Not to Be Forgotten Exhibit Opens in
By
Orest Zakydalsky
On November 28, an exhibit entitled Not
to be Forgotten opened at
The opening of the
exhibit was attended by dignitaries from the Ukrainian and
The keynote address was
delivered by Roman Krutsyk, former deputy to the Verkhovna Rada, member of the
Ukrainian Helsinki Group since 1988 and head of the All-Ukrainian Memorial
Society since 1999. Also in attendance was Hryhorii Herchak, a victim of Soviet
repressions who spent 25 years in the GULAG camps and now lives in
The Not to be
Forgotten exhibit consists of 54 panels of documentary material that cover
eleven periods of Soviet crimes against humanity. The periods are divided
thusly: 1917-1920: The Bolshevik coup and the beginning of the terror,
1921-1923: The USSR is born out of famine and violence, 1924-1931: The cost of
industrialization and forced collectivization, 1932-1933: The Ukrainian
Holocaust, 1934-1938: The collapse of Ukrainianization and the Great Terror,
1939-1941: The conspiracy of two dictatorships and its consequences, 1942-1952:
The last decade of Stalinist dictatorship, 1946-1947: Famine strikes a third
blow, 1953-1964: The ‘Thaw’, 1965-1985: ‘Bloodless’ totalitarianism, 1986-1991:
The collapse.
This exhibit is important
for several reasons. Firstly, it gives an excellent chronicle of the scale and
nature of crimes against humanity committed against the Ukrainian people by the
Soviet authorities. Secondly, it shows, quite rightly, that large-scale
repressions and crimes did not stop in the Soviet Union with the death of
Stalin; indeed repressions of its own people was a feature of the Soviet system
that endured right until the final collapse of the Communist regime. Lastly, it
presents a real opportunity for the Canadian community and especially young
people–high school and university students– to see what the true nature of the
Soviet system really was.
The world community has,
rightly, condemned the crimes against humanity of the Nazi regime. It has not,
however, to the same extent dealt with and condemned the crimes of the other
great 20th century tyranny- the Soviet regime. It is hoped that
exhibits such as this will serve to further educate the world community about
these crimes. Consul General Lossovsky in his address to the crowd said it
best: “Crimes against humanity have no borders. They can’t be tolerated
anywhere.”
Not to be Forgotten will
be on display at City Hall until December 2.
The exhibit is also on
display in
The opening ceremony in
Roman Krutsyk gave a
speech at the ceremony. He was introduced by the President of the Ukrainian
Cultural Centre Mykola Wasylko.
Among the special guests
at the opening were community and church leaders; The Honourable Joe Fontana,
Minister of Labour and Housing; The Honourable Steve Peters, Minister of
Labour; Roger Caranci, City of London councillor, Ihor Lossovskyi, the Consul
General of Ukraine; Roman Krutsyk, president of the All-Ukrainian Memorial
Society; Dr. Eugene Roslycky, Director, Ukrainian Canadian Congress, London Branch;
and Michael Szubelak, president of the Ukrainian Students’ Club of the
University of Western Ontario.
Other members of the
The exhibit is available
in photo album format in four languages. It is also available in its Ukrainian
and English renderings at www.represii.org