Stalinist Communist regime, the restoration of historical justice, and the payment of due tribute to millions of innocent victims.
The call for the international recognition of Holodomor is not directed against Russia. We are deeply sorry for the numerous innocent Russian victims of the Soviet totalitarian system. We are not trying to declassify the earlier virtually unknown truth about the Soviet communist crimes in Ukraine (or elsewhere in the post-Soviet space) out of a desire for revenge or to make a partisan political point. We know that the Russian people were also among Stalin's "experimentation" foremost victims. Apportioning blame to their living descendents is the last thing on our minds. Our only wish is for this crime to be understood for what it truly was. We call on all the world public for solidarity to support Ukraine in this undertaking which is cardinally important for the entire humankind civilization.
By initiating recognition of the Holodomor, Ukraine is drawing attention to the fact that even today hunger is being used as a weapon against people and is thus striving to prevent this shameful phenomenon from spreading further in the world. On this basis, on 14 May 2003 the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation. On 28 November 2006 it passed the corresponding law "On Recognition of Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine." The President of Ukraine has initiated the introduction of criminal responsibility for Holodomor and Holocaust denial in Ukraine. On 1 November 2007 the 34th General Conference of UNESCO session, which incorporates 193 countries of the world, unanimously adopted the Resolution on "Remembrance of Victims of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine".
Ukraine will also pursue the goal of the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians by the world community of nations, as well as of condemnation of these actions by the totalitarian Soviet Communist regime at the 63rd UN General Assembly Session. Such actions will serve as a safety precaution against any speculation on tragic events in history.
Ukraine is grateful to the Australians, Parliamentarians and the Government of this country for paying the remembrance tribute to millions of Ukrainians who perished in the Holodomor. Just recently (22.02.2008) the Motion, introduced by the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Mr. Laurie Ferguson and fully supported by the opposition was considered in the House of Representatives on recognition of Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians and supporting the possible Ukrainian Draft Resolution of the subject at the UN GA session. The Victorian Parliament Upper House on 27.02.2008 debated and accepted the same kind of Motion (Motion moved by the Victorian Shadow Planning Minister, Mr. Matthew Guy, MP). Ukraine is profoundly grateful and acknowledges the significance of the similar 2003 motion moved by Senator Bill Heffernan in the Australian Senate.
A decision in favor of the world condemnation of the Great Famine, the Holodomor, as a genocide is historically, politically and psychologically important for Ukrainians themselves. This is the turning point which corrects falsified history, releases the people from the fear and inferiority complexes "inoculated" into them by Stalinism and reminds them of the terrible and tragic pages of their past. It teaches the importance of preserving one's dignity and remaining independent and responsible for one's own country.
Unless we learn our lessons from history -- we shall be doomed to repeat its bad pages! So we must not forget! By acknowledging what had occurred, hopefully, we shall never allow it to happen again anywhere.
Ukraine remembers -- the world acknowledges!
Canberra, Australia
For reference:
Representatives of the most numerous nations in the territory of the USSR according to the 1926, 1937 censuses.
This article first appeared Apr 20, 2008 in http://articlesandblogs.ezreklama.com
Suite 12:1 St George Centre
60 Marcus Clarke Street
Canberra ACT 2601 Australia 04, April 2008
MEDIA RELEASE
The 1948 UN Convention on the prevention of the crime of genocide and its punishment defines genocide as actions carried out with the aim of destroying completely or partially some national, ethnic, racial or religious group. Such actions include:
1) Killing the members of such a group;
2) Inflicting serious bodily or mental harm upon members of such a group;
3) The intentional creation for the members of such a group of living conditions which are meant to result in its complete or partial annihilation;
4) Actions intended to prevent childbirth within such a group;
5) The forced transfer of children from one human group to another.
Seventy-five years ago, in 1932-1933, the people of Ukraine -- a country whose territory incorporates 30% of the world's most fertile black soils -- became the victims of a terrible, inhuman crime: the Holodomor (forced Great Famine), which was artificially orchestrated and organized by the totalitarian communist regime of the then USSR. When researchers refer to the Holodomor, they mean the period from April 1932 till November 1933. It was within these 17 months or about 500 days that between 7 and 10 million people perished in Ukraine almost half of which were children.
