A monument in honor of the millions of victims of the 1932-1933 Holodomor genocide campaign of the then Soviet Union against the Ukranian people stands at the foreground in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital which commemorated the horrific event last Nov. 26. PHOTO FROM FB PAGE OF GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE
The Holodomor was part of communist policy toward the Ukrainian people, an act of coercion and intimidation, a response to the resistance of Ukrainians against forced collectivization—removing private ownership of agricultural farms—on which the economy of the totalitarian Soviet empire was to be built.
According to research by the Ukrainian Institute of demography and social studies, 3,530,000 people died during Holodomor in 1933. In 1932, 250,000 died of starvation. In three years, 3 million Ukrainians died and at least 600,000 were unborn, counted as “indirect losses.” Overall, 4.5 million Ukrainians were lost in Holodomor.
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 as genocide against the Ukrainian people.
This law became the political and legal basis for a large-scale official investigation of the circumstances and consequences of the genocidal murder of millions of Ukrainians in Ukraine.
The monument to victims of the 1932-1933 Holodomor genocide campaign against the Ukrainian people. PHOTO FROM FB PAGE OF GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF UKRAINE
The enforcement of an artificial famine in Ukraine, in particular, through the forced withdrawal of food from the Ukrainian peasants, and the 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 Soviet Union, aimed at organizing the Holodomor, was the slaughter 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 in Ukraine was officially denied by the Soviet Union 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.
This 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 beliefs, causing moral and physical suffering through psychiatric measures for political purposes, violation of freedom of conscience, thought, expression of views, freedom of the press and lack of political pluralism. It has been condemned as incompatible with the fundamental rights and freedoms of a person and a citizen.
The decision of the Court of Appeals of the city of Kyiv dated October 13, 2010 recognized that, 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 decision became a historical document that confirmed the validity of the legal qualification of Holodomor 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 enforcing 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.
At the parliamentary level , Holodomor was recognized as genocide by 16 countries (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 regional and municipal levels, by nine 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) and at the doctrinal level by the Holy See.
At the end of November this year, on the anniversary of the Holodomor genocide, Ukraine and the world will commemorate the millions of victims of this terrible crime and tragedy in the Ukrainian people’s history.
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, is another Holodomor.
As in 1932-1933 under the Stalinist regime, today the armed forces of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin carry out actions against the civilian population in Ukraine with the intent of destroying, in whole or in part, the Ukrainian people as a separate community.
In Ukraine, Putin’s actions are seen as aimed at destroying the Ukrainian people and a genocide as well.
Today, Ukraine highly appreciates the principled and decisive position of its partner states to prosecute Putin’s 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 Holodomor in Ukraine—the genocide of the Ukrainian people.
The adoption of the decision to recognize Holodomor of as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people will be a powerful contribution to the consolidated position of 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.
(Denys Mykhailiuk is the chargé d affaires of the Ukrainian embassy in Malaysia)