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UOC-MP Orthodox Synod Calls Holodomor of 1932-1933 Genocide
12.11.2008, [21:50] // UOC-MP //

Kyiv—The Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate passed a decree to mark the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor (forced famine) in Ukraine during its session on 11 November, 2008. According to the Synod’s resolution (journal 87), on 22-23 November, all the eparchies of UOC will conduct events to remember the victims of Holodomor.

According to the site of UOC, the Synod also passed an address on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

The address stresses that the “artificial famine of 1932-1933 was planned by the Bolsheviks to accelerate forced collectivization, liquidate the class of well-to-do peasants “kurkuls” and destroy “hostile elements.”

The synod’s address calls the Holodomor a genocide, which was meant to “destroy the very soul of the nation, bring it to full spiritual slavery.”

• http://orthodox.org.ua/uk/publikatsii/2008/11/11/3773.html

Звернення Священного Синоду УПЦ

Звернення Священного Синоду
Української Православної Церкви
з нагоди скорботної дати — 75-ї річниці
Голодомору 1932-1933 років в Україні

У XX сторіччі український народ пережив одну з найстрашніших трагедій у своїй історії — голодомор. Україна, яка завжди годувала хлібом весь світ, зазнала масового голоду. Голодомор призвів до значних жертв, приніс багато горя. У нього були об’єктивні й суб’єктивні витоки і наслідки. Штучний голод 1932-1933 рр. було сплановано більшовиками з метою прискорення примусової колективізації, ліквідації “куркульства” як класу, знищення “ворожих елементів”.

Але існує фактор, який об’єднує цей соціальний катаклізм і решту репресивних акцій тоталітарного радянського режиму. Це кардинальна революція світогляду — відречення від Боголюдини Христа і християнської моралі й обрання нової віри — в людину-бога, в антихриста. Адепти цієї віри зажадали побудувати рай на землі, домогтися світлого майбуття для людства. Але майбуття без Бога. Їхнє світло насправді було темрявою. Їхній світогляд базувався на засадах вічної пітьми, бо тільки Бог є джерелом світла. Їхня ідеологія замість блага принесла зло, бо тільки Бог є Творцем усякого блага. Де без Бога будують рай, там з’являється пекло. Замість обіцяного райського життя опутаний радянською ідеологією народ прийняв пекельні муки.

Історія нашої Батьківщини зазнала багато важких часів. Стихійні біди, війни, соціально-політичні заворушення та інші негаразди спричинялися до різних кризових явищ, серед яких були “знищення, голод і меч”(Іс. 51: 19).

Але в 1930-ті роки Україна вперше пережила штучний голод, масове вбивство мільйонів своїх громадян, цинічне, цілеспрямоване, безжальне. Лише в богоненависницькому і людиноненависницькому середовищі міг відбутися подібний злочин. На щедрому українському чорноземі вмирали у страшних муках мільйони людей. Цей геноцид був намаганням знищити саму душу народу, привести її до повного духовного рабства. Він став знаряддям диявольскої помсти за неспроможність викорінити зі свідомості нашого мудрого, сповненого високих чеснот народу синівську пам’ять про Бога, любов до Бога, вірність і віру в Бога. Цю віру можна було знищити лише через фізичну ліквідацію її носія. Тому богоборча влада, створивши духовний голод прирекла націю і на голод фізичний.

У людей відібрали хліб, як перед цим намагалися відібрати насущний хліб духовний. Родюча нива давала достатньо хліба сумлінним трударям. Але весь зрошений потом селянства хліб було вилучено. Забирали все, чим можна було підтримувати життя, — до останньої зернини. Тих, хто збирав колоски на полях розстрілювали. Агонія голоду була воістину пекельною. Мерців не встигали ховати. Багатьох закопували у спільні “могильники” ще живими. Особливо страждали діти. Молох більшовизму поглинав ці невинні жертви з диявольською бездушністю.

Україна втратила тоді мільйони своїх дітей. Усі вони зазнали тяжких мук і жахливої смерті. А ті, хто вижив, назавжди запам’ятали, що таке “рай на землі”, коли він без Бога.

Сімдесят п’ять років минуло відтоді. Час лікує душевні рани, але рану в серці України загоїти неможливо. Вона завжди буде невгамовним болем нагадувати про час, коли над Україною, над іншими народами колишньої радянської спільноти панував диявол.

