Famine Info

[NZman]

Historian: Times 1932 Pulitzer Undeserved
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Times, 23 October 2003

NEW YORK (AP) -- A 1932 Pulitzer Prize awarded to The New York Times should be revoked, according to a historian hired by the newspaper to review the winning work, which has been questioned for years.

A subcommittee of the Pulitzer Board has been reviewing the prize won by writer Walter Duranty for his series on Russia. The review was sparked by complaints that Duranty deliberately ignored in later coverage the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions of people.

Mark von Hagen, a Columbia University history professor, said in his report to the Times that Duranty ``frequently writes in the enthusiastically propagandistic language of his sources,'' and that ``there is a serious lack of balance in his writing.''

``For the sake of The New York Times' honor, they should take the prize away,'' von Hagen said in an interview Wednesday with The Associated Press. The New York Sun first reported the professor's recommendation.

The Times has reviewed von Hagen's report and forwarded it to the Pulitzer Board with a recommendation from Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr., who declined comment on Wednesday.

``It was between me and the Pulitzer Board,'' Sulzberger said, adding that the next step ``is a decision for the Pulitzer committee.''

Von Hagen said the Times asked him in July to review Duranty's work. He submitted a report to the newspaper about a month later.

Sig Gissler, administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, also declined to comment on von Hagen's report and its effect on the review of the 1932 prize. No Pulitzer has been revoked since the prizes were first awarded in 1917.

``This is a matter under internal review,'' Gissler said.

He noted, however, that the award was for a set of stories in 1931 and that ``a prize in a particular Pulitzer category is not meant to say anything about a winner's body of work over time.''

Gissler could not say when the subcommittee would end its probe, which was launched in April, but said the ultimate decision would have to come from the entire board. The Pulitzer Board meets twice a year, in November and April.

Members of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America joined Ukrainians worldwide this year in urging the withdrawal of Duranty's award, a campaign that included more than 15,000 postcards and thousands more letters and e-mails sent to the Pulitzer Board.

The effort was timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the 1932-33 famine, which claimed as many as 7 million Ukrainian lives. Josef Stalin's regime created the famine to force Ukrainian peasants into surrendering their land.

This was not the first time the Pulitzer Board has reconsidered its award to Duranty, who died in 1957. A similar review in 1990 ended with a decision to let the Pulitzer stand.

Duranty covered the Soviet Union for the Times from 1922 to 1941, earning acclaim for an exclusive 1929 interview with Stalin.

But Duranty was eventually criticized for reporting the Communist line rather than the facts. According to the 1990 book ``Stalin's Apologist,'' by Sally J. Taylor, Duranty knew of the famine but ignored the atrocities to preserve his access to Stalin. The full force of the famine came in 1933, a year after Duranty won his Pulitzer.

Von Hagen's report said Duranty, as a reporter, ``fell under Stalin's spell.''

``Much of the 'factual' material is dull and largely uncritical recitation of Soviet sources, whereas his efforts at 'analysis' are very effective renditions of the Stalinist leadership's self-understanding of their murderous and progressive project to defeat the backwardness of Slavic, Asiatic peasant Russia,'' von Hagen writes.

The Times has also distanced itself from Duranty's work. The reporter's 1932 Pulitzer is displayed with the notation: ``Other writers in the Times and elsewhere have discredited this coverage.''

Though never revoked, a Pulitzer was once returned. Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke surrendered her prize in 1981, after admitting she had fabricated stories

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[NZman]

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON 1932-33 MAN-MADE FAMINE.

The U.S. House of Representatives on 20 October adopted the following H. RES. 356 "Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the man-made famine that occurred in Ukraine in 1932-1933" by a vote of 382 - 0. The resolution was introduced by Henry Hyde (R-IL), Chairman of the House International Relations Committee (with Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Helsinki Commission Chairman and Tom Lantos (D-CA), Ranking Member, House International Relations Committee as original cosponsors.

Congressional Record Statement for The Honorable Christopher H. Smith on H.Res.356, Regarding the man-made famine that occurred in Ukraine 1932-33:

Mr.Speaker, I am proud to be an original cosponsor of H.Res. 356. I thank and commend Mr. Hyde for introducing this resolution commemorating and honoring the memory of victims of an abominable act perpetrated against the people of Ukraine in 1932-33. Seventy years ago, millions of men, women and children were murdered by starvation so that one man, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, could consolidate control over Ukraine. The Ukrainian people resisted the Soviet policy of forced collectivization. The innocent died a horrific death at the hands of a tyrannical dictatorship which had crushed their freedom.

In an attempt to break the spirit of an independent-minded Ukrainian peasantry, and ultimately to secure collectivization, Stalin ordered the expropriation of all foodstuffs in the hands of the rural population. The grain was shipped to other areas of the Soviet Union or sold on the international market. Peasants who refused to turn over grain to the state were deported or executed. Without food or grain, mass starvation ensued. This manmade famine was the consequence of deliberate policies which aimed to destroy the political, cultural and human rights of the Ukrainian people.

