Famine: Parliamentary and Kharkiv Count

On November 28 Verkhovna Rada approved a draft resolution on the 70th anniversary of the 1932-1933 manmade famine in Ukraine which claimed, at the most conservative estimate, 5 to 6 million human lives. The people’s deputies also resolved to hold a parliamentary hearing on February 12, 2003, to honor the memory of victims of the totalitarian Communist regime, with 308 out of the 423 present deputies voting in favor. In May 2003 parliament will also conduct a special session attended by the president of Ukraine and cabinet ministers. Verkhovna Rada has also proposed that the UN General Assembly pay tribute to the Ukrainian famine victims by observing a moment of silence. Meanwhile, on the same day some Our Ukraine bloc members demanded that the Kharkiv authorities (this region suffered by far the most during the famine) rename a number of city streets and squares “which bear the names of the famine’s organizers and perpetrators.” Those who signed the appeal urge the authorities “to remove the names of Lenin, Kalinin, Chubar, Postyshev, Kosior, etc.... from the street nameplates.” The Our Ukraine document says that “the logic of naming Kharkiv’s streets shows that the city still cherishes totalitarian-epoch values.”