Douglas Tottle
Encyclopedia
Douglas Tottle is a Canadian
trade union activist and the author of a book about the Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933
(often referred to as the Holodomor
) entitled Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. Tottle claims that fraudulent, anti-Semitic "famine-genocide" propaganda has been spread by former Nazis, anti-communists and Ukrainian Nationalists, sometimes posing as academics in Canadian universities. Tottle's critics regard him as a "Soviet apologist", or a "denunciator" of the famine. Tottle also has defenders such as the Stalin Society
, author Jeff Coplon
, the Swedish Communist Party
, which insists that his book is a solid piece of historical research that exposed the "myth of the famine-genocide ... once and for all". When published, his book received endorsements from two Canadian University professors (see below).
, but later lived mainly in Western Canada. He had various jobs throughout his working life, including photo-lab technician, fine artist, miner, and steelworker. As a trade union activist, he edited The Challenger, a journal of the United Steelworkers
, from 1975 to 1985. Tottle also researched labour history and worked as a union organiser, for example among Chicano
farm workers in California
, and Native Indian
farm workers in Manitoba
. Tottle has written for various Canadian and US publications.
was an intentional genocide are "fraudulent", and "a creation of Nazi
propagandists". He downplays the responsibility of what he calls "mistakes" by Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin
and "amateurish Soviet planning," and suggests blame can be placed on Ukrainian saboteurs, resisting collectivization. Nonetheless, Tottle puts significant emphasis into denying the validity of photographs of the famine, suggesting a conspiracy.
Only a portion of Tottle's book deals with the Holodomor
, as most of it deals with claims of conspiracy and supposed fascist cover-ups. Tottle admits that he "does not attempt to study the famine in any detailed way" (p. 1) and that he is more interested in the "Nazi and fascist connections" and the "coverups of wartime collaboration" (p. 3). Critics argued that both of these topics, even if objectively treated, are not relevant to the study of the famine and can neither prove nor disprove the existence of the famine or define the nature of the tragedy. It has also been argued that Tottle's attacks on various segments of the Ukrainian diaspora
constitute hate literature.
His book, published by the pro-Communist Progress Publishers in Toronto
, appeared practically at the same time Ukrainian Communist party leader Volodymyr Shcherbytsky
publicly acknowledged the Famine, in December 1987. As a result the book was subsequently withdrawn from circulation. Nevertheless, the book is available on the internet, and continues to be cited as an "invaluable" and "important" book by groups such as the Stalin Society
in Great Britain
, author Jeff Coplon
, and the Communist Party of Sweden.
In a review of Tottle's book in the Ukrainian Canadian Magazine, published by the pro-Communist Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
, Wilfred Szczesny wrote: "Members of the general public who want to know about the famine, its extent and causes, and about the motives and techniques of those who would make this tragedy into something other than what it was will find Tottle's work invaluable" (The Ukrainian Canadian, April 1988, p. 24).
In his book, Searching for place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory, Lubomyr Luciuk
comments: "For a particularly base example of famine-denial literature, see Tottle, Fraud, famine, and fascism...".
In 1988 the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine
was set up to establish whether the famine existed and its cause. Tottle was invited by the commission to attend the hearings, however he ignored the request. While the commission was organized along judicial lines, it had no judicial power to compel witnesses to attend or testify. However Tottle's book was examined during the Brussels sitting of the commission, held between May 23–27, 1988, with testimony from various expert witnesses. The commission president Professor Jacob Sundberg subsequently concluded that Tottle was not alone in his enterprise to deny the famine on the basis that material included in his book could not have been available to a private person without official Soviet assistance.
In general the book is regarded as blatant example of pro-Soviet propaganda and not credible. The "father of the UN genocide convention," Dr. Raphael Lemkin
regarded the famine as genocidal.
Other similar writings supporting Tottle's view include:
Clarence J. Munford (1935-), Professor of Black Studies and History at the University of Guelph
strongly praised Tottle's book, writing that:
David Whitefield (1931–2007), a Professor of History at the University of Calgary
also praised Tottle, writing that
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
trade union activist and the author of a book about the Ukrainian famine of 1932–1933
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
(often referred to as the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
) entitled Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard. Tottle claims that fraudulent, anti-Semitic "famine-genocide" propaganda has been spread by former Nazis, anti-communists and Ukrainian Nationalists, sometimes posing as academics in Canadian universities. Tottle's critics regard him as a "Soviet apologist", or a "denunciator" of the famine. Tottle also has defenders such as the Stalin Society
Stalin Society
The Stalin Society is a British discussion group for individuals who see Joseph Stalin as a great Marxist-Leninist and wish to preserve what they believe is his positive legacy...
