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Robert Venezia
March 20, 2011
Professor Griffith
Ukrainian Famine/Genocide

On Sunday March 6, 2011 my friends and I made a trip to the Ukrainian Museum at 222

East Street and 6th Avenue. I went with my friends Devon Mercurius, Vassilena Ivanova, and

Stephanie Schwartz. All of us did our undergrad studies at Ramapo College. We were going to

interview Damian Kolodiy, an independent Ukrainian filmmaker at the museum. All of us in

some way are interested in politics or global studies, so interviewing Damian was appealing to

everyone in their own way. Devon works for a non-profit organization, Global Kids that teaches

Middle and High School students in the city about global issues. Stephanie works as a local

journalist and has a keen interest in foreign affairs and Vassilena is getting a master’s degree at

Seton Hall in International Relations.

I started the interview by asking Damian about the Holodomor and the possibly of using

it to unite the people of Ukraine. He told me,

“That would be nice if it did serve to do that, but Ukraine is so split along geographic
lines and is it such a different interpretation of events that is it not going to accomplish uniting
the country. I think that it is part of what Yuschenko would like to see happen.” (Kolodiy).

The problem with using this tragedy to unite the people of Ukraine is that it does the

exact opposite. Most people in Eastern Ukraine see history differently than most people in

Western Ukraine. Respected people from the different regions of the country look at the same

information and draw two very different conclusions.

Another thing that Damian explained to us was how to become an election monitor in

Ukraine. He told us it was a very easy process to be an election volunteer. He told us that we

did not need to speak Ukrainian and needed to sign up at a building in the city. However, he told
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us that we had to pay for the plane ticket, to which we all laughed. (Kolodiy). This was

something that stuck with us as a group, because we talked election monitoring after the

interview was over.

Devon then began to ask questions about the revolution itself, because he did not have

any real idea of the real reasons for the revolution. He wanted to know about the history of

Yuschenko where did he come from.

“Yuschenko started as head of the national bank for several years in the mid to late 90’s.
The previous president Kuchma made him his prime minister for two years. Yuschenko was
doing more interaction with the West and the West wanted more of a reformer. Yuschenko was
seen to be a reformer that Kuchma felt he could control. Kuchma fired him.” (Kolodiy).

Devon was curious about OSI, the group run by George Suros and is accused of

fomenting revolution by right-wingers in Americans. Devon wanted to know about the OSI and

their role in the revolution. Damian answered “I did not see any visible role that they played.

They were not with tanks or people or anything like that.” (Kolodiy). Damian said the main

helpers were the business people who gave the Orange Revolutionaries money and not the OSI.

Damian in talking about the election, explained to us about corruption levels in Ukraine.

The stealing of the elections was just the final straw for the people of Ukraine. Ukrainians were

just tired of the corruption of the Kuchma administration. “The justice system there does not

really work it runs on bribes and everything is corrupt.” (Kolodiy). He spoke about his own

experiences in offering bribes to get out of speeding tickets. This was an underground economy

that nobody speaks about in Ukraine.

Damian talked about the similarities between the Orange Revolution and the election of

Obama. Damian and most of the group feel disillusioned by the current administration. I said,

“All those young people who came out for Obama in 2008, did not vote in 2010 and that is why

the Republicans took control over congress.” In 2010 in Ukraine, all those people who came out
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in the streets in the Orange Revolution did not vote and that is why Viktor Yanukovych became

the president. Damian said it was very frustrating for him that Yanukovych was even allowed to

run.

I then asked Damian about his movie, more specifically about his 10-day road trip

through the Eastern Ukraine in the lead up to the 2004 re-election. After meeting Damian and

watching his movie I still did not understand his decision going on a convoy waving orange

banners through Yanukovych’s territory.

Me: “Were you ever scared?”

Damian in a very interesting and funny way explained to all of us this moment during his

life where there was a strong possibly of bodily harm coming to him as well as his friends.

Damian was able to communicate his story in a way to my friends that they understood him even

without having watched the movie. The recorded interview lasted about fifty minutes, but we

spoke with Damian for another forty minutes off of the record, because he was that interesting

and we all enjoyed talking with him. After the scripted part, all of us were asking questions and

became deeply involved in the conversation. After a one hour and half we parted on very cordial

terms and decided it was time to explore the museum.

The museum’s main exhibit involved Ukrainian folk dresses. I remember Devon told me

that the patterns on the folk dresses reminded him of Native American attire in the United States.

After looking closer at the dresses I told him that I agreed with him. The displays of Ukrainian

bread impressed us all. We marveled at how the intricate the designs were. Vassie joked that she
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wanted one of the bread trees at her wedding, so we said it looks like you need to marry a

Ukrainian then. We all laughed at continued to stare at the display bread. The museum was full

of information about the peasant culture of Ukraine. We stayed at the museum for a little less

than an hour.

Devon wanted to go a French place for crepes for dinner, but the rest of us wanted to eat

Ukrainian cuisine. We settled on the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant on 2nd avenue in

Manhattan. For the moment that we sat down, we knew that we stood out. Everyone was

conducting conversations in Ukrainians wearing their Sunday best. We were in jeans and long

sleeve shirts speaking English. It was obvious that we were not “locals.” I wanted to order

something Ukrainian, so I ordered Ukrainian Goulash with a beer from Ukraine. Vassie ordered

Ukrainian Perogies, while the other two got food that were popular in Ukraine, but were not

specifically Ukrainian. The food was amazing and we all enjoyed our meals immensely. The

rest of my time in the city I did nothing Ukrainian.

All in all I feel that my trip to New York on March 6, 2011 was one of the most

interesting and entertaining events I’ve experienced this year. I was able to conduct an interview

with an expert on Ukraine, someone who had witnessed the Orange Revolution firsthand. My

friends learned about the Holodomor. Most importantly my friends and I were able to

experience a culture for ourselves that was not our own. This trip made me understand the

Ukrainian culture, a culture that the Soviets attempted to destroy during the Holodomor. The trip

made me appreciate the Famine/Genocide class a lot more. I feel I understand how unique the

culture of Ukraine is and what humanity would have lost had Stalin had succeeded in destroying

it.
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Works Cited Page

Kolodiy, Damian. Personal interview. 6 Mar. 2011.