Uncovering the truth about the Holodomor genocide

RECORD PHOTO BY AUSTIN GRABISH

The Canadian Museum for Human Rights held an educational event on the Holodomor genocide on Feb.4. Signs written in Ukrainian outlined facts for Ukrainian attendees.  

By Austin Grabish, the Selkirk Record 

As million of starved corpses littered the Ukrainian countryside during the 1932 - 1933 Holodomor genocide Canadians at home were kept informed about the deliberate mass starvation while people living abroad were left in the dark due to a repressed media.

“Canadians weren’t ignorant of what was going on,” said Jars Balan, a researcher with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian studies at the University of Alberta.

Jars gave a presentation on the media’s role in covering the Holodomor to a packed audience at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights on Feb.4.

Extensive research on newspapers that covered the Holodomor revealed a fascinating divide in the way the genocide was portrayed in the media.

Some newspapers tried to downplay what was happening in Ukraine and many journalists were repressed by the Soviet regime, which was deliberately starving the people of Ukraine under the leadership of Joseph Stalin.

But in Canada the hard facts about the Holodomor famine, which would claim millions of lives, were hitting the presses regularly.

“I don’t know how you could read the press and not be aware of these kinds of articles,” Jars said.

Several major Canadian newspapers like the Toronto Telegram and the Toronto Star were covering the famine in Ukraine and devoted prime coverage to it.

In Manitoba both the Winnipeg Free Press and the former Winnipeg Tribune were covering the famine.

“There was a market for this information so they gave it a lot of attention,” Jars said.

But not every influential news outlet was reporting the facts of the genocide.

Walter Duranty, a foreign correspondent with the New York Times, was sympathetic to the Soviet Union and regularly reported false information about the Ukrainian famine.

Duranty asserted that although there were some fatalities in Ukraine most were brought on by malnutrition.

He would later win a Pulitzer Prize for his work.

A 1990 editorial by the New York Times said Duranty’s work “was some of the worst reporting to appear in this newspaper.”

“In his articles he distorted the truth,” a video at last Wednesday’s event said.

“He wrote what the Soviets wanted,” the video said.

But it wasn’t just Duranty who tried to conceal the truth.

Jars said communists along with Canadian businessmen helped to deflect attention away from the famine. “Because there’s a dollar to be made,” he said.

In Manitoba there was a particular interest in the famine because of the Winnipeg grain market, which had its prices influenced by the events in Ukraine.

An analysis of Winnipeg media at the time revealed “both good and bad” reporting, Jars said.

“There was a lot of stuff.”

East Selkirk resident Myron Tataryn attended the event and called it “eye-opening”.

He said he’s surprised there hasn’t been more information about the Holodomor in the public sphere. 

“I feel like no one knows about it even though it was one of the worst genocides in human history,” Tataryn said in a Facebook message.

Jars said based on the research he has done the Canadian press did a better job of covering the Holodomor when compared to other countries like the U.S.

He said the Holodomor should serve as reason for citizens to question what they’re being told in the press.

“You should treat everything with skepticism, but as well you have to come to terms and rely on certain sources of information,” Jars said.

“Even a free press is open to manipulation planted stories, botched stories, disinformation.”

“These issues are as topical today as they were back then so it’s important for us to be aware,” he said.

-- First published in the Selkirk Record print edition February 26, 2015 p.13