Українська Православна Церква у глибокій скорботі молитовно згадує жертв голодоморів та інших репресій радянського тоталітаризму. Постраждалих — десятки мільйонів: розстріляних, закатованих у в’язницях, страчених через різні душевні й фізичні тортури, загиблих від мук голоду. Такої кількості жертв не було навіть під час війні. Воістину, режим вів кровопролитну війну з власним народом.

Церква сурово засуджує чинники, які призвели до цієї трагедії. Виправдання їм немає. Сама історія винесла вирок. Ніякі репресії не змогли врятувати державно-політичну систему, яка за базис обрала гріх та богоборство, знехтувала ґрунтовними моральними принципами людства — вірою, надією і любов’ю. “Горе тим, що замислюють беззаконня”(Мих. 2: 1). Справа таких “діла протизаконні” (Пс. 100: 3). “Кінець їхній — погибель” (Флп. 3: 19).

Церква застерігає від глибокої хибної та антигуманної ідеології, що зробила подібну трагедію, і закликає до покаяння тих, хто ще не прозрів і не зрікся богоборства в усіх його формах.

Церква закликає до відмови від екстремізму, нетерпимості, помсти, братоненависництва, розділення на своїх і чужих. У Бога чужих немає. Настав нарешті час духовного єднання народу України, повернення до споконвічних духовних цінностей. Історія виразно показала, до чого призводить зречення християнських засад. Лише свята віра, тверда надія та всеперемагаюча любов допоможуть побудувати гідне майбутнє і застережуть від помилок минулого.

Церква розкриває істину вічного життя тих, хто прийняв мученицьку кончину під час голодомору. Як любляча Мати, свята Українська Православна Церква молиться за їхнє упокоєння в оселях праведних і оголошує їм вічну пам’ять.

Душі їх во благих водворяться. І пам’ять їх — з роду в рід.


†Володимир,
Митрополит Київський і всієї України,
Предстоятель Української Православної Церкви

Члени Священного Синоду:
† Никодим, митрополит Харківський і Богодухівський
†Агафангел, митрополит Одеський і Ізмаїльський
† Іоанникій, митрополит Луганський і Алчевський
† Онуфрій, митрополит Чернівецький і Буковинський
† Іриней, митрополит Дніпропетровський і Павлоградський
† Марк, архієпископ Хустський і Виноградівський
† Феодор, архієпископ Кам’янець-Подільський і Городоцький
† Пантелеімон, єпископ Олександрійський і Світловодський
† Митрофан, архієпископ Білоцерківський і Богуславський,
Керуючий справами УПЦ

Address of the Holy Synod of the UOC


In the 20th century the Ukrainian nation had survived through one of the most awful tragedies in its history - Holodomor. Ukraine, which had always provided the bread to the whole world, had experienced mass famine. The famine brought about a considerable number of victims and brought much desolation. It had both subjective and objective origins and consequences. The artificial famine of 1932-1933 was planned by the Bolsheviks in order to accelerate the forceful collectivization, to liquidate the kulaks (better-off peasants) as a social class, to annihilate the "hostile elements".
But still there is a factor, uniting this social cataclysm and the rest of the repressive actions of the totalitarian Soviet rule. It is a radical change of worldview - disavowing Theantropos Christ and Christian morals while choosing the new faith - the faith of Man-God, the Antichrist. The adepts of this religion wished to build paradise on the earth, to achieve the radiant future for the humanity - but the future without God. Their light was in fact the darkness. Their worldview was based on the principles of the eternal darkness, since it is only God who is the source of light. Their ideology brought about evil instead of good, since it is only God who is the Creator of all good. Where the paradise without God is built - there the hell appears. Instead of the promised paradise life the nation, tangled by the Soviet ideology, underwent infernal sufferings.

The history of our Motherland had known much hard time. Natural disasters, wars, social-political controversies and other troubles resulted in various crisis phenomena, among which there were "extinction, hunger and sword" (Isaiah 51: 19).

But in the 1930-ties it was for the first time that Ukraine experienced artificial famine, mass cynical, purposeful and cruel murder of millions of her citizens. Such genocide might have taken place only in a God-hating and man-hating environment. Millions of people died in terrible agony on the rich Ukrainian black earth. This Famine was an attempt to exterminate the very soul of the nation, to carry it to complete spiritual slavery. It became an instrument of diabolic revenge for the impossibility to eradicate the filial memory of God, the Love of God, faithfulness to God and faith in God from the conscience of our wise people, instinct with high virtue. This faith could be destroyed only through the physical annihilation of its carrier. Therefore the God-fighting power, having created the spiritual hunger, foredoomed the nation to physical starvation.

