We Have Lost a True Ally!

Last year, I visited Geneva and exp lored the Red Cross Museum. I was impressed by its spacious exhibition halls and by their fundamental approach; I saw long mural lists of names, with the names of victims of major calamities and military conflicts included if numbering at least a thousand, specifying the date and the place in a given country.

I was shocked not to find an entry reading something like “Holodomor, Ukraine, some ten million victims,” and I told so to the organizing committee.

I believe that this lack of information in the West shows precisely how little the international community actually knows about Ukraine in the twentieth century and about its realities as an independent national state for the past twelve years. This is also graphic evidence of the Herculean effort undertaken by Prof. James Mace, a brilliant US scholar and a selflessly dedicated friend of Ukraine. Much has been said and written about his achieving a singular insight into this country, about his becoming perhaps a better Ukrainian than most, about his sharing the grief of the Holodomor victims in his own singularly empathic way. His own, very keen sense of justice must have been the reason for his decision to become a part of Ukraine. He wanted to expose that official conspiracy to remain silent on the Holodomor Manmade Famine; he wanted the tragic truth made public knowledge worldwide. It was a very hard task. We know that a number of his US counterparts remain Soviet-minded researchers specializing in Soviet history, that they are vague about singling out Ukraine with its disasters and national interests.

What Dr. James Mace witnessed in Ukraine, when visiting it for the first time and then spending a couple of years here, turned out a very dramatic experience, filling him with pain and a desire to do something to right the wrongs, as evidenced by his subsequent commentaries carried by the Den’ and the English-language digest, The Day. The sad fact remains that we in Ukraine are still a postgenocidal society. This truth explains practically everything, including the status of our national elite, the way the Ukrainian man in the street feels, our consciousness, and cultural standard. Prof. James Mace has accomplished a great deal for the good of our country. But do we know enough about this man? His ratings were high enough in the intellectual quarters, but can we be sure that his creative talent has been put to the best use in Ukraine? True, he was very much in the limelight; true, when he started collaborating with the The Day we all had received a friend and a powerful ally. For me, it was like starting a second front in a war for my country.

I would like to emphasize a campaign carried out by this newspaper last year, largely due to Prof. Mace’s support, aimed at revoking from Walter Duranty his Pulitzer Prize, which he received for publishing a pack of lies about the Holodomor. The response was on a very small scale, and this pained Prof. Mace’s heart, even though he knew why and had written about it, stressing that national independence was received by the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. However, he believed that efforts should be made and he clearly saw a solution to the problem. He was firmly convinced that Ukraine would have a very hard time as a polity unless it remained Europe-oriented, seeking allies elsewhere in the civilized world. He said that we Ukrainians should learn from our mistakes quicker, just as we should learn how to upgrade our society, so we could fit into the world rhythm, without losing our national identity, of course. As an American Indian, he warned us against the threat of Ukraine becoming marginalized, turning into a Ukrainian reservation of sorts in this cruel world. I do believe that all those that have learned from him, his students and colleagues, will do their utmost to promulgate his ideas.

Here at the The Day, we will do our best to help set up an international foundation to support this newspaper’s projects to publish Prof. James Mace’s papers and articles. I have discussed the idea of establishing an annual James Mace Award to be conferred on literary works and newspaper articles marked by sincerity and national dedication.

Dear James, you shall remain alive in our fond memories.