How a Welshman's truth was turned into a Ukrainian nationalist myth. Mladen Barbaric's http://lupiga.com interview with Philip Colley on Banderite Ukrainian falsification of his great uncle Gareth Jones' 1933 reporting of the Great Soviet Famine. A 'google translation' into English from the Croatian original, flawed but good enough HERE

"Did Gareth Jones help the Nazis win the March 1933 election?"
Intriguing article examining Gareth's potential role in, inadvertently, bringing the NSDAP to power HERE

After receiving a defamatory email from the Chief Executive of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain on 01/03 the Gareth Jones Society published its reply HERE

Posted on this site today a Russia-Ukraine blog from 2008 with particularly prescient comments from David Habbakuk HERE

Also a 'lost' article mentioned in the blog by Gordon Hahn relevant to the falsification of the famine/ Gareth's story HERE 

Philip Colley spoke to a captivated, and almost capacity, audience this evening on the subject of his great uncle Gareth Jones and the myth-making that is associated with his story. Some members of the audience had travelled all the way from Wales to attend the event at the London Welsh Centre. A splendid time, one that had been guaranteed, appears to have been had by all. And, as was promised, for the benefit of truth, the real 'Mr Jones' topped the bill. Some of the comments...

"One of the most interesting talks I've ever attended!"

"I wanted it to go on for a few more hours!"

"Absolutely fascinating. Brilliant. Thank you."

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The next Gareth Jones Society event will be held at the London Welsh Centre on the 27th February. For details see HERE

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Gareth Jones - the man behind the myth
 

A slide presentation of Gareth's life was given this evening by Philip Colley at the Durning Library, Kennington, London to just short of 60 attendees. 

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“Just to say thank you again for an excellent talk. The audience [were] given something unexpected to think about. They like that.  And audiences like being treated as intelligent.”  Events manager, Durning Library
 

"Ukraine wants to rehabilitate its wartime fascist and anti-Semitic leaders, particularly Stepan Bandera, Roman Shukhevych and Yaroslav Stetsko, but in order to do so it has to deny their role in helping perpetrate the Holocaust. It also wants to join the EU, for whom Holocaust denial is anathema.  That is a basic contradiction. Changing Gareth’s story has helped them to claim victimhood and weaponize the ‘Holodomor’ for use in the war against Russia."

Philip Colley's article republished on the Jewish Voice for Labour website HERE

Gareth Jones and Josef Goebbels dined alone in Frankfurt, after their flight with Adolf Hitler from Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, in a private room of the Baseler Hof hotel restaurant on 23/02/33. Goebbels wrote in is diary... "In the hotel Hitler takes his leave. He is very nice. Flies to Munich. Long conversation with Lloyd George's Secretary. Is in Germany for study purposes. An intelligent young man. Tells me terrible things about Soviet Union." Sadly, the hotel is no longer taking guests but the frontage of the building remains as a cultural monument HERE .

UK Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Harris was discovered by the Gareth Jones Society to have been using an entirely inaccurate quote in a speech he gave at a special event at the Kyiv Security Forum on the 21st November. The quote was attributed to journalist Gareth Jones despite it not appearing in any of his known works. In the speech, Harris is quoted by the Voice of Ukraine as saying, “Gareth Jones said it is important to create a catalog of testimonies of crimes.” This is untrue. Gareth Jones never said anything of the kind. In an email response to a complaint by the Gareth Jones Society the “Press Section British Embassy Kyiv” admitted on 29th November that the Embassy was guilty of “misrepresenting” and blamed a “Ukrainian translator”. The British Embassy has apologised but, despite having been requested to do so by the Gareth Jones Society, it has failed to correct the record in any of the online organs where the Ambassador’s entirely inaccurate quote continues to appear.

Published for the first time online a letter from Russian emigré A.V. Baikalov to Gareth in which the subject of the famine's effect on Ukrainian nationalism is raised. HERE

After a campaign by the Gareth Jones Society the Welsh Parliament has now agreed not to show a video of the 3rd October 'tainted Gareth Jones plaque' unveiling ceremony in Kyiv. The event, which was used to honour Ukrainian fascists, was scheduled to be shown at tomorrow's Holodomor Memorial Day event. A nation.cymru news report is HERE

An article by Philip Colley drawing attention to the misuse of Gareth's memory by Ukrainian nationalists was today published on Welsh online news service voice.wales . HERE

Published for the first time online A short acount of the Life and Murder of Gareth Jones, the first ever academic study of of the now famous Welsh investigative journalist. The dissertation was presented by Philip Colley as part of a Newcastle University BA Hons degree in 1987. HERE

Published for the first time online two letters by Baron von Plessen who, along with Dr Herber Müller, accompanied Gareth on his fateful last journey. One of the letters talks of the warning to Gareth by the British Military Attaché to "on no account go to the border with Jehol as it was infested by bandits". HERE

