{"id":6661,"date":"2016-05-03T11:33:16","date_gmt":"2016-05-03T17:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/?p=6661"},"modified":"2016-05-03T11:34:11","modified_gmt":"2016-05-03T17:34:11","slug":"there-are-still-voices-of-reason-in-usa-the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/?p=6661","title":{"rendered":"There are still voices of reason in USA: The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine\u2019s Past"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"post-category\"><a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/category\/report\/\">REPORT<\/a><\/div>\n<h1 class=\"post-title\"><\/h1>\n<section class=\"article-meta\">\n<p class=\"dek\">Volodymyr Viatrovych is erasing the country\u2019s racist and bloody history \u2014 stripping pogroms and ethnic cleansing from the official archives.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"author\">BY <span class=\"author\"><a class=\"author\" title=\"Josh Cohen\" href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/author\/josh-cohen\">JOSH COHEN<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"date\"><time datetime=\"2016-05-02T17:32:06-04:00\">MAY 2, 2016<\/time><\/li>\n<li class=\"print\"><\/li>\n<li class=\"sharing\"><a class=\"facebook\" data-url=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/05\/02\/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych\/\" data-endpoint=\"facebook\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/foreign-policy\/static\/images\/facebook-shares.png\" alt=\"facebook\" \/><\/a><a class=\"twitter\" data-url=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/05\/02\/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych\/\" data-text=\"The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine\u2019s Past\" data-endpoint=\"twitter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/foreign-policy\/static\/images\/twitter-shares.png\" alt=\"twitter\" \/><\/a><a class=\"google-plus\" data-url=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/05\/02\/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych\/\" data-endpoint=\"google\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/foreign-policy\/static\/images\/google-plus-shares.png\" alt=\"google-plus\" \/><\/a><a class=\"reddit\" data-url=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/05\/02\/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych\/\" data-endpoint=\"reddit\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/foreign-policy\/static\/images\/reddit-shares.png\" alt=\"reddit\" \/><\/a><a title=\"Share via Email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20this%20story%20on%20Foreign%20Policy&amp;body=The%20Historian%20Whitewashing%20Ukraine%E2%80%99s%20Past%20-%20http%3A%2F%2Fforeignpolicy.com%2F2016%2F05%2F02%2Fthe-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych%2F\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s0.wp.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/foreign-policy\/static\/images\/email-shares.png\" alt=\"email\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"post-inner\">\n<p><span class=\"dynamic-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com\/2016\/05\/upa.jpg\" alt=\"The Historian Whitewashing Ukraine\u2019s Past \" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"shares-position\">\n<p>When it comes to politics and history, an accurate memory can be a dangerous thing.<\/p>\n<p>In Ukraine, as the country struggles with its identity, that\u2019s doubly true. While Ukrainian political parties try to push the country toward <a href=\"http:\/\/www.atlanticcouncil.org\/blogs\/new-atlanticist\/we-want-ukraine-to-be-a-european-country-not-a-putin-country-says-ukrainian-mp\" target=\"_blank\">Europe<\/a> or<a href=\"http:\/\/zik.ua\/en\/news\/2015\/10\/28\/kharkiv_must_restore_economic_ties_with_russia__hennady_kernes_637674\" target=\"_blank\">Russia<\/a>, a young, rising Ukrainian historian named Volodymyr Viatrovych has placed himself at the center of that fight. Advocating a nationalist, revisionist history that glorifies the country\u2019s move to independence \u2014 and purges bloody and opportunistic chapters \u2014 Viatrovych has attempted to redraft the country\u2019s modern history to whitewash Ukrainian nationalist groups\u2019 involvement in the Holocaust and mass ethnic cleansing of Poles during World War II. And right now, he\u2019s winning.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ds_cpp\" class=\"ds_cpp\">\n<div class=\"ds_cpp_inner\">\n<div class=\"ds_description\">\n<div class=\"ds_sponsor\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"ds_details\">\n<div class=\"ds_title\">How I Became Another Victim of Erdogan&#8217;s Press Crackdown<\/div>\n<div class=\"ds_summary\">I used to think I couldn&#8217;t be affected by Turkey&#8217;s shrinking press freedom. I just discovered how wrong I was.