Columns 
Forty years ago this month, in October 1983, nearly 18,000 people came from all over the United States (and some from Canada) to Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor. A mass rally at the Washington Monument followed by a march to the Soviet Embassy was held on October 2. It was the second-largest gathering of Ukrainian Americans in Washington D.C. ever. Other events held throughout that week included a memorial concert at the Kennedy Center, exhibits, a scholarly symposium, a special order in Congress featuring remarks from members of Congress, a Capitol reception and the introduction of legislation calling for the creation of a Famine Commission.
The 1983 memorial events in the capital of the free world were a milestone in raising awareness of one of the most colossal genocides in human history. Notably, those events gave impetus to further action.
At the time, 40 years ago, little was known about Ukraine. Many Americans conflated Russia with the Soviet Union and Ukrainians with Russians. There were few articles in the media. Few people seemed to care about Ukraine’s aspirations for freedom and human rights besides the Ukrainian American community and their friends in the U.S. Congress. Even less was known about the Holodomor, with little in the way of English-language scholarship on the topic. The Soviets denied that it happened altogether, banning any discussion of it, or they claimed that it was not man-made, but it was a natural disaster. Then, as now, Moscow lied repeatedly and without compunction. All too many in the West adopted this false narrative.
Mind you, there had been earlier efforts by Ukrainian Americans to bring attention to the Holodomor. During the 1930s, while the Famine was raging, Ukrainians held protests in numerous American cities and wrote memorandums to then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Large demonstrations were held in U.S. cities in 1953 on the 20th anniversary, with a reported 15,000 in New York listening to remarks by Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish lawyer best known for coining the term “genocide.” But this was not enough to put the Famine on America’s radar screen.
Notwithstanding the considerable ignorance about Ukraine (or, for that matter, the other captive nations) in October 1983, a great deal of attention was being paid to the Soviet Union, or, as President Ronald Reagan called it in March of that year, the “evil empire” and the “focus of evil in the modern world.” Adding to this negative perception was the Soviet downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007, which took the lives of 269 innocent people, including an American Congressman, a month before the anniversary commemoration, on September 1, 1983. As a personal aside, a few days after the shootdown, I was in Madrid as a member of the U.S. delegation for the conclusion of a conference of the 35 member states of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). Indelibly imprinted in my mind is the dour look of Soviet Foreign Affairs Minister Andrei Gromyko – known as “grim Grom” because the man was never known to smile – walking into the conference hall. A few minutes later, U.S. Secretary of State George Schultz entered the hall with an even grimmer visage and delivered a tough speech calling KAL 007 a “brutal tragedy, shocking to the conscience of the world.”
The KAL shootdown, still fresh in the minds of the media, along with the outstanding public relations work by the National Committee to Commemorate Genocide Victims in Ukraine 1932-1933, which organized the Washington rally, helped to garner considerable publicity for the Ukrainian cause.
Knowledge about Ukraine and the Holodomor has come a long, long way since 1983, when the 50th anniversary commemorations in the nation’s capital helped to galvanize the community and increase awareness. The next few years saw the publication of Robert Conquest’s ground-breaking academic study “The Harvest of Sorrow” and Slavko Nowytski’s 1985 award-winning film, “Harvest of Despair.” Of the utmost importance was the creation by Congress of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine – an enormous testament to the dedication of Ukrainian American activists who tirelessly advocated for its passage into law. Headed by prominent Holodomor historian James Mace as its staff director, the Commission issued its final report to Congress in 1988, with its most notable conclusion being that “Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-1933.”
In the intervening years, we have seen much growth in awareness about the Holodomor, with numerous serious scholarly works and an almost universal acknowledgment that this needless tragedy was man-made. It has also been increasingly recognized as a genocide, which most certainly was not the case 40 years ago. There are now many more references to the Holodomor in the general media – in part, because of the current Russian genocide against the Ukrainian people. A radically different environment exists today in terms of knowledge about Ukraine, and, more importantly, tangible support for Ukraine’s freedom from the American public, the Executive branch and Congress (certain segments of the Republican party notwithstanding).
On that sunny Sunday 40 years ago, after thousands marched from the Washington Monument to the Soviet Embassy, I was tasked with reading an “Open Letter to the Kremlin,” standing as closely as was permitted to the embassy. The letter, written by Mr. Mace and Andrij Bilyk, who coordinated media relations for the national committee, condemned the Kremlin for the tragedies inflicted upon the Ukrainian people. Much of the letter resonates to this day.
While we have witnessed dramatic changes in the last 40 years, notably the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the re-emergence of an independent Ukraine, one thing most certainly and tragically has not changed: Moscow continues its assault on the Ukrainian nation as it has for centuries, and it continues to pose a threat to the entire civilized world.
The last paragraph of the open letter holds as true today as it did 40 years ago (all it would need is a reference to Russia’s current genocide against the Ukrainian people): “We Americans of Ukrainian descent, together with all Americans and the people of the world who respect human life – and value human liberty – will see to it that those who died in your man-made famine in Ukraine … that those who continue to suffer under your dictatorship – we will see to it that they did not die, nor will they suffer, in vain.” Indeed, we must see to it now, as never before, for the sake of those who have died and continue to suffer and die. The stakes have never been higher.
Orest Deychakiwsky may be reached at orestdeychak@gmail.com
Originally published at The Ukrainian Weekly.