Part of the late James Mace’s library and archives. Cover of the 1st Interim Report of the entire U.S. Congressional Commission on the Ukrainian Famine.

MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE UKRAINE FAMINE:
HON. DANIEL A. MICA, M.C. (D-FL), Chairman
HON. GARY L BAUER, Undersecretary of Education
HON. WILLIAM BROOMFIELD, M.C. (R-MI)
SENATOR DENNIS DeCONCINI (D-AZ)
AMBASSADOR H. EUGENE DOUGLAS, Department of State
MR. BOHDAN FEDORAK, Public Member
HON. BENJAMIN GILMAN, M.C. (R-NY)
HON. DENNIS HERTEL, M.C. (D-MI)
SENATOR ROBERT KASTEN (R-WI)
SURGEON GENERAL C EVERETT KOOP
DR. MYRON KUROPAS, Public […]

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Members of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine……………………….ii
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………..iii
Public Law 99-335 Establishing the Commission on the Ukraine Famine…v
Organizational Meeting, April 23,1986……………………………………….1
Commissioners and Staff Present…………………………………………….2
Proceedings……………………………………………………………………. 3
Opening Statement…………………………………………………………….3
By-Laws of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine………………………..8
Budget for FY 1986…………………………………………………………..14
Memorandum of Chairman Mica……………………………………………..19
Memorandum of Dr. Oleh Weres on the Work of the Commission……….33
Memorandum of Bohdan Fedorak……………………………………………35
Memorandum […]

Hearing, Chicago, Illinois, November 7,1986 (continued)
Statement of Dr. Myron Kuropas…………………………………………..107
Statement of Ms. Ulana Mazurkevich……………………………………..108
Statement of Dr. Oleh Weres………………………………………………109
Testimony of Ms. Anna Pylypiuk of Chicago, Illinois…………………….109
Testimony of Ms. Anna Portnov of Chicago, Illinois……………………..115
Testimony of Mr. Valentin Kochno…………………………………………118
Testimony of Dr. Helen K. of Chicago, Illinois…………………………….122
Testimony of Ms. Halyna B. of Palatine, Illinois………………………….124
Testimony of Mr. Stephen C. of […]

HR.2965
Public Law 99-335
Ninety-ninth Congress of the United States of America
AT THE FIRST SESSION
Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, the third day of January, one thousand nine hundred and eighty-five
An Act
Making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30,1986, […]

DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION
Sec 3. The duties of the Commission are to—
(1) Conduct a study of the 1932-1933 Ukraine famine (in this Act referred to as
the “famine study”), in accordance with section 6 of this Act, in which the Commission
shall-
(A) gather all available information about the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine
(B) analyze the causes of such famine and the […]

H.R. 2965
an officer or employee of the United States Government or a Member of Congress shall serve without additional compensation. Each member of the Commission shall be reimbursed for travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, as authorized by section 5703 of title 5, United States Code, for persons in Government service employed […]

ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING
The commission met at 9:21 a.m.
Wednesday, April 23,1986
Rayburn House Office
Building
Room 2200
Washington, D.C.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
HON. DANIEL A. MICA, Chairman
HON. DENNIS HERTEL
HON. WILLIAM BROOMFIELD
HON. BENJAMIN GILMAN
HON. DENNIS DeCONCINI, represented by MR. ROBERT MAYNES
UNDERSECRETARY GARY L. BAUER
SURGEON GENERAL C. EVERETT KOOP
MR. BOHDAN FEDORAK
DR. MYRON KUROPAS
MR. DANIEL MARCHISHIN
MS. ANASTASIA VOLKER
MS. ULANA MAZURKEVICH
DR. OLEH WERES
ALSO PRESENT:
DR. JAMES E. MACE, Staff Director
DR. OLGA SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV, Staff Assistant
MR. DELOIS HAMMONDS, Personnel Officer for the Commission

PROCEEDINGS
Congressman MICA: Let me just say welcome, and we are glad to have you here. We had an opportunity to visit with many of you at the reception last night.
As I started earlier and said, this will probably be the norm for some of the Washington meetings. One of the first orders of business today […]

insofar as possible and on the basis of all available evidence, the causes and effects of the man-made famine, the role of the Soviet authorities in bringing it about, and the response to it by the free countries of the world. Our task today is to establish the basis for our carrying out this mandate.
Before […]

We therefore bear a large responsibility in our work as members of the Ukraine Famine Commission. We must establish the facts about what has long been con¬cealed. We must work to restore to public consciousness that which has disappeared from it for far too long. And we must remember above all that our ultimate respon¬sibility […]

along with our Ranking Minority Member, Bill Broomfield, and we hope to bring a foreign affairs perspective to this issue.
I’m pleased to be able to join with our distinguished members of our Commission and look forward to the work that we have ahead, and Am sure that with Dan Mica’s leadership, we will meet all […]

I am advised that members of Congress don’t need to be sworn in. So you can come and go as you like, but the public members will need to be sworn in.
Congressman GILMAN: Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to repeat something I said last night Ambassador Gene Douglas called. He is in California on a […]

BYLAWS OF THE COMMISSION ON THE UKRAINE FAMINE.
PREAMBLE
The Commission on the Ukraine Famine (hereafter, the “Commission”) is con¬stituted by and in accordance with P.L. 99-180, dated December 13, 1985, to conduct a study of the Ukraine Famine of 1932-33, to expand the world’s knowledge of the famine, and to provide the American public with a […]

4. Business may be conducted by the Commission in the absence of a meeting by the following means:
a) By the submission of a written motion to the Chairman, who shall within five days of it’s receipt send copies to all members who may vote upon it within fourteen days of the date when it is sent […]