The people were taken away the bread the same way as the daily bread had been taken away beforehand. The fruitful crop field gave enough bread to conscientious toilers. But all the bread sprinkled with the sweat of the peasantry was eliminated. Every last grain that could support life was withdrawn. Those who collected spikes were shot. The agony of hunger was really infernal. They hardly managed to bury the dead. Many were buried alive in the communal tombs. The children suffered worst of all. Moloch of bolshevism devoured these innocent victims with devilish heartlessness.

Ukraine had lost millions of its children that time. All of them had suffered severe pains and awful death. Those who survived had forever remembered what the paradise on the earth without God was like.

75 years have passed since. The time heals the wounds of soul, but the wound in the soul of Ukraine cannot be healed. It will always remind by insatiable pain of the times when the devil dominated Ukraine and other nations of the Soviet communion.
It is with a deep sorrow that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church prayerfully recalls the victims of Holodomor and other repressions of the Soviet totalitarian rule. The number of victims totals ten million people - all those shot, murdered in prisons, tortured by various moral and physical tortures, deceased because of the pains of hunger. There was no such number of victims even in the war times. Indeed, the power led a bloodshed war with its own people.

The Church severely condemns the factors that caused this tragedy. There is no justification for that. The history has passed its own sentence. No repressions could save the state political system based on sin and God-fighting, neglecting the fundamental moral principles of humanity - love, faith and hope. "Woe to them that devise iniquity "(Micah 2: 1). "I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes" (Psalms 101: 3). " Whose end is destruction " (Philippians 3: 19).

The Church warns against such defective and inhuman ideology that caused such a tragedy and calls to penance all those who has not yet understood and haven't disavowed theomachy in all its forms.

The Church calls to rejecting the extremism, intolerance, revenge, hate of one's neighbour, self-non-self discrimination self-non-self discrimination. God has no strangers. The time of the spiritual reunion of the Ukrainian nation, of return to the basic moral values has arrived. The history has manifested what the result of the renouncement of the Christian principles was. Only the holy faith, the firm hope and overwhelming love will help to build the worthy future and prevent the errors of the past.

The Church discloses the truth of the eternal life of those who had been martyrised during the Holodomor. As loving Mother, the Holy Ukrainian Orthodox Church prays for their repose in the abodes of the righteous and announces their eternal memory.

Their souls will dwell amid good things. Their memory is from generation to generation.



†Volodymyr,
Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine,
Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

Members of the Holy Synod:
† Nicodemus, Metropolitan of Kharkiv and Bogodukhiv
†Agathangel, Metropolitan of Odesa and Izmayil
† Ioanniky, Metropolitan of Luhansk and Alchevsk
† Onuphry, Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna
† Iriney, Metropolitan of Dnipropetrovsk and Pavlohrad
† Mark, Archbishop of Khust and Vynohradiv
† Theodore, Archbishop of Kamyanets-Podilskyi and Horodok
† Panteleimon, Bishop of Oleksandriya and Svitlovodsk
† Metrophanes, Archbishop of Bila Tserkva and Bohuslav,
Executive Administrator of the UOC

Обращение Священного Синода УПЦ
Обращение Священного Синода
Украинской Православной Церкви
по случаю скорбной даты — 75-й годовщины Голодомора
1932–1933 годов в Украине

В XX веке украинский народ пережил одну из самых страшных трагедий в своей истории — голодомор. Украина, всегда кормившая хлебом весь мир, испытала массовый голод. Голодомор привел к огромным жертвам, принес много горя. У него были объективные и субъективные причины и последствия. Искусственный голод 1932–1933 гг. был спланирован большевиками, для того чтобы ускорить принудительную коллективизацию, ликвидацию “кулачества” как класса, уничтожение “враждебных элементов”.

Но существует фактор, объединяющий этот социальный катаклизм с другими репрессивными акциями тоталитарного советского режима. Это кардинальная революция мировоззрения — отречение от Богочеловека Христа и христианской морали и избрание новой веры — в человека-бога, в антихриста. Адепты этой веры захотели построить рай на земле, добиться светлого будущего для человечества. Но будущего без Бога. Их свет на самом деле был тьмой. Их мировоззрение строилось на началах вечной тьмы, ибо только Бог является источником света. Их идеология вместо блага принесла зло, ибо только Бог является Творцом всякого блага. Где без Бога строят рай, там появляется ад. Вместо обещанной райской жизни порабощенный советской идеологией народ принял адские муки.

