COMPLETED: RESTORATION OF 1983 SYMPOSIUM/CONFERENCE FAMINE ARCHIVE

REPORT: Saving Archives in Montreal from1983 on the 1932-33 Holodomor

AVAILABLE ONLINE.

Yurij Luhovy, project director

2330 ave Beaconsfield, Montreal, Quebec H4A 2G8 E-mail: mmlinc@hotmail.com

The project entailed restoring and safeguarding the unique, historical archival material of the first international Symposium on the 1933 Famine in Soviet Ukraine, held on March 25-26, 1983 at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQàM), undertaken by Yurij Luhovy and Zorianna Hrycenko-Luhova and their team.

Refer to complete list of presenters, their topic, length of each section.

ONLINE are a total of 22 sections, speaker & topic identified, with codes.

Their paper was delivered in English, French or Ukrainian.

Section with the Symposium’s question and answer period included.

The aim of this project was to make accessible materials on the early work on the Holodomor. This restoration project provides a unique record of the early work conducted in the diaspora on the 1932-1933 Famine-Genocide, during a time when the Soviet Union was still denying the famine, when archives in the Soviet Union were not accessible, and survivors were afraid to talk.

The two-day 1983 Symposium on the Ukraine Famine, organized by Prof. Roman Serbyn and Dr. Bohdan Krawchenko, was co-sponsored by Interuniversity Centre of European Studies (ICES), comprised of four Montreal universities, including the University of Montreal, McGill University, Concordia University and UQàM, together with the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta.

The 1983 Symposium held in Montreal was filmed by a crew from University of Concordia comprised of Peter Blysczak and his team, directed by Yurij Luhovy.

The Restoration Process:

The Symposium speakers were filmed on U-MATIC ¾” videotape. This format, now discontinued, put the community at risk of losing these historic archives, since they were in a very fragile state, in danger of disintegrating and disappearing.

The Symposium restoration work entailed transferring the 14 one-hour U-MATIC tapes to DVD. Because the tapes became extremely brittle with the passing of time, each tape required constant attention to avoid breaking. The accumulation of magnetic oxide particles required cleaning the video heads every few minutes.

Once successfully transferred to DVD, each shot which had faded with time, had to be color corrected, thereby enhancing the original as much as possible, to keep the quality of the original taping. Editing was required.

The restoration project included the Symposium’s official opening remarks.

In the introduction to the 1983 Symposium, Prof. Russell Breen, Vice-Rector Academics of Montreal Concordia University stated, "The theme, indeed a challenging one, the 1933 little known though, man-made event, stands as a further example of man’s inhumanity throughout history. …Your task, to attempt an understanding of this important event in the highest spirit of scholarly inquiry and with sensitivity and intellectual rigor it requires, I am confident you will perform the task well.”

Prof. Michel Grenon, Director of ICES stated in 1983, "… scholars must eventually come to terms with the obscurity which still shrouds this event. In other words, how can a historical fact of such magnitude be obfuscated?”

Yurij Luhovy: "Had it not been for the far-sighted decision to film this Symposium in the 1980’s, there would not be a lasting record of the proceedings over three decades later.”

Prof. Roman Serbyn: "The uniqueness of the conference lay in the fact that it examined not only Stalin’s starvation of the Ukrainian farmers but also the destruction of the Ukrainian national elites, the Ukrainian church, language, culture – all the qualities that made Ukrainians a nation and a culture.”

The restoration project, has links to other sites on the Holodomor. Materials can be incorporated in the current Holodomor educational and awareness efforts.

PHASE 2 OF PROJECT:

Having completed restoring the proceedings of the 1983 Symposium, work continues on 1/ conserving the Montreal public panel presentations held the day following, as well as 2/ work on restoring early interviews conducted with famine survivors in Montreal and additional survivors in Toronto. The eye-witness testimonies were filmed by Yurij Luhovy with the assistance of Volodymyr Hayduk , coordinated by Zorianna Hrycenko.

Oral history helps to reconstruct the past, enriches historical knowledge, and brings to life the voices and experiences of the genocide survivors, thus preserving historical memory for future generations.

***************