The Holodomor peaked in the spring of 1933. At that time in Ukraine 17 persons were dying every minute, 1000 every hour and almost 25,000 every day.
The Kharkiv and the Kyiv Regions (today -- Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv and Zhytomyr Regions) suffered most. They account for 52.8% of the death toll. The death rate in these regions exceeded the average level by 8-9 and more percent. The hunger stretched through the entire Center, South, North and East of contemporary Ukraine. In place of Ukrainians claimed by the Holodomor, members of other ethnic groups were actively transferred by the Soviets into Ukraine from other parts of the USSR.
It is impossible to explain, moreover to justify, how so many people could die of hunger in the 20th century in Ukraine -- "bread basket of Europe", a country with strong agricultural traditions where hunger was never registered throughout all of its millennium-long history. Nature itself defies hunger on this soil.
The existing historical data and the one being declassified today by the Ukrainian Security Service from the times of the Soviet KGB/NKVD (Soviet secret police) clearly testify that the Holodomor was precisely directed by the totalitarian communist regime of the then USSR against the Ukrainian nation. This criminal act was executed in two ways: by the confiscation of foodstuffs under the cover of carrying out of the grain procurement plan or by the forced police isolation of villages and regions. Such measures were not taken anywhere else in the then USSR. It was then that the notion of "ghetto" had appeared -- long before Hitler, Stalin had introduced the hunger ghettoes in Ukraine and in Kuban, the neighboring district of Russia which at that time was inhabited mainly by Ukrainians. Simultaneously with the Holodomor, when millions were dying in Ukraine, the Soviets ware engaged in selling abroad large quantities of grain and other agricultural products and foodstuffs -- mainly via Ukrainian sea ports. Plentiful proof of this practice is publicly available in the form of trade and other and government statistics. Also at that time, Ukrainian alcohol producing factories were busily using grain to make vodka for export.
The annihilation of religion, private ownership and of ethnic communities constituted the foundation of the theory of Marxist Communism. Hitler, who in the 1920s sympathized with the communists and was supported by the Soviet Bolsheviks, introduced in reality only one of the three postulates of Marxist communism: racial and ethnic genocide. Stalin went much further ahead than Hitler. His genocide of the Ukrainian nation had a total, absolute character and unified three kinds of genocide: religious and cultural; economic; and racial and ethnic. It is vitally important to understand this for the determination of the Ukrainian Holodomor as one of the most heinous crimes against humanity of the 20th century.
The Bolsheviks, after seizing power in the October coup of 1917, destroyed large-scale private land ownership of land in practically no time. But the peasants' ownership of land and the numerous ethnic communities living in the Russian Empire prevented them from proceeding immediately to the further implementation of Marxist teachings. The Ukrainian ethnic community was the most numerous and the strongest among them and the one most committed to private land ownership into the bargain. Ukrainians appeared to be the obstacle in the way of social restructuring on the basis of the totalitarian communist ideology. Ukraine was the biggest single ethnic part of the Soviet empire and, thus, the most dangerous one for it. It had become evident at the beginning of the 20th century that the Russian tsarist policy of assimilation was a disaster. The Ukrainian population was rapidly growing. Ukrainian peasants bore clear signs of a Ukrainian ethnic identity, the Ukrainian language in the first instance. These signs began to acquire concrete political character. It became especially evident in the course of the national liberation campaign of 1917-1923 in Ukraine when Ukraine made attempt to separate from the Russian Empire falling apart following the examples of Poland and Finland. At that time, according to Trotsky's account, Ukrainian insurgents, devoid of an elite, elementary organization and communication logistics, held down three times as many Bolshevik forces as the Entente's entire intervention force. The war with the Bolsheviks continued in Ukraine much longer than in any other part of the USSR. It stopped only after Lenin took account of the danger of uprisings in conditions where there was a threat of outside intervention, and sanctioned the introduction in Ukraine of the NEP (New Economic Policy) and Ukrainization.
Stalin had started the Ukrainian Holodomor, by annihilating the national intellectual elite. Out of more than 500 of the most talented Ukrainian poets, thinkers, scientists and writers only 36 were left alive. Entire villages mainly populated by Ukrainians, were forcefully moved from the Kuban region to Siberia. The removal of the Poltavskaya village, as well as others, was the first case of the application of the genocidal practice of mass people resettlement in the USSR.