История нашей Родины пережила много трудных периодов. Стихийные бедствия, войны, социально-политические потрясения и прочие неурядицы становились причиной различных кризисных явлений, среди которых были “истребление, голод и меч” (Ис. 51: 19).

Но в 1930-е годы Украина впервые пережила искусственный голод, массовое убийство миллионов граждан, циничное, целеустремленное, безжалостное. Лишь в богоненавистнической и человеконенавистнической среде могло произойти подобное преступление. На щедром украинском черноземе умирали в страшных муках миллионы людей. Этот геноцид был попыткой уничтожить саму душу народа, привести ее к полному духовному рабству. Он стал орудием дьавольской мести из-за неспособности искоренить из сознания нашего мудрого, одаренного высокими добродетелями народа сыновнюю память о Боге, любовь к Богу, верность и веру в Бога. Эту веру можно было уничтожить лишь путем физической ликвидации ее носителей. Поэтому богоборческая власть, создав духовный голод, обрекла нацию и на голод физический.

У людей отобрали хлеб, как перед этим пытались отобрать насущный хлеб духовный. Плодородная нива давала вдоволь хлеба добросовестным труженикам. Но весь орошенный потом крестьянства хлеб был изъят. Отбирали все, чем можно было поддерживать жизнь, — до последнего зернышка. Тех, кто собирал колоски на полях, расстреливали. Агония голода была воистину адской. Мертвецов не успевали хоронить. Многих закапывали в общие “могильники” еще живыми. Особенно страдали дети. Молох большевизма поглощал эти невинные жертвы с дьявольским бездушием.

Украина потеряла тогда миллионы своих детей. Все они испытали тяжкие муки и ужасную смерть. А те, кто выжил, навсегда запомнили, что такое “рай на земле”, когда он без Бога.

Семьдесят пять лет прошло с тех пор. Время лечит душевные раны, но рану в сердце Украины исцелить невозможно. Она всегда будет неутолимой болью напоминать о времени, когда над Украиной, над другими народами бывшего советского сообщества властвовал дьявол.

Украинская Православная Церковь с глубокой скорбью молитвенно поминает жертвы голодоморов и других репрессий советского тоталитарного режима. Пострадавших — десятки миллионов: расстрелянных, сгноенных в тюрьмах, умученных посредством разных душевных и физических пыток, погибших от мук голода. Такого количества жертв не было даже во время войны. Воистину, режим вел кровопролитную войну с собственным народом.

Церковь сурово осуждает причины, приведшие к этой трагедии. Оправдания им нет. Сама история вынесла приговор. Никакие репрессии не смогли спасти государственно-политическую систему, которая своим основанием избрала грех и богоборчество, попрала основные нравственные принципы человечества — веру, надежду и любовь. “Горе замышляющим беззаконие” (Мих. 2: 1). Дело таких “дело преступное” (Пс. 100: 3). “Их конец — погибель” (Флп. 3: 19).

Церковь предостерегает от глубоко порочной и антигуманной идеологии, приведшей к такой трагедии, и призывает к покаянию тех, кто еще не прозрел и не отрекся от богоборчества во всех его формах.

Церковь призывает к отказу от экстремизма, нетерпимости, мести, братоненавистничества, разделения на своих и чужих. У Бога нет чужих. Наступило наконец время духовного единения народа Украины, возвращения к исконным духовным ценностям. История ясно показала, к чему приводит отречение от христианских принципов. Лишь святая вера, твердая надежда и всепобеждающая любовь помогут построить достойное будущее и предостерегут от ошибок прошлого.

Церковь раскрывает истину вечной жизни тех, кто принял мученическую кончину во время голодомора. Как любящая Мать, святая Украинская Православная Церковь молится об их упокоении в обителях праведных и возглашает им вечную память.

Души их во благих водворятся. И память их — в род и род.

