Holodomor

Child victim of the Holodomor

The Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор; translation: death by hunger) was a famine in the Ukrainian SSR from 1932–1933, during which millions of inhabitants died of starvation in a peacetime catastrophe unprecedented in the history of Ukraine.[1][2][3][4] Estimates on the total number of casualties within Soviet Ukraine range mostly from 2.6 million[5][6] to 10 million.[7] Primarily as a result of the economic and trade policies instituted by Joseph Stalin, millions of Ukrainians starved to death over the course of a single year. The causes of the famine are a controversial issue and scholars disagree on the relative importance of natural factors,[1][8][9][10] bad economic policies or engineered measures towards Ukrainian peasants. The famine was part of a wider Soviet famine of 1932–1933.

The root cause of the Holodomor is a subject of scholarly debate.[11] Some scholars have argued that the Soviet policies that caused the famine may have been designed as an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism, and therefore fall under the legal definition of genocide.[12][13][14][15][16] The Holodomor is also known as the "terror-famine in Ukraine"[17][18] and "famine-genocide in Ukraine".[19] Others, however, conclude that the Holodomor was a consequence of the economic problems associated with radical economic changes implemented during the period of Soviet industrialization.[13][14][20][21]

As of March 2008, several governments[22] have recognized the actions of the Soviet government as an act of genocide. The joint statement at the United Nations in 2003 has defined the famine as the result of cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime that caused the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, Russians, Kazakhs and other nationalities in the USSR.[23] On November 28, 2006, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) narrowly passed a law defining the Holodomor as a deliberate act of genocide and made public denial illegal.[24][25] Even though in April 2010 a newly elected president Yanukovych reversed Yuschenko's policy on Holodomor famine,[26] the law has not been repealed and remains in force.[27] On 23 October 23, 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution[28] that recognized the Holodomor as a crime against humanity.[29]

On January 12, 2010, the court of appeals in Kiev opened hearings into the "fact of genocide-famine Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-33". In May 2009 the Security Service of Ukraine had started a criminal case "in relation to the genocide in Ukraine in 1932-33".[30] In a ruling on January 13, 2010 the court found Joseph Stalin and other Bolshevik leaders guilty of genocide against the Ukrainians; however, the court dropped criminal proceedings against the leaders, Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Stanislav Kosior, Pavel Postyshev and others, due to their deaths.[31] This decision became effective on January 21, 2010, after not having been contested in the Supreme Court of Ukraine for seven days.[32]

On April 28 2010, the Council of Europe stated that Stalin's regime was guilty of the Holodomor famine that killed millions in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, but that it cannot be classified as an act of genocide that targeted the Ukrainian people.[33]

Contents

Etymology

The term first appeared in print on July 18, 1988, in an article by Ukrainian writer Oleksiy Musiyenko.[34] The origins of the word Holodomor come from the Ukrainian words holod, ‘hunger’, and mor, ‘plague’,[35] possibly from the expression moryty holodom, ‘to inflict death by hunger’. The Ukrainian verb "moryty" (морити) means "to poison somebody, drive to exhaustion or to torment somebody". The perfect form of the verb "moryty" is "zamoryty" — "kill or drive to death by hunger, exhausting work". The neologism “Holodomor” is given in the modern, two-volume dictionary of the Ukrainian language as "artificial hunger, organised in vast scale by the criminal regime against the country's population."[36] Sometimes the expression is translated into English as "murder by hunger or starvation."[4]

Scope and duration

The famine affected the Ukrainian SSR as well as the Moldavian ASSR (a part of the Ukrainian S.S.R. at the time) between 1932 and 1933. However, not every part suffered from the Holodomor for the whole period; the greatest number of victims was recorded in the spring of 1933.

The first reports of mass malnutrition and deaths from starvation emerged from 2 urban area of Uman - by the time Vinnytsya and Kiev oblasts dated by beginning of January 1933. By mid-January 1933 there were reports about mass “difficulties” with food in urban areas that had been undersupplied through the rationing system and deaths from starvation among people who were withdrawn from rationing supply according to Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Decree December 1932. By the beginning of February 1933, according to received reports from local authorities and Ukrainian GPU, the most affected area was listed as Dnipropetrovsk Oblast which also suffered from epidemics of typhus and malaria. Odessa and Kiev oblasts were second and third respectively. By mid-March, most reports originated from Kiev Oblast.

