Eternal Memory: Monuments and Memorials of the Holodomor

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

doi:10.12797/9788381382380

Eternal Memory: Monuments and Memorials of the Holodomor

Authors

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek

Pedagogical University, Kraków, Poland

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9559-0784

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12797/9788381382380

Synopsis

In Eternal Memory: Monuments and Memorials of the Holodomor, Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek provides an in-depth examination of “places of memory” associated with the Great Famine of 1932–33 in Ukraine, supplemented by photographs from across the globe that highlight both the uniqueness of individual monuments and their commonalities. The author investigates the history, aesthetics, and symbolism of a wide array of commemorative spaces, including museums, commemorative plaques, and sites directly linked with the victims of the Holodomor (previously unmarked mass graves, for example). The book not only illuminates the range of meanings that communities of memory have invested in these sites but sheds light on the processes by which commemorative practices have evolved and been shared between Ukraine and the diaspora.

Drawing upon the concept of “places of memory,” Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek has examined the memorialization of the Holodomor through study of monuments. Denied by the Soviet authorities for over fifty years, the Holodomor long could only be commemorated by the Ukrainian diaspora. Kudela-Świątek weaves the forms of commemoration and the interrelation of scores of monuments in Ukraine and abroad into a comprehensive study of Holodomor commemoration.

Frank E. Sysyn, University of Alberta, Canada

This is an interesting book on an important subject. In her study, Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek surveys the many monuments and memorials of the Holodomor in Ukraine and abroad, providing essential background details about their emergence over decades and across continents. Richly illustrated, this book is a welcome addition to the scholarly literature on the Holodomor.

Serge Cipko, University of Alberta, Canada

Chapters

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements .......... 11
Abbreviations .......... 13
Introduction .......... 15
Chapter I. Holodomor “places of memory”: between theories and methods
1.1 The Lieux de mémoire according to Pierre Nora. A Redefinition .......... 29
1.2 The Holodomor and “realms of memory” and “places of memory .......... 33
1.3 Monuments and memorials of the Holodomor as “places of memory” .......... 36
1.4 Reading images of the Holodomor .......... 49
1.5 Conclusions .......... 55
Chapter II. The Communities of Memory of the Great Famine (1932–33)
2.1 Who creates a “community of memory” and why .......... 58
2.2 The first Holodomor communities of memory in the Ukrainian diaspora and Ukrainian emigration communities .......... 61
2.3 The Holodomor generation .......... 69
2.4 “Practices of commitment” .......... 77
2.5 Conclusions .......... 105
Chapter III. Memorialization of the Holodomor Abroad
3.1 Secular vs sacral: The first Holodomor memorialization initiatives in North America .......... 107
3.2 The Ukrainian Orthodox St. Andrew Memorial Church in South Bound Brook .......... 115
3.3 The wave of Holodomor monuments in the 1980s .......... 135
3.4 Monuments abroad commemorating Holodomor anniversaries (1991-2016) .......... 149
3.5 Holodomor Museum exhibitions in Canada .......... 161
3.6 Conclusions .......... 168
Chapter IV. Forms of Holodomor Commemoration in Ukraine 1990–2016
4.1 Between acting out and working through: The Holodomor in Ukraine during Perestroika .......... 170
4.2 Ambivalence of social memory or “non-memory” in the context of the Memory of the Holodomor in the early 1990s .......... 177
4.3 The role of the Ukrainian diaspora in North America in initiating the building of the Holodomor monument in Kyiv .......... 187
4.4 The Holodomor in the politics of memory from the mid-1990s to 2004 .......... 192
4.5 The most significant Holodomor “places of memory” from the time of the Yushchenko presidency .......... 199
4.6 The Great Famine of 1932-33 and the politics of memory after 2010 .......... 209
4.7 Is it possible to end the mourning? .......... 213
4.8 Conclusions .......... 216
Chapter V. Holodomor Places of Memory: Iconology Analysis
5.1 The monument in Edmonton (1983) .......... 219
5.2 The monument in Winnipeg (1984) .......... 229
5.3 The memorial in Lubny (1993) .......... 240
5.4 The monument at the Church of St. Michael in Kyiv (1993) .......... 250
5.5 The monument on the grounds of MAUP in Kyiv (2002) .......... 257
5.6 The memorial in Kyiv (2008) .......... 261
5.7 The monument in Washington, D.C. (2015) .......... 270
5.8 Conclusions .......... 283
Chapter VI. Visual Culture of the Holodomor
6.1 The iconography of symbolic burial sites and cemetery monuments .......... 286
6.2 Iconographic motifs in monuments and memorials .......... 291
6.3 Holodomor monuments: From inspiration to replication .......... 318
6.4 Do Holodomor monuments have a future? .......... 337
6.5 Conclusions .......... 339
Conclusions .......... 341

Author Biography

Wiktoria Kudela-Świątek, Pedagogical University, Kraków, Poland

is assistant professor at the Institute of History and Archival Studies at the Pedagogical University of Cracow, Poland. She is the author of Miejsca (nie)pamięci. O upamiętnianiu ukraińskiego Wielkiego Głodu 1932-1933 (Cracow, 2014) and W labiryncie znaczeń: pomniki ukraińskiego Wielkiego Głodu 1932-1933 (Cracow, 2020).