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ds_body\">\n<div id=\"ds_player_sensor\"><\/div>\n<div id=\"ds_player_container\">\n<div id=\"ds_content_frame_parent\">\n<div id=\"ds_ad_container\">\u00a0<iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"lr-2l6wt\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/distroscale-public\/vplayer-parallel\/20160419\/ima_flash\/index.html\" width=\"615px\" height=\"346px\" scrolling=\"no\" data-adtag=\"\/\/ad4.liverail.com\/?LR_PUBLISHER_ID=113327&amp;LR_SCHEMA=vast2-vpaid&amp;LR_AUTOPLAY=1&amp;LR_VERTICALS=test_a\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"ds_content_frame\" src=\"http:\/\/c5x8i7c7.ssl.hwcdn.net\/videojs\/5.1.0min\/show.html?controls=1&amp;loop=30&amp;autoplay=0&amp;tracker=80e19a4e-d95f-4076-9c7b-ce2f5f5b9621&amp;height=346&amp;width=615&amp;vurl=%2F%2Fc5x8i7c7.ssl.hwcdn.net%2Fvideos%2Fdgv%2F201605030602_57283051d3597%2Fdgv_foreignpolicy_201605030602.mp4&amp;poster=%2F%2Fc5x8i7c7.ssl.hwcdn.net%2Fvideos%2Fdgv%2F201605030602_57283051d3597%2Fdgv_foreignpolicy_201605030602.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"ds_mute\" class=\"ds_mute\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/i.jsrdn.com\/i\/1.gif?r=huxr&amp;k=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&amp;fwd=http%3A%2F%2Fdistroscale.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"sponsor\">Promoted By <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/distroscale.s3.amazonaws.com\/uploads\/apps.distroscale.com\/35a991ac7f674b4c\/dslogo_sm.png?AWSAccessKeyId=AKIAJQKIOZEIEVFWAHVQ&amp;Expires=1720825463&amp;Signature=9PBh6S7Eut%2B6N0rFSuFSGnh3HK0%3D\" \/><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>In May 2015, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rferl.org\/content\/ukraine-poroshenko-decommunization-law\/27019045.html\" target=\"_blank\">signed a law<\/a> that mandated the transfer of the country\u2019s complete set of archives, from the \u201cSoviet organs of repression,\u201d such as the KGB and its decedent, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), to a government organization called the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.memory.gov.ua:8080\/main\/ua\/news\/top.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Ukrainian Institute of National Memory<\/a>. Run by the young scholar \u2014 and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.memory.gov.ua\/page\/postanova-kabinetu-ministriv-ukraini-pro-zatverdzhennya-polozhennya-pro-ukrainskii-institut-nat\" target=\"_blank\">charged<\/a> with \u201cimplementation of state policy in the field of restoration and preservation of national memory of the Ukrainian people\u201d \u2014 the institute received millions of documents, including information on political dissidents, propaganda campaigns against religion, the activities of Ukrainian nationalist organizations, KGB espionage and counter-espionage activities, and criminal cases connected to the Stalinist purges. Under the archives law, one of four \u201cmemory laws\u201d written by Viatrovych, the institute\u2019s anodyne-sounding mandate is merely a cover to present a biased and one-sided view of modern Ukrainian history \u2014 and one that could shape the country\u2019s path forward.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"ds_im_80e19a4e-d95f-4076-9c7b-ce2f5f5b9621\" class=\"ds_im\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/i.jsrdn.com\/i\/1.gif?r=gldi&amp;k=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\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" border=\"0\" \/><\/span>The controversy centers on a telling of World War II history that amplifies Soviet crimes and glorifies Ukrainian nationalist fighters while dismissing the vital part they played in ethnic cleansing of Poles and Jews from 1941 to 1945 after the Nazi invasion of the former Soviet Union. Viatrovych\u2019s vision of history instead tells the story of partisan guerrillas who waged a brave battle for Ukrainian independence against overwhelming Soviet power. It also sends a message to those who do not identify with the country\u2019s ethno-nationalist mythmakers \u2014 such as the many Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine who still celebrate the heroism of the Red Army during World War II \u2014 that they\u2019re on the outside. And more pointedly, scholars now fear that they risk reprisal for not toeing the official line \u2014 or calling Viatrovych on his historical distortions. Under Viatrovych\u2019s reign, the country could be headed for a new, and frightening, era of censorship.