The Bolsheviks did not finish their business and annihilate Ukrainians completely because without its population Ukraine, as "the bread basket" and industrial center, would have lost its economic value for the Soviet government. The complete annihilation of Ukrainians could not also have been guaranteed as Moscow at that time did not control almost one quarter of the Ukrainian population which lived in Western Ukraine, beyond the borders of the USSR (linked to USSR in 1939). That is why it was much more effective for the Kremlin to break Ukraine's backbone than to annihilate all Ukrainians physically.
However, even after the Holodomor, the Ukrainian "threat" to the Soviet communist empire was permanently before the eyes of its leaders. This fact might explain Georgiy Zhukov's infamous 1944 decree -- fortunately, never implemented -- on the resettlement of all Ukrainians to Siberia.
It is true that in Soviet Ukraine the Holodomor was inflicted not only on ethnic Ukrainians but on representatives of other minority ethnic groups historically living in Ukraine -- Azov Greeks, Germans, Moldavians, Russians and Jews. Though, certainly, the prevailing majority of the inflicted people were the representatives of the title nation-Ukrainians.
The fact is that the period of Ukrainian People's Republic and the following brief period of Ukrainization that Lenin unwillingly sanctioned in the 1920s and at the beginning of the 1930s had substantially changed the world outlook of a considerable part of ethnic non-Ukrainians in Ukraine, especially young people, many of whom began to identify Ukraine as their motherland and to speak the Ukrainian language.
In other words, potentially all the youth of Soviet Ukraine was infected with "bourgeois-nationalist" sentiment, especially the peasants and the intellectual elite. The decree of 14 December 1932 "On grain procurement in Ukraine, the Northern Caucasus and the Western Region," issued by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) and the Council of the People's Commissars of the USSR, gave an unambiguous order to stop the "incorrectly conducted" policy of Ukrainization in Ukraine. Hence, the Holodomor was directed against the entire population of Ukraine, as well as against ethnic Ukrainians outside Soviet Ukraine (in the Kuban region of Russia).
Today some of the "die hard communist totalitarian imperialistic hawks" try to whitewash the Soviet totalitarian history, to present the inhuman dictator "uncle Joe" Stalin as a white pigeon, benefactor, father of the nations colonized by the Russian Empire, almost the "Messiah of the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth". But historical proof is unbeatable - the Holodomor was caused not by "good intentions", neither by drought, nor by “miscalculations” in the economic policies of the Soviet authorities, nor by the drive for speedy industrialization of the USSR.
The Ukrainian Holocaust was a carefully designed, systematic communist-fascist genocide. It was directed first of all at the destruction of the Ukrainian mentality, identity, culture, and the Ukrainian ethnic community as a whole. The Holodomor’s main motive was the policy of the totalitarian Stalinist regime aimed at the subjugation of the Ukrainian nation which was striving for its own statehood.
The truth is evident in the fact that in 1932-1933, of the entire USSR, it was only in Ukraine and in the areas inhabited by Ukrainians in Kuban region of Russia that the authorities were undertaking the police operations: the territories where the Holodomor was being organized were surrounded by military screens; people were not allowed to pass through them to save themselves from death by hunger. Entire regions of Ukraine as well as the border of Ukrainian SSR itself were sealed off. Military detachments prevented people from going to other regions of the USSR and from villages and towns -- to the big Ukrainian cities. There is plentiful archival evidence of this, as well as the evidences of the eyewitnesses. Nothing similar happened in the Povolzhi’e region of Russia, nor in any other region of the USSR. That is why the hunger embraced the entire territory of Ukraine within the USSR, but did not touch the neighboring regions of Belarus and Russia. It was in respect of the population of Ukraine that a Communist Party and government Decree was adopted which introduced the requisitioning not only of food or seed grain from the peasants, but of all foodstuffs without difference. Again, nothing like that happened in any other regions of the USSR. The grain procurement process in the Povolzhi’e region and other territories of the USSR, where the lack of foodstuffs was also felt, was different in principle. Troops were not used to isolate the hunger-struck areas.
