Ukraine commemorates Holodomor victims

Holodomor Remembrance Day is marked annually on the fourth Saturday of November under the presidential decrees of 1998 and 2007, Ukrinform reports.

In the 20th century, Ukrainians three times were subjected to a mass famine: in 1921-1923, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947. However, the Holodomor of 1932-1933 was the most devastating one – it has been recognized as the genocide against the Ukrainian people under Stalin’s regime.

The famine terror that lasted in Ukraine for 22 months took the lives of almost 4 million people.

For decades, the subject of the Holodomor has been tabooed. As long as the communist regime existed, even discussing the issue of famine of those years was strictly forbidden. Research into this tragedy began only in the late 1980s.

According to the law adopted on November 28, 2006, "On the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine," the famine of 1932-1933 is regarded as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people, while its public denial is recognized… as an insult to the memory of millions of Holodomor victims, humiliation of dignity of the Ukrainian people, and deemed illegal."

The Kyiv Court of Appeal by its ruling dated January 13, 2010 recognized Soviet leaders - Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Pavel Postyshev, Stanislav Kosior, Vlas Chubar, Mendel Khatayevich - as those guilty of organizing the Holodomor in Ukraine.

On November 22, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, adopted a statement on the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and again called on international organizations and parliaments to recognize it as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.

To date, 27 countries have recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide against the Ukrainian people.

In addition, 55 UN Member States have signed the Ukraine-initiated Declaration on the Ninetieth Anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

Today, 90 years after the tragedy, Russia continues to commit genocide against Ukrainians, while simultaneously organizing a famine in African countries by blocking the export of Ukrainian grain.

According to tradition, on this day, Ukrainians light candles of remembrance in their homes in honor of victims of the artificial famine.