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-left\"><p>Although events of 75 years ago may seem like settled history, they are very much a part of the information war raging between Russia and Ukraine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Although events of 75 years ago may seem like settled history, they are very much a part of the information war raging between Russia and Ukraine.The revisionism focuses on two Ukrainian nationalist groups: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), which fought to establish an independent Ukraine. During the war, these groups <a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/The_OUN_the_UPA_and_the_Holocaust_A_Study_in_the_Manufacturing_of_Historical_Myths_The_Carl_Beck_Papers_in_Russian_and_East_European_Studies_2107_Pittsburgh_University_Center_for_Russian_and_East_European_Studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">killed<\/a> tens of thousands of Jews and carried out a brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing that killed as many as 100,000 Poles. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists\" target=\"_blank\">Created<\/a> in 1929 to free Ukraine from Soviet control, the OUN <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=HDpgBgAAQBAJ&amp;pg=PT336&amp;lpg=PT336&amp;dq=oun+in+favor+of+ethnically+pure+ukraine&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=-Fs7D6ywAr&amp;sig=C_tMLzB1NglSoUBFSyf4DFXlv8w&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ei=mYstVaK-BNL_yQSF-YDgBQ&amp;ved=0CDgQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&amp;q=oun%20in%20favor%20of%20ethnically%20pure%20ukraine&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">embraced<\/a> the notion of an ethnically pure Ukrainian nation. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, the OUN and its charismatic leader, Stepan Bandera, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ukrainian_collaborationism_with_the_Axis_powers\" target=\"_blank\">welcomed<\/a> the invasion as a step toward Ukrainian independence. Its members carried out a pogrom in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/lviv_pogroms\" target=\"_blank\">Lviv<\/a> that killed 5,000 Jews, and OUN militias played a major role in violence against the Jewish population in western Ukraine that claimed the lives of up to 35,000 Jews.<\/p>\n<p>Hitler was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/blogs\/nyrblog\/2010\/feb\/24\/a-fascist-hero-in-democratic-kiev\/\" target=\"_blank\">not<\/a> interested in granting Ukraine independence, however. By 1943 the OUN violently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/the_oun_the_upa_and_the_holocaust_a_study_in_the_manufacturing_of_historical_myths_the_carl_beck_papers_in_russian_and_east_european_studies_2107_pittsburgh_university_center_for_russian_and_east_european_studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">seized<\/a> control of the UPA and declared itself opposed to both the Germans, then in retreat, and the oncoming Soviets. Many UPA troops had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/the_oun_the_upa_and_the_holocaust_a_study_in_the_manufacturing_of_historical_myths_the_carl_beck_papers_in_russian_and_east_european_studies_2107_pittsburgh_university_center_for_russian_and_east_european_studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">already<\/a> assisted the Nazis as Ukrainian Auxiliary Police in the extermination of hundreds and thousands of Jews in western Ukraine in 1941 and 1942, and they <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/the_oun_the_upa_and_the_holocaust_a_study_in_the_manufacturing_of_historical_myths_the_carl_beck_papers_in_russian_and_east_european_studies_2107_pittsburgh_university_center_for_russian_and_east_european_studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">now<\/a> became foot soldiers in another round of ethnic cleansing in western Ukraine in 1943 to 1944, this time directed primarily against Poles. When the Soviets were closing in 1944, the OUN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/The_OUN_the_UPA_and_the_Holocaust_A_Study_in_the_Manufacturing_of_Historical_Myths_The_Carl_Beck_Papers_in_Russian_and_East_European_Studies_2107_Pittsburgh_University_Center_for_Russian_and_East_European_Studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">resumed<\/a>cooperation with the Germans and continued to fight the Soviets into the 1950s, before finally being <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1122859\/the_oun_the_upa_and_the_holocaust_a_study_in_the_manufacturing_of_historical_myths_the_carl_beck_papers_in_russian_and_east_european_studies_2107_pittsburgh_university_center_for_russian_and_east_european_studies_2011_\" target=\"_blank\">crushed<\/a> by the Red Army.