The organization of international assistance to the "hunger-struck victims of Povolzhi'e" is widely known. Besides, the Povolzhi'e hunger and the postwar hunger in Ukraine of late forties were always acknowledged by the USSR, whereas decades after the Holodomor anyone who mentioned the word "hunger" in connection with the years 1932-1933 in Ukraine was sure to be imprisoned. And this was in a situation where the Holodomor was remembered by the entire adult population of Ukraine.
What are the consequences of the Holodomor for Ukraine? The Holodomor was the largest Russian Empire - USSR genocide throughout its entire history. At the beginning of the 20th century, the rate of population growth in Ukraine was compared with that of China. Today, after a series of demographic catastrophes of the 20th century (hunger of the 1920s and at the end of the late 1940s, the Holodomor of the 1930s, human losses -- the greatest in the USSR -- numbering many millions during the Second World War), Ukraine has one of the world's highest rates of population decrease. The USSR's second population census was completed in 1939, but its figures were never published. Evidently, the picture appearing behind the figures was too terrifying. The next census was conducted in the USSR only in 1959. From 1926, that is within 33 years, the number of Ukrainians had increased by only 1,5 millions, while the number of Russians had increased within the same period by 56,9%. This is taking into account the fact that after the Second World War Ukraine acquired a significant influx of Ukrainian population as the result of incorporating into its territory of the Western Ukrainian lands (Volyn, Eastern Halychyna, Transcarpathia and Northern Bukovyna) with about six million people.
There is no doubt that between the censuses of 1926 and 1959 there was a nationwide catastrophe in Ukraine. The correlation of the USSR population between 1926 and 1937 (without taking the Ukrainians and the Kazakhs into the account) constituted 119.4%. This figure among the inhabitants of Ukraine was 84.7%, that is, in 1937 there turned out to be 70.9% of inhabitants of Ukraine as against the expected quantity.
Such demographic abysses also influence the size of the next generation. The demographic situation in Western Ukraine, which also suffered much from Bolshevik deportations, KGB repressions and resettlements but was not touched by the Holodomor, is significantly better now than in the remaining territory of Ukraine. We must understand this and remember.
This is the truth confirmed by thousands of facts. This is why the Holodomor should without any doubt be qualified as the genocide that it is -- the mass annihilation of the people on the basis of their ethnic origin. The Great Famine/Holodomor, organized in Ukraine by the Soviet communist regime, stands alongside the fascist gas chambers in both scale and essence. The Holodomor falls squarely for its definition within the terms of its UN Convention for Prevention of the Crime of Genocide and Punishment. Significantly, that was also the opinion of Raphael Lemkin, the legal scholar who conceived the Genocide Convention. That is why the legislative bodies of increasing number of countries of the world are recognizing the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian nation. The aim of initiating international acknowledgement of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as a genocide is the condemnation of the crimes of the totalitarian Stalinist Communist regime, the restoration of historical justice, and the payment of due tribute to millions of innocent victims.
The call for the international recognition of Holodomor is not directed against Russia. We are deeply sorry for the numerous innocent Russian victims of the Soviet totalitarian system. We are not trying to declassify the earlier virtually unknown truth about the Soviet communist crimes in Ukraine (or elsewhere in the post-Soviet space) out of a desire for revenge or to make a partisan political point. We know that the Russian people were also among Stalin's "experimentation" foremost victims. Apportioning blame to their living descendents is the last thing on our minds. Our only wish is for this crime to be understood for what it truly was. We call on all the world public for solidarity to support Ukraine in this undertaking which is cardinally important for the entire humankind civilization.
By initiating recognition of the Holodomor, Ukraine is drawing attention to the fact that even today hunger is being used as a weapon against people and is thus striving to prevent this shameful phenomenon from spreading further in the world. On this basis, on 14 May 2003 the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) of Ukraine recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation. On 28 November 2006 it passed the corresponding law "On Recognition of Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine." The President of Ukraine has initiated the introduction of criminal responsibility for Holodomor and Holocaust denial in Ukraine. On 1 November 2007 the 34th General Conference of UNESCO session, which incorporates 193 countries of the world, unanimously adopted the Resolution on "Remembrance of Victims of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine".
Ukraine will also pursue the goal of the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians by the world community of nations, as well as of condemnation of these actions by the totalitarian Soviet Communist regime at the 63rd UN General Assembly Session. Such actions will serve as a safety precaution against any speculation on tragic events in history.