By mid-April 1933, the Kharkiv Oblast reached the top of the most affected list, while Kiev, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa, Vinnytsya, Donetsk oblasts and Moldavian SSR followed it. Last reports about mass deaths from starvation dated mid-May through the beginning of June 1933 originated from raions in Kiev and Kharkiv oblasts. The “less affected” list noted the Chernihiv Oblast and northern parts of Kiev and Vinnytsya oblasts. According to the Central Committee of the CP(b) of Ukraine Decree as of February 8, 1933, no hunger cases should have remained untreated, and all local authorities were directly obliged to submit reports about numbers suffering from hunger, the reasons for hunger, number of deaths from hunger, food aid provided from local sources and centrally provided food aid required. Parallel reporting and food assistance were managed by the GPU of the Ukrainian SSR. Many regional reports and most of the central summary reports are available from present-day central and regional Ukrainian archives.[37] There is documentary evidence of widespread cannibalism during the Holodomor.[38] The Soviet regime of the time even printed posters declaring: "To eat your own children is a barbarian act."[39]

The Ukrainian Weekly that was tracking the situation in the Soviet and Polish Ukraine in 1933 was constantly reporting the difficulties in communications and appalling situation within the Soviet Ukraine. On December 1, 1933 the newspaper was reporting about a planned mass-protest that was scheduled to take place in Syracuse, New York at 2PM.

Causes

The reasons for the famine are a subject of scholarly and political debate. Some scholars suggested that the famine was a consequence of the economic problems associated with economic changes implemented during the period of Soviet industrialization.[4][13][14][20][21] However, it has been suggested by other historians that the famine was an attack on Ukrainian nationalism engineered by Soviet leadership of the time and thus may fall under the legal definition of genocide.[12][13][14][15][16]

Death toll

By the end of 1933, millions of people had starved to death or had otherwise died unnaturally in Ukraine, as well as in other Soviet republics. The total estimate of the famine victims Soviet-wide is given as 6-7 million[20] or 6-8 million.[1] The Soviet Union long denied that the famine had ever taken place, and the NKVD (and later KGB) archives on the Holodomor period opened very slowly. The exact number of the victims remains unknown and is probably impossible to estimate even within a margin of error of a hundred thousand.[40] Numbers as high as seven to ten million are sometimes given in the media[41][42][43] and a number as high as ten[44] or even twenty million is sometimes cited in political speeches.[45]

One reason for estimate variance is that some assess the number of people who died within the 1933 borders of Ukraine; while others are based on deaths within current borders of Ukraine. Other estimates are based on deaths of Ukrainians in the Soviet Union. Some estimates use a very simple methodology based percentage of deaths that was reported in one area and applying the percentage to the entire country. Others use more sophisticated techniques that involves analyzing the demographic statistics based on various archival data. Some question the accuracy of Soviet censuses since they may have been doctored to support Soviet propaganda. Other estimates come from recorded discussion between world leaders like Churchill and Stalin. For example the estimate of ten million deaths, which is attributed to Soviet official sources, could be based on a misinterpretation of the memoirs of Winston Churchill who gave an account of his conversation with Stalin that took place on August 16, 1942.[46] In that conversation,[47] Stalin gave Churchill his estimates of the number of "kulaks" who were repressed for resisting collectivization as 10 million, in all of the Soviet Union, rather than only in Ukraine. When using this number, Stalin implied that it included not only those who lost their lives, but also forcibly deported.[46]

Rate of population decline in Ukraine and South Russia. 1929-1933 according to "The Foreign Office and the famine : British documents on Ukraine and the Great Famine of 1932-1933", edited by Marco Carynnyk, Lubomyr Y. Luciuk and Bohdan S. Kordan; Kingston, Ont. ; Vestal, N.Y. : Limestone Press, 1988, ISBN 0919642314
The map was created according to the data of the localities affected by the Holomodor and extrapolated to the post-WW2 USSR borders and administrative divisions. For example, in the Moldavian SSR, only Transnistria have been affected by the Holodomor. In the Odessa Oblast, the Bugeac was not affected by the Holomodor. Both regions were the parts of Romania at this time

A number of difficulties exist when attempting to estimate casualty rates. Some estimates include the death toll from political repression including those who died in the Gulag labor camps, while others refer only to those who starved to death. In addition, many of the estimates are based on different time periods. Thus, a definitive number of deaths continues to be a source of great debate.