† Владимир,
Митрополит Киевский и всея Украины,
Предстоятель Украинской Православной Церкви

Члены Священного Синода:
† Никодим, митрополит Харьковский и Богодуховский
† Агафангел, митрополит Одесский и Измаильский
† Иоанникий, митрополит Луганский и Алчевский
† Онуфрий, митрополит Черновицкий и Буковинский
† Ириней, митрополит Днепропетровский и Павлоградский
† Марк, архиепископ Хустский и Виноградовский
† Феодор, архиепископ Каменец-Подольский и Городокский
† Пантелеимон, епископ Александрийский и Светловодский
† Митрофан, архиепископ Белоцерковский и Богуславский,
Управляющий делами УПЦ


http://orthodox.org.ua/ru/publikatsii/2008/11/11/3774.html

UOC-MP Orthodox Head’s Secretary Comments on Definition of Holodomor as Genocide
20.11.2008, [11:48] // UOC-MP //

Kyiv—The Secretary of the Head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Moscow Patriarchate, Vicar of the Kyivan Metropolitanate, Bishop Oleksandr (Drabynko) commented on the address of the Synod of UOC on the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Regarding the definition of the Holodomor as a “genocide” in the text of the address, Bishop Oleksandr noted that “it was not meant that it was exactly genocide.” “We tried to avoid this word at all,” stated the secretary of the head of UOC.

According to the vicar, “genocide is a crime of one nation against another one.” “We do not raise the question in this way by any means. Initially, the Synod’s goal was not to recognize the Holodomor exactly as a genocide,” he stressed in an interview for www.zn.ua. [zn.ua.]

# 45 (674) 24 — 30 November 2007

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Mykola Kulish
Literary “Carnage” November 24: Commemorating Victims of Famines and Political Reprisals in Ukraine
Author: Sergey MAKHUN
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On December 14, 1932, when the Holodomor was getting into full swing, Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov issued a resolution on “improving the national policy in Ukraine and the areas of compact residence of Ukrainians beyond the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (the Kuban, Stavropol, Voronezh, and Kursk provinces).” It was a final sentence.

At the dawn of the Communist era Vladimir Lenin launched a policy of “ukrainization,” which was supposed to “integrate Ukraine and other provinces into the Bolshevik state.”

In September 1926, the GPU [Rus. Glavnoye Politicheskoye Upravleniye – Main Political Department – precursor of the NKVD and the KGB – A.B.] issued a classified document titled “On Ukrainian Separatism.” Here is just one excerpt: “The fact that Ukrainian nationalists have stopped the open struggle against the Soviet power and recognized it formally does not mean that they have completely reconciled themselves to the present state of affairs and given up on their hostile schemes… The so-called ‘cultural struggle’ has become tremendously popular, involving the overwhelming majority of prominent activists of Ukrainian counterrevolution.” That was the green light to the secret campaign against “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism.”

The open anti-nationalist campaign began in 1929, when the GPU “exposed” what it labeled as “the Association for Liberation of Ukraine.” The ALU case was heard on March 9 – April 19, 1930 at the Kharkiv Opera Theater in the presence of the defense, witnesses, and a selected crowd scene. There were 45 defendants, including two academicians and fifteen professors. After the horrible famine in 1932 and 1933, the Stalin regime no longer bothered to stage such demonstrative trials. M. Khatayevych, Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine CCCPU, said in 1933: “There is a fierce fight between the peasants and the Soviet power. It is a mortal combat. This year has tested our strength and their patience. The famine has shown them who is in charge. It has cost millions of lives, but the kolkhoz system will exist forever. We have won this war!”

Having done away with the “kulaks,” Stalin took on the Ukrainian intelligentsia. This time “the sword of Bolshevik justice” prosecuted “the dregs of nationalist organizations” who “schemed out terrorist acts.” One of the most notable criminal cases involved three writers accused of ties with the so-called “Ukrainian Military Organization”. In a closed-door trial that took place in Kharkiv on March 3, 1934, Oleg Dosvitniy, Serhiy Pylypenko, and Ostap Vyshnya were found guilty of plotting to assassinate Pavel Postyshev (CCCPU Second Secretary), Vlas Chubar (Chairman of the Sovnarkom [Council of People’s Commissaries – A.B.], and Vsevolod Balitsky (People’s Commissary of Internal Affairs). Ostap Vyshnya was the only one who was “pardoned” – he got ten years in the GULAG. Dosvitniy, Pylypenko, and seven other “enemies of the people” were executed. Charges of involvement in the UMO were brought against 148 people. Les Kurbas [famous writer and stage director, founder of the modern theatrical school in Ukraine – A.B.] was arrested in November 1933 and executed on November 3, 1937 by Capt. Mikhail Matveev. Between October 27 and November 10, 1937 Matveev killed 1,111 people. As he reported, he executed them “quickly and accurately.”