9. The Commission may request administrative support form the General Services Administration on a reimbursable basis.
10. The Commission may procure by contract any supplies, services and property in accordance with Section 6(4) of P.L. 99-180.
V. Vacancies
Should a vacancy occur the successor will be appointed in the same manner and under the same provisions as his or […]

Mr. MARCHISHIN: It came out of Congressman Florio’s office in that way, and that’s the way it went through the whole process, and it didn’t get edited in the hear¬ings or any of the other processes to reword that, and that’s just the way it went
through, as “the Ukraine Famine”. .
I agree it sounds a little […]

studying the famine in Ukraine. So I just wanted to make that point I’m sure this Isn’t intended to be an exhaustive list
Dr. MACE: By no means.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: And as many people as we can get in, I’m sure that we wel¬come them.
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: What is this fourth point, “each member of the Commission may […]

Dr.KUROPAS: In reference to Article five, vacancies: Public Commissioners were appointed by the Commissioners that were seated at the time, but now that we have public members, will we be involved in the selection of the person for the vacancy?
Dr. MACE: This refers to the membership section of P.L. 99-180 and basically just repeats it […]

Congressman GILMAN: We could refer to the report in the title matter as Report on the Ukrainian Famine, and you don’t have to use that formal title across the head to take care of your concerns. I think more important, let’s get on with the substance of our work.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: I’d like to entertain a […]

The Ukraine Famine Commission is mandated to conduct a study of the 1932-33 man-made famine in the Ukrainian S.S.R, by gathering all available information about the famine, analyzing its causes and effects, and studying and analyzing the reaction to the famine by the United States and other free countries. The resulting study shall be submitted […]

Dr. KUROPAS: May I suggest that if anyone from the staff is invited by a Uk¬rainian group especially to come speak to them, that in feet the Ukrainian group be asked to pick up the expenses. We have a limited budget, and I think that Ukrainians are aware of this, and if any member is […]

Dr. MACE: I don’t see how. Public hearings would have to be carried out to a large extent at Commission expenses, although it would be possible to negotiate, for example, for free use of a building. For example, I believe the President of the Uk¬rainian Nationl Association has offered the use of certain of […]

Surgeon General KOOP: Has any thought been given to making available to the public, and especially to educational institutions, the actual transcripts rather than the written testimony? It’s much more dramatic, much more telling.
Dr. MACE: This can certainly be done once we have transcripts. These can be published at the discretion of the Commission as […]

Congressman HERTEL: Oh, I think they’d very much like to do that, and we have a good list well beyond people on the Commission of people who are very interested, and some attended the reception last night.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay. If there is no further discussion on the proposed budget, I think the oral history project […]

ing historical facts and their interpretation. As a historian who has done research on this topic, Dr. Mace can present his findings to us. I do not see how we can carry out our mandate without a certain amount of basic scholarly research. Having worked for almost five years with Robert Conquest on the famine, […]

ments should be highly informative on the situation during the famine, and Professor Rakowsky has expressed interest in researching this material without-remuneration. The Ukrainian service at Radio Liberty in Munich also has individuals who could be very helpful. Ivan Hvat of Radio Liberty studied for the priesthood in Rome, has ex¬cellent contacts in the Ukrainian […]

declining level of Soviet health care since the 1960s, this is a .much smaller proportion of the population there than here, but it is still significant and its presence complicates Soviet attempts to simply deny that anything happened. For this reason euphemisms abound is Soviet scholarly literature, although some of the “historical fiction” is more […]

Mr. MARCHISHIN: Are there any questions?
Yes.
Dr. KUROPAS: I have two questions. You mentioned that the Commission was empowered to solicit and accept funds and services. Do you think there will be time today to discuss that a
little more fully as a separate item?
Dr.MACE: That is Item 6 of this or Item 5. Excuse me.
Dr. WERES: […]

also doing work which helps provide a basis for strengthening efforts. It can reinforce efforts to get the famine into the curriculum by carrying out scholarly work and by rais¬ing public consciousness.
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: May I say something?
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Yes.
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: I feel that the most important thing is to establish the legitimacy of the Ukrainian […]

Well, if I may, I’d like to add my comments. I don’t think that the Commission, as a major task of its duties, should be undertaking to prepare curriculum material. As I mentioned, I’m on the Commission for Eastern European History in New Jersey, and we are reviewing all of the textbooks that are used […]

Dr. MACE: Covering the press and Soviet disinformation? Well, I think most of the Commission realizes that we have one Commissioner who has published on this, and that’s you, Dr. Kuropas. You have done work on this, and I would hope that you would contribute in this respect There
are also other people who have worked […]

Dr. WERES: Yes, I have some questions. As for collecting funds, what organiza¬
tional hat would that be done under? Would that be the Famine Commission collect¬
ing funds, or would that have to be Friends of the Famine Commission type unit or a
local famine commemoration committee?
Dr.MACE: It could be either. Certainly Commissioners could create a Friends […]

Dr. KUROPAS: But I think our community really has to see some results first. We’re just getting started, and I think it might be a mistake to go to them now and say, “We need money,” when we still haven’t really done anything but meet.
Dr. WERES: Okay. Mr. Chairman, I did ask a specific question […]

So I would tend to lean in the direction of a separate Friends of the Famine Com¬mission type of organization.
Ms. VOLKER: As a follow-up now on this discussion, I feel that if the Commission now has started its work with release of a specific need, as was mentioned, be it for videotapes or for oral […]

through a lot of the commissions and says, “They can have the authority, but the money is going to be cut back.”
It’s such a minor amount that I don’t think that would happen, but right now every amount is being looked at
I would concur with the idea that you may want to raise some […]