<\/p>\n<p>This legacy of sacrifice against the Soviets continues to prompt many Ukrainian nationalists to view Bandera and the OUN-UPA as heroes whose valor kept the dream of Ukrainian statehood alive.<\/p>\n<p>Now, as Ukraine seeks to free itself from Russia\u2019s grip, Ukrainian nationalists are providing the Kremlin\u2019s propaganda machine fodder to support the claim that post-revolutionary Ukraine is overrun by fascists and neo-Nazis. The<a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2015\/04\/27\/dear-ukraine-please-dont-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-nationalists-russia-bandera-rada\/\">new law<\/a>, which promises that people who \u201cpublicly exhibit a disrespectful attitude\u201d toward these groups or \u201cdeny the legitimacy\u201d of Ukraine\u2019s 20th century struggle for independence will be prosecuted (though no punishment is specified) also means that independent Ukraine is being partially built on a falsified narrative of the Holocaust.<\/p>\n<p>By transferring control of the nation\u2019s archives to Viatrovych, Ukraine\u2019s nationalists assured themselves that management of the nation\u2019s historical memory is now in the \u201ccorrect\u201d hands.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">* * *<\/div>\n<p>From the beginning of his career, he was an up-and-comer. Viatrovych has the equivalent of a Ph.D. from Lviv University, located in the western Ukrainian city where he was born, and is articulate and passionate, albeit sometimes with a short fuse. The 35 year old scholar, first made a professional name for himself at the Institute for the Study of the Liberation Movement known by its Ukrainian acronym <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdvr.org.ua\/\" target=\"_blank\">TsDVR<\/a>, an organization founded to <a href=\"http:\/\/net.abimperio.net\/node\/3442\" target=\"_blank\">promote<\/a> the heroic narrative of the OUN-UPA, where he began working in 2002. By 2006, he had become the organization\u2019s director. In this time, he published books glorifying the OUN-UPA, established programs to help young Ukrainian scholars promote the nationalist viewpoint, and served as a bridge to ultra-nationalists in the diaspora who largely <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cdvr.org.ua\/content\/%25d0%25bf%25d0%25b0%25d1%2580%25d1%2582%25d0%25bd%25d0%25b5%25d1%2580%25d0%25b8\" target=\"_blank\">fund<\/a> TsDVR.<\/p>\n<p>In 2008, in addition to his role at TsDVR, Viktor Yushchenko, then president, appointed Viatrovych head of the Security Service of Ukraine\u2019s (SBU) archives. Yuschenko made the promotion of OUN-UPA mythology a fundamental part of his legacy, rewriting school textbooks, renaming streets, and honoring OUN-UPA leaders as \u201cheroes of Ukraine.\u201d As Yuschenko\u2019s leading memory manager \u2014 both at TsDVR and the SBU \u2014 Viatrovych was his right-hand man in this crusade. He continued to push the state-sponsored heroic representation of the OUN-UPA and their leaders Bandera, Yaroslav Stetsko, and Roman Shukhevych. \u201cThe Ukrainian struggle for independence is one of the cornerstones of our national self-identification,\u201d Viatrovych <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pravda.com.ua\/columns\/2010\/03\/2\/4824766\/\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> in <i>Pravda<\/i> in 2010. \u201cBecause without UPA, without Bandera, without Shukhevych there would not be a contemporary Ukrainian state, there would not be a contemporary Ukrainian nation.\u201d Viatrovych is also<a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/how-ukraines-new-memory-commissar-is-controlling-the-nations-past\/\" target=\"_blank\">frequently<\/a> quoted in the Ukrainian media, once even going so far as to<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.com\/ukrainian\/multimedia\/2011\/06\/110613_vyatrovych_galychyna_video\" target=\"_blank\">defend<\/a> the Ukrainian SS Galician division that fought on the side of the Nazis during World War II.<\/p>\n<p>After Viktor Yanukovych was elected president in 2010, Viatrovych faded from view. Yanukovych hailed from eastern Ukraine and was a friend of Russia, and didn\u2019t share the scholar\u2019s nationalist reading of history. During this period Viatrovych spent time in North America on a series of lecture tours, as well as a short sojourn as a research fellow at the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI). He also continued his academic activism, writing books and articles promoting the heroic narrative of the OUN-UPA. In 2013 he tried to crash and disrupt a workshop on Ukrainian and Russian nationalism taking place at the Harriman Institute at Columbia. When the Maidan Revolution swept Yanukovych out of power in February 2014, Viatrovych returned to prominence.