1933 saw another wave of reprisals against Ukrainian scientists and teachers. Some of them chose a desperate escape: writer Mykola Khvylyoviy took his life on May 13 and People’s Commissary of Education Mykola Skrypnyk shot himself on July 7. On September 5 Skrypnyk’s successor Oleksandr Shumsky was sentenced to ten years of penal servitude. NKVD agents killed him in 1946.

On December 1, 1934, the day when Sergey Kirov was assassinated, Stalin signed the resolution passed by the USSR Central Executive Committee “On Introducing Amendments to Active Criminal Procedural Codes of the USSR Republics.” The following excerpt from the inquisitional document that untied the hands of Stalin’s satraps is quite eloquent.

“Introduce the following amendments to the active criminal procedural codes of the USSR republics on investigation of cases of terrorist organizations and terrorist acts against Soviet officials:

1. Investigations of these cases shall be completed within ten days.

2. Bills of indictment shall be delivered to defendants 24 hours prior to hearings in court.

3. Cases shall be heard without participation of the litigants.

4. Sentences shall not be challenged; petitions for pardon shall not be allowed.

5. Death sentences shall be executed immediately.”

Stalin used the assassination of Sergey Kirov as a pretext for eradicating the opposition – real, potential, and fictitious – in Ukraine and the rest of the USSR.

The NKVD reacted promptly. On December 5 it filed a criminal case, charging 17 prominent writers, journalists, and cultural workers with involvement in a counterrevolutionary organization and plotting terrorist acts. During searches in their apartments “letters, diaries, and literature of nationalist bias were found and confiscated.” Investigators put heavy pressure on the accused. Having no direct evidence, they forced the innocent people to perjure themselves and testify against their colleagues and friends. The following passage in the bill of indictment left no chance for acquittal:

“This counterrevolutionary party, pretending to cooperate with the Communist Party of Ukraine, was preparing a coup d’etat. It became a center of attraction for chauvinist and anti-Soviet elements that used this party as a convenient legal disguise; this nationalist policy would have led to an inevitable armed rebellion.” Investigators also used affidavits signed by people who had been convicted on other charges. Oles Dosvitniy testified on December 29, 1933: “Having met here in Kharkiv with such mature ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism as Yaloviy, Khvylyoviy, and other nationalists of smaller caliber, I found a medium consonant with my ideology. I joined them and soon afterwards became a member of a counterrevolutionary organization which was devising an armed struggle against Bolshevism.” When this affidavit was shown to the arrested “counterrevolutionaries,” Dosvitniy had been executed.

One of the litigants – Levko Kovaliv – refused to cooperate. He refused to read and sign his bill of indictment. Several defendants (Pidmohylniy, Kulish, Polishchuk, Popov) did not perjure their friends. Others gave in. Grygoriy Epik cooperated with the investigators from the very first interrogation. “…Kulish told me that the political principle of our organization was Ukrainian fascism.” Epik was the only one whose case was closed down. It was Epik who suggested the “terrorism” component of the case by admitting that the organization aimed at “fighting the Soviet power and the Communist Party by all means up to individual terror against party and government officials.”

Mykola Kulish stood his ground staunchly during three interrogations, though he was “exposed in testimonies given by Krushelnytsky, Epik, and Yaloviy, which he called ‘false.’” However, after the next interrogation he pleaded guilty. So did Pidmohylniy, who held out even longer and denied all charges but wrote in a statement dated January 10, 1935,“Having thought over my last interrogation of January 9, I decided to give not false or evasive but true testimonies…” In his affidavit Pidmohyniy corrected the date from January 11 to January 10 (which suggests that the butchers did not gain their ends at once).

One of the witnesses quoted Valerian Polishchuk’s article published in a literary magazine. “Such writers as Franko, Ukrainka, Vinnychenko, Kotsyubynsky, Kobulyanska, Stefanyk, Oles, and Filyansky are the best writers of world literature…Their works are full of original Ukrainian national characters and artistic techniques.” The witness holds Polishchuk up to shame: “Who does V. Polishchuk praise? He praises all those saboteurs and nationalists – from Zerov and Yefremov to the exposed counterrevolutionaries.”

