Kyiv to Have Monument to the Victims of the Totalitarian Epoch

The State Historical cum Memorial Complex dedicated to the victims of the Holodomor Manmade Famine, political repression, and forced deportation will be ready to receive its first visitors in late October of this year. These were the words of First Deputy Head of the Kyiv City Administration Ivan Fomenko at his meeting with journalists, reports Interfax Ukraine. Mr. Fomenko recalled that in accordance with the presidential decree On Events Dedicated to the Seventieth Anniversary of Holodomor, and the respective Cabinet of Ministers’ decision the complex will include a museum, library, research center, and monument. In his words, on January 12 Kyiv Mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko issued an order envisaging that the research center, museum, and library will be accommodated at 4b Triochsviatytelska Street. The building is the city’s communal property and is to be reconstructed in a short time — by October 1, 2004. At present 34 institutions and enterprises lease premises in this building. However, the question of moving them to new premises is to be settled within a month. Mr. Fomenko also said that after long search for a place for the monument to Holodomor victims it was decided to erect it on Volodymyrska Horka (St. Volodymyr’s Hill). The Kyiv City Council has already issued a decision to allot a site for the monument, which was agreed to with Verkhovna Rada and the Cabinet of Ministers. The costs for the monument are estimated as 150-200,000 hryvnias. Simultaneously with the establishment of the memorial complex, the park on Volodymyrska Horka Hill will also undergo reconstruction.