The Holodomor of 1932 – 1933 is among the most tragic moments in the history of Ukrainian people. It was artificial famine, the outcome of deliberate actions of the Communist regime in Ukraine, resulted in loss of nearly 10 million lives.
Given the scale, brutality and cynicism of the Holodomor, the history of modern Europe has no analogues of such crimes where in a time of peace and under favorable climatic conditions millions of people died of starvation.
Total wiping out of millions of Ukrainian farmers by the mean’s of starvation was a deliberate terrorist act of the Stalin’s political system. The social basis of the Ukrainian nation, its ancient traditions, shattered spiritual culture and unique ethnic identity were destroyed.
The tragedy of the Holodomor 1932-1933 inUkraine for many decades was not just ignored but officially denied by the ruling elite of the USSR. Its grounds, nature, mechanism and extent were carefully hidden not only from the international community, but also from several generations of our compatriots.
Only since Ukraine gained independence the truth has become evident to people. It has become a pain, a requiem, and at the same time a symbol of immortality of our people. Each year, the fourth Saturday in November marks in Ukraine the Day of victims of famine. Erection of a memorial complex in Kyiv devoted to the memory of those who died because of the artificial famine in Ukraine marked a significant step towards immortalizing the Holodomor of 1932 – 1933 victims’ memory.
UNESCO, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament endorsed the documents on commemoration of Holodomor victims. The Holy See and legislative bodies of 14 other countries recognized the Holodomor as the genocide against Ukrainian people. The Parliaments of 6 other countries issued documents on commemorating Holodomor victims. 9 other countries of the world adopted 32 resolutions at the regional and municipal levels in recognizing Holodomor as the genocide.
On 28 April 2010 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Resolution "On the commemoration of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in the former USSR”, which recognized the Holodomor as a crime against humanity and appealed to the States to disclose the archives and to historians - to carry out an independent researches in order to establish full, objective, not-politicized truth about this tragedy.
By commemorating the 80 th anniversary of the Ukrainian tragedy, we also commemorate the memory of millions of Russians, Kazakhs and representatives of other nationalities who died of starvation in the Volga region, Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan and other parts of the former Soviet Union as a result of forced collectivization, which left the deep and unhealed wounds in the minds of generations.
We are convinced that exposing such crimes against humanity, keeping the historical memory of the victims of famines and recognizing and commemorating other sufferings shall help to avoid similar disasters in the name of future generations.