Luba Markewycz was a teacher by profession and taught in the Chicago Public School system for over thirty years. She also worked in several leadership roles at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) in Chicago. Markewycz served as UIMA president, vice president, and a board member, a member of the art committee, and chair of the education committee. As a teacher, she was interested in children's art and how it reflects life from a child’s perspective. In 2008, Markewycz became the project director for the exhibit "Holodomor through the Eyes of a Child." She believed the tragic event of...
Overview
Ukraine, now home to military and political conflict, was once known as the "Breadbasket of the Soviet Union.” But just over 80 years ago, its economy suffered a profound crisis, not because of catastrophic weather or financial collapse, but because of the efforts of Joseph Stalin and his Communist regime’s effort to eliminate Ukraine’s independent farmers in order to collectivize the agricultural process. It is estimated to have resulted in the death, through murder and forced starvation, of almost 7 million Ukrainians in the 1930s. This became known as the Holodomor, meaning "death by hunger" in the Ukrainian language, and it is recognized as a genocide by more than a dozen countries, including the United States.
Through her art exhibit, “Holodomor Through the Eyes of a Child: The Famine Remembered,” Luba Markewycz aims to shed light on this largely unknown chapter of Ukrainian history and expose the tyranny and inhumanity of Stalin’s Communist regime. The exhibit is composed of artwork created by contemporary children throughout Ukraine.
Ms. Markewycz is joined by the Acton Institute’s Dr. Samuel Gregg, who discusses the historical context and the ways in which the Holodomor amounted to an assault on human dignity, individual liberty, private property, and religious freedom.
