Département d'histoire

The first public discussion between Jews and Ukrainians living in the Russian Empire took place in 1861-62. It began as a controversy between the Ukrainian journal Osnova, published in Saint Petersburg and the Jewish periodical Sion, put out in Odessa. The controversy was over the old Slavic word “zhyd” (Jew), used as normal term by Ukrainian writers, but recently condemned as derogatory by part of the Russian intelligentsia. From the contested term, the discussion evolved to the interrelations between Jews and Ukrainians living in Ukraine, the self identity of each group, and their place in the Russian Empire.  Eventually, the discussion was joined by a large number of Russian periodicals.

This paper argues for a holistic approach to the study of the 1930s genocide against the Ukrainians. The author took as his starting point the definition of genocide adopted by the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide, and then he applied the seminal conceptualization of the Ukrainian genocide proposed by Raphael Lemkin in his 1953 paper, “Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine”. Lemkin’s conclusions that Stalin’s crime was “the systematic destruction of the Ukrainian nation” and that it was executed in several steps are supported by Soviet archives. The genocide began in 1929 with the destruction of the Ukrainian national elites and reached its culmination in the Great Famine of 1932-34. To Lemkin’s outline is added some information about the fate of the 8 million Ukrainian population in the RSFSR, also victim of Stalin's genocide as an ethnic group.

Harry Lang, economics editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, published in Yiddish in New York, visited Ukraine in September 1933. Lang wrote a series of report for his newspaper, four of which we reproduced in the Summer-Autumn 2010 issue of the Holodomor Studies.
The American obtained an unrestricted journalist's visa, which allowed him to see out of the way places, usually closed to foreigners. His Kyiv-born wife Lucy Robins Fox accompanied him, and through their connections with her numerous relatives, some in high places, they were able to get a close look at the real situation in the country.
In the four reports reproduced here Lang gives detailed descriptions of the conditions in Kyiv and Kharkiv, of the destruction and abandonment of villages, and of the living conditions in the kolkhozes, including a Jewish collective farm near Kharkiv.

Analyse de documents soviétiques de 1929 à 1934 qui révèlent la politique génocidaire de Staline et le Parti communiste contre la nation politique et l’ethnie culturelle ukrainiennes, le premier groupe composé de tous les citoyes de la RSS d’Ukraine, et le second des Ukrainiens ethniques de l’URSS entière, dont 8 millions dans la RSFSR.
Communication présentée à la conférence « La grande famine en Ukraine – Holodomor. Connaissance et reconnaissance. » Paris, 2013. Publication sous la direction de Iryna Dmytrychyn. L’Harmattan, 2016.

In 1953 Raphael Lemkin wrote a paper entitled "Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine", in commemoration of the victims of Stalinist destructive repressions of the 1930s. Lemkin's paper was the first comprehensive analysis of the genocide against the Ukrainian nation, conceived in terms of the UN Convention on Genocide. This publication contains a Ukrainian translation of Lemkin's text with an introduction by Roman Serbyn.

1953, з нагоди відзначення 20-х роковин Великого Голоду, Рафаєль Лемкін, автор слова ″геноцид″ та аналітик цього злочину, підготовив доповідь під заголовком ″Радянський Ґеноцид в Україні″․ Це було перше всеосяжне осмислення цього злочину, яке відповідало дефініції та рамкам Конвенції про Геноцид 1948 р․ Тут поданий переклад українською мовою доповіді Рафаєля Лемкіна та вступ Романа Сербина․

RAPHAEL LEMKIN'S CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE HOLODOMOR

ТЕМА ГОЛОДОМОРУ В ОСМИСЛЕННІ РАФАЄЛА ЛЕМКІНА, У ПОРІВНЯЛЬНИХ ҐЕНОЦИДАХ, ТА У ЗАХОДАХ ЇХ ЗАПОБІГАННЮ

Paper prepared for a time-restricted presentation at the International Forum on the Holodomor in Kyiv, 22 Nov. 2018. The thrust of the argument is that Raphael Lemkin's seminal conceptualization of the Ukrainian genocide provides the most adequate approach for a comprehensive study of Stalin's crimes against the Ukrainian people in the 1930s. Lemkin's analysis is in conformity with the UN Genocide Convention of 1948, and is corroborated by newly revealed Soviet documents. Lemkin rejects the peasantist explanation of the Great Famine and shows that the starvation of Ukrainian peasants was but the most lethal part of Kremlin's many-pronged attack on the Ukrainian nation.

This paper traces the history of the origin and subsequent history of Rafael Lemkin's seminal conceptualization of the genocide of Ukrainian citizens of the USSR by Stalin's communist regime. Lemkin formulated his ideas  in conformity with the definition of that crime in the 1948 UN "Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

Celem artykułu jest skonstruowanie odpowiedzi na pytanie badawcze, w jaki sposób nowatorskie tezy wybitnego prawnika Rafała Lemkina (1900-1959), ojca koncepcji ludobójstwa (genocide) oraz intelektualnego patrona Konwencji ONZ w sprawie zapobiegania i karania zbrodni ludobójstwa z 1948 r., przekładają się na nowe wszechstronne rozumienie Hołodomoru, zbrodni ludobójstwa na narodzie ukraińskim popełnionej przez władzę sowiecką. Autor pochyla się nad ewolucją rozumienia i oceny wydarzeń z lat 20. i 30. XX wieku w Ukraińskiej Socjalistycznej Republice Sowieckiej, zademonstrowanych po II wojnie światowej przez przedstawicieli ukraińskiej diaspory z Ameryki Północnej, władze USRS oraz środowiska naukowe i polityczne w niepodległej Ukrainie, przez pryzmat pojęcia zbrodni ludobójstwa. Artykuł stanowi ponadto próbę paradygmatycznego przepracowania historii stosunków rosyjsko-ukraińskich i wskazania głównych czynników, które doprowadziły Kreml do dokonania genocydu narodu ukraińskiego. W opracowaniu przeanalizowano źródła zachodnie oraz sowieckie.

Raphael Lemkin, the author of the concept of genocide and the father of the 1948 UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the the Crime of Genocide, wrote popular speech, entitled "Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine" for a 1953 commemoration of what is now known as the Holodomor. The text is reproduced here in its original English form and with translations into 32 other languages of the world. The collection is preceded an introductory article written by the editor, Roman Serbyn: "Raphael Lemkin's Conception of the Crime of Genocide and His Analysis of the Genocide of the Ukrainian Nation". The collection is enriched by the text of the Genocide Convention in English and in Ukrainian.

GENOCIDE OF UKRAINIANS BY COMMUNIST RUSSIA —
SEMINAL CONCEPTUALIZATION BY RAPHAEL LEMKIN

Invited to speak at the Commemoration of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, held in New York on 20 September 1953, Raphael Lemkin prepared a speech titled "Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine". The 8-page typescript was too long to be read in full at the rally, it was not published at that time and its innovative ideas remained unknown. Fortunately, the original typescript was preserved among the author's papers in the New York Public library.
The document was discovered  in the beginning of this century, and since then has played an important role in the understanding of the genocide now known as the Holodomor. In his text, Lemkin, the author of the concept of genocide presented a seminal conceptualization of a holistic understanding of the crime,..
The present publication is a revised and augmented edition of the 2008 issue. It contains the original English version with translations into 32 languages of the world and a revised introduction. The author of the concept of genocide presented a seminal conceptualization for a holistic analysis of the crime of genocide, in accordance with the 1948 UN Convention on Genocide.