Art collection reminiscent of the "Great Famine" that plagued Ukraine under Stalin

2024-12-25 20:35:32, Kosova & Bota CNA

Art collection reminiscent of the "Great Famine" that plagued Ukraine

The late American businessman Morgan Williams was heavily involved in promoting Ukrainian business while heading the US-Ukraine Business Council. During his time living in Ukraine, Mr. Williams collected artworks related to one of the darkest periods the Ukrainian people went through, the "Great Famine." As VOA correspondent Hanna Tverdokhlib reports, in the early 1930s, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin caused a famine that killed millions of people.

Daren Williams and Denise Ondrof are two of the four children of American businessman Morgan Williams. Mr. Williams passed away in June after many years at the head of the US-Ukraine Business Council. Only after their father's death did the children learn the importance he had had for many Ukrainians.

"After the fall of the Iron Curtain, in the late 1980s, my father began working for the international development of agriculture in the former Soviet republics. When he visited Ukraine, he fell in love with that country," Daren Williams, Mr. Morgan Williams' son, told VOA.

For years, Mr. Willimas promoted business between the United States and Ukraine. He learned about what is known as the Holodomor, a famine deliberately caused by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in 1932 that caused millions of Soviets to starve to death. He began collecting works of art related to the famine, creating a collection of more than 500 items.

"He fell in love with people and learned about the Holodomor, so he wanted to tell that event. He started collecting art in the mid-1990s. He would meet with artists and encourage them to write and have the Holodomor be part of their art to tell the world about this event," says Daren Williams, Mr. Morgan.

The collection consists of about 300 paintings, hundreds of engravings, pamphlets, postage stamps and other documents. His descendants say Mr. Williams understood that people may be reluctant to buy artworks that commemorate the suffering of the famine.

Mr. Willimas' children, in cooperation with the US-Ukraine Business Council, donated the collection to the Ukrainian National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide in Kyiv. The director of the museum plans to display the collection to the public after the end of the war.

"The museum has removed all the items from the showcases and hid the ones with higher values. There is no point in displaying priceless items while Russia is bombing Ukraine every day. Any country can be hit at any moment," says Lesia Hasydzhak, with the National Holodomor Genocide Museum.

She says that the preservation of this historical art has become even more important since Russian troops in some occupied areas have destroyed monuments that remind of the Holodomor.

"They have destroyed such monuments in Mariupol, Luhansk, Melitopol and Berdyansk..."

His daughter, Denise Ondrof, says one painting is etched in her mind forever.

"A painting has a special place for our whole family, because the artist dedicated it to his father. The painting depicts the tree of life, but it is actually the tree of death, with people on the trunk of the tree holding out their hands, like the leaves of the tree that is actually shaped like Ukraine. For us, this shows our father's passion for Ukraine and especially the absurdity of the country's past, but also the emotions it provokes in all those affected, which makes it so powerful."

A memorial ceremony was held in the American capital for Mr. Morgan Williams, to honor his work in support of Ukraine and the preservation of the history of that country./ VOA