“His works should be circulated among scholars”

Last Wednesday the Union of Ukrainian Writers hosted the launch of the electronic version of the book Day and Eternity of James Mace issued in a small run pegged to Feb. 18, Mace’s 55th birth anniversary.

The event was held on the initiative of Kyiv-based libraries, including the Lesia Ukrainka Public Library, to which Den/The Day’s editor in chief Larysa Ivshyna presented the first copy of the e-book. Among the many guests were writers, academics, journalists, musicians, James Mace’s widow Natalia Dziubenko-Mace, and students of National Taras Shevchenko University’s Teacher Training College. The honorable role of emcee was assigned to Mykola Som.

The print version of Day and Eternity of James Mace, published in 2005, was funded by the newspaper’s journalists. The book sold well, but no sponsor has offered to help republish the book. To make the book even more accessible to readers, it was decided to issue an electronic version that will be available on the Internet and for sale.

In her speech, Ivshyna also thanked the initiators of the event to honor Mace. “People should know more about James and consider what he did for Ukraine in order to help Ukrainians know their 20th-century history. James was an incurable optimist, and while he overcame all challenges, he felt a terrible pain from what he was seeing around him. He was between two pressures: his knowledge, on the one hand, and the ‘thrombi’ that clog our ‘body’ and don’t allow ‘natural blood circulation,’ on the other. Today, one of the greatest achievements is that the government is now supporting the memory of the Holodomor.

But in my view, it is not enough simply to remember and light a candle once a year. We must follow the example of the State of Israel, which managed to rally itself around its own catastrophe. I often hear it said that Ukrainians should go forward without looking back and try to see positive points in the past. I think it would be very fair to consider our memory of the Holodomor as an integral part of the history we have lived through - if we duly feel and reconsider it, we will be able to march further as a sound nation. Otherwise, we will again be stepping over the corpses of our compatriots. We must say that a reconsidered memory will let us climb new heights.”

Among the VIP guests was Borys Oliinyk. Speaking about the “Ukrainian of American origin,” as Mace was called, he said that “he has already entered not only our spiritual and sociopolitical atmosphere but our hearts. His courage and devotion in defending the rights of a people to which he did not exactly belong deserves admiration. He was one of the first to raise the question of the 1932-33 manmade famine.”

The audience heard Mace’s favorite song “Za bairakom bairak” set to the words of Taras Shevchenko and performed by Vitalii Moroz. A poem that the researcher’s widow Natalia Dziubenko-Mace dedicated to her late husband was recited by Meritorious Artist of Ukraine Borys Loboda.

Remembering James Mace and his contribution to helping Ukrainians grasp the true scale of the Holodomor-Genocide tragedy, the world-famous master of the microminiature, Mykola Siadrysty, noted, “Can you imagine the Japanese arguing in their parliament over whether bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? This can only happen in our country. The crowd is not aware of the famine; it doesn’t know what it is. But it must.”

QUOTES

Natalia DZIUBENKO-MACE :

“If Mr. Tsybenko and all those who are against the monument to James Mace only knew how indifferent I am to the question of whether or not a statue will be erected. What really matters to me is that James’s studies and articles should be discussed and used to awaken young minds. The existence or absence of a monument is the last thing I care about. What really worries me is that there are no young academics who can properly assess the theory of genocide studies. We need young, unbiased, and unblinkered minds that could work on and develop this subject.”

Serhii HALCHENKO , textologist and Ukrainian literature researcher:

“We must learn a lesson from James Mace. When he was researching the Holodomor, this scholar used both Ukrainian sources and foreign publications. So, in my opinion, his research needs no additional comment. He should be read and known, and this information should circulate among scholars.”

Mykola SOM , poet:

“As a lecturer at Ukraina University and a teacher at a rural school, I think it is necessary to conduct Mace classes, classes on our victories and defeats, and look into the future through Mace’s eyes. This is crucial.”