One integral component of the UCCA's strategy is a
campaign to revoke Walter Duranty's 1932 Pulitzer Prize and to expose
the truth about his reporting from the Soviet Union.
In a recently released book titled US
Intelligence Perceptions of Soviet Power 1921-46,
the author, Leonard Leshuk, details US intelligence
gathering and analysis on the Soviet Union based on
documentary materials from US and British archival
sources. In this book he states that the US news media had
a great influence on how those in the intelligence
agencies, policy makers, and the general public viewed the
USSR. The reliability and objectivity of US newspapers
concerning the Soviets, as well as their ethics and those
of their reporters can be judged from a statement of
Walter Duranty of the New York Times who admitted
in June 1931 that in an "agreement with the New York
Times and the Soviet authorities" his official
dispatches always reflected the official opinion of the
Soviet regime and not his own.
The above statement is a chilling reminder of how an
American journalist can sway public opinion and policy
makers by misinterpreting or withholding the facts. Such
was the case with New York Times Moscow
correspondent, Walter Duranty who not only disregarded the
famine-genocide in his dispatches but called other
journalists outright liars for reporting about Ukraine's
Famine Genocide of 1932-33. As a result of this, the UCCA
deemed it necessary to begin a nationwide and
international campaign to revoke Walter Duranty's Pulitzer
Prize.
The UCCA's campaign began in early February with a
community-wide letter writing campaign to the Pulitzer
Prize Committee urging them to revoke Duranty's prize. The
campaign was timed to coincide with the Pulitzer Prize
Board meetings, when members are in frequent contact with
each other to discuss current prize candidates. In
addition to an official letter sent by the UCCA Executive
Board, hundreds of letters were sent from members of our
community. The UCCA's Kyiv Bureau also joined the campaign
by soliciting letters from various influential individuals
of Ukraine. Letters were sent to the Pulitzer Board from
MP Hennadiy Udovenko, 52nd President of the UN General
Assembly; MP Pavlo Movchan, Chairman of "Prosvita"
Society; Professor Volodymyr Serhiychuk, Director of the
Ukrainian Studies Center at the Kyiv National Taras
Shevchenko University; the late Oleskandr Kryvenko,
Director of the UPJC "Without Prejudices"; and Ihor
Lubchenko, Chairman of the National Union of Journalists
of Ukraine.
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Walter Duranty of the New York Times admitted
in June 1931 that in an "agreement with the New York
Times and the Soviet authorities" his official
dispatches always reflected the official opinion of the
Soviet regime and not his own.
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Unfortunately, the official response from the Pulitzer
Prize Committee's Administrator, Mr. Sig Gissler, was in
the model of a form letter that stated in part:
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"My predecessor as administrator says that complaint about the
prize for Mr. Duranty have raised on and off through the
years. However, to date, the Pulitzer Board has not seen
fit to reverse a previous Board's decision that now
stretches back 70 years."
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Understanding that the Pulitzer Prize Board was not
going to address these complaints in a proper manner, the
UCCA joined an international campaign, initiated by the
Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association and
supported by Ukrainian World Congress, the Association of
Ukrainians in Great Britain, the Federation of Ukrainian
Australian Organizations, the Ukrainian American Justice
Committee and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. This
campaign, which is supported by the above mentioned
organizations and the UCCA, published postcards for
distribution throughout their respective communities to
ensure that the Pulitzer Prize Committee receives
thousands of cards postmarked May Day (May 1, 2003) from
around the world urging the Committee to posthumously
revoke Walter Duranty's prize.
As part of such efforts, the UCCA has also been
contacting various journalists to inform them of our
efforts. As a result of this, several newspapers have
printed stories about the UCCA and its campaign, including
a story by Natalia Feduschak to The Washington Times.
The Washington Times carried this piece on the
front page of its March 29, 2003 issue. The same article
was picked up and printed on March 31, 2003 by the
Agency France Press. Other news agencies, such as
Radio Liberty, have conducted interviews with UCCA
Executive Board members on the activities of the UCCA in
trying to revoke Duranty's Pulitzer Prize. This media
attention is necessary to bring further awareness not only
of the Duranty campaign, but also as a means of furthering
knowledge about the horrors of the Ukrainian
Famine-Genocide within the general public.
The UCCA has not ceased this campaign, rather it
pledges to continue this pressure on the Pulitzer Prize
Board
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