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12 March 2008 14:40

The Ukraine 3000 Foundation awarded the winners in the contest dedicated to the Manmade Famine of 1932-1933

March 12, 2008, the Ivan Honchar Museum Ukrainian Folk Culture Center hosted the awards ceremony of the Second Contest of Posters on the Holodomor Manmade Famine 1932-1933 and Second Journalists’ Contest for the best coverage of Holodomor in mass media.

Among the participants of the Event were Head of the Supervisory Board of the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation Kateryna Yushchenko, Dputy Minister of Ukraine for Culture and Tourism Olha Bench, Acting Head of the SSU Valentyn Nalyvaychenko, panel members: Director of the Documentaries and Feature Film Department at the NTCU Viktor Deriuhin and correspondent with the Ukrayina moloda [Young Ukraine] newspaper Yaroslava Muzychenko, renowned public figures, scholars, and Ukraine 3000 Foundation members.

Addressing the audience, Mrs. Yushchenko described the Ukraine 3000 Foundation’s activities in the areas of Holodomor research and revealing the truth about this tragedy in Ukraine and abroad. She recalled that the Lessons in History: the Manmade Famine of 1932-1933 program was one of the first Foundation’s projects, and described the program’s attainments since its launching.

“We want the world to draw conclusions from what had happened and learn the horrible lessons of the Holodomor famine, artificially organized on the most fertile land in the world,” she said. “The Holodomor famine was one of the tools of the totalitarian Soviet regime, a way to fight dissidents, to destroy a whole stratum of Ukrainian culture and mentality, Ukrainian peasantry, and thus, the basis of the Ukrainian state.”

Mrs. Kateryna said that the contests on the theme of Holodomor had aroused a considerable feedback in the Ukrainian society. “I am glad that around 200 renowned artists along with beginners and art schools’ pupils have sent their works to our Candle in the Window contest of posters on Holodomor. I am grateful to the 60 journalists who have highlighted this subject in their writing and broached some new aspects of these problems,” Mrs. Yushchenko said addressing the winners.

In addition, Mrs. Yushchenko said that the Ukraine 3000 Foundation announced the start of the Third Candle in the Window contest of posters on Holodomor and Third All-Ukrainian Contest for journalists for the best coverage of Holodomor in mass media. The competitions will last till November 2008, with results to be announced by the 75th anniversary of Holodomor.

Speaking about the Ukraine 3000 Foundation’s further steps in exploring this tragic page of Ukraine’s history, Mrs. Yushchenko said that the Fund was planning to publish in 2008 a collection of documents  containing statements and reports by workers of foreign representative offices and trade missions operating in Ukraine in the 1930s. She also said that the Fund was intending to publish an extra edition of Valentyna Borysenko’s The Candle of Memory: Oral History of the Genocide against the Ukrainians and the Declassified Memory collection of documents from the SSU archives to be distributed among Ukrainian educational institutions. Mrs. Yushchenko voiced her hope that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine would support the said initiative.

The Candle in the Window contest of posters on Holodomor was initiated by the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation in 2003. Its major task is creating new symbols to commemorate the Holodomor Manmade Famine of 1932-1933 and popularizing those already existing. The Second Contest was held from May till October 2007. Around 200 works were submitted by professional artists along with students of the art and secondary schools. The contest’s geography embraces all Ukraine from Lviv to Kharkiv, with Poltava oblast schools, the 4th Block Graphic Artists’ Union (Kharkiv), and students of the Design Department t the Kharkiv State Design and Arts Academy being its most active participants. The results of the competition were announced December 11, 2007.

The Second Journalists’ Competition for the Best Media Coverage of the Manmade Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was founded also in 2003. The major task for its participants is bringing truthful information on the Holodomor tragedy to the Ukrainian people, best coverage of this subject in Ukrainian mass media, and involving the general public into commemorating the Holodomor victims in all Ukraine’s regions. The Second Journalists’ Contest took place from May till December 2007. 170 newspaper articles in 40 regional newspapers, 18 documentaries by nine district and oblast TV studios, 18 radio shows on 6 TV & Radio companies, and 7 web-articles were submitted to the contest. The winners were announced January 30, 2008.