Ukraine is grateful to the Australians, Parliamentarians and the Government of this country for paying the remembrance tribute to millions of Ukrainians who perished in the Holodomor. Just recently (22.02.2008) the Motion, introduced by the Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs Mr. Laurie Ferguson and fully supported by the opposition was considered in the House of Representatives on recognition of Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians and supporting the possible Ukrainian Draft Resolution of the subject at the UN GA session. The Victorian Parliament Upper House on 27.02.2008 debated and accepted the same kind of Motion (Motion moved by the Victorian Shadow Planning Minister, Mr. Matthew Guy, MP). Ukraine is profoundly grateful and acknowledges the significance of the similar 2003 motion moved by Senator Bill Heffernan in the Australian Senate.
A decision in favor of the world condemnation of the Great Famine, the Holodomor, as a genocide is historically, politically and psychologically important for Ukrainians themselves. This is the turning point which corrects falsified history, releases the people from the fear and inferiority complexes "inoculated" into them by Stalinism and reminds them of the terrible and tragic pages of their past. It teaches the importance of preserving one's dignity and remaining independent and responsible for one's own country.
Unless we learn our lessons from history -- we shall be doomed to repeat its bad pages! So we must not forget! By acknowledging what had occurred, hopefully, we shall never allow it to happen again anywhere.
Ukraine remembers -- the world acknowledges!
Canberra, Australia
For reference:
Representatives of the most numerous nations in the territory of the USSR according to the 1926, 1937 censuses.
Nationality
|
1926
|
1937
|
1937 in % as compared to 1926
|
Russians
|
77 791 124
|
93 933 065
|
120.7 %
|
Ukrainians
|
31 194 976
|
26 421 212
|
84.7 %
|
Belarusians
|
4 738 923
|
4 874 061
|
102.9 %
|
Uzbeks
|
3 955 238
|
4 550 532
|
115.0 %
|
Tatars
|
3 029 995
|
3 793 413
|
125.0 %
|
Kazakhs
|
3 968 289
|
2 862 458
|
72.0 %
|
Jews
|
2 672 499
|
2 715 106
|
101.6 %
|
Azerbaijanians
|
1 706 605
|
2 134 648
|
125.1 %
|
Georgians
|
1 821 184
|
2 097 069
|
115.1 %
|
Armenians
|
1 568 197
|
1 968 721
|
125.5 %
|
This article first appeared Apr 20, 2008 in http://articlesandblogs.ezreklama.com
Monday, February 15, 2016
1960s Shevchenkiana and Shevchenko Ephemera Photo Gallery
Blogpost by Ihor Cap, Ph.D.
The year 1961 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ukraine’s best known poet, artist, and thinker, Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814-1861). The centenary of his death was marked in 1964. These dates were commemorated in both Soviet Ukraine as well as the Diaspora. As such, the early 1960s was a period that witnessed many publications and translations of Shevchenko's artistic oeuvre, including prints, commemorative stamps and envelopes, embroidery, and collectible ephemera, as well as a sharp rise in arts and crafts depicting the Great Bard in wood, stone and clay. Even monuments were erected to the great Ukrainian poet and humanist in the various capitals of the free world wherever Ukrainians immigrated in large numbers. The Photo Gallery below depicts several of these artifacts.
Created with the HTML Table Generator
Photo Credits below:
All Photos taken by the author except where indicated.
Washington DC Photo by Carol M. Highsmith from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_Memorial_in_Dupont_Circle.jpg Curitiba Brazil Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Taras_Shevchenko#/media/File:Taras_Shevtchenko.JPG Moscow, Russia Photo from Photo from: www.dorogomilovo.ru
Buenos-Aires, Argentina Photo by Alan Grant, http://www.pbase.com
Rome, Italy Photo by Taras Strypko, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_monument_in_Rome.JPG
Encarnación, Paraguay Photo by Pablo D. Flores from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_Encarnaci%C3%B3n.jpg
Warsaw, Poland Photo by Grzegorz Bociański from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pomnik_T._Szewczenki_Warszawa_2.JPG
Row 6 Cell 3: 1960s Dnipropetrovsk Soviet Ukraine Taras Shevchenko Vintage Table Perpetual Calendar photo by ebay yug33rpm
Row 7 Cell 3: 1964 Ukrainian Diaspora Taras Shevchenko Metal Statue Souvenir Washington DC ebay photo by flea4all
Row 8 Cell 3: 1961 Soviet Ukrainian Publication The Artist Taras Shevchenko ebay photo by alexeydnepr83
Row 9 Cell 3 1961 (top left and right), 1963 (bottom left) and 1964 (bottom right) Postcard Series Taras_Shevchenko Covers during Soviet Union photo by filpersonaru Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko Prints from Personal Collection.