<\/p>\n<p>The new president, Poroshenko, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenation.com\/article\/how-ukraines-new-memory-commissar-is-controlling-the-nations-past\/\" target=\"_blank\">appointed<\/a> Viatrovych to head the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory \u2014 a prestigious appointment for a relatively young scholar. Although it\u2019s not clear what drove Poroshenko\u2019s decision, Viatrovych\u2019s previous service under Yuschenko undoubtedly provided him the necessary bona fides with the nationalists, and Poroshenko\u2019s decision was most likely a political payoff to the nationalists who supported the Maidan Revolution. Nationalists provided much of the muscle in the battle against Yanukovych\u2019s security forces during the Revolution and formed the core of private battalions such as Right Sector, which played a key role fighting separatist forces in the Donbass after the Russian annexation of Crimea.<\/p>\n<p>Though his political star has continued to rise, Viatrovych\u2019s integrity as a historian has been widely attacked within Western countries as well as by a number of respected historians in Ukraine. According to Jared McBride, a research scholar at the Kennan Institute and a fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, \u201cthe glorification of the OUN-UPA is not just about history. It\u2019s a current political project to consolidate a very one-sided view within Ukrainian society that really only has a deep resonance within the western province of Galicia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though Viatrovych\u2019s view is popular in western Ukraine where many Bandera monuments and street names <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Stepan_Bandera\" target=\"_blank\">exist<\/a> (TsDVR itself is located on Bandera Street in Lviv), many Ukrainians in the south and east of the country<a href=\"http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2015\/04\/27\/dear-ukraine-please-dont-shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-nationalists-russia-bandera-rada\/\">don\u2019t appreciate<\/a> the World War II-era nationalist\u2019s legacy. In Luhansk, in the country\u2019s east, and Crimea, local governments erected monuments to the victims of the OUN-UPA<b>.<\/b> In this regard, imposing the nationalists\u2019 version of history on the entire country requires eradicating the beliefs and identity of many other Ukrainians who do not share the nationalists\u2019 narrative.<\/p>\n<p>To that effect, Viatrovych has <a href=\"http:\/\/euromaidanpress.com\/2014\/10\/17\/ukraines-institute-of-national-memory-addresses-myths-about-upa-for-the-new-day-of-the-defender\/\" target=\"_blank\">dismissed<\/a> historical events not comporting with this narrative as \u201cSoviet propaganda.\u201d In his 2006 <a href=\"https:\/\/shop.eastview.com\/results\/item?sku=k2035810\" target=\"_blank\">book<\/a>, <i>The OUN\u2019s Position Towards the Jews: Formulation of a position against the backdrop of a catastrophe<\/i>, he attempted to exonerate the OUN from its collaboration in the Holocaust by ignoring the overwhelming mass of historical literature. The book was widely <a href=\"http:\/\/net.abimperio.net\/node\/2568\" target=\"_blank\">panned<\/a> by Western historians. University of Alberta professor John-Paul Himka, one of the leading scholars of Ukrainian history for three decades, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/577915\/Collaboration_and_or_Resistance_The_OUN_and_UPA_during_the_War\" target=\"_blank\">described it<\/a> as \u201cemploying a series of dubious procedures: rejecting sources that compromise the OUN, accepting uncritically censored sources emanating from \u00e9migr\u00e9 OUN circles, failing to recognize anti-Semitism in OUN texts.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote-left\"><p>Even more worrisome for the future integrity of Ukraine\u2019s archives under Viatrovych is his notoriety among Western historians for his willingness to allegedly ignore or even falsify historical documents.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Even more worrisome for the future integrity of Ukraine\u2019s archives under Viatrovych is his notoriety among Western historians for his willingness to allegedly ignore or even falsify historical documents.\u201cScholars on his staff publish document collections that are falsified,\u201d said Jeffrey Burds, a professor of Russian and Soviet history at Northeastern University.\u201c I know this because I have seen the originals, made copies, and have compared their transcriptions to the originals.