, author Jeff Coplon
Jeff Coplon
Jeff Coplon is an American journalist and author.-Written Work:After eight years as a daily newspaper reporter, culminating in a stint at the Kansas City Times, he went on to co-write 11 autobiographies...
, the Swedish Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden (1995)
The Communist Party of Sweden is the continuation of Workers' Party – The Communists .- History :...
, which insists that his book is a solid piece of historical research that exposed the "myth of the famine-genocide ... once and for all". When published, his book received endorsements from two Canadian University professors (see below).
Biography
Tottle was born in QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, but later lived mainly in Western Canada. He had various jobs throughout his working life, including photo-lab technician, fine artist, miner, and steelworker. As a trade union activist, he edited The Challenger, a journal of the United Steelworkers
United Steelworkers
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union is the largest industrial labor union in North America, with 705,000 members. Headquartered in Pittsburgh, U.S., the United Steelworkers represents workers in the United...
, from 1975 to 1985. Tottle also researched labour history and worked as a union organiser, for example among Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
farm workers in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and Native Indian
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
farm workers in Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
. Tottle has written for various Canadian and US publications.
Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard
Douglas Tottle is mostly known for his controversial book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: the Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard, in which he asserts that claims the HolodomorHolodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
was an intentional genocide are "fraudulent", and "a creation of Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
propagandists". He downplays the responsibility of what he calls "mistakes" by Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and "amateurish Soviet planning," and suggests blame can be placed on Ukrainian saboteurs, resisting collectivization. Nonetheless, Tottle puts significant emphasis into denying the validity of photographs of the famine, suggesting a conspiracy.
Only a portion of Tottle's book deals with the Holodomor
Holodomor
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in the Ukrainian SSR between 1932 and 1933. During the famine, which is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine" and "famine-genocide in Ukraine", millions of Ukrainians died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of...
, as most of it deals with claims of conspiracy and supposed fascist cover-ups. Tottle admits that he "does not attempt to study the famine in any detailed way" (p. 1) and that he is more interested in the "Nazi and fascist connections" and the "coverups of wartime collaboration" (p. 3). Critics argued that both of these topics, even if objectively treated, are not relevant to the study of the famine and can neither prove nor disprove the existence of the famine or define the nature of the tragedy. It has also been argued that Tottle's attacks on various segments of the Ukrainian diaspora
Ukrainian Canadian
A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...
constitute hate literature.
His book, published by the pro-Communist Progress Publishers in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, appeared practically at the same time Ukrainian Communist party leader Volodymyr Shcherbytsky
Volodymyr Shcherbytsky
Volodymyr Vasylyovych Shcherbytsky was a Ukrainian and Soviet politician. He was a leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine from 1972 to 1989....
publicly acknowledged the Famine, in December 1987. As a result the book was subsequently withdrawn from circulation. Nevertheless, the book is available on the internet, and continues to be cited as an "invaluable" and "important" book by groups such as the Stalin Society
Stalin Society
The Stalin Society is a British discussion group for individuals who see Joseph Stalin as a great Marxist-Leninist and wish to preserve what they believe is his positive legacy...
in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
, author Jeff Coplon
Jeff Coplon
Jeff Coplon is an American journalist and author.-Written Work:After eight years as a daily newspaper reporter, culminating in a stint at the Kansas City Times, he went on to co-write 11 autobiographies...
, and the Communist Party of Sweden.
In a review of Tottle's book in the Ukrainian Canadian Magazine, published by the pro-Communist Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
Association of United Ukrainian Canadians
The Association of United Ukrainian Canadians is a national cultural-educational non-profit organization established for Ukrainians in Canada...
, Wilfred Szczesny wrote: "Members of the general public who want to know about the famine, its extent and causes, and about the motives and techniques of those who would make this tragedy into something other than what it was will find Tottle's work invaluable" (The Ukrainian Canadian, April 1988, p. 24).
In his book, Searching for place: Ukrainian Displaced Persons, Canada, and the Migration of Memory, Lubomyr Luciuk
Lubomyr Luciuk
Lubomyr Luciuk was born and raised in Kingston, Ontario. His education began at St. Joseph's School, Cathedral School and Regiopolis-Notre Dame. He earned two degrees from Queen's University, an Honours BSc and MA . He completed his Ph.D. at the University of Alberta...
comments: "For a particularly base example of famine-denial literature, see Tottle, Fraud, famine, and fascism...".
