Ukraine pays tribute to victims of 1932-1933 famine which claimed some 4.5m lives
Tragic events in Soviet Ukraine widely remebered as a genocide against the Ukrainian people
Across Ukraine, ceremonies have been held to commemorate the famine in the country in the years 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor. It claimed some 4.5 million lives.
In Kyiv, a memorial brought togeth er religious and political leaders, members of the public, and survivors of the famine.
Loaves of bread where stacked up symbollicaly. Others carried ears of wheat. Both gestures in memory of those who had nothing to eat in the 1930s as the Soviet authorities imposition of collective farm and grain requisitioning left farmers and their families in villages with nothing to survive on. Ukraine, and many countries around the world, have labelled the events of a 1932-33 as genocide.
This year marks the 82nd anniversary of Holodomor. With each year, the number of people who witnessed those events grows smaller. One man who experienced events first hand was invited to speak first at the ceremony.
Mykola Onyshchenko, survivor of Ukrainian famine: “If a piece of bread would fall on the ground we would pick it up kiss it and we would ask forgiveness. This bread, they took it from the children, they took it from the people. This was in our little village, no more than 30 huts. We haven’t forgotten. They came and took the bread from us.”
Ukraine’s president meanwhile cast the famine as a manifestation of the ‘hybrid war’ which Russia has been waging against Ukraine for centuries. He suggested that events now in east Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces are fighting Russian-backed militants, is the latest confirmation of the phenomenon. He called for more KGB archives to be opened for Ukraine to continue on the path of de-communisation.
(UNIAN Photo)
In Lviv in Western Ukraine meanwhile, hundreds came to pay respects and join the national movement to light a candle to the victims of Holodomor. Ears of wheat were handed out as a reminder that the famine was manmade.
Oksana Bohachuk, Lviv resident: “In my opinion, every Ukrainian should come and pay their respects. It was our grandfather and great-grandfathers who suffered. I think we should come and pay our respects, light a candle”.
East of the Ukrainian capital, in Zaporizha, at a former children’s home, people brought toys, ears of wheat and candles to pay their respects to the deceased. It was here that some 700 children died from hunger and related diseases. Their names have been recovered but it remains unknown where their remains were buried. One historian descirbed the situation at the time of the famine.
Vladyslav Moroko, historian: “The children were brought here to their death. The worst thing is that this area was the government quarter. Here there was the office of the Soviet security services the NKVD and several other Soviet institutions. The possibility of helping these children existed but they didn’t want to. They were considered to be children of enemies of the people.”
In Odesa, residents helda memorial and march for those who died in the famine. Many carrying candles and Ukrainain flags but others held up boards with pictures of the leaders who headed the Soviet system responsible for Holodomor, among them, Lenin and Stalin. For many the tragedy has left its mark on their families.
Mykola Koval, Odesa resident: “My father’s father died in 1933 from hunger – so did his older sister and his younger brother who just five years old…today we still cannot find the place where they were buried.”
Watch also Documentary: Ukraine’s Holodomor suffering under Soviet ‘death by hunger’ policy
Apart from public ceremonies many Ukrainians will continue to commemorate those who lost their lives by lighting a candle at home and placing it in their window. A small sign of remembrance for an event which is surely to forever be part of the country’s historical memory.
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