The Holodomor manmade famine is not recognized genocide in its own state

This year marks the seventieth anniversary of one of the most death-filled pages in Ukraine’s history, the terrible Holodomor manmade famine of 1932-1933. This does not mean that before or after it people never starved to death in our country. They did. But this famine was the worst in every respect: physical losses, breaking the will to resist, the self-determination, and self-identification of a nation of many millions living in the center of Europe. The psychological traumas caused to inhumanly desperate Ukrainians driven to destroy the established traditions of life are still unexplored. The question under discussion is numerous cases of murders and cannibalism confirmed by not only survivors’ evidences but also in previously secret documents from the archives of the secret police and the secret file of the Central Committee of the then sole party, “the honor and conscience of our epoch.” By this party’s decision deliberately overstated commitments were imposed on Ukraine to deliver food, primarily grain. Disobedience entailed severe punishment.

In general, there were three famines in Ukraine in the twentieth century: 1921-1923, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947. In October 2000, President of Ukraine signed an order on the Commemoration Day for the Victims of the Holodomors and Political Repression. This May Chairman of Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Lytvyn signed a regulation On Conducting a Special Verkhovna Rada Meeting on May 14, 2003 to Commemorate the Victims of the Holodomor of 1932-33. The number of deputies present at these hearings is another shame of our history. Incidentally, not only Communists but many of our so-called patriots also ignored it. As a result, Verkhovna Rada barely managed to collect the 228 votes to pass its Address to the Ukrainian People but no law. Did anybody hear about or see it? The Cabinet of Ministers’ decisions on this issue also were not implemented.

All this was discussed at the opening of the exhibition dedicated to the sorrowful anniversary at the Kyiv branch of the Vasyl Stus Memorial Society. But the main thing is that the unprecedented Manmade Famine is not recognized as genocide even in the state where it happened, which should be the first to take care of such recognition in order to later place this question before the United Nations. People competent in these issues, in part, President of Kyiv Memorial Roman Krutsyk, state that this matter is slowed down even in Kyiv, not to mention in the countryside. Members of the Committee on Holodomor Studies Professors Volodymyr Serhiychuk and Yury Shapoval said that they keep receiving notices on changes in the Committee membership but they had never been invited to any of its meetings. Researchers who are granted permission from the Presidential Administration and blessings from the Patriarchs, with the exception of the Moscow Patriarchate, claim that local administrations impede their work, saying, Everything’s fine, nothing happened (like in part of Mykolayiv oblast). Meanwhile, President Kuchma mentioned the figure of ten million victims. However, Prof. Shapoval believes this figure is exaggerated.

The exhibition is in fact a wide ranging project consisting of 750 sets of colored posters being eloquent evidence of the Ukrainian people’s tragedy of the early 1930s. They are planned to be delivered to exhibition halls and museums throughout Ukraine. At the same time, there is a not completely unfounded suspicion that the sets might simply be lost or gather dust on bookshelves. Everything depends on the local authorities who, in turn, depend on an unambiguous order from the Center... Meanwhile, the Center is unable even to erect a decent monument in a decent place. First it was planned to be built near Arsenal metro station, but later its dislocation was changed to some very out of the way locale...