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14 OUR LIFE • December 2022 UNWLA Branch 75 sponsored a presentation on Sunday, Novem - ber 6, that discussed the Holodo - mor of 1932–1933 and parallels between Joseph Stalin’s genocide of 90 years ago and the genocid - al war on Ukraine currently be - ing waged by Vladimir Putin. The event took place at the Ukrainian American Cultural Center of New Jersey in Whippany. Karen Chelak, education chair of Branch 75, who is also financial secretary on the UNWLA Nation - al Board, opened the program by underscoring that the UNWLA had been in the forefront in pro - testing the genocide being com - mitted in Ukraine in 1932–1933. Ninety years later, she said, we have assembled a panel of ex - perts to speak on the topic “His - tory, Trajectory and War Update.” Mrs. Chelak organized the Whip - pany event as well as the pres - entation held a day earlier at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York. The international panel of speakers was composed of Roman Serbyn, professor emeritus of Russian and East European history at the Uni - versité du Québec à Montréal; Vic - toria Malko, faculty member of the Department of History and coor - dinator of the Holodomor Studies Program at California State Uni - versity, Fresno; Andrew Stuttaford, an editor at National Review who has written for such publications as The Wall Street Journal ; and Olena Muradyan, dean of the Faculty of Sociology at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. The moderator for the discus - sion was Victor Rud, an interna - tional attorney whose articles about Ukraine and foreign affairs have been widely published. He also happens to be the son of a Holodomor survivor. In his intro - ductory remarks, Mr. Rud under - scored that what is taking place in Ukraine today is not merely a Ukrainian issue, but one with huge international ramifications. Prof. Serbyn focused on the definition of “genocide,” a term coined in 1944 by Raphael Lem - kin, the initiator of the Conven - tion on the Prevention and Pun - ishment of the Crime of Genocide that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. The Convention reads: “... genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, ra - cial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculat - ed to bring about its physical de - struction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Prof. Serbyn explained that Lem - kin spoke of the Holodomor as “the classic example of Soviet genocide, its longest and broad - est experiment in russification – the destruction of the Ukrainian nation.” This genocide was a four- pronged attack on the Ukrainian nation: first on the intelligent - sia – the nation’s brain; second on the clergy – its soul; and third on the farmers – its spirit. The fourth step was the “fragmenta - tion of the Ukrainian people” by the addition to Ukraine of foreign peoples and by the dispersion of Ukrainians, thereby changing the country’s ethnic composition. Stalin “could not simply destroy 30 million to 40 million Ukraini - ans,” but he needed to erase the Ukrainian nation, Prof. Serbyn stated. And this, he said, “is what Branch 75 Sponsors Presentation on Holodomor Roma Hadzewycz , Membership Chair, Branch 75, Maplewood, NJ Photo: Russ Chelak Approximately 75 people attended the event. and Russia’s Current Genocidal War on Ukraine
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