Dr. WERES: Yes. Well, the point of that item in the memorandum I prepared, I think the main point is that Ukraine on paper is a sovereign state, has the constitution¬al authority to engage in foreign relations, which has been exercised to a very limited and formal degree through membership in United Nations, U.N.E.S.C.O. and […]

(No response) .
I’d just like to offer a motion then that the Chairman be given the authority to hire and terminate staff and to set salaries, with the advice and consent and counsel, I should say, of the public members of the Commission. Congressman GILMAN: Second.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: There is a motion and it has been seconded. […]

Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay. I think if there is no other discussion on this point, I think the consensus is that it’s an avenue that’s worth exploring, and using the oppor¬tunities of the very shortly to be established consulate in Kiev and to explore how the Soviet-Ukrainian government and their Academy of Sciences would react to […]

chives makes this a particularly promising area for research. This aspect of the matter
is ever timely, as the proper response to genocide is a problem frequently encountered
in the conduct of our foreign policy. .
(3) Has genocide, particularly by famine, been institutionalized by the Soviet Union and its client states? Is Ukraine in the 1930s a precedent […]

Keeping in mind the primary source of support for the public law, Le. the Ukrainian-American community, we have an obligation to, in general, provide more factual infor¬mation to the masses on the Ukrainian famine and to clarify provocatory rebuffs, misinformation, and individual questioning of the famine’s authenticity which has recently taken form in some circles […]

sion, I strongly recommend working with community based, governmental, and private organizations that would aid our commission in fulfilling its legal mandate.
Mr. FEDORAK: Well, the memorandum is before you. I’d like to call your atten¬tion to the four items which I am proposing for us to take into consideration, and namely, as they relate to […]

sion, I strongly recommend working with community based, governmental, and private organizations that would aid our commission in fulfilling its legal mandate.
Mr. FEDORAK: Well, the memorandum is before you. Id like to call your atten¬tion to the four items which I am proposing for us to take into consideration, and namely, as they relate to […]

without the Department being able to take any particular official action in composing a textbook or requiring a school district to accept it
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay, are there any other memoranda besides mine?
Dr. WERES: Mr. Chairman.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Yes. I’m sorry.
Dr. WERES: Point of information regarding Mr. Fedorak’s memorandum. I have here Myron Dolors Execution by Hunger, […]

Dr. MACE: If I may comment, there is certainly no legal prohibition on this Com¬mission’s meeting in any place it so desires, and it specifically calls for hearings being held outside of Washington. Rather, the by-laws specifically call for that
I wish only to caution Dr. Kuropas that it may be rather difficult to get particularly […]

financed? Would Commission funds be available or would we have to raise local funds?
I mean are there rules, restrictions on what kind of hearings we can have?
Dr. MACE: As of this time, there arc no restrictions that have been adopted. Any
member or members may conduct hearings at the direction of the Chairman. So […]

Ukrainian famine, a specific unit on the Ukrainian famine, be included, I think this is a tremendous opportunity that we should try to take advantage of.
Dr. KUROPAS: I think that’s really unrealistic at this point because textbook publishers publish once every two to three years, and most textbook publishers look to two states, the State […]

Dr. WERES: I would like to clarify and dispel some possible misconceptions. When I was speaking about fund-raising, the question of restricted versus unrestricted, what I had in mind, I can foresee a situation in which Ukrainian organizations in California may decide we urgently need a professionally written curriculum unit, and this is something that […]

MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
[…]

the British government broke off diplomatic and economic ties with the Soviet Union (May 27,1927), thereby dealing a severe blow to the Soviet economy.
Feeling threatened, the Russians decided to decrease Soviet Russia’s economic de¬pendence on
areas beyond its borders, and to make the Soviet Union a world power. To execute this plan, Russia needed Ukraine’s resources […]

economic base, similar to that of Ukraine, but one which would lie in the middle of Russia, far from external threats. The Ural-Kuznets Basin was to become such a base.
At this time, it is noteworthy to point out, that the start of the implementation of the first five-year plan (1928) coincided with the establishment […]

But Soviet Russia’s greatest blow to Ukraine was through the famine-genocide which lasted from the spring of 1932 to the autumn of 1933.
The famine was generated by relentless requisitions of grain and food products, under circumstances of indescribable terror. In order that the famine produce the desired results, villages were isolated from towns, and Ukraine […]

in the East, which has become the pride of our country .,{and) we have now raised the defense capabilities of the country to the desired levels.”14
In his report, No. 74/106 of May 31, 1933 entitled The Famine and the Ukrainian Question, the Italian consul in Kharkiv, Gradenigo, wrote that the famine was in-stituted with the […]

GUIDELINES FOR PUBLIC COMMISSIONERS INTERESTED IN HOLDING HEARINGS
1. Know Your Witnesses
The first step is to know your witnesses. As you are aware, many witnesses are reluctant to talk about the famine under any circumstances. For this reason, the greatest difficulty will be in getting people to talk about their experiences. However, before proceeding any farther, you […]

9. Get to the Hearing Room Early. Make Sure There is a Press Table in the
Room.
10. Be Prepared with a Typed Statement, Questions, and Have a Clear Idea of What You Want to Accomplish.
The Staff Director will fly to the hearing site the day before the hearing to help with last minute details, […]

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MEETING AND HEARING
The commission met at 10:37 a.m.
Wednesday, October 8, 1986
Cannon House Office
Building
Room 340
Washington, D.C.

