About Holodomor through the eyes of journalist Ria Klaiman

October 17, 2017 in the meeting hall of the Academic Council of the Igor Sikorsky KPI, at the initiative of the Department of History of the FSL, was given a lecture by the famous historian, acting head of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studios at the University of Alberta Yaroslav-Igor Balan, "Ria Klaiman: The Forgotten Witness of the Holodomor 1932–1933."

The scientist told about his scientific research in the archives and study of press materials of the 1930s, which he devoted many years of his life. It was about the fate of Ria Klaiman, a Canadian journalist who was one of the first foreign journalists who truthfully describe famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933 in her correspondence.

The scientist explained why the world never heard the journalist, who screamed about the famine in Ukraine. Ria's articles were printed in Canada and Great Britain - she wrote for the "The Toronto Telegram" and "London Daily Express". Therefore, the publicity from them was much weaker than the publicity from the material of Walter Duranty, who in 1933, in an article for "The New York Times" and other publications denied the fact of the famine in Ukraine and the USSR. But Ria Klaiman saw the tragedy through her own eyes, because she worked in the USSR for nine months... an assistant to this journalist.

Walter Duranty's position was that there were problems in the USSR, but the system worked in general. Then the Soviet Union was little known in the world, so they listened to his opinion. And then Ria, after her expulsion from the Union, wrote two dozen articles about the Holodomor. These materials were printed, people read them, but they were lost in the general flow of history. In addition, the Second World War began soon and its course and scope ousted the circumstances of the Holodomor, which destroyed millions of Ukrainians, from the consciousness of humanity.

Yars Balan described the biography of her heroine in detail and noted that she came to Moscow with a sincere faith in the ideas of communism, but seeing their practical implementation, she did not prevaricate and in her materials she wrote truthfully about the difficult realities of the life of Soviet society in the 1930s.

The meeting was attended by students and lecturers of many faculties and institutes - FSL, FICS, VPI, FAM, ISCIS and others - the hall was overcrowded. The pro-rector for scientific and pedagogical work, Petro Oleksiyovych Kyrychok, the head of the Department of History Svitlana Olexandrivna Kostyleva, the communications director of the Canadian Charitable Organization " Ukrainian-Jewish meeting" Natalia Feduschak, the representative of the "Ukrainian-Jewish meeting" in Kiev Vladislav Grynevych addressed them with greetings.

After the lecture there was a discussion and then review of the documentary film "Famine for Truth" (Ukraine-Canada, 2016), created by the Canadian director Igor Tkach on materials provided by Yars Balan.
S.O. Kostyleva

(Переклад Цвик Н.П. ЛА-42)