The results based on scientific methods obtained prior to the opening of former Soviet archives also varied widely but the range was narrower: for example, 2.5 million (Volodymyr Kubiyovych),[46] 4.8 million (Vasyl Hryshko)[46] and 5 million (Robert Conquest).[48]

One modern calculation that uses demographic data including that available from recently opened Soviet archives narrows the losses to about 3.2 million or, allowing for the lack of precise data, 3 million to 3.5 million.[2][46][49][50][51]

The Soviet archives show that excess deaths in Ukraine in 1932-1933 numbered 1.54 million.[52] In 1932-1933, there were a combined 1.2 million cases of typhus and 500,000 cases of typhoid fever. All major types of disease, apart from cancer, tend to increase during famine as a result of undernourishment lowering resistance and generating unsanitary conditions; thus these deaths resulted primarily from lowered resistance rather than starvation per se.[53] In the years 1932–34, the largest rate of increase was recorded for typhus, which is spread by lice. In conditions of harvest failure and increased poverty, the number of lice is likely to increase, and the herding of refugees at railway stations, on trains and elsewhere facilitates their spread. In 1933, the number of recorded cases was twenty times the 1929 level. The number of cases per head of population recorded in Ukraine in 1933 was already considerably higher than in the USSR as a whole. But by June 1933, incidence in Ukraine had increased to nearly ten times the January level and was higher than in the rest of the USSR taken as a whole.[54]

However, the number of the recorded excess deaths extracted from the birth/death statistics from the Soviet archives is self-contradictory and cannot be fully relied upon because the data fails to add up to the differences between the results of the 1927 Census and the 1937 Census.[46]

Incidence of Disease in Russian Empire and USSR
Year Typhus Typhoid Fever Relapsing Fever Smallpox Malaria
1913 120 424 30 67 3600
1918-22 1300 293 639 106 2940 (average)
1929 40 170 6 8 3000
1930 60 190 5 10 2700
1931 80 260 4 30 3200
1932 220 300 12 80 4500
1933 800 210 12 38 6500
1934 410 200 10 16 9477
1935 120 140 6 4 9924
1936 100 120 3 0.5 6500

Stanislav Kulchytsky summarized the natural population change.[46] The declassified Soviet statistics show a decrease of 538,000 people in the population of Soviet Ukraine between 1926 census (28,925,976) and 1937 census (28,388,000). The number of births and deaths (in thousands) according to the declassified records are given in the table (right).

According to the correction for officially non-accounted child mortality in 1933[55] by 150,000 calculated by Sergei Maksudov, the number of births for 1933 should be increased from 471,000 to 621,000. Assuming the natural mortality rates in 1933 to be equal to the average annual mortality rate in 1927-1930 (524,000 per year) a natural population growth for 1933 would have been 97,000, which is five times less than this number in the past years (1927–1930). From the corrected birth rate and the estimated natural death rate for 1933 as well as from the official data for other years the natural population growth from 1927 to 1936 gives 4.043 million while the census data showed a decrease of 538,000. The sum of the two numbers gives an estimated total demographic loss of 4.581 million people. A major hurdle in estimating the human losses due to famine is the need to take into account the numbers involved in migration (including forced resettlement). According to the Soviet statistics, the migration balance for the population in Ukraine for 1927 - 1936 period was a loss of 1.343 million people. Even at the time when the data was taken, the Soviet statistical institutions acknowledged that its precision was worse than the data for the natural population change. Still, with the correction for this number, the total number of death in Ukraine due to unnatural causes for the given ten years was 3.238 million, and taking into account the lack of precision, especially of the migration estimate, the human toll is estimated between 3 million and 3.5 million.

Declassified Soviet statistics[46]
Year Births Deaths Natural change
1927 1184 523 661
1928 1139 496 643
1929 1081 539 542
1930 1023 536 487
1931 975 515 460
1932 782 668 114
1933 471 1850 -1379
1934 571 483 88
1935 759 342 417
1936 895 361 534

In addition to the direct losses from unnatural deaths, the indirect losses due to the decrease of the birth rate should be taken into account in consideration in estimating of the demographic consequences of the Famine for Ukraine. For instance, the natural population growth in 1927 was 662,000, while in 1933 it was 97,000, [this does not fit with the table, it had to be a decline of 1.379 thousand, i.e., approx. 1.4 million] in 1934 it was 88,000. The combination of direct and indirect losses from Holodomor gives 4.469 million, of which 3.238 million (or more realistically 3 to 3.5 million) is the number of the direct deaths according to this estimate.