Column 2 Row 1. 1961, Painter I. N..Kramskoi, Published by Ministry of Culture Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kyiv, Editor K. Ivashynina.22,000 copies. Clear image obtained from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_-_portrait_by_Ivan_Kramskoi.jpg. There is a smaller sized print copy published by the same Ministry in 1960 with 30,000 copies printed.
Column 2 Row 2 1958 Painter L. Koshtelianchuk, Published by Ministry of Culture Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kyiv. 35,000 copies printed. A. Kozhukhov Editor.
Column 2 Row 3 1961. Painter M. Bozhiy. (25,000 copies). "Думи мої, думи мої" (Thoughts of mine"). Editor K. Ivashynina, State Publisher of Art Works Music Literature, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Ihor Cap is a Slavic Studies graduate from the University of Ottawa and a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Canada.
The year 1961 marked the 150th anniversary of the birth of Ukraine’s best known poet, artist, and thinker, Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko (1814-1861). The centenary of his death was marked in 1964. These dates were commemorated in both Soviet Ukraine as well as the Diaspora. As such, the early 1960s was a period that witnessed many publications and translations of Shevchenko's artistic oeuvre, including prints, commemorative stamps and envelopes, embroidery, and collectible ephemera, as well as a sharp rise in arts and crafts depicting the Great Bard in wood, stone and clay. Even monuments were erected to the great Ukrainian poet and humanist in the various capitals of the free world wherever Ukrainians immigrated in large numbers. The Photo Gallery below depicts several of these artifacts.
| Column 1 Monuments | Column 2 Prints, Books, Statue, Stamps | Column 3 More Collectibles |
|---|---|---|
Winnipeg, Canada July 9, 1961
| 
1961 Kyiv, Ukrainian S.S.R.
Painter I. N..Kramskoi |  |
Washington DC., USA August 31, 1960
| 
1958, Kyiv, Ukrainian S.S.R.
Painter L. Koshtelianchuk | 
1961 USSR Taras Shevchenko medal commemorating 100 years since his death
|
Curitiba, Brazil, 1967
| 
1961, Kyiv, Ukrainian S.S.R.
Painter M. Bozhiy "Думи мої, думи.../Thoughts of mine") | 
1961 taras shevchenko diaspora centenary pins/buttons
|
Moscow, Russia June 10, 1964
| 
1961. Kyiv, Little Kobzar.
Selected Poems for Children,
State Publisher of Children's
Literature, Ukr. S.S.R. | 
1960s Taras Shevchenko Soviet Ukraine wooden pin and steel pin
|
Buenos-Aires, Argentina December 5, 1971
| 
1961 T.H. Shevchenko. Testament.
In The Languages Of The World.
Academy of Ukr.SSR Sciences
Publishers
| 
1960s taras shevchenko soviet Ukraine wooden plaques
|
Rome, Italy, 1973
| 
Kobzar.
| 
1960s Dnipropetrovsk Soviet Ukraine Taras Shevchenko Vintage Table Perpetual Calendar
|
Encarnación, Paraguay 1970s
| 
1962. New York. Taras Shevchenko.
Malyj Kobzar. Selected Works for
children with images. Howerla Publishers
| 
1964 Ukrainian Diaspora Taras Shevchenko Metal Statue Souvenir Washington D.C.
|
Warsaw, Poland March 2002
| 
1960s.Taras Shevchenko Statue.
8x11x12 inches. Soviet Ukraine.
| 
1961 Soviet Ukrainian Publication
"The Artist" Taras Shevchenko
|
Ottawa, Canada June 26,2011
|  | 
1961 1963 and 1964 Postcard Series Taras_Shevchenko Covers during Soviet Union
|
Photo Credits below:
All Photos taken by the author except where indicated.
