The Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – genocide of Ukrainian people
By Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia
Not many people know about the horror of Holodomor. Ninety years ago, Russia has already shown its thugness when it coerced and intimidated the Ukrainians who did not toe the line to their whim and caprices of amassing the richness and vastness of Ukraine’s natural resources and agricultural lands.
The Holodomor was one of the communists’ intentional policies and a man-made famine that the totalitarian empire of the Soviet Union built and designed by Joseph Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians
Looking back at what happened to Ukraine and its people 90 years ago, and the current Russia’s aggression and bullying of Ukraine will tell us that this is “Russian roulette”, a dangerous yet favorite game that Russia wants to play against Ukraine.
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According to the research results of the Ukrainian Institute of demography and social studies, 3 million 530 thousand people died from Holodomor in 1933. In 1932 – 250 thousand died from starvation, and in 1934 – about 160 thousand. Overall, in three years – 3.9 million died, and 0.6 million more were not born, or, as they are also referred to, “indirect losses.” I.e., overall, 4.5 million Ukrainians were lost due to the Holodomor of 1932-1933.
In 2006, the Law of Ukraine, in accordance with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948, recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as genocide of Ukrainian people.
This Law became the political and legal basis for conducting a large-scale official investigation into the circumstances and consequences of the genocidal murder of millions of Ukrainians in Ukraine.
The deliberate organization of an artificial famine in Ukraine, in particular, through the forced withdrawal of food from the Ukrainian peasants, and the purposeful extermination of the Ukrainian national elite capable of organizing the struggle for the restoration of Ukraine’s independence, were parts of Stalin’s sinister plan of total bloodletting and subsequent destruction of the Ukrainian nation.
The result of the criminal actions of the totalitarian regime of the USSR aimed at organizing the Holodomor was the destruction of millions of people, the destruction of the social foundations of the Ukrainian people, their ancient traditions, spiritual culture and ethnic identity.
The tragedy of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was officially denied by the authorities of the USSR for many decades.
The communist totalitarian regime of 1917-1991 in Ukraine is recognized as criminal and as having carried out a policy of state terror, which was characterized by numerous violations of human rights in the form of individual and mass murders, executions, deaths, deportations, torture, the use of forced labor and other forms of mass physical terror , persecution for ethnic, national, religious, political, class, social and other motives, causing moral and physical suffering during the use of psychiatric measures for political purposes, violation of freedom of conscience, thought, expression of views, freedom of the press and lack of political pluralism, and in, therefore, it is condemned as incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen.
The decision of the Court of Appeal of the city of Kyiv dated October 13, 2010 recognized that in order to suppress the national liberation movement in Ukraine and prevent the construction and establishment of an independent Ukrainian state, the leadership of the communist regime deliberately organized the genocide of the Ukrainian people in 1932-1933 by creating living conditions, designed for the physical extermination of Ukrainians.
The said decision became a historical document that confirmed the validity of the legal qualification of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as a crime of genocide. With its adoption, the fact of the crime was legally recorded by a competent national judicial body in a legal document.
In 1988, the US Commission on the Holodomor in Ukraine, based on the results of a study of witness statements, documents and archival materials, also came to the conclusion that the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine qualifies as a crime of genocide, aimed at the implementation of the Soviet policy of total extermination of Ukrainians. This was the first serious step in the international arena in the direction of condemning the crimes of the Soviet communist totalitarian regime in the USA.
Ukraine highly appreciates the solidarity and support of the international community in condemning the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Thus, at the parliamentary level , the Holodomor was recognized as a genocide of the Ukrainian people by 16 countries of the world (Australia, Georgia, the Republic of Ecuador, the Republic of Estonia, Canada, the Republic of Colombia, the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Lithuania, the United States of Mexico, the Republic of Paraguay, the Republic of Peru, the Republic of Portugal, the Republic of Poland , the USA, Hungary and the Czech Republic); at the regional and municipal levels – 9 states (Australia, Argentina, Brazil, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Kingdom of Spain, the Italian Republic, Canada, the Portuguese Republic and the USA); at the doctrinal level – the Holy See.
At the end of November this year, on the anniversary of the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933, Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Malaysia and other Embassies and Consulates around the world will commemorate the multi-million victims of this terrible crime and terrible tragedy in the history of the Ukrainian people.
Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, when the Russian Federation continues to implement a consistent and systematic policy aimed at the mass destruction of the population of Ukraine, the violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and the liquidation of the national statehood of Ukraine.
As in 1932-1933, the Stalinist regime, today the armed forces of the Russian Federation carry out actions against the civilian population on the territory of Ukraine with the intention of destroying, in whole or in part, the Ukrainian people as a separate national community. In Ukraine, the mentioned actions against the population of Ukraine are regarded as aimed at the destruction of the Ukrainian people and recognized as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
Today, Ukraine highly appreciates the principled and decisive position of the partner states regarding the prosecution of Russia’s current war crimes. Now, more than ever, it is important to support international partners in solving sensitive issues, in particular, those related to the protection of national identity, the restoration of historical justice, and the commemoration of millions of innocent victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
The adoption of the decision to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people will be a powerful contribution to the consolidated position of the unity of the free world, condemnation of terror, the inadmissibility of the aggrandizement of totalitarian regimes, tyranny, crimes of totalitarianism, and the defense of common values of democracy, fundamental human rights and freedoms.