James Mace’s 62nd anniversary

James Mace’s legacy remains acutely relevant and not fully explored yet. He departed this world nearly a decade ago, but the researcher’s works are still popular with readers who reinterpret them and find new facets of them in today’s realities. In particular, his article “Europe: The Materialization of Ghosts” was published by Den in its Nos. 27-28 for February 14-15, 2014.

Mace’s contribution lies not only in the fact that it was largely thanks to his efforts that Ukraine and the world learned the truth about the Holodomor, and even the Soviet Ukrainian government admitted that the famine had taken place. He also thoroughly researched the spiritual and political “disease” of our country arising from that tragedy. Mace’s concept of post-genocidal society explains why Ukraine is now having such great troubles finding its place in the world. Not everyone knows about it, but it was Mace who established the tradition to mark by lighting candles in windows every fourth Saturday in November as a national day of remembrance for the victims of 1932-33 famine. The researcher analyzed in detail not only the tragic phenomenon of the Holodomor, he also conceptualized those fatal mistakes committed by early 20th century Ukrainian politicians which led to it. Therefore, studying Mace’s scholarly legacy must become for us an inoculation that would prevent a repeat of those mistakes in the future. One can read it in two books from Den’s Library series, Your Dead Have Chosen Me... and Day and Eternity of James Mace. Articles that are particularly important not only for journalists, but also for politicians, historians, and all Ukrainians were published separately in Candle in the Window book, an issue of “Subversive Literature” series.

All employees of Den are proud that Mace once worked for this publication. The figure and writings of this American with Ukrainian heart have remained indispensable context and reference point in our work. “Mace’s work in Den was a kind of laboratory of crystals in need of research,” Larysa Ivshyna noted in her preface to Your Dead Have Chosen Me... “One can dissolve one milligram of extract from them and satisfy a huge audience with it.”

In 2008, when Ukraine marked the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, Den, on the initiative of its editor-in-chief, established an annual James Mace Award. It is bestowed on journalistic works’ authors for civic stand and works that promote Ukrainian historical consciousness and the recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-33 as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Over the years, the award winners included Ukrainian scholars and journalists Ihor Losiev, Ihor Siundiukov, Serhii Hrabovsky, Oleksandr Palii, Petro Kraliuk, and Volodymyr Boiko.