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May 2008
Opening this month
An exhibition that details the horrors and magnitude of the Holodomor – the little-known Ukrainian genocide that resulted in the deaths of some 10 million people – opens at The Ukrainian Museum on Tuesday evening, May 27 at 5:30 p.m.
The exhibition, Holodomor: Genocide by Famine, is one of a series of events taking place around the world to commemorate the 75th anniversary of what James Mace, the director of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine (1988), referred to as "the crime of the century that nobody's ever heard of."
The horrific event, known in Ukrainian as the Holodomor (literally, murder by starvation), took place in 1932-1933, less than twenty years after Ukraine was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union. Determined to force all Ukrainian farmers onto collective farms, to crush the burgeoning national revival, and to forestall any calls for Ukraine's independence, the brutal Communist regime of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin embarked on a campaign to starve the Ukrainian people into submission.
The Soviet government confiscated all the grain produced by Ukrainian farmers, withheld other foodstuffs, executed anyone trying to obtain food, and punished those who attempted to flee. As a result, in the land called the Breadbasket of Europe, millions of men, women, and children were starved to death.
Stalin boasted privately that 10 million people – 25% of Ukraine's population – had perished during the Holodomor. At least 3 million of the victims were children.
Despite the magnitude of the atrocity, the Soviet regime, behind its Iron Curtain, denied the existence of the Holodomor for decades, denouncing any reports as "anti-Soviet propaganda." It was not until the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the subsequent establishment of an independent Ukraine that the contents of many sealed government archives were uncovered, exposing a wealth of gruesome information.
Much of that information is included in Holodomor: Genocide by Famine, which consists of 96 panels of photographs, documents, government reports, eyewitness accounts, and other archival material detailing virtually every aspect of the tragedy.
Holodomor: Genocide by Famine draws on numerous sources, including the Holodomor exhibition organized by The Ukrainian Museum for display at the United Nations in 2003 – the 70th annniversary of the tragedy. The current exhibition was produced by the League of Ukrainian Canadians (LUC) in cooperation with the Museum of Soviet Occupation of the Kyiv Memorial Society in Ukraine and the League of Ukrainian Canadian Women (LUCW). LUC and LUCW are non-profit organizations dedicated to the continued development of a thriving Ukrainian community in Canada, to raising awareness of the history of the Ukrainian people, and to promoting the tenets of democracy and respect for human rights. Over the years, both organizations have actively supported a number of human rights projects, including the International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932-1933 Famine in Ukraine (1990).
Dr. Taras Hunczak, professor emeritus in the history department at Rutgers University, prepared the introductory wall text for Holodomor: Genocide by Famine and its accompanying brochure.
The opening of the exhibition at The Ukrainian Museum will be the culmination of several commemorative Holodomor events in New York City on May 27, beginning with the arrival of the International Torch at Manhattan's Battery Park (from Liberty Island) at 3:00 p.m., followed by a mass Walk Against Genocide from Battery Park, up Broadway, to City Hall Park. The observances at City Hall Park, scheduled for 4:00 p.m., will continue with the exhibition opening at the Museum at 5:30. For detailed information about the Walk Against Genocide, log on to www.ukrainegenocide.org or call the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America (UCCA) New York City branch at 212.228.6840.
Holodomor: Genocide by Famine will be on view through November 30.
Image: A starving girl in Kharkiv, then-capital of Ukraine, 1933. At least 3 million of the Holodomor victims were children. Photo by Winnerberger, Institute of Ukrainian History, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Now showing …
Members, curators, donors, sponsors
… many were present at the April 19 preview of the exhibitions The Mapping of Ukraine: European Cartography and Maps of Early Modern Ukraine, 1550-1799, and The Cossacks: Their Art and Style, as well as at the lecture "European Cartography and the Mapping of Ukraine, 1550-1799" the following afternoon.
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Hilary Hopkins donated to the Museum her late mother Marie Halun Bloch's collection of 52 antiquarian maps of Ukraine. The collection served as the basis for The Mapping of Ukraine.
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Professor Bohdan Kordan of the University of Saskatchewan, guest curator of the exhibition The Mapping of Ukraine, gave a lecture on Sunday afternoon, April 20, entitled "European Cartography and the Mapping of Ukraine, 1550-1799."
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Mr. and Mrs. Julian and Maria Baczynsky, longtime generous supporters of the Museum, sponsored the fully illustrated, bilingual color catalogue accompanying The Mapping of Ukraine.
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The exhibition itself was sponsored by Nicolas and Irene Andreadis, Marko and Dr. Ariadna M. Bach, Mykola Darmochwal and Zoriana Haftkowycz, Orest and Lydia Glut, Mykola Haliv, Andrew Hankevych, Roman Hawrylak and Maria Tershakovec, Myron and Olha Hnateyko, Andrew and Lyudmyla Kurylko, Myron and Marijka Martiuk, Wolodymyr and Soriana Mohuchy, Dr. Borys and Miriasia Mychalczak, Dr. Ivanna Ratych, George and Maria Sorobay Shtohryn, Roma Shuhan, Orest Szul, Jaroslaw and Maria Tomorug, and Dr. George and Nancy Truchly.
"Border Ballads from the Steppes:
Mapping Ukraine in Song"
The first of two concerts to be held in conjunction with the Museum's recently opened exhibition The Mapping of Ukraine: European Cartography and Maps of Early Modern Ukraine, 1550-1799, will take place this Friday, May 9, at 7:00 p.m.
"Border Ballads from the Steppes: Mapping Ukraine in Song" features traditional Ukrainian ballads researched and performed by third-generation Ukrainian-American bandura player and singer Julian Kytasty, accompanied by the musicians of the New York Bandura Ensemble. Drawn from the same historical period as The Mapping of Ukraine, the program's songs and instrumental music bring to life the dance of shifting borders – political, cultural, and personal – that characterizes Ukraine's early modern period.
"Border Ballads from the Steppes" is a presentation of the Center for Traditional Music and Dance and its Ukrainian Wave Community Cultural Initiative in collaboration with the Museum and the New York Bandura Ensemble/Bandura Downtown. Tickets for the event are $15 ($10 for Museum members and seniors; $5 for students), including admission to the Museum's galleries and a reception following the performance. To order tickets, please contact the Museum at 212.228.0110.
The second concert in this series is scheduled for September.
Image: Legendary Cossack bandura player (Mamai). Early 19th century. Artist unknown. Photo courtesy National Art Museum of Ukraine, Kyiv. From the exhibition The Cossacks: Their Art & Style
Martha features Lubow
A recent Martha Stewart blog prominently featured the Museum's very own Lubow Wolynetz. The energetic Ms. Wolynetz has been involved with the Museum since its inception, first as a Trustee and, since 1982, as an educator, instructor of the very popular embroidery and baking classes, and curator of the Museum's folk art collection. (In addition to working weekends at our Museum, Lubow is employed full-time as a librarian, curator, and instructor at the Ukrainian Museum and Library of Stamford, Connecticut.) In April 2000, Lubow was a guest on Martha Stewart's television show, and it turns out that Martha now uses Lubow's Easter paska recipe! Read all about it at
The Martha Blog.
All photos © The Ukrainian Museum
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