A 2002 study by Vallin et al.[3][5][6] utilizing some similar primary sources to Kulchytsky, and performing an analysis with more sophisticated demographic tools with forward projection of expected growth from the 1926 census and backward projection from the 1939 census estimate the amount of direct deaths for 1933 as 2.582 million. This number of deaths does not reflect the total demographic loss for Ukraine from these events as the fall of the birth rate during crisis and the out-migration contribute to the latter as well. The total population shortfall from the expected value between 1926 and 1939 estimated by Vallin amounted to 4.566 million. Of this number, 1.057 million is attributed to birth deficit, 930,000 to forced out-migration, and 2.582 million to excess mortality and voluntary out-migration. With the latter assumed to be negligible this estimate gives the number of deaths as the result of the 1933 famine about 2.2 million. According to this study the life expectancy for those born in 1933 sharply fell to 10.8 years for females and to 7.3 years for males and remained abnormally low for 1934 but, as commonly expected for the post-crisis peaked in 1935–36.[3]

According to estimates[55] about 81.3% of the famine victims in Ukrainian SRR were ethnic Ukrainians, 4.5% Russians, 1.4% Jews and 1.1% were Poles. Many Belarusians, Hungarians, Volga Germans and other nationalities became victims as well. The Ukrainian rural population was the hardest hit by the Holodomor. Since the peasantry constituted a demographic backbone of the Ukrainian nation,[56] the tragedy deeply affected the Ukrainians for many years.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the overall number of Ukrainians who died from 1932-1933 famine is estimated as about four to five million out of six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union as a whole.[1]

Was Holodomor a genocide?

Robert Conquest claimed that the famine of 1932–33 was a deliberate act of mass murder, if not genocide committed as part of Joseph Stalin's collectivization program in the Soviet Union. In 2006, the Security Service of Ukraine declassified more than 5 thousand pages of Holodomor archives.[57] These documents suggest that the Soviet regime singled out Ukraine by not giving it the same humanitarian aid given to regions outside it.[58] Some scholars say that Conquest's book on the famine is replete with errors and inconsistencies and that it deserves to be considered an example of Cold War lack of objectivity.[59]

R.W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft have interacted with Conquest and note that he no longer considers the famine "deliberate".[60] Conquest—and, by extension, Davies and Wheatcroft—believe that, had industrialization been abandoned, the famine would have been "prevented" (Conquest), or at least significantly alleviated:

"[W]e regard the policy of rapid industrialization as an underlying cause of the agricultural troubles of the early 1930s, and we do not believe that the Chinese or NEP versions of industrialization were viable in Soviet national and international circumstances."[61]

They see the leadership under Stalin as making significant errors in planning for the industrialization of agriculture.

This retraction by Conquest is also noted by Kulchytsky.[16]

In a published article (1999), Conquest explains:

"I pointed out that Molotov told the Politburo in July 1932 that famine loomed, but that the planned requisitions must proceed regardless (we now have Stalin’s similar instruction from Sochi). And let me cite an even clearer exchange: Mikhail Khataevich, First secretary of the Ukraine Dnipropetrovsk province, wrote to Molotov in November 1932 that the 'minimum' needs of the peasantry must be met, or `there will be no one left to sow and produce’. Molotov answered that this view was 'incorrect, unBolshevik', since 'we cannot put the needs of the State - needs precisely defined in Party resolutions - in the tenth, or even the second, place'. Wheatcroft takes it that Stalin did not 'consciously plan' the famine. 'Plan' is a slippery word: what we are saying is that he consciously inflicted it."[62]

