President Viktor Yushchenko’s statement on the Holodomor and James Mace

“During the long decades of Soviet rule it was dangerous for Ukrainians to discuss their biggest national tragedy. Talking about the Holodomor was considered a crime against the state, and both eyewitnesses’ memoirs and the accounts of such historians as Robert Conquest and James Mace were banned as anti-Soviet propaganda. But every Ukrainian family knew about the horror of those events from their own personal bitter experience. They also knew that it had been done deliberately to punish Ukraine and destroy the foundation of its national existence. To honor the victims, in the name of historical justice, today independent Ukraine is demanding a better understanding of the Holodomor and its recognition both at home and abroad.’

[A slightly revised version of a fragment of President Yushchenko’s editorial, which appeared in The Wall Street Journal ].