Let me start by acknowledging the obvious: The Holodomor was a terrible tragedy committed by the Bolshevik regime against the Ukrainian people. In addition to the Bolsheviks, numerous individuals and organizations were complicit in its cover-up.

It is mind-blowing and wrong that it is still an unknown chapter in European history. Sadly, the Soviet ability to “rewrite” or cover history remains partially successful.

That being said, does anyone really think that a large-scale advertising campaign for the Holodomor is really the most effective way to correct this historical injustice? Should we be promoting the tragedy of mass murder on billboards? Who is paying for these? Why? Below is a new, seven-story billboard about the Holodomor, located next to my office.

I believe one of the greatest achievements of President Victor Yushchenko's administration will be the long-term success in changing the nation's definition of itself. Some of this is due simply to the long-term effect of a generation of children attending Ukrainian schools, free of communist ideological indoctrination.

Yushchenko has shown leadership in bringing issues, which had previously been buried in dusty history books, to the forefront. Some of this has been controversial, as the brouhaha with Russia over the question of the Holodomor as genocide or the awarding with posthumous medals to Shuhevich, the commander-in-chief of UPA, in 2007.

If Yushchenko really wants to push awareness of the Holodomor in Ukrainian society, there are more effective ways than billboard campaigns. The easiest would be to open the archives. Sadly, government and KGB archives in Ukraine are notoriously difficult to access.

It would be a boon to historians if they had unfettered access to the archives in Ukraine during the Soviet era.

It is true that a lot of the material concerning the Holodomor remains locked away in Moscow. Opening local and regional offices of military, KGB and government would still do much to push forward knowledge and scholarship the famine. This would do a lot more to document the Holodomor than any ad campaign.

Additionally, he also might try to remove the statue glorifying Lenin that still remains in the center of Kyiv. After all, Lenin was the Intellectual Godfather of the Holodomor.