The bill of indictment was passed on February 20, 1935 and signed by Balitsky himself. On March 28, the USSR High Court announced its verdict. “The central body of the Ukrainian counterrevolutionary organization” was found guilty of “masterminding terrorist acts against Kosior and Postyshev as well as against Comrade Stalin.” L. Kovaliv pleaded innocent. V. Pidmohylniy and A. Panov pleaded guilty partially. Fifteen of seventeen defendants were sentenced to 10 years with confiscation of property; D. Kudrya and S. Semko-Kozachuk were sentenced to seven years. In November 1937, eight convicts were executed in the Sandarmokha camp, and one died of TB in Solovki on February 2, 1936.

On August 4, 1956, the USSR High Court Military Panel of Judges acquitted them as “convicted groundlessly on fabricated charges.”

Why did the NKVD play up the “terrorist trace” in all those fabricated criminal cases? One of the explanations can be traced back to October 9, 1934 when Croatian nationalists assassinated King of Yugoslavia Alexander I Karageorgijevic and French Foreign Minister Louis Barthou in Marseilles.

Barthou was one of the architects of the Versailles system and an irreconcilable enemy of Nazism. Hitler, obsessed by revenge ideas, used those murders as a pretext for the onslaught of Nazism. In this context, the mention of the Marseilles case in the charges brought against the Ukrainian writers was not accidental. In his final testimony dated January 15, 1935 Pidmohylniy wrote (obviously from the investigator’s dictation): “In connection with the Marseilles events, I had conversations with each interlocutor about terror as a method of struggle. In those conversations I stated that terror was a lawful method of struggle.” The “Marseilles events” were mentioned many times in the materials of that criminal case.

In the early 1930s, waves of terror swept across Europe. In the USSR terror became a state policy. IRA terrorists killed English officials; Ukrainian rebels committed their “attentates” in response to the “pacification” and humiliations of Ukrainians in Poland; Croats fought against Serbian hegemony in Yugoslavia… The Stalin regime did not have to look for pretexts for cracking down on the “dregs of anti-Soviet elements” and staging sequels of the “terrorism drama.” Stalin’s satraps succeeded in quenching Ukrainian literature by jumping down the throat of “those scribblers.” The memory of the people who perished in appalling physical and mental sufferings in the 20th century can now help this nation to recover.

Such terms as “Ukrainian nationalism,” “Nazi accomplices,” and “anti-Semitism” (with reference to the Ukrainian Insurgent Army) are still mentioned in historical and political debates. At the same time, certain Ukraine-phobic forces feel at liberty and enjoy support from the mass media, which they control, and even at the top state level.

The author appreciates the assistance of the SBU Archive staff in preparing this material.

http://www.mw.ua/3000/3150/61199/

Canada Participates as Ukraine Remembers the Holodomor
November 21, 2008 - Kyiv, Ukraine A delegation lead by Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney is taking part in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the 1932-33 famine-genocide in Ukraine in which millions perished.

Joining Minister Kenney in Kyiv is Senator Raynell Andreychuk, the Honourary Chair of the Holodomor Committee of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Paul Grod, President of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, and Eugene Czolij, President of the Ukrainian World Congress.

"This past year communities around the world participated in events commemorating the memory of the victims of this genocidal act. The Ukrainian Canadian community is grateful to the Parliament of Canada for formally recognizing the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 as an act of genocide, " said Paul Grod, UCC National President. "Parliament passed legislation to establish Ukrainian Famine Genocide Memorial Day and November 22, 2008 will mark the first such official commemorative day in Canada."

"Our government is committed to remembering the victims of communism and heightening international awareness of genocide, and we are proud that our Conservative government recognized the Holodomor as a genocide, " said Minister Kenney. "We take such actions to help ensure that similar atrocities never happen again."

The Minister and members of the delegation will participate in an international forum entitled "Ukraine Remembers, the World Recognizes." The Memorial Week also includes the presentation of the National Memory Book, the opening of a documentary and art exhibit at Ukrainskyj Dim, documentary and film presentations, the premier performance of the Mourning Mother Oratorio, the unveiling of a new memorial to famine victims on Ivan Mazepa Street, a visit to the memorial sign in Mykhailivska Square, a liturgy at St. Sofia Cathedral and a candle light vigil across Ukraine and in countries around the world.

During their visits in Ukraine, Minister Kenney and Paul Grod will visit the Bykivnia Memorial, Babyn Yar and the Taras Shevchenko monument in Kyiv. They will also attend a liturgy dedicated to the Holodomor at the Ukrainian Catholic Church of St. Vasyliya.