EXPOSE SOVIET CRIMES

Orest Steciw
Holodomor Projects Coordinator

As the Holodomor Projects Coordinator for the League of Ukrainian Canadians and League of Ukrainian Canadian Women, I appeal to you to help expose Soviet crimes against humanity in Ukraine. These crimes against the Ukrainian people encompass eleven historical periods, including

· the Bolshevik coup and the beginning of the terror (1917- 1920);

· the birth of the Soviet Union out of famine and violence (1921-1923);

· the cost of industrialization and forcible collectivization (1924-1931);

· the Famine Genocide or Holodomor (1932-1933);

· the collapse of Ukrainization and the “Great Terror” (1934-1938);

· the Soviet-Nazi conspiracy and its consequences (1939-1941);

· the last decade of Stalin’s dictatorship (1942-1952);

· another famine in Ukraine (1946-1947);

· the post-Stalin “thaw” (1953-1964);

· the period of bloodless totalitarianism (1965-1985); and

· the collapse of the Soviet Union (1986-1991).

The Famine Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, called the Holodomor, is the most tragic event in Ukraine’s history that needs to be acknowledged and remembered. This was a genocide, perpetrated by Joseph Stalin, in which entire crops and reserves were seized by the Soviet state, thus starving to death seven to ten million Ukrainians. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, documents now available reveal that the confiscated grain had been exported abroad.

Several countries, including Canada, the United States, Australia, Argentina and Ukraine itself, have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide perpetrated against the Ukrainian people. Resolutions have been passed commemorating the genocide and honouring the memory of the victims of this abominable act. These resolutions also note that there were those in the West, including the New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who knowingly falsified their reports to cover up the Famine Genocide. Clearly, the denial of a crime against humanity, such as the Famine Genocide, is a crime in itself.

Today, Canada takes pride in its record of advancing human rights and equality for all its citizens and for many nations around the world. But even our society faces new challenges which threaten those democratic values and traditions. Edmund Burke once wrote that “all that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.” Therefore, Ukrainian Canadians feel there can be no indifference to the evil of hatred, past or present, and consequently no indifference to the evil of the Famine Genocide (1932-1933) in Ukraine.

I am certain that your contribution will help expose Soviet war crimes and communist crimes against humanity in Ukraine, and document the nature and extent of these crimes. Therefore, I offer you the following projects of utmost importance:

1. assistance to the All-Ukrainian Memorial Society in Kyiv for its research of communist crimes, in particular the Holodomor;
2. assistance for research, both in Canada and Ukraine, of the war of liberation fought by OUN-UPA;
3. assistance to and collaboration with the Ukrainian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre in the development, production, financing and distribution of the film “Between Hitler and Stalin.”

Please send donations to the

League of Ukrainian Canadians
83 Christie Street
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M6G 3B1
Tel: 416-516-8223
Fax: 416-516-4033
E-mail: luc@lucorg.com