The Holodomor Genocide lives on

[mendeleyev]

The Holodomor wasn't just some isolated event in the past. It is still felt today. In 2012 Ukrainians are still dealing with the impact of Stalin's brutal, deliberate and systematic murder of Ukrainian farm families. This the topic of today's Mendeleyev Journal:

Near Dnepropetrovsk in Ukraine is a women's monastery and church that Christian believers have been working to revive. Founded in 1881 the Holy Synod granted that the monastery could be established to meet the medical needs of the community and for sheltering destitute women and children. "In the village of Alexander to establish a reckless female community in the name of Our Lady of the Sign with the name Свято-Знаменский женский монастырь (Holy Znamensky Women's Monastery) with that number of nurses, which the community will be able to provide at his own expense."



The monastery was the idea of a wealthy widow, the hereditary noblewoman named Catherine P. Vasilenko who used her inheritance to fund the construction and staffing of the monastery. In 1901 construction began on the monastery in 1903 the monastery was incorporated as women's convent. In 1904, a nun named Ekaterina Pavlovna the biblical name of Elizabeth and was elevated to the rank of abbess of the convent.





By the early twentieth century, the monastery had 250 nuns, 5 buildings, brick and candle factories to offer employment to destitute women, a windmill, a bakery, and creamery. The monastery operated a shelter for girls from poor families and orphans as well as a school for the children of the area's poorest farmers. The monastery had a huge garden (if you can call 500 acres just a "garden") with milling for wheat, fruit tree orchard and flowers. God had in providence blessed the monastery with some of the richest growing soil in southern Ukraine.





Throughout its history Znamensky Convent cared for the needs of the surrounding region. Then came the Soviet revolution and the monastery entered a period of desolation and decline as the Soviets and Stalin began the shame of  what is called today the Holodomor Genocide, the brutal murder by systematic and deliberate starvation of Ukrainian families who resisted Stalin's collectivization of farms. By 1927 the monastery was closed. The Soviets dynamited the  town's Cathedral of the Transfiguration and turned the small monastery church into a gym. The job creating factories were closed and the buildings converted into a larger school.



The tomb of the first abbess was desecrated and her relics were thrown out. However pious villagers moved her remains to another village church where they are stored until now. Locals still honor her sacred memory. By the end of the 90s the monastery was ruins with overgrown bushes, garbage, weeds and old trees littering the property. In 1997 the government returned the property to the church and with the blessing of the Archbishop of Dnipropetrovsk a small group of nuns and villagers began the restoration of the monastery. The work of restoration has been done via donated funds and labour but still much is needed to be done.





The destruction was so great, and the recovery so complicated that the abbess Abbess Barbara has appealed to every Christian person to consider assisting with the project.  At present, the monastery in dire need of the following building materials:

1. Roofing materials
2. Metal (valves, channels, angles, tubes, electrodes)
3. Cement
4. Waterproofing materials
5. Foam insulation materials
6. Boards/lumber
7. Tile for flooring
8. Laminate;
9. Plumbing fixtures (sinks, faucets, toilets)

   



Those wishing to contribute to the revival of the monastery, please refer to the abbess Abbess Barbara on mobile telephone 38 - (097) 215-48-87. Please remember the time differences if you live in the West. There is an 10 hour difference from Los Angeles or 7 hour difference from New York.

If you'd rather contact the Archbishop's office, it is in Dnipropetrovsk:



49070,Украина,
г.Днепропетровск,
Красная площадь 7,
Управление Днепропетровской Епархии Украинской Православной Церкви

The link for Russian readers is http://www.eparhia.dp.ua/news.php?id_news=1977

(photo credits: A. Dombrovsky)

[nicknick]

The Holodomor wasn't just some isolated event in the past. It is still felt today. In 2012 Ukrainians are still dealing with the impact of Stalin's brutal, deliberate and systematic murder of Ukrainian farm families. This the topic of today's Mendeleyev Journal:

There was one western journalist that reported this from Ukraine at the time and he is the subject of a TV programme tonight on BBC called ''Hitler, Stalin and Mr Jones''.

The Welsh reporter Gareth Jones was in Ukraine between 1930 and 1933 and did a lot to publicise in the west what was happening there.

He was then killed a year later in mysterious circumstances, allegedly at the hands of the NKVD.

One of the reasons that he ended up there is that his mother used to work in the town that later became known as Donetsk when she was younger.

In 2008 he was posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit in recognition of his work.


It's an interesting story and, for those that can't get BBC tv here are some links:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7742330.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-18691109

http://www.garethjones.org/

[Larry]

There was one western journalist that reported this from Ukraine at the time and he is the subject of a TV programme tonight on BBC called ''Hitler, Stalin and Mr Jones''.

The Welsh reporter Gareth Jones was in Ukraine between 1930 and 1933 and did a lot to publicise in the west what was happening there.

Quite a contrast with New York Times reporter Walter Duranty, who knew about the famine but actively covered it up:

This visitor has just completed a 200-mile trip through the heart of Ukraine and can say positively that the harvest is splendid and all talk of
famine now is ridiculous.

http://www.ukrainiangenocide.org/dcur7coverup.html

This denial and suppression was made in official Soviet propaganda from the very beginning and until the 1980s. It was supported by some Western journalists and intellectuals.[4][5][11][12][13] It was echoed at the time of the famine by some prominent Western journalists, including Walter Duranty and Louis Fischer. The denial of the famine was a highly successful and well orchestrated disinformation campaign by the Soviet government.[3][4][5] Stalin "had achieved the impossible: he had silenced all the talk of hunger... Millions were dying, but the nation hymned the praises of collectivization", said historian and writer Edvard Radzinsky.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denial_of_the_Holodomor

Duranty won a Pulitzer prize for his reporting from the Soviet Union.  The Pulitzer Prize Committee refused to revoke it:

In its review of the 13 articles, the Board determined that Mr. Duranty's 1931 work, measured by today's standards for foreign reporting, falls seriously short. In that regard, the Board's view is similar to that of The New York Times itself and of some scholars who have examined his 1931 reports. However, the board concluded that there was not clear and convincing evidence of deliberate deception, the relevant standard in this case.

http://www.pulitzer.org/durantypressrelease

Louis Fischer, reporter for the lefty rag "The Nation" in New York City, was apparently also guilty of covering up the nature of the famine.

[mendeleyev]

This visitor has just completed a 200-mile trip through the heart of Ukraine and can say positively that the harvest is splendid and all talk of
famine now is ridiculous.

Larry, you are right of course and the most ridiculous part of his reporting was that Russian poet Osip Mandelstam mentioned above had been on vacation with his wife Nadiya and in returning to Russia from Ukraine was horrified at what the plainly saw. It sickened Mandelstam, yet seemed to not even phase Duranty.

[mendeleyev]

It's an interesting story and, for those that can't get BBC tv here are some links:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/7742330.stm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-18691109

http://www.garethjones.org/

Thank you, Nick!

[Contrarian]

Bump.

I’m giving this one a bump for those who like to read about history and in particular for Lord of the Dance.

This one is very well written by a former poster who is a professional journalist.