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
HON. DANIEL A. MICA, Chairman
UNDERSECRETARY GARY L. BAUER
HON. WILLIAM BROOMFIELD
AMBASSADOR H. EUGENE DOUGLAS
MR. BOHDAN FEDORAK
HON. BENJAMIN GILMAN
HON. DENNIS HERTEL
DR. MYRON KUROPAS
MR. DANIEL MARCHISHIN
MS. ULANA MAZURKEVICH
MS. ANASTASIA VOLKER
DR. OLEH WERES
ALSO PRESENTS
DR. ROBERT CONQUEST, Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution,
Stanford University
DR. JAMES E. MACE, Staff Director
DR. OLGA SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV, Staff Assistant
MS. SUE ELLEN WEBBER, Staff Assistant
WITNESSES:
MS. VARVARA DIBERT
MS. […]

PROCEEDINGS
Congressman MICA: The Commission on the Ukrainian Famine will come to
order.
Let me just start out with a little bit of an apology; Dr. Mace specifically and espe¬cially set this meeting today because it was a week after the Congress would adjourn. I was to have been in Florida all weekend and Monday and […]

And with that, let me call on Dr. Mace here to give us a staff progress report. I have, incidentally, asked him to keep you advised of the progress, where we are going, and the outline that we have for the ultimate report that we hope to publish.
Dr.MACE: Thank you.
[…]

perished directly or indirectly due to lack of food. However, Duranty’s questionable behavior should not be projected upon colleagues such as William Henry Chamberlin of the Christian Science Monitor whose frank reporting of the famine was outstanding.
The third broad category of sources used in the famine study is the Soviet (especial¬ly Ukrainian) press of the […]

In addition to basic research, U.F.C, staff has acted as a resource to those who wish to prepare school curriculum materials on the famine. The excellent collection on the subject prepared by Commissioner Kuropas was compiled with staff advice and assis¬tance. Materials offered for the same purpose in California will also be sent to the […]

FY 1987 BUDGET (continued) OBJECT CLASSIFICATION
FY86 FY87 FY88
ESTIMATE ESTIMATE ESTIMATE
110 unobligated balance, start appropriation received ($400-$17G.-R.H.) unobligated balance, end
0 311 86
383 0 0
of year
ofyear (311) (86) 0
obligations
120 unobligated, start of year gifts from non-government gifts from government unobligated, end of year
obligations
72 225 86
0 2 0
2 0 0
0 0 0
(2) 0 0
1,799 0 0
263 1,536 0
gift receipts in dollars obligations
Mr. MARCHISHIN: While people are looking at the budget, members of the Com¬mission, perhaps some […]

of the correspondence to the State Department relating to the famine comes after our recognition, with the exception of letters sent as early as March and April 1933 by the Mennonite Central Committee in Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, which did inform the Department of State, and the Office of the President that, indeed, there was a famine […]

will be primarily for educators in Northern Illinois. You are all welcome to come. I will be passing out applications for those of you who may know of people in your home areas who may be interested in that particular institute.
So, thank you again, Dr. Mace, you are doing a wonderful job.
Dr. MACE: Thank you.
Mr. […]

TESTIMONY OF DR. ROBERT CONQUEST
It is an honor to give testimony to your Commission. And I have been asked to say something of the historical perspective in which the famine took place.
The Soviet assault on the peasantry, and on the Ukrainian nation, in 1930-1933 was one of the largest and most devastating events in modern […]

Their personal goods, pots and pans, clothes and boots, were looted by “activists .
Some 100,000 were shot The remainder (except for the very old who were left to their own devices) were evicted from their homes, and marched to the nearest railway. Huge lines of peasants converged on the trains which took two to three […]

gave the collectivized peasant a proportion of the product for his own consumption only after all state needs had been satisfied Those who took any product for themsel¬ves except as allotted to them were defined as enemies of the people, subject to sen¬tences of from ten years to death.
The collective farm system, still the Soviet […]

million tons of grain were now to be delivered. The figure was far beyond possibility. The Ukrainian Communist leaders protested, but were ordered to obey. As Vassily Grossman puts it, “the decree required that the peasants of the Ukraine, the Don and the Kuban be put to death by starvation, put to death along with […]

A census taken in January 1937 was suppressed, and the census board was shot as (in the words of official communique) “a serpent’s nest of traitors in the apparatus of Soviet statistics”; they had, Pravda stated, “…exerted themselves to diminish the popula¬tion of the Soviet Union.”
In Khrushchev’s time a later head of the Census Board […]

I don’t see it as Stalin wishing to kill all Ukrainians as such, as Hitler wished to kill all Jews, I would look on it, basically, as more like one of those ancient conquerors who laid a country waste, when a country was giving trouble-Genghis Khan or Tamer¬lane would lay waste to an area, burn […]

Dr. CONQUEST: They are still collectivized, the system is still the same. There are some prospects of and in some areas they have tried out family contract schemes, but still under the collective system, not really owning the land. But even that gives more incentive than they have had over this period.
Congressman GILMAN: There have […]

Congressman GILMAN: How long did that persist?
Dr. CONQUEST: Well, this ended virtually with the end of the famine itself. When they started to distribute some rations in May 1933, after the people had died out—is some villages everybody had died out, of course, and others fewer. It varied from 10 percent in some villages to […]

people wrote and said, particularly religious groups wrote the State Department saying “Mr. Chamberlin claims that 7-8 million people have been dying, could you tell us what the truth is?” They didn’t know, they had heard other people, including local Communists, saying nobody was dying.
And the State Department normally took the view “it is not […]

grains. Secondly, they had these large corridors in the villages capable of inflicting the famine.
But it is absolutely true, the Ukrainian operation is a separate and extra, and greater horror than the—
Mr, MARCHISHIN: It wasn’t a direct outcome of the collectivization, it was a
specific policy.
Dr. CONQUEST: A special operation.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Okay, there was […]

