I had the chance to see a remarkable documentary at New York City’s Ukrainian Institute last week. Genocide Revealed is dedicated to the topic of the Holodomor, the man-made famine that took the lives of millions, primarily in the Soviet Ukraine, in 1932/33. A key objective of those in the Stalin regime who organized this horror was the destruction of Ukraine’s sense of itself. A part of that process was the obliteration of the memory that it had even happened. In the former Soviet Union the true story of those years was suppressed, and, in the West, what little understanding there had been of these events soon faded away, helped on its way by the reassurances of the likes of the New York Times’s Walter Duranty that the famine was “bunk”.
Since the 1980s the Holodomor has come, however imperfectly, back in view. Genocide Revealed opens yet another window onto that too-long obscured past. In some senses it is a companion piece to Harvest of Despair, which was shown by WFB on Firing Line back in the 1980s. It features archival footage not available then, as well as recollections from some who survived and contributions from modern academics. A film like this would always be timely, but with the new(ish) Yanukovych administration in Ukraine seemingly set on muddying history once more, it is, perhaps, particularly needed now. It’s well worth checking out if you have the chance either on DVD or at the screenings that are arranged from time to time.