I hear the scream in my ears. The Ukrainian Holodomor through the eyes of Viktor Cymbal, Ulas Samchuk and Vasyl Barka
Abstract
The text focuses on the efforts of selected Ukrainian artists to grasp the unspeakable horror and to place Ukrainian fate in the terrifying realities of the Stalinist famine of 1932 and 1933. Specifically, it focuses on the painting "Year 1933" by Viktor Cymbal, the novel Maria by Ulas Samchuk and the novel The Yellow Prince by Vasyl Barka.
With their work, the mentioned artists intended not only to report on inhuman suffering, but also sought to interpret it. In particular, Vasyl Barka presents a strongly religious interpretation in his novel The Yellow Prince, where the terrible suffering is conceived as God's test and the fate of the tested nation is placed in a biblical (Christian) context.
The film version of the work, the film Famine-33 by director Oles Yanchuk, then found a very unique application, as Ukrainian television broadcast the film on the eve of the independence referendum, in December 1991. The study also places the Ukrainian famine of 1932 and 1933 in its historical context, presenting the reader with the main directions of interpretation of its origins and also focuses on the struggle for place and meaning of the famine in the collective memory of Ukrainians.