\u201dBurds described an 898-page book of transcribed documents produced by one of Viatrovych\u2019s colleagues, which Viatrovych uses to support his claim that he will release anything from Ukraine\u2019s archives for review by researchers. Burds, however, described this as a \u201cmonument to cleansing and falsifying with words, sentences, entire paragraphs removed. What was removed?\u201d Burds continued. \u201cAnything criticizing Ukrainian nationalism, expressions of dislike and conflict within the OUN\/UPA leadership, sections where the respondents cooperated and gave evidence against other nationalists, records of atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Burds\u2019s experience was not unusual. I corresponded with and interviewed numerous historians for this article, and their grievances against Viatrovych were remarkably consistent: ignored established historical facts, falsified and sanitized documents, and restricted access to SBU archives under his watch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have had trouble working in the Security Service of Ukraine Archive when Viatrovych was in charge of it,\u201d said Marco Carynnyk, a Ukrainian-Canadian \u00e9migr\u00e9 and longtime independent researcher on 20th century Ukrainian history. \u201cI also have evidence that Viatrovych falsified the historical record in his own publications and then found excuses not to let me see records that might expose that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McBride echoes Carynnyk\u2019s views, noting, \u201cWhen Viatrovych was the chief archivist at the SBU, he created a digital archive open to Ukrainian citizens and foreigners. Despite this generally positive development, he and his team made sure to exclude any documents from the archive that may cast a negative light on the OUN-UPA, including their involvement in the Holocaust and other war crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As frustrating an experience as many historians already endured with Viatrovych, placing all of the nation\u2019s most sensitive archives under his control is an indication that things will only get worse. Based on his history, Viatrovych could be expected to tightly control what is \u2014 and is not \u2014 available from the archives at the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">* * *<\/div>\n<p>Ukrainian historians have openly fretted about how the new archives law will affect their research. The Union of Archivists in Ukraine <a href=\"http:\/\/net.abimperio.net\/node\/3442\" target=\"_blank\">opposed<\/a> the law, and Ukrainian historian Stanislav Serhiyenko <a href=\"http:\/\/commons.com.ua\/en\/arhivi-po-novomu\/\" target=\"_blank\">slammed<\/a> it as an opportunity for Viatrovych and his Memory Institute to \u201cmonopolize and restrict access to a certain significant period of documentary layers that do not meet its primitive vision of the modern history of Ukraine or, in the worst case, can lead to the destruction of documents. Unbiased study of Soviet history, OUN, UPA, etc., will be impossible.\u201d Seventy historians <a href=\"http:\/\/krytyka.com\/en\/articles\/open-letter-scholars-and-experts-ukraine-re-so-called-anti-communist-law\" target=\"_blank\">signed<\/a> an open letter to Poroshenko asking him to veto the draft law that bans criticism of the OUN-UPA. Viatrovych <a href=\"http:\/\/krytyka.com\/en\/solutions\/opinions\/decommunization-and-academic-discussion\" target=\"_blank\">countered<\/a>, \u201cThe concern about the possible interference of politicians in academic discussions, which was one of the main reasons behind the letter, is unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Serhiyenko\u2019s concerns, however, are well founded, and a recent incident demonstrates the pressure Ukrainian historians face to whitewash the OUN-UPA\u2019s atrocities.<\/p>\n<p>After the open letter was published, the legislation\u2019s sponsor, Yuri Shukhevych, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/13219677\/ministry_of_education_letter\" target=\"_blank\">reacted<\/a> furiously. Shukhevych, the son of UPA leader Roman Shukhevych and a longtime far-right political activist himself, fired off a<a href=\"https:\/\/www.academia.edu\/13219677\/ministry_of_education_letter\" target=\"_blank\">letter<\/a> to Minister of Education Serhiy Kvit claiming, \u201cRussian special services\u201d produced the letter and demanded that \u201cpatriotic\u201d historians rebuff it. Kvit, also a longtime <a href=\"http:\/\/historynewsnetwork.org\/article\/155618\" target=\"_blank\">far-right activist<\/a> and author of an admiring biography one of the key theoreticians of Ukrainian ethnic nationalism, in turn ominously highlighted the signatories of Ukrainian historians on his copy of the letter. Subsequently, Kvit approached at least one of these Ukrainian historians, an established and well-regarded scholar, and demanded that he write a response to the open letter reversing his position and condemning it.