REPORT PRESENTED BY MS, SUE ELLEN WEBBER
Since my appointment in June as the Commission’s staff assistant in charge of oral history, I have been responsible for initiating the process of recording testimonies from famine survivors and eyewitnesses all over North America. My duties so far have included developing techniques for locating and contacting potential witnesses; […]

propriate. This method yields the greatest amount of qualitative information while en¬suring that we also obtain essential facts and statistical data. It helps the respondent feel at ease, an important consideration when dealing with such sensitive and potential¬ly traumatic material.
While the sample of interviews I have conducted personally is too small for detailed statistical analysis, […]

If not, I would like to go on. Sue Ellen mentioned that there are a few anonymous testimonies, but we also have the pleasure of non-anonymous personal testimonies. And we have, I think, four of them here with us today.
And I would like to ask first Varvara Dibert, who is presently living in Silver Spring, […]

mother would eat her ration if she saw her starving child looking pitifully at her. In 1933 the so-called “commercial bread” appeared in Kiev. You could buy a kilo for two and a half rubles. They would only let you buy one kilo a day, and the lines for this bread were so long that […]

TESTIMONY OF MS. TATIANA PAWLICHKA
In 1932,1 was ten years old, and I remember well what happened in my native vil¬lage in the Kiev region. In the spring of that year, we had virtually no seed. The com¬munists had taken all the grain, and although they saw that we were weak and hungry, they came and […]

The ground thawed, and they began to take the dead to the ravine in ox carts. The air was filled with the ubiquitous odor of decomposing bodies. The wind carried this odor far and wide. It was thus over all of Ukraine.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Thank you very much.
Congressman Hertel has joined us here, and I would […]

tensified and special brigades frequently came to search our household, confiscating first grain and later, all kinds of food. In the early spring of 1932 the whole family had to pitch in and look for food Four of us children went out to dig for sugar beets and potatoes left unharvested from the previous years’ […]

Mr, DANILENKO: Well, it preceded, perhaps, with a certain propaganda new Socialist order for which I was too young to comprehend. And based on that propaganda, it started to materialize in the direction of first, inviting to join the collec¬tive farms, inviting I say, but in fact they did say it was a voluntary thing, […]

out continued to decrease, and in the winter of 1933 I, as a dependent, received 200 grams (seven ounces) of black bread per day. My mother, brother, and sister received the same ration. Bread was, and still is, the main source of nourishment for the Soviet population. For comparison, let’s consider the daily ration of […]

nitsky) there was no first-year class for the 1940-41 school year because the birth rate in 1933 bad been near zero. In 1953-54 the Soviet navy also experienced shortages of healthy servicemen because of the low birthrate in 1933 in Ukraina The require¬ments for the service in the navy were reduced because otherwise it was […]

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the Soviets that they resorted to the famine. They had tried so many other things, that they took this most horrible of all actions, because so many of the people had tried to
stand up against them.
Mr. KARAVANSKY: In the year 1922 the whole Ukraine and the peasantry in other republics, for instance in Turkistan, […]

how important it is to have this commission, to have this record, to have this informa¬tion reach the entire world.
And we thank you very much.
That’s it, we will adjourn the commission meeting. Thank you.
Oh, go ahead, sir.
Mr. MARCHISHIN: Yes, I wanted to, before we adjourned, we didn’t feet anything on any future date. We have […]

HEARING
The commission met at 2:36 p.m.
Sunday, October 26,1986
Verkhovyna Ukrainian Cultural Center
Route 31
Glen Spey, New York

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, Chairman MR. DANIEL MARCHISHIN MS. ULANA MAZURKEVICH
ALSO PRESENT:
DR. JAMES E. MACE, Staff Director
DR. OLGA SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV, Staff Assistant
ASSEMBLYMAN WILLIAM LARKIN, Sullivan County, State of New York
WITNESSES:
MR. MICHAEL HERETZ
FATHER SERHIJ KINDZERIAVYJ-PASTUKHIV
MS. JULIA PASTUKHIV
MR. ZINOVIY TURKALO
MR. a
PROFESSOR JOHN SAMILENKO MR. WASYL SAMILENKO

PROCEEDINGS
Congressman GILMAN: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am sorry for the delay. We were organizing some of our witnesses. We welcome all of you to the open¬ing of our hearing of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine of the United States, and I deem it a pleasure to have with me today two of […]

Ukrainians, Hitler began his attempt to create a world free of Jews by killing every single Jewish man, woman, and child in Europe and decimating other minorities. The Jewish community in particular has come to realize that its tragedy is not simply its own affair, but a terrible lesson which belongs to the whole of […]

areas of considerable Ukrainian-American settlement The reasons for this is to provide not only a public forum for the Ukrainian-American community and issues connected with the work of this Commission, but it is an integral part of this Commis¬sion meeting its mandate of gathering evidence and of the members of the Commis¬sion having direct contact […]

Ms. MAZURKEVICH: As a member of the Ukraine Famine Commission it is our responsibility and your responsibility to help us to gather as much information as pos¬sible so that the great tragedy that occurred in 1932-33 will not be a footnote in his¬tory. Everybody knows about Hitler’s “final solution”. Everybody knows […]

