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Natalia Dziubenko-Mace on the anniversary of the Holodomor ‘To resurrect the truth, to come to terms with it, means to resurrect the Lord in oneself'

16.11.2012, 15:35
Natalia Dziubenko-Mace on the anniversary of the Holodomor ‘To resurrect the truth, to come to terms with it, means to resurrect the Lord in oneself' - фото 1
Interview with Natalia Dziubenko-Mace about the Holodomor and its commemoration.

Next week will be a memorial week. In Ukraine and countries with large and small populations of Ukrainians will prepare for memorial Saturday when they will commemorate the victims of famine and political repression. Moreover, it is a “jubilee” date – 80 years ago, in 1932, the Soviets began their most massive terror against us.

On the fourth Saturday in November, we traditionally light candles, pray and remember all the innocent victims – known and unknown. And also the author of this unifying initiative – one of the first researchers of the Ukrainian Holodomor, an American of Indian origin, James Mace. As is generally known, James Mace worked on the subject of the Holodomor at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, where, in particular, he helped Robert Conquest carry out research for Conquest’s book "The Harvest of Sorrow." From 1986 to 1990 he was executive director of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, led its daily work and drafted the conclusions of the commission. The conclusions clearly stated that the famine of 1932-33 in Ukraine was genocide against the Ukrainian people! This introduced our tragedy to the world. From 1993 and until his death in 2004, Mace lived here in Ukraine.

On the eve of honoring the sorrowful date, a RISU correspondent met with his wife Natalia Dziubenko-Mace. She was always a friend and colleague of James. And after his death, she has tried to continue his mission.

dzubenko_w.jpg- Mrs. Natalia, please share your vision of the situation of the returning of Ukrainians to their historical memory at the state and human levels. Take the time period from 2003, when your husband James Mace started the campaign “Candle in the Window,” until today.

- Events in 2003 are so etched in my memory that I sometimes confuse events eight years ago with what is happening now. The parallels are so striking that sometimes it seems that I have something wrong with my vision and hearing. Of course, something has changed. At least in the entourage. Then there was no polarization of the society into blue-white and orange. There was no Sieverodonetsk where a political force emerged with the aim of splitting the country. Pro-Russian voices were not sounded so loudly. And despite mutual hostility, neither pro-Kuchma nor anti-Kuchma speakers questioned state independence.

As a member of the commission for the commemoration of Holodomor victims, James was invited to the office of Viktor Yushchenko, where he not for the first time announced his idea of ​​a candle that Ukrainians would light and place in the windows of their homes on the day of mourning. He said it with not too much hope of understanding. But on the day of the gathering, apparently a bright angel flew over those present and his words were received with enthusiasm. A few days later he announced his idea at a hearing in the parliament. And finally in November 2003, Yushchenko led at St. Michael's Square the first mass commemoration of the 1933 Holodmor.

This aroused the public but not the press, except, of course, the newspaper Day, which initiated the campaign and closely watched all developments. There were just a few pictures in the pro-Kuchma publications, a few short reports on television. The government did not ignore this issue, but did not focus on it either. The fact of the death of millions of Ukrainians from an artificial famine should have become something extraordinarily striking, but it remains just another tragedy in our history. Because how does it stand out from the destruction of Baturin and the Zaporizhian Sich, or the death of students near Kruty, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the shooting of the Ukrainian revival or bloody catastrophe of WWII? It turned out that these and many other similar events can be grouped together, separated by commas. In this list between commas they tried to include the Holodomor. The main thing is what emphasis was put in the preamble and in the conclusions.

It has become fashionable to speak out against the politicization of history. There were calls to leave history to the professionals. Reset history and live day to day. And today Ukrainians must be friends with Russia, because no one is waiting for us in Europe. It's called pragmatic policy...

I often ask myself: why did James need such a terrible, Ukrainian wound, our tragedy? And every time I hear his voice: it is not only your pain, this tragedy is not only yours. The Holodomor is the focal point of Ukrainian history, but it’s a bitter reproach all around the world. Millions of people died, the world saw it and said nothing. Ignoring this tragedy will put an end to the government's ambitions for Ukraine as a country and the self-awareness of Ukrainians as a nation. Ultimately, here I must direct RISU’s readers to James’ articles, not understood to the end, and unread.

