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 Catholic Church and would be in an excellent posi¬tion to examine materials in the possession of this church which was undoubtedly well informed about the situation in Soviet Ukraine during the famine. He could also be useful in trying to find documents of the Interconfessional Relief Committee, founded by Cardinal Innitzer of Vienna in 1933 , any German consular reports that may exist, and any records of the Drusag agricultural concession which operated in Ukraine and the North Caucasus before and during the famine.
5. In order to coordinate the efforts of such individuals and to have input from other scholars, I propose the creation of a scholarly council, the members of which would serve on a voluntary basis. I would suggest that Professor Martha Bohachevsky-Chomiak be named head of this council and that among its members be named Robert Conquest, Professor Rakowsky, Mr. Hvat, Professor George Kulchytsky, Professor Roman Szpor¬luk, Professor Tamara Miller, Mr. Ivan Bezugloff, Professor Dmytro Shtohryn and Professor Bohdan Krawchenko, Mr. Lev Kopelev, Dr. Vasyl Hryshko, Professor Mykola Stepanenko, and Professor John Samilenko.
6. Materials from the Soviet press of this period must be extensively utilized. Much of this has already been collected by Dr. Mace.
7. The Commission should consider having hearings outside Washington in areas with significant numbers of famine survivors, such as Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York. This might be one of the most effective ways in which the Commission can carry out that part of its mandate which calls for making the famine more broadly known.
8. The Commission should consider whether to relate the Ukraine famine to issues of continuing public policy concern. Among such issues are: a) the use of food as a weapon, b) genocide, c) the role of disinformation in the Soviet denial of the famine, and d) what the famine might teach us about the nature of the Soviet Union. The In¬stitute of the International Conference on the Holocaust and Genocide, based in Tel Aviv and with which Dr. Mace has worked in the past, should be kept closely informed of our activities through regular releases to its Internet newsletter.
9. Dr. Weres s idea of approaching the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian S.S.R, is
extremely interesting. However, Academician B. M. Babil’s August 1985 article on the
subject in the Soviet newspaper Radianska Ukraina, as Dr. Mace points out, would
tend to give little hope for a positive response, since the author portrays Western at¬
tempts to study the famine as “a new form of psychological warfare against the
U.S.S.R.”. Incidentally, Soviet works refer only to “food supply difficulties which had
their place in the history of our country in the 1930s”. Such “difficulties” are attributed
to bad weather, lack of experience in carrying out large-scale socialized agriculture,
sabotage by class enemies, and “incorrect planning and carrying out of the agricultural
procurements campaign”. It should be remembered that the famine is a very touchy
issue with the Soviet government, and the latter will continue to try to muddy the
waters. However, everyone residing in the Ukrainian S.S.R, in its pre-1933 borders
and in the Northern Caucasus over the age of sixty remembers 1933. Because of the