What we want to do, as Ulana said, we cannot sit back and let this just be a piece of paper. There are those of you in this room who remember when we spoke to you before. The State Education Department had originally planned on putting out our pamphlets. We wouldn’t accept a pamphlet. We […]

STATEMENT OF MR. MICHAEL HERETZ
Mr. Chairman, the Commissioners, I would like to make you a few remarks about how this book […]

the people and has since then been increasingly applied in other Communists control¬led countries such as Poland during the Solidarity Movement, in Afghanistan and
Ethiopia.
We got wide support from some of the Legislators and from our Representatives in U.S. Congress. In particular, a solution was pressed-was introduced in the State As¬sembly and of course, and also […]

dents and the teachers would be sort of obligated or forced to study the subject. Otherwise it would be up to the local school district and up to the teacher.
Congressman GILMAN: So as it stands now, it still is a voluntary program.
Mr. HERETZ: Yes, sir.
Congressman GILMAN: Up to the community and the Department of […]

Michael Heretz before we conclude his testimony? If not, we want to thank you, Michael, for appearing with us today and for taking the time to explain just where we
are at on the curriculum series.
Mr. HERETZ: Thank you very much.
Congressman GILMAN: Now we are pleased to have as a witness Father Serhij Pas¬tukhiv, […]

Father, as we explore this issue, do you have any suggestions of how we can better teach these lessons. I take it you may not have had an opportunity to examine the cur¬riculum, but do you have any thoughts of how we in the community could do a better job of making certain that this […]

who survived while those who received dry crackers or dry food of any kind would be the first to die. Our parents would tell the children not to stray from home because terrible rumors circulated that children would be kidnapped and made into sausages.
At that time the incidents of theft increased. Even food which was […]

the beginning. When we moved to the area of Kharkiv in 1931, I was playing in a school band, in a school orchestra, and that was the only music in the whole area.
Party officials were sent from Moscow. They were called five thousand, ten thousand, twenty-five thousand later on, and many of them […]

Ms. MAZURKEVICH: And yet these children that were wandering around without any place to go without any food, was there any Soviet agency that took in these children that you know of? Who took these children? What happened to them?
Mr. TURKALO: If you remember the very first movie made in the Soviet Union-sound movie was […]

nesses, saddles, straps and breeches for harnesses and other equine equipment. They worked the leather by hand, which was an arduous task.
My father and thousands and millions of others like him were liquidated as a class. In October of 1929 my father was arrested and sent to Okhtyrka Prison, where he spend one and a […]

small children who were crying and screaming. Neighbors and relatives refused to allow us to spend the night in their homes, because they were afraid the same thing might happen to them. A kurkul, a subkurkul (pidkurkul’nyk) and a kurkul sympathizer (pobichnyk hlytaya) were all considered to be enemies of the people. Specially selected bandits-members […]

from them was emanating such a stench that I couldn’t stand it. The name of the vil¬lage was Katerynivka, which I discovered later. That is all my experience.
Congressman GILMAN: Thank you very much, Mr. B. Does anyone have any ques¬tions, any of our Commissioners? Mrs. Mazurkevich?
Ms. MAZURKEVICH: When you saw that village-when you walked into […]

father was arrested Before his arrest, my brother, Gregory, and I were expelled from school. My brother, Gregory, had only two months left before graduation from agricul¬tural school. I was studying in a teachers’ school but was also expelled and deprived of the right to study in any school in the Soviet Union.
And, finally I […]

woman on the floor, who pointed with her hand to her three dead children and hus¬band, all of whom died of hunger. In another house I found a man who told me that there had not been anyone in the village for a long time. He was very weak and couldn’t walk. He asked me […]

On our way to Archangel, we stopped at a station called Lepsha and there is where we were told to disembark. When the people who were interred in the cattle car came out, they were told to separate into two groups—the men on one side, the women and the children on the other ride. […]

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HEARING
The commission met at 2:00 p.m.
Friday, November 7,1986
Church Hall, Church of St. Volodymyr and St. Olha
Superior
and Oakley Streets,
Chicago, Illinois

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
MR. DAVID ROTH, Chairman
DR. MYRON KUROPAS
MS. ULANA MAZURKEVICH
DR. OLEH WERES
ALSO PRESENT:
DR. JAMES E. MACE, Staff Director
DR. OLGA SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV, Staff Assistant and Interpreter
WITNESSES:
MS. ANNA PYLYPIUK
MS. ANNA PORTNOV
MR. VALENTIN KOCHNO
DR. HELEN K.
MS.ALAINA B.
MR. STEPHEN C.
MS. LYDIA K.
MR. L KASIAN
MR. LEONID A.
MS. VALENTINA D.

PROCEEDINGS
Mr. ROTH: Ladies and gentlemen.
I declare this hearing in Chicago open, and I welcome you.
I am David Roth, an ex officio member of the Commission, and we have several public members of the Commission here. I will be asking them to introduce themsel¬ves and to make some opening statements.
My statement is brief. I think this […]

STATEMENT OF MS. ULANA MAZURKEVICH
It is very important far us to have these hearings. The work of the Commission will provide a documentation that has […]