Has anything changed since then? Yes and no. Someone made ​​an effort and lit a tiny light in his window, and in his heart. And someone continues to wander in the darkness and spread the gloom of ignorance. And this does not depend on party affiliation. For deceitful words bring much evil, generate distrust and confusion. And at the state level ... And do the so-called statesmen even know the name of the country which they represent and which they serve?

- How can we achieve reconciliation between those whose relatives died from the famine, and those whose relatives served in the Soviet punitive organs, and who in these parliamentary elections voted for the Communists?

- It’s not so simple. Fracture in our society lies not there. There is great temptation to divide people into our own and not our own. Almost everyone has a great family trauma. Somebody's grandfather died of starvation, or was shot, someone shot and was killed as the Kolyma. The whole society is traumatized. We sometimes do not realize it, but genetic fear finds its way into spheres, which seem to have no relation to the events of 80 years ago. Fear breeds corruption because it has the acquiescence of society, fear feeds the national inertia, this list could go on for very long. This can be opposed only with a matured and seeing soul.

Historical memory is our eyes and our voices. I hope to live to see the time when on the sad day of remembrance of the victims of the Holodomor I will hear not the loud speeches of politicians but the quiet murmur of prayers of the whole nation for our immortal people who sowed and mowed, dug and collected, fed, nurtured, produced. Who paved the way to the stars, creating glowing churches and immortal books. And the candle that we will light will become the live spirit of our people. And we will finally unite – the living and the dead, those whose names we will utter and those whose we will hear tomorrow. Not as a duty, for the perpetual string of guardians, warriors, bakers, poets we shall incur a terrible punishment – to remember. And the holy duty – to remember.

- Mrs. Natalia, can the line from the Gospel "Know the truth and the truth will set you free" be applied to the Ukrainian Holodomor?

- The commandment of God is universal. In addition to all other spheres of human existence, it certainly applies to small and large human tragedies. And especially such large ones as the Ukrainian Holodomor. It is useless to seek something human in such monumental monsters as totalitarianism. It is the generation of absolute evil, and it brought Ukrainians material and spiritual hell. We must realize that it was endured by not only our parents and grandparents, but by us as well, their descendants. Everything is wrong, everything is not in its correct place. We call ourselves Christians, but from our vocabulary disappeared such words as forgiveness and humility. Love of thy neighbor. And, in fact, love. Love as a commandment of the Lord.

But love for one’s own people hurts. For love above all is memory. To remember means to search. To sever the web of space and time, contrary to the law of large numbers of people isolate themselves from the crowd and become humans, become a people. But memory hurts. And the truth that liberates us is unbearable. And are we right to direct our children, friends, and loved ones on this road? We live here and today we must go forward. Go ahead. To the future, in which, without understanding the past, the horrors that our people endured are possible.

Only the blind do not notice that history does not just move in a circle – our history has long seen stagnation. Some mystic déjà vu: we hear the words of politicians that were already said yesterday, fervent pleas - from yesterday, a discussion that has long run out of content. Note that all refer to history as the highest, most objective judge. Immediately, it appears that the judge is subjective and everyone has his own. And for everyone an acquittal is prepared. For twenty years we find ourselves in the tumultuous years of political casuistry, not noticing the simple truth – here on our earth a disaster happened, millions of peasants died, crushed by the communist Moloch. Poets, artists, scientists – the blossom of the nation, were destroyed in order to create some kind of bizarre, new type of man, an idea planned by a sick mind. The creators of this ideology put themselves in the place of God, killing Him in human souls. To resurrect the truth, to come to terms with it, means to resurrect the Lord in oneself. Then talk about reconciliation with one another will become redundant. Our history is bitter and painful, and it is our mirror, at which everyone should look seriously and carefully.

Interview by Nadia TYSIACHNA