<\/p>\n<p>As the letter <a href=\"http:\/\/krytyka.com\/en\/articles\/open-letter-scholars-and-experts-ukraine-re-so-called-anti-communist-law\" target=\"_blank\">noted<\/a>, the four laws\u2019 \u201ccontent and spirit contradicts one of the most fundamental political rights: the right to freedom of speech.\u2026 Over the past 15 years, Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia has invested enormous resources in the politicization of history. It would be ruinous if Ukraine went down the same road, however partially or tentatively.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If Ukrainian historians cannot safely sign a simple letter related to free speech, what chance is there that they will be allowed to perform objective research on sensitive topics once Viatrovych gains control of the nation\u2019s critical archives?<\/p>\n<p>In response to an e-mail I sent to Viatrovych on Feb. 24 (in which I alerted him to the publication of this article and also asked him for comment regarding the depiction of World War II-era Ukrainian nationalist organizations in contemporary Ukraine), he vehemently denied the accusations leveled against him in this article.<\/p>\n<p>Viatrovych called the Western historians\u2019 allegations that he ignores or falsifies historical documents \u201cbaseless.\u201d In response to a question about whether the Union of Archivists of Ukraine\u2019s concerns were valid, Viatrovych replied, \u201cDuring all of my work connected to the archives, I have worked exclusively with their opening, therefore I don\u2019t see any reasons to fear that I will now restrict access to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In that same response,<b> <\/b>Viatrovych also denied the OUN and UPA ethically cleansed Jews and Poles after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, dismissing the accusations as an \u201cintegral part of the USSR\u2019s informational war against the Ukrainian liberation movement beginning from the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Viatrovych also stated (via e-mail) that some OUN members held anti-Semitic views, he argues that \u201cthe largest group of OUN members were those who thought that the extermination of Jews by the Nazis was not their concern, since their main goal was to defend the Ukrainian population against German repression,\u201d Viatrovych wrote. \u201cIt is for this reason that [at the beginning of 1943]<b> <\/b>they [the OUN] created the UPA. Accusations that the soldiers of this army took part in the Holocaust are unfounded since at the moment of its creation, the Nazis had almost completed the destruction of the Jews,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n<p>The problem is that Viatrovych\u2019s defense of the OUN and UPA doesn\u2019t comport with the detailed evidence presented by numerous Western historians. The OUN\u2019s ideology was explicitly anti-Semitic, <a href=\"http:\/\/carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu\/ojs\/index.php\/cbp\/article\/viewFile\/164\/160\" target=\"_blank\">describing<\/a> Jews as a \u201cpredominantly hostile body within our national organism\u201d and used such language as \u201ccombat Jews as supporters of the Muscovite-Bolshevik regime\u201d and \u201cUkraine for the Ukrainians! \u2026 Death to the Muscovite-Jewish commune!\u201d In fact, even before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, OUN leaders such as Yaroslav Stetsko explicitly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/publication\/283606261_The_Organization_of_Ukrainian_Nationalists_and_Its_Attitude_toward_Germans_and_Jews_Iaroslav_Stets'ko's_1941_Zhyttiepys\" target=\"_blank\">endorsed<\/a> German-style extermination of Jews.<\/p>\n<p>Viatrovych\u2019s logic for the UPA also rings hollow. Hundreds of testimonies from Jewish survivors \u2014 many exhaustively <a href=\"http:\/\/www.academia.edu\/1071581\/The_Ukrainian_Insurgent_Army_UPA_and_the_Holocaust\" target=\"_blank\">documented<\/a> by Himka \u2014 confirm that the UPA slaughtered many of the Jews still alive in western Ukraine by 1943. Moreover, while Viatrovych presents the UPA\u2019s killing of between 70,000 and 100,000 Poles in 1943-1944 as a <a href=\"http:\/\/net.abimperio.net\/node\/2568\" target=\"_blank\">side effect<\/a> of a \u201cPolish-Ukrainian War,\u201d historical <a href=\"http:\/\/pscourses.ucsd.edu\/ps200b\/Snyder%20The%20Causes%20of%20Ukrainian-Polish%20Ethnic%20Cleansing%201943.