Mr. ROTH: Is the early years, for those of us who did not know much about this great tragedy, in the early years of our learning about it, there was a point that Myron made that 1 thought was very telling and that was that this just didn’t happen to seven million anonymous people. […]

this order. Our house was searched several times and many of my father’s notes and books were confiscated.
One autumn night in 1929, on the feast of Mary the Protectress (old style), our house was thoroughly searched More books were confiscated while the remainder was destroyed My father was taken away in a “Black Raven” […]

forced to sell almost all of her shawls and the family’s rich embellished sheepskin coats in order to bribe the investigator, a Comrade Shidlovich or Shidlovski (I do not
recall his name exactly).
Once my stepmother was accused of conducting religious propaganda- As evidence of this, they pointed a shawl embroidered in a pattern resembling […]

quickly into wagons and drive them to the cemetery. Once there, men-punished for refusing to join the collective farm-were forced to dig graves for the bodies. The ac¬tivists did nothing but supervise. Once an old and very weak woman was about to be buried. She begged me in a whisper to fetch some water to […]

Grandfather died on Christmas Eve (old style) in January of 1934. We had a big problem burying him because it was a harsh winter. The ground was frozen solid. My stepmother turned to the collective farm and to the village soviet. She begged them to bury my grandfather because she lacked the means of resources […]

Ms. MAZURKEVICH: During that time, during the famine, you were saying you had a lot of unpleasantness with your schoolmates. Classes were going on then, and children were attending classes during this time?
Ms. PYLYPIUK: We were forced to go to school. We were forced to attend the school every single day. Feel like it […]

Ms. PYLYPIUK: Okay. Thank you.
Mr. ROTH: Thank you.
I understand our next witness will be Mrs. Anna Portnov, who is from Chicago now and who immigrated from the Soviet Union in 1978. She was recently awarded the title of Outstanding New American by the Metropolitan Chicago Citizenship Council. So, Mrs. Portnov, thank you for coming […]

In the town, I remember a woman peasant who used to sleep on the porch, all swol¬len, her face, her legs, her hands, wrapped in a big gray checked shawl. I always brought her something to eat, as I was hungry myself and I will never forget the haunted look of her red eyes. I […]

there are a lot of people that have been living here for such a long time that are afraid to speak up publicly. That is very commendable.
Let me ask you: When you were going to school then and the number of your classmates was always being decimated. The numbers were being lowered because of the […]

TESTIMONY OF MR. VALENTIN KOCHNO
Honored guests, ladies and gentlemen.
My name is Valentin Kochno. I have come from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. […]

started taking away their grain and foodstuffs. And later, what I can never forget as long as I live, they drove their two vehicles, “pidvody“, each carrying eight to twelve men. They were all komnezam members. They were riding with their legs hung over the sides, and with rifles they started from yard to […]

finally decided to kill the cow to use the meat, but that was the procedure to show the entire village what can happen, what everybody can expect later on.
In the spring of 1932, almost two-thirds of the villagers died from starvation. Our family was saved only because by the spring of 1932, we were all […]

We moved to Kharkiv in 1932, just in June. Already in the fall was similar situation and similar procedure what was in that village of Horodetsko: the same, but more massive. Because it is the capital, they were a little bit more careful because there were consulates from the West But it was hard to […]

We do have others, and they wish to testify only under their given names in order to protect relatives, and I think you will all understand that, still residing in the Soviet Union.
Our fourth witness will be known for the record as Helen K. of Chicago.
TESTIMONY OF DR. HELEN K. OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
I got the […]

around the table, and a baby was separated. They cooked the baby for food. It was
1932.
But strange enough, in my class there were children who came to school with fine
sandwiches, with all kinds of rolls and breads, sausages and cheeses. They were
children of party leaders. They did not starve. .
And in the […]

A few days later, the Dean called me and said, “Dr. K. you should not be saying anything against the Soviet Union because we want to remain in a friendly relationship.
Thank you for listening.
Mr. ROTH: Any questions?
Just one question. You went to school. What you are describing took place in a
city not in […]

rest of the peasants were scared to death and signed without wavering, because they feared exile to Siberia. This lasted two years.
Then 1931 began, Collective work started, brigades were formed, and chairmen, but there was no one to do the work. What was sown and planted, was harvested, everyone including small children were dragged into […]

neck She said sell them to me for some bread, I hated to part with them, but I happily answered, that I will sell them because I want to eat I don’t remember how much we got tor them, but she gave us some flour. Her name was Klita, she is still living and […]

TESTIMONY OF MS. LYDIA K. OF OAK LAWN, ILLINOIS
Mr. Roth, can they keep the answer of the gentlemen to the question you asked him about the common patient of everything because in my statement, see, my uncle was a doctor, and he sold his body. Okay, I’ll read the statement. My uncle told me that […]

cealed grain, but they took any food they could find. In December 1932, everything was taken except for what little we were still able to hide.
In January 1933, my parents sent me to stay with my uncle who worked as a doctor in a small town about fifty kilometers away. My brother took me […]

I personally saw people swollen from hunger and those who died from hunger. At that time, those who worked at the construction sites received food ration stamps mainly for bread. Workers received 800 grams, office workers 600 grams a day, children and only those of the parents who worked received meat, maybe one kilogram per […]

thing in the crack there that will open up. And sometimes we don’t know. You are absolutely right I don’t want to make excuses for it, and the questions do seem naive.
Thank you very much.
Do any of my colleagues have any questions?
The next person to testify will be Leonid A. of Chicago. Welcome.
TESTIMONY OF […]

police took everything back from them. People started dying along the side of the roads or lay swollen in their houses and died there.
There were cases where dead children were eaten by their parents. This was in the village of Haimany. People spoke of this. Those parents were arrested. In the village of […]

