MISSION STATEMENT OF WALTER DURANTY’ S PULITZER PRIZE REVOCATION COMMITTEE
Walter Duranty was the recipient of the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1932, for his reporting of Joseph Stalin’s collectivization program, which was the instrument of the Holodomor and led to the killing of 7-10 million Ukrainians.
The Pulitzer Prize is a distinguished and highly coveted award given to deserving journalists who stake their reputation on the truth. In Duranty’s case, it was given to a man who did not live up to any standards of the award, but instead spread false news worldwide and promoted the legitimacy of the Soviet Union. He was responsible for the biggest cover-up of the century, the Holodomor, Ukraine’s Famine, a genocide that killed millions of starving Ukrainians.
As a subcommittee of the US Committee on Ukrainian Holodomor-Genocide Awareness, our focus is on the revocation of the Pulitzer Prize through information and engagement, questioning why the Pulitzer Committee, after over 20 years of evidence of falsifications of truth, shoddy journalism and precedence of revocation, still does not want to do the right thing.
Alexander J. Motyl (Ph.D., Columbia University, 1984) is professor of political science at Rutgers University-Newark. He served as associate director of the Harriman Institute at Columbia University in 1992-1998 and of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University-Newark in 1999-2008. A specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the USSR, he is the author of Ukraine vs. Russia: Revolution, Democracy, and War, 2017; Pidsumky imperii, 2009; Puti imperii, 2004; Imperial Ends: The Decay, Collapse, and Revival of Empires, 2001; Revolutions, Nations, Empires: Conceptual Limits and Theoretical Possibilities, 1999; Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism, 1993; Sovietology, Rationality, Nationality: Coming to Grips with Nationalism in the USSR, 1990; Will the Non‑Russians Rebel? State, Ethnicity, and Stability in the USSR, 1987; The Turn to the Right: The Ideological Origins and Development of Ukrainian Nationalism, 1919‑1929, 1980, and the editor of over ten volumes, including The Encyclopedia of Nationalism, 2000. He is, together with Bohdan Klid, the editor of The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine, and, together with Ksenya Kiebuzinski, the editor of The Great West Ukrainian Prison Massacre of 1941: A Sourcebook. According to Academic Influence, Motyl was ranked sixth among the “Top Ten Most Influential Political Scientists Today.
e-mail: ajmotyl@newark.rutgers.edu
Victor Rud is the son of Holodomor survivors. He has been researching, speaking to various audiences, and writing about the subject for many decades. In the 1980’s, he consulted frequently with James Mace, researcher for Prof. Robert Conquest’s groundbreaking Harvest of Sorrow. Concurrently, Mr. Rud challenged the media’s silence, promoting the award-winning Canadian documentary, “Harvest of Despair.” It ultimately aired nationally in the U.S. on the late William F. Buckley’s television program, Firing Line. Mr. Rud practiced law for over forty years, and now additionally lectures and writes on issues pertaining to the U.S., Ukraine and Russia. His articles have been carried by various domestic and foreign publications. Mr. Rud is a graduate of Harvard College and Duke University Law School.
e-mail: yatato1@aol.com
Dr. Ray Gamache is a retired professor of journalism. His most recent book, Gareth Jones: On Assignment in Nazi Germany 1933-1934, was published by the Welsh Academic Press in March 2021. Other publications include Gareth Jones: Eyewitness to the Holodomor (2013, Welsh Academic Press), Tell Them We Are Starving: The 1933 Soviet Diaries of Gareth Jones (2015, Kashtan Press), and A History of Sports Highlights: Replayed Plays from Edison to ESPN (2010, McFarland). Dr. Gamache has published journal articles in the Harvard Ukrainian Studies Journal, Journalism History, American Journalism, Sociology of Sport Journal, the Journal of Sports Media, Studies in Symbolic Interaction and West Virginia Philological Papers among others. He resides in Maine with his wife, Jane Margaret Benesch.
