Ukraine Students Fast To Commemorate Famine

It is well known that six million European Jews were killed in the Nazi Holocaust during the Second World War. But a crew of Harvard students is now trying to publicize a lesser known but comparably brutal genocide the starvation of according to scholars estimates seven to 10 million Ukrainians in 1932-33 by the Soviet Union

About 50 students enrolled in Harvard's Ukrainian Summer School program yesterday held a 24 hour fast commemorating the 50th anniversary of the man made famine, which was hidden from Western governments and journalists by the Stalin government

The student effort is part of a nationwide campaign this year by Ukrainian groups to lobby the U.S. Congress to condemn the famine officially. Several of the fasters also spent the day in the Square asking passersby to sign a petition calling for the passage of a Congressional resolution on the topic

Condemns Soviet Union

The resolution, which was submitted to the House of Representatives in April by Rep Gerald Solomon (R.N.Y), calls for the President and Congress to make a public condemnation of the Soviet Government's actions in 1932-33 and its continued enslavement of the Ukrainian nation as well as other non- Russian nations" within the USSR. This House members, including Barney Frank '61 (D-Mass.). are currently co-operating the bill, which is in subcommittee.

The resolution, if passed, would put Congress and the President" on record publicity as being morally opposed to certain actions takes, by the Soviet Union," Solomon's press secretary. John Kospas, said yesterday.

And Kenneth Moss, a staff member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where the resolution is being reviewed, yesterday described the resolution, like the "Afghanistan Freedom Day" resolution, as "symbolic" and "restorative of the concern of the U.S. over human rights."

Both Kospas and Moss cited the minimal effect of such resolutions on actual Soviet policy, but emphasized their importance in maintaining public pressure on the U.S. administration as well as the Soviet Union.

Mark Slysh, one of the organizers of the fast and a student at the University of Pennsylvania during the year, agreed yesterday, saying that the revolution was intended basically for domestic consumption."

A research fellow at Harvard's Ukrainian Institute yesterday described the Ukrainian famine as one of the most tragic and least understood evends of this century, "representing the most successful example of the denial of genocide by in perpetration." The basic reason behind Station's actions was trying to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a social organism and as a political factor within the Soviet Union." added James Mace, author of a forth coming book on the famine.

The Ukrainian, part of the "breadbasket" region which Stalin was Particularly eager to collectivize. Win populated by prosperous and traditionally more independent peasant farmers who confronted the Soviet leader with the strongest resistance to his plans to take over the area's farms. In retaliation, Stalin ordered all food removed by force from the Ukraine, and closed its borders so that no food could be carried in or Ukrainians allowed to leave. The result was massive starvation which led to cannibalism and open burial pits.

The Ukrainian summer school program is sponsored by the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, one of the only centers in the world devoted to regularly research or Ukrainian issues