Posted on this website the only known English translation of Adolf Ehrt's introduction to his June 1933 compilation of German colonist 'Hungerbriefe' help letters titled Brothers in Need: Documents of the famine among the German comrades in Russia. Some of the letters were used as evidence for Gareth's articles. HERE

A plaque commemorating Gareth was unveiled at the Vernadsky National Library in Kyiv today. The tri-lingual plaque funded by diaspora Ukrainians is similar to those already placed in Aberystwyth and Barry. It was noted by family members that the event was also used to promote a book co-authored by Volodymyr Viatrovych, someone accused by Jewish groups of "running a public awareness campaign whitewashing the participation of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a Ukrainian nationalist militia, in the Holocaust". At the unveiling Viatrovych claimed his work helping to air-brush out of history the role of the Organistaion of Ukrainian Nationalists in aiding Nazi Germany was done "in the spirit of Gareth Jones". In response to the event Gareth's great nephew Philip Colley stated, “while we welcome anything that commemorates Gareth’s work in giving a voice to all those Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh victims of Stalin’s crimes, it is nonetheless distressing for the family to see our relative, a journalist known for his great integrity and opposition to nationalism, being co-opted by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists in the cause of Holocaust revisionism.”  HERE

Courtesy of the Liverpool Worldwide Museum a selection of pages from the diaries of Sir Charles Bell, the British Political Officer for Bhutan, Sikkim and Tibet, with references to his meeting with Gareth in Inner Mongolia in 1935 are presented HERE

'Barry honours Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who covered Ukraine famine'. Article in the Barry and District News. HERE

‘Gareth’s legacy must be preserved, but not at the expense of the truth'. For an article by Philip Colley published in Le Monde on the 88th anniversary of Gareth’s death. PDF HERE
Text version HERE

Gareth Jones plaque arrives in Kiev, scheduled to be unveiled on 4th October 2023. HERE

The Russian Embassy in London attacks the previous day's motion in Parliament as being 'politicized'. "A large scale famine broke out", it declares, without going into any detail as to how, but says the famine affected "not only Ukraine but also Belarus, the North Caucasus, the Volga Region, the Southern Urals, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan". They also accuse Kiev of trying to 'privatize' what they term a "collective Soviet tragedy". HERE

Gareth's truncated words are again used, this time twice, in a House of Commons debate on whether to recognise the Holodomor as genocide. Firstly, Pauline Latham (Con) in her opening statement quotes Gareth,“I walked…through villages and 12 collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, ‘There is no bread; we are dying’” but omits to mention the accompanying sentence, "This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia [Belarus], the North Caucasus, and Central Asia." Later in the debate (3.34pm) Stephen Doughty again uses the same quote and again omits to mention its second part. Minister of State Leo Docherty reaffirmed the Government's "long-standing policy... that any judgment on whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent court, after consideration of all the evidence available, rather than Governments or non-judicial bodies. This approach ensures that genocide determinations are above politics, above lobbying and above individual, political or national interests." The motion in favour of Parliament, as opposed to the Government, recognising the Holodomor as genocide is passed. HERE 

In a cross border raid today Ukrainian militia attacked the Russian village of Krasny Khutor where Gareth spent the first night of his famous hike through the Soviet countryside on 11the March 1933. It was in this village he saw the first evidence of the famine then raging in the form of a Russian child with "belly swollen". Other Russian peasants around complained that there was "no bread" and one woman said to him: "We are looking forward to death." HERE

Gareth's truncated words are used in a House of Commons debate Ukrainian Holodomor and the War in Ukraine by Stephen Doughty (Labour Co-op): “I walked along through villages and 12 collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, “There is no bread. We are dying.” The full quote as given at Gareth's March 29th Press Conference in Berlin and reported by H.R. Knickerbocker of the New York Evening Post was, “I walked along through villages and 12 collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, “There is no bread. We are dying." This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia [Belarus], the North Caucasus, and Central Asia." Whilst recognising "the Holodomor as an appalling tragedy", Minister of State Leo Docherty reiterated that it was the "long-standing policy of the Government that any judgment on whether genocide has occurred is a matter for a competent court, rather than Governments or non-judicial bodies". HERE

Reporting Ukraine 90 years ago. Article by Richard Sambrook appears in the Conversation. HERE

Hitler, Stalin, and Mr Jones – the story of a true Welsh hero. Article by Christopher Evans appears in Naton.Cymru HERE

Gareth Jones has been honoured at an event held at the Garden of the Righteous in Milan on Friday 3rd 2023.
A plaque dedicated to his ‘exemplary action’ was unveiled and a memorial scroll received on Gareth’s behalf by his great nephew Philip Colley. For Philip’s speech and further details please see HERE

Seeds of Hunger – Ukraine 1933 by Guillaume Ribo wins at FIPADOC documentary prize HERE