Dr. Michael Ellman of the University of Amsterdam argues that, in addition to deportations, internment in the Gulag and shootings (See: Law of Spikelets), there is some evidence that Stalin used starvation as a weapon in his war against the peasantry.[63] He also concludes that, at least according to a relaxed definition of the term, the famine of 1932-33 may constitute genocide. He bases this on the actions (two of commission and one of omission: exporting 1.8 million tonnes of grain during the mass starvation [enough to feed more than five million people for one year], preventing migration from famine afflicted areas [which may have cost an estimated 150,000 lives] and making no effort to secure grain assistance from abroad [which caused an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths]) and the attitude (that many of those starving to death were "counterrevolutionaries", "idlers" or "thieves" who fully deserved their fate) of the Stalinist regime in 1932–33. He asks:

"Throughout his career as a Soviet leader, from Tsaritsyn (1918) to the ‘Doctors' plot’ (1953), he used violence (arrests, shootings, deportations) to achieve his political goals. Is it really plausible to suppose that with these perceptions, convictions, words, actions, plans, and record, Stalin would have abstained from an efficient, cost-saving method (i.e. starvation) of repressing ‘counterrevolutionaries’ (or ‘anti-Soviet elements’) and liquidating ‘idlers’?"[64]

Regarding the aforementioned actions taken by Stalin in the early 1930's, Ellman unambiguously states that, from the standpoint of contemporary international criminal law, Stalin is "clearly guilty" of "a series of crimes against humanity" and that, from the standpoint of national criminal law, the only way to defend Stalin from a charge of mass murder is "to argue he was ignorant of the consequences of his actions." He also rebukes Davies and Wheatcroft for, among other things, their "very narrow understanding" of intent. He states:

"According to them, only taking an action whose sole objective is to cause deaths among the peasantry counts as intent. Taking an action with some other goal (e.g. exporting grain to import machinery) but which the actor certainly knows will also cause peasants to starve does not count as intentionally starving the peasants. However, this is an interpretation of ‘intent’ which flies in the face of the general legal interpretation."[64]

Genocide scholar Adam Jones stresses that, while controversial, some of the actions of the Soviet leadership during 1931-32 should be considered genocidal. Not only did the famine kill millions, it took place against "a backdrop of persecution, mass execution, and incarceration clearly aimed at undermining Ukrainians as a national group."[65]

Some historians maintain that the famine was an unintentional consequence of collectivization, and that the associated resistance to it by the Ukrainian peasantry exacerbated an already-poor harvest.[66][67] Some researchers state that while the term Ukrainian Genocide is often used in application to the event, technically, the use of the term "genocide" is inapplicable.[15]

The statistical distribution of famine's victims among the ethnicities closely reflects the ethnic distribution of the rural population of Ukraine[68] Moldavian, Polish, German and Bulgarian population that mostly resided in the rural communities of Ukraine suffered in the same proportion as the rural Ukrainian population.[68] While ethnic Russians in Ukraine lived mostly in urban areas and the cities were affected little by the famine, the rural Russian population was affected the same way as the rural population of any other ethnicity.[68]

West Virginia University professor Dr Mark Tauger claims that any analysis that asserts that the harvests of 1931 and 1932 were not extraordinarily low and that the famine was a political measure intentionally imposed through excessive procurements is based on an insufficient source base and an uncritical approach to the official sources.[66] Other scholars, such as Dr. David Marples, professor of history at the University of Alberta, have been critical of Tauger's claims.[69] Wheatcroft states Tauger's view represents the opposite extreme in arguing the famine was totally accidental.[70]

Author James Mace was one of the first to claim that the famine constituted genocide. But British economist Stephen Wheatcroft, who studied the famine, believed that Mace's work debased the field of Russian studies.[71] However, Wheatcroft's characterization of the famine deaths as largely excusable, negligent homicide has been challenged by economist Steven Rosefielde, who states:

"Grain supplies were sufficient enough to sustain everyone if properly distributed. People died mostly from terror-starvation (excess grain exports, seizure of edibles from the starving, state refusal to provide emergency relief, bans on outmigration, and forced deportation to food-deficit locales), not poor harvests and routine administrative bungling."[72]

In his 1953 speech the "father of the [UN] Genocide Convention," Dr Raphael Lemkin described "the destruction of the Ukrainian nation" as the "classic example of genocide," for "...the Ukrainian is not and never has been a Russian. His culture, his temperament, his language, his religion, are all different...to eliminate (Ukrainian) nationalism...the Ukrainian peasantry was sacrificed...a famine was necessary for the Soviet and so they got one to order...if the Soviet program succeeds completely, if the intