The week before last we buried the American scholar James Mace, a noble person and a friend of Ukrainians. Perhaps like no other foreign researcher, he did his best to make some tragic and horrible pages of our history known to the world public, to keep them from sinking into oblivion or, put simply, from occurring again. The question is, above all, about the devastating famines provoked by Soviet dictatorship.
The memorial ceremony at the Teacher’s House was attended by many people — scholars, students, politicians, public figures, Ukrainian diaspora representatives, and journalists. The many speakers very highly appreciated Mr. Mace’s scholarly and civic contribution to the development of Ukrainian society and paid a touching tribute to his serene personality.
Such a solemn and sorrowful event as paying last respects to an outstanding person and the unanimous recognition of his merits for the Ukrainian people should have, by all divine and human laws, united — at least for a fleeting moment — all those present and reminded everybody that we all live in the same country, that one cannot choose or rid oneself of (if only by means of manmade famines) his compatriots but must peacefully coexist, one way or another, with them — irrespective of their past or present persuasions. There is just no other option if we do not want the current political standoff to turn into a civil war.
This is the way things should have but did not go at the memorial service in the face of death. Some speakers managed to use even the funeral speech as an instrument of settling scores with their political adversaries: in particular, poisoned arrows were shot at the newspaper Den’/The Day. It is the newspaper which the deceased fruitfully and willingly contributed to for many years and where he had friends (last year, when Mr. Mace was critically ill, almost half the editorial board offered to donate their blood for him). It is this newspaper that published his last article, “Ukrainizing Ukraine”, in late April. So was it not disrespectful for Mr. Mace’s memory to sling mud, during the memorial ceremony, at the publication he had himself chosen? For James opted, out of certain considerations, not for Bulvar or even Silski Visti or some other well-respected newspaper but for Den/The Day which turned down none of his, even radical, materials and published them in three — Ukrainian, Russian, and English — languages. It is beyond a shadow of doubt that Den/The Day will find ways to further spread Mr. Mace’s scholarly ideas and honor his memory.
Unfortunately, it is too typical of Ukrainian society to remember and keep account of bad things only. Whatever positive you throw on the scales, there will always be enthusiasts who will gladly bend over backwards to raise mountains of the negative in order to outweigh and level off what is beautiful and deserving. This applies to assessing the past and the present, individuals and the state as a whole — everyone and everything under any circumstances should be painted black.
So what can we expect from the future if our society holds no place for either a common joy or a common woe which unites, to some extent, entirely different people? Suffice it to recall the latest sectarian observation of the 1933 famine’s anniversary by the conflicting political forces in Kyiv. It seems sometimes that the surrounding air is full of frenzied furies that are rabidly shoving people around and against each other, giving slaps to and stirring up hatred for all. For all these are always in the other, hostile, camp.
