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In 1932-33, Ukraine had bountiful crops of grain, yet the country was gripped
by famine. This was the result of Joseph Stalin's collectivization policy. In
order to force people to give up their land to the state, he ordered an army
of Communist Party activists to seize grain and other food from Ukraine's independent
farmers. In one of the greatest crimes in history, more than seven million Ukrainian
peasants were deliberately starved to death. This coincided with a period of
terror that was unleashed against Ukrainian artists and cultural figures. For
more than fifty years afterward, any mention of the Famine and the Terror was
subject to total censorship in Soviet Ukraine. Eyewitness accounts and other
records from this period were suppressed and destroyed.
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One of the few surviving works illustrating these horrible times can be found
in the UMA's collection. This is the extraordinary edition of Taras Shevchenko's
Kobzar, featuring drawings by Vasyl Sedliar. (1899-1937). Although the Kobzar
was written in the 19th Century, the 48 full-page sketches and the accompanying
quotations from Shevchenko's poems, make it clear that Sedliar and his editor
Andriy Richytsky (1890-1934) were commenting on Stalin's Famine and not Tsarist
Russia. Reminiscent of Henri Matisse, Sedliar in these long-forgotten drawings,
shows great technical skill as well as breathtaking artistic courage. Despite
inquiries, we have been unable to determine the location of the originals of
these drawings or whether they still exist. Both Sedliar and Richytsky were
arrested and shot by the NKVD (Soviet Secret Police).
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