In 1988 the International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine
International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–33 Famine in Ukraine
The International Commission of Inquiry Into the 1932–1933 Famine in Ukraine was set up in 1984 and was initiated by the World Congress of Free Ukrainians to study and investigate the 1932-1933 Famine in Ukraine. Members of Commission selected and invited by World Congress of Free Ukrainians. None...
was set up to establish whether the famine existed and its cause. Tottle was invited by the commission to attend the hearings, however he ignored the request. While the commission was organized along judicial lines, it had no judicial power to compel witnesses to attend or testify. However Tottle's book was examined during the Brussels sitting of the commission, held between May 23–27, 1988, with testimony from various expert witnesses. The commission president Professor Jacob Sundberg subsequently concluded that Tottle was not alone in his enterprise to deny the famine on the basis that material included in his book could not have been available to a private person without official Soviet assistance.
In general the book is regarded as blatant example of pro-Soviet propaganda and not credible. The "father of the UN genocide convention," Dr. Raphael Lemkin
Raphael Lemkin
Raphael Lemkin was a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent. He is best known for his work against genocide, a word he coined in 1943 from the root words genos and -cide...
regarded the famine as genocidal.
Other similar writings supporting Tottle's view include:
- Wilfred Szczesny ("Fraud, Famine and Fascism", The Ukrainian Canadian, page 24, April 1988);
- Jeff CoplonJeff CoplonJeff Coplon is an American journalist and author.-Written Work:After eight years as a daily newspaper reporter, culminating in a stint at the Kansas City Times, he went on to co-write 11 autobiographies...
("In Search of a Soviet Holocaust", Village Voice, 12 January 1988); - Donne Flanagan (1964–2008), (a bureau chief of the Canadian University Press) wrote ("The Ukrainian Famine: Fact or Fiction"), which appeared in the McGill Daily, November 22, 1988,
- Challenge-Desafio's article ("The Hoax of the Man-Made Ukraine Famine of 1932-33"), which appeared in a newspaper of the Progressive Labor Party in 1987.
Praise from Canadian University Professors
Two Canadian University professors praised Tottle's book and wrote endorsements on the book's cover.Clarence J. Munford (1935-), Professor of Black Studies and History at the University of Guelph
University of Guelph
The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...
strongly praised Tottle's book, writing that:
Douglas Tottle exposes the fraudulent charge of famine-genocide made against the USSR . . . Skillfully Tottle traces the labyrinthine history of the "evidence" — documentary and photographic — on its convoluted passage from nazi publications to the Hearst pressWilliam Randolph HearstWilliam Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
to the misfounded "scholarship" of such present-day Kremlinologists as Robert ConquestRobert ConquestGeorge Robert Ackworth Conquest CMG is a British historian who became a well-known writer and researcher on the Soviet Union with the publication in 1968 of The Great Terror, an account of Stalin's purges of the 1930s...
. Tottle' s sharp and engagingly written investigation is useful and intelligent. The author makes an important contribution by exposing the ways and wiles of anti-communist propaganda.
David Whitefield (1931–2007), a Professor of History at the University of Calgary
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Founded in 1966 the U of C is composed of 14 faculties and more than 85 research institutes and centres.More than 25,000 undergraduate and 5,500 graduate students are currently...
also praised Tottle, writing that
For almost 70 years the study of the Soviet Union has been trapped in a sea of distortion, lies and propaganda. While this has not always been one-sided, its overall effect has been to stimulate fear, suspicion and danger of war. In the present age of new thinking about the history of socialism in the USSR, it remains necessary to deal w ; tii and disperse at least the worst of the lies. Tottle's book demonstrates clearly the viciousness surrounding the theory of the Ukrainian genocide and hopefully will open the way to genuine study of the Ukrainian road to socialism.
Books
For a more recent interpretation by serious scholars see L Y Luciuk and L Grekul, eds, Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine (Kingston: Kashtan Press, 2009)See also
- Denial of the HolodomorDenial of the HolodomorDenial of the Holodomor is the assertion that the 1932-1933 Holodomor, an artificial famine in Soviet Ukraine, recognized as a crime against humanity by the European Parliament, did not occur....