Washington DC Photo by Carol M. Highsmith from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_Memorial_in_Dupont_Circle.jpg Curitiba Brazil Photo from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_of_Taras_Shevchenko#/media/File:Taras_Shevtchenko.JPG Moscow, Russia Photo from Photo from: www.dorogomilovo.ru
Buenos-Aires, Argentina Photo by Alan Grant, http://www.pbase.com
Rome, Italy Photo by Taras Strypko, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_monument_in_Rome.JPG
Encarnación, Paraguay Photo by Pablo D. Flores from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_Encarnaci%C3%B3n.jpg
Warsaw, Poland Photo by Grzegorz Bociański from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pomnik_T._Szewczenki_Warszawa_2.JPG
Row 6 Cell 3: 1960s Dnipropetrovsk Soviet Ukraine Taras Shevchenko Vintage Table Perpetual Calendar photo by ebay yug33rpm
Row 7 Cell 3: 1964 Ukrainian Diaspora Taras Shevchenko Metal Statue Souvenir Washington DC ebay photo by flea4all
Row 8 Cell 3: 1961 Soviet Ukrainian Publication The Artist Taras Shevchenko ebay photo by alexeydnepr83
Row 9 Cell 3 1961 (top left and right), 1963 (bottom left) and 1964 (bottom right) Postcard Series Taras_Shevchenko Covers during Soviet Union photo by filpersonaru Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko Prints from Personal Collection.
Column 2 Row 1. 1961, Painter I. N..Kramskoi, Published by Ministry of Culture Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kyiv, Editor K. Ivashynina.22,000 copies. Clear image obtained from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Taras_Shevchenko_-_portrait_by_Ivan_Kramskoi.jpg. There is a smaller sized print copy published by the same Ministry in 1960 with 30,000 copies printed.
Column 2 Row 2 1958 Painter L. Koshtelianchuk, Published by Ministry of Culture Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Kyiv. 35,000 copies printed. A. Kozhukhov Editor.
Column 2 Row 3 1961. Painter M. Bozhiy. (25,000 copies). "Думи мої, думи мої" (Thoughts of mine"). Editor K. Ivashynina, State Publisher of Art Works Music Literature, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
 |
| T.H. Shevchenko. Late 1950s, early 1960s Prints, Personal Collection from Ihor Cap
Books from Personal Collection
Column 2 Row 4. Малий Кобзар, Вибрані поезії для дітей, [Little Kobzar. Selected Poems for Children.], Державне видавництво дитячої літератури, Київ, 1961.
Column 2 Row 5. 1961 Т.Г. Шевченко. Заповіт. мовами народів світу. [T.H. Shevchenko. Testament. In The Languages Of The World. ] Academy of Ukr.SSR Sciences Publishers photo by Ihor Cap. Column 2 Row 6. 1961. Winnipeg. Тарас Шевченко. Кобзар. [Taras Shevchenko. Kobzar]. Jubilee Edition 1861 - 1961. Ukrainian Free Academy Of Sciences. Institute Of Shevchenkology. No. 5. Edited by J. B. Rudnyc'kyj. Photo by Ihor Cap Column 2 Row 7: 1962. Taras Shevchenko. Малий Кобзар. Вибір для дітей з образками. [Malyj Kobzar. Selected Works for children with images]. Howerla Publishers. Other Collectibles from Personal Collection Column 2 Row 8: 1960s.Taras Shevchenko Statue. 8x11x12 inches. Photo by Ihor Cap Column 2 Row 9: 1964 Taras Shevchenko USSR stamps series Photo by alexruss-2008 ebay Column 3 Row 1: 1961 USSR Stamp Shevchenko CPA 2551 Scanned and processed by A. Sdobnikov Personal collection Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. Column 3 Row 2: USSR medal 100 Years Since the Death of Taras Shevchenko 1961 LMD / N114 photo by vphan54 on ebay Column 3 Row 3: 1961 taras shevchenko diaspora centenary pins/buttons photo by ihor cap Column 3 Row 4: 1960s Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian SSR wooden pin and steel pin Photo by Ihor Cap Column 3 Row 5: 1960s taras shevchenko ukraine ssr wooden plaques photo by ihor cap
|
Ihor Cap is a Slavic Studies graduate from the University of Ottawa and a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences in Canada.