90th Anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932–1933

Every year on the fourth Saturday of November, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 and the mass artificial famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947. This year, the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holodomors falls on November 25, and for the second time we commemorate the victims of Stalin’s genocide in the context of a full-scale war, accompanied by Russia’s genocidal actions against Ukrainians. The tragic events and crimes unfolding before our eyes demonstrate: living memory is extremely important; Those who commit crimes against humanity must be condemned by the world community, and the victims must be honored.

In 1932–1933, the communist totalitarian regime committed the crime of genocide against the Ukrainian people. Today, its successor, the racist regime, seeks to commit genocide again on Ukrainian soil.

The Holodomor was carried out by the leadership of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the government of the USSR in 1932–1933 by organizing an artificial mass famine, which caused the death of millions of Ukrainians in rural areas in the territory of the Ukrainian SSR and the Kuban, where the vast majority of the population was Ukrainian.

Ukraine lost millions of human lives as a result of the genocide of 1932–1933, the mass artificial famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947. In 2006, the Law of Ukraine recognized the Holodomor of 1932–1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people.

The goal of the crime was the destruction of the Ukrainian people as a national group. The communist totalitarian regime, through the forcible seizure of food, the blockade of villages and entire districts, the ban on traveling outside the borders of famine-stricken Ukraine, the curtailment of rural trade, and repressions against dissenters, created conditions for Ukrainians that were incompatible with life. That is, the calculation was for the physical destruction of our nation.

90 years after the Holodomor genocide, the Russians are again using genocidal methods against Ukrainians to destroy our identity, culture, and language – to destroy the Ukrainian nation as such. To do this, the occupiers are mass-murdering and deporting Ukrainians and destroying cities.

Both in 1932–1933, and now Russia is trying to break the will of Ukrainians to resist, throwing its entire terrorist arsenal against us. Stalin in the 20th century and Putin in the 21st century chose genocide because other methods of subjugating the Ukrainian people did not work. Stalin resorted to total food confiscation, blockades, and increased terror to organize the genocide. Putin used a full-scale military invasion. Following it, as components of a genocidal policy, terror, mass murders, deliberate attacks on shelters, evacuation routes and humanitarian corridors began, bombing residential areas, sexual violence, military sieges, deportations (forcible displacement of Ukrainians, including children).

The information campaigns of the Holodomor period and the current Russian aggression are very similar. Both then and now, Russia launched large-scale disinformation and propaganda campaigns to prepare the Russian audience for committing or approving atrocities, as well as concealing crimes. Both then and now, Russia is counting on an atmosphere of indifference in the West, the power of fear of its power, and is trying to create a parallel artificial information reality, far from reality.

But today the entire civilized world is helping Ukraine, and we, Ukrainians, have our own state, Armed Forces, united and all working together for victory. And thanks to this, we are successfully resisting Putin’s genocide. Remembering the crimes of the communist totalitarian regime, today we direct all our efforts to support our defenders.

In the context of the current Russian aggression, our memory of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 is a factor in the social mobilization of Ukrainians and the world community to counter the aggressor. As of October 2023, the parliaments of 28 states have recognized the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine as an act of genocide.

Joining in honoring the memory of the victims of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 and the mass artificial famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947, the teachers of the Department of Ukrainian Studies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Prof. Dedkov M.V., Assoc. Prof. Spudka I.M., Senior Lecturer Sygyda G.A. 21-24.11.2023 in the city of GF-112, 113sp, 212, BAD-512, 522, 532, KNT- 112, 122, 222, KNT-132, 812, M-112,122, FEU-213, 413 during lectures and practical classes reminded students of these tragic pages in the history of Ukraine in the 20th century and emphasized their terrible consequences for the Ukrainian people.

We remember. We unite. We will win!