In short, food was used as a weapon in what can only be described as an organized act of terrorism designed to suppress a people's love of their land and the basic liberty to live as they choose.

Mr. Chairman, I recall back in the 1980s seeing the unforgettable movie, Harvest of Despair, which depicted the horrors of the Famine, as well as the fine work of the congressionally-created Ukraine Famine Commission, which issued its seminal report in 1988. Their work helped expose the truth about this horrific event. I am pleased that the resolution notes that there were those in the West, including The New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who knowingly and deliberately falsified their reports to cover up the Famine because they wanted to curry favor with one of the most evil regimes in the history of mankind.

The fact that this denial of the Famine took place then, and even much later by many scholars in the West is a shameful chapter in our own history.

Mr. Chairman, this is an important resolution which will help give recognition to one of the most horrific events in the last century in the hopes that mass-murders of this kind truly become unthinkable.

For other statements on resolution by Reps. Hyde, Lantos, Levin, click on: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/.../~r108aKrcWP::

Text of Resolution:

Whereas 2003 marks the 70th anniversary of the height of the famine in Ukraine that was deliberately initiated and enforced by the Soviet regime through the seizure of grain and the blockade of food shipments into the affected areas, as well as by forcibly preventing the starving population from leaving the region, for the purposes of eliminating resistance to the forced collectivization of agriculture and destroying Ukraine's national identity;

Whereas this man-made famine resulted in the deaths of at least 5,000,000 men, women, and children in Ukraine and an estimated 1-2 million people in other regions;

Whereas the famine took place in the most productive agricultural area of the former Soviet Union while foodstocks throughout the country remained sufficient to prevent the famine and while the Soviet regime continued to export large quantities of grain;

Whereas many Western observers with first-hand knowledge of the famine, including The New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty, who was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his reporting from the Soviet Union, knowingly and deliberately falsified their reports to cover up and refute evidence of the famine in order to suppress criticism of the Soviet regime;

Whereas Western observers and scholars who reported accurately on the existence of the famine were subjected to disparagement and criticism in the West for their reporting of the famine;

Whereas the Soviet regime and many scholars in the West continued to deny the existence of the famine until the collapse of the Soviet regime in 1991 resulted in many of its archives being made accessible, thereby making possible the documentation of the premeditated nature of the famine and its harsh enforcement;

Whereas the final report of the United States Government's Commission on the Ukraine Famine, established on December 13, 1985, concluded that the victims were `starved to death in a man-made famine' and that `Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-1933'; and

Whereas, although the Ukraine famine was one of the greatest losses of human life in the 20th century, it remains insufficiently known in the United States and in the world: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that--

(1) the millions of victims of the man-made famine that occurred in Ukraine in 1932-1933 should be solemnly remembered and honored in the 70th year marking the height of the famine;

(2) this man-made famine was designed and implemented by the Soviet regime as a deliberate act of terror and mass murder against the Ukrainian people;

(3) the decision of the Government of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) to give official recognition to the famine and its victims, as well as their efforts to secure greater international awareness and understanding of the famine, should be supported; and

(4) the official recognition of the famine by the Government of Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada represents a significant step in the reestablishment of Ukraine's national identity, the elimination of the legacy of the Soviet dictatorship, and the advancement of efforts to establish a democratic and free Ukraine that is fully integrated into the Western community of nations.

[Volodya987]

Yes, man with broken oar, dis happened in our bak yard, but, it was kawzed by peepl who fink boat men, are objective reality, not murderers, liyars, cheets, fieevs.
ie Foren Satins.
Vat yoo sellin? Vee stil hav sh*ts like yoo, hoo fink Youkrayne is market ov 50 milyon sukers, not nayson of human beings.
Yoo Joow pigs stil talk of peepl as katl, not as humans.

[Freedom1]

NZ, thanks for the information. Volodya, with no malice implied or intended, if I was a moderator, I'd ban you from the site for denigration.

[Volodya987]

Comeon freedom_ziyon. Us#A roolin cust conspiyerd wif StarLin to exterminate us beekos we dont buy glass beeds, peeses of string or fasist booldung from Jooz.
Dey new vee kalld Us#A
Um Er i Ka: Um Er i Ka: ie Noo Is Ra EL.
But yoo mist.
Vee stil heer.
Stil not biying yoor verbal vomit.
Vee now de differens between troof and Jorj VubleYoo Boosh.

[Freedom1]

Hahahaha, zyion, you poor fool, if you only knew.

[Volodya987]

Vot, dat yoo anglo sakson/jew pigs hate natives.
Yoo keep triyin to exterminate us, so wee dont keep cummin bak and askin yoo to fuk of bak to wer yoo crawled owt from.
Bee mor spesifik.
Do yoo hav a spesifik deel vif "God" wair he comand yo to kill evervun?
Show mee dis kontrakt.
Must bee ritten wif invizibl ink on invizibl paypr.
Yor tiyp of rasist scum hav so many doG promised land yo vun kosmic menis. I see yor reltifs now sell da Moon. Yoo vun veree sik peepl.
Yoo and your relutifs bigst hooman **** on erf.