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">documentation<\/a> once again <a href=\"http:\/\/carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu\/ojs\/index.php\/cbp\/article\/viewFile\/164\/160\" target=\"_blank\">contradicts<\/a> him. Indeed, UPA reports <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=YIRSwRDVqu4C&amp;pg=PA86&amp;lpg=PA86&amp;dq=Alexander+Statiev+Soviet+Counterinsurgency+in+the+Western+Borderlands+upa+kill+poles&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=1dQs66kd2a&amp;sig=k12V7Qo1D36jSVhbQ9Ne4Q4CUjk&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi0lJiJjbLLAhWBSJQKHfqcBOYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Alexander%20Statiev%20Soviet%20Counterinsurgency%20in%20the%20Western%20Borderlands%20upa%20kill%20poles&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">confirm<\/a> that the group killed Poles as systematically as the Nazis did Jews. UPA supreme commander Dmytro Kliachkivs\u2019kyi explicitly <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=YIRSwRDVqu4C&amp;pg=PA86&amp;lpg=PA86&amp;dq=Alexander+Statiev+Soviet+Counterinsurgency+in+the+Western+Borderlands+upa+kill+poles&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=1dQs66kd2a&amp;sig=k12V7Qo1D36jSVhbQ9Ne4Q4CUjk&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwi0lJiJjbLLAhWBSJQKHfqcBOYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&amp;q=Alexander%20Statiev%20Soviet%20Counterinsurgency%20in%20the%20Western%20Borderlands%20upa%20kill%20poles&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">stated<\/a>: \u201cWe should carry out a large-scale liquidation action against Polish elements. During the evacuation of the German Army, we should find an appropriate moment to liquidate the entire male population between 16 and 60 years old.\u201d Given that over 70 percent of the leading UPA cadres possessed a background as Nazi collaborators, none of this is surprising.<\/p>\n<p>While Viatrovych\u2019s debates with Western historians may seem academic, this is far from true. Last June, Kvit\u2019s Ministry of Education issued a <a href=\"http:\/\/old.mon.gov.ua\/ua\/about-ministry\/normative\/4068-\" target=\"_blank\">directive<\/a> to teachers regarding the \u201cnecessity to accentuate the patriotism and morality of the activists of the liberation movement,\u201d including depicting the UPA as a \u201csymbol of patriotism and sacrificial spirit in the struggle for an independent Ukraine\u201d and Bandera as an \u201coutstanding representative\u201d of the Ukrainian people.\u201d More recently, Viatrovych\u2019s Ukrainian Institute of National Memory proposed that the city of Kiev <a href=\"http:\/\/korrespondent.net\/city\/kiev\/3637245-kyev-sohlasylsia-pereymenovat-moskovskyi-prospekt-v-chest-bandery\" target=\"_blank\">rename<\/a> two streets after Bandera and the former supreme commander of both the UPA and the Nazi-supervised Schutzmannschaft Roman Shukhevych.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last\">The consolidation of Ukrainian democracy \u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/net.abimperio.net\/node\/3442\" target=\"_blank\">not to mention<\/a> its ambition to join the European Union \u2014 requires the country to come to grips with the darker aspects of its past. But if Viatrovych has his way, this reckoning may never come to pass, and Ukraine will never achieve a full reckoning with its complicated past.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"image-credit\">Image credit: Wikimedia Commons<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Source:\u00a0http:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2016\/05\/02\/the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past-volodymyr-viatrovych\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>REPORT Volodymyr Viatrovych is erasing the country\u2019s racist and bloody history \u2014 stripping pogroms and ethnic cleansing from the official archives. BY JOSH COHEN MAY 2, 2016 When it comes to politics and history, an accurate memory can be a dangerous thing. In Ukraine, as the country struggles with its identity, that\u2019s doubly true. While [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[104,99],"tags":[1260],"class_list":["post-6661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-history","tag-the-historian-whitewashing-ukraines-past"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/upa.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2SfUR-1Jr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6664,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6661\/revisions\/6664"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myfutureamerica.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}