I do have one. Mr. A, you say there were cases where dead children were eaten by their parents, and then you mentioned the village. “People spoke of this and the parents were arrested.” You observed this? You saw this? Do you know what parents were charged with when they were arrested?
Mr. A: Yes. In […]

oldest, they said. I was not swollen. My mother was not either. However, the others were.
In 1976,1 decided to go and see my mother. At that time, she was 88 years old. Of the five children, only the youngest is alive. So when they asked her what happened to the others, she said, “Well, […]

dying. People with wagons and horses, and those that were staying at home. So later on everything was dear but, yet, they were taking, not that they were guilty, that they had committed a crime like over here when somebody will commit a crime; no, they were not, but the only reason is very simple. […]

(No response)
I want to thank you all. I, especially, want to thank those who testified because it takes a tremendous amount of courage. A number of us who work in different ethnic communities have in the past several years—sometimes it is hard to find the right word -had the privilege-privilege is not quite what […]

MATERIALS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
TESTIMONY OF MS. NINA K. OF COOK COUNTY, ILLINOIS
I am a U.S. citizen presently living in Cook County. I would like to give my testimony of what I personally lived through and saw during the great famine in Ukraine.
This occurred in the Novo-Prazhsky Raion, Kirovohrad Oblast. I was only 7 […]

Russia, in order to collect firewood to buy bread and flour. In 1932 I was fifteen years old, and I recall that my feet were very swollen. I remember people dying on the street and also instances, many instances of cannibalism. During the famine I remem¬ber an incident when a young priest was persecuted mercilessly […]

HEARING
The commission met at 4:00 p.m.
Monday, November 24,1986
Ukrainian Cultural Center
26601 Ryan Road Warren, Michigan

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT:
HON. DENNIS HERTEL, Chairman
MR. BOHDAN FEDORAK
MS. ANASTASIA VOLKER
MR. DENNIS McKEE, representing the Hon. William Broomfield
ALSO PRESENT:
DR. JAMES E. MACE, Staff Director
DR. OLGA SAMILENKO-TSVETKOV, Staff Assistant and Interpreter
WITNESSES:
REV. ALEXANDER BYKOVETS
DR. VALENTYNA SAWCHUK
MR. MICHAEL SMYK, also represented by MR. ANDREW SMYK
MS. MOTRIA S.
MS. MARIA N.
MS. ANASTASIA KH.
MS. TATIANA KARDYNALOWSKA

PROCEEDINGS
Congressman HERTEL: I’m Dennis Hertel I’m Congressman from this District, and also a Member of the Commission, and honored to be one. Because some of the members had to travel quite a distance, we’re going to refrain from opening remarks
at this time.
Let me introduce the other members of the Commission. On my right is Anastasia […]

My mother would mix all of these ingredients together along with the acorn coffee and. bake a sort of pancake using beeswax candles to grease the sauce pan. Once I heard someone shooting and saw a wounded crow falling to the ground from the church steeple. Before anything else could get it, I pursued it, […]

Congressman HERTEL: Thank you. Next we have Dr. Valentyna Sawchuk, a dentist from Hamtramck. Doctor, thank you for coming. I would tell members of the audience, we will have a staff member back here again in Detroit area before the Commission completes its wort At least, that’s our intention, and if there are other people […]

to work as a photographer, because you were not allowed to work privately. You had to work for an organization. So the famine of 1932-33 found my parents without jobs
and voting rights.
One day a group of people came to look for grain. They knew we could not have any, because we were not fanners. However, […]

a living witness and of the fact of their having food right there very clearly and starving the people. Any questions from the Commission?
Mr. FEDORAK: Dr. Sawchuk, could I ask you a question as far as who caused the famine, and what might have been the reason for it?
Dr. SAWCHUK: This I don’t know.
Mr. FEDORAK: […]

My mother said, “You can’t, because he passed away.” I say, “Well, then I go, and I visit his grave” She said, “No, you can’t, because he’s buried in an unmarked grave and no cross, nothing, not marked. There is no cross over his grave, but, other people survived.
Congressman HERTEL: Thank you very […]

by hunger. The small mining town became a cemetery for the majority of these people.
A dead human being, generally a man, lying on the street of the little town was a common sight at that time. By the way, men were dying first and then women. We men were bigger than women, but […]

Mr. FEDORAK: Professor Smyk, if you would be so kind as you remember, was
the famine widely spread over the U.S.S.R., or was it confined to a certain area?
Mr. SMYK: Would you please repeat this?
Mr. FEDORAK: Yes. Was the famine spread over the rest of the U.S.S.R., or was
it confined to the Ukrainian Republic? […]

Mr. SMYK: You are welcome.
Congressman HERTEL: Thank you, Mr. Smyk. We are going to ask you to give us
further testimony later on, on related issues.
Mr. SMYK: Right, thank you. .
Congressman HERTEL: Thank you for all your help. Next, we have Mrs. Motria S.
TESTIMONY OF MS. MOTRIA S. OF PARMA, OHIO
My name is Motria […]

pigs was prepared, and eventually learned to cull some of the grain used to feed the
pigs which I used to bake flat cakes.
One day, as we were baking the cakes, an activist walked by and caught a whiff of the smell As he entered the room, we threw the flat cakes behind the cauldron, but […]

in for the village farmers. The shock brigades equipped with sharp metal pikes, the kind utilized by farmers in haying, went from house to house poking the walk, search¬ing the cattle sheds and yards in an attempt to find grain, and seizing everything, including baked bread.
The brigades came to owners of individual homesteads who were […]

The house was filthy after the dekulakization. The window panes had been poked out and the holes stopped up with hay. The emaciated women with deep sunken eyes lay silent in a filthy bed. Yellow skin covered her bones, and she coughed up blood. The little girt did not attend school, because she lacked clothing, […]