aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- Re: [aaus-list] Why is there no organized action against Ginzburg?

[ropro@eclipse.net]

Romku!

I do not know how to post to the discussion, so I'm sending this to  
you.  Please post it if you think it fits.  I'd like to be in the  
background so maybe you can somehow blot out my name and address.

----------------------------------
rankom 23-ho
Dorohyj Romku!

A reaction from archival or academic organizations to the Ginzburg  
situation should possibly include aims such as:

1)  getting the Ukr. govt. to uphold its laws;

2)  the protection of scholarly freedom and human rights as mandated  
by international conventions to which Ukraine is a subscriber;

3)  informing professional communities and the broader media of the  
crisis.

Questioning Ginzburg's competence or the legality of her appointment  
may not be very interesting to the general public.  We all know that  
many countries (US included) have less than competent political  
appointees heading national archival systems.  The difference is that  
the laws of the land limit their authority and provide recourse to  
the public in case of grievous dereliction of duty.  In Ukraine it's  
"Huljaj Pole".

W/r to 1:
Attached is a PDF of an extract of Ukraine's "civil service" law that  
may be used to bring Ginzburg to justice, if not to fine her.  I'm  
sure there are other laws that apply.  She is propagating her party's  
agenda from a government position.  That's grounds for dismissal.

There is an entire corpus of Ukrainian laws on the State Archival  
Fond that define procedures, rights of the public, protections of  
materials, secret classification, declassification of documents.   
Much of this is posted on the archives.gov.ua site.  One approach can  
be to ask the Ukr. govt. (e.g. start from the embassies in the US,  
Canada, UN, etc.) for clarification of their laws and how they are  
being enforced in the Ginzburg case.

W/r to 2:
I do not know if this should be made public at this time, but  
Ginsburg has fined individuals in the State Comm. on Archives of  
Ukraine (reduced their monthly salary by 90% with a "shtrafna  
sankcija") because people did not follow her orders to remove  
material damaging to the Communists from the State Comm.'s web site.   
This is a bit tricky since the law allows setting fines for  
disobeying superiors, but on the other hand....

There is also the problem that Ukr. law forbids govt. workers from  
publicly criticizing superiors.  Workers can resign and then  
criticize.  This protects superiors as they break rules and takes  
away worker's rights.  We can point out to Ukr. govt. officials that  
they lack minimal whistle blowing protections that are standard in  
the West.

It would be interesting to find out the position of the professional  
association of archivists of Ukraine w/r to worker's rights, etc.  I  
think this organization exists.  Maybe they should unionize.

Ginzburg has appointed herself main editor of the journal "Archivy  
Ukrajiny" and Tabhacnyk formally sanctioned this about a month ago.   
So we are back to the 1950's when Uncle Joe printed his editorial  
articles in the front of "Ukrajins'kyj Bioxemichnyj Zhurnal" and  
other Academy of Sciences serials.  This move by Ginsburg gives  
academic associations standing in a drive to protect academic  
standards.  It's not yet clear how members of AU's Editorial Board  
will react to her self-appointment.  We may have to play second  
fiddle here since people like Papakin, Pyrih, Lozytsky et al. may  
stay on board to protect the journal as opposed to leaving it in a  
show of no confidence.

If professional archivists resign or are forced out, then this opens  
up the field of supporting dissident scholars, helping them publish,  
organizing "refusnik" scholarly conferences...  It may be a bit  
ironic, but maybe someone can find out the Svarnyk-Dashkevych L'viv  
defense-of-archives organization's position on Ginzburg.

W/r to 3:
It may be worth the effort to organize a panel at a big conference on  
the silencing of archives in Ukraine -- a case study, invite speakers  
from Ukraine, the govt., etc.  Maybe a comparative approach including  
the Russian Fed. to draw a crowd and gain exposure to the issue?

A popular write-up comparing the declassification of CIA papers in  
the US today with Ginsburg's claim that national trends are to  
classify documents, not declassify, could be an interesting piece of  
publicity.

I'm sure there are other things that would help publicize this  
contemporary tragedy, like making the "Ginzburg issue" a key part of  
the 75th anniversary commemorations of the Holodomor.

Anyway, just some thoughts about how to secure standing in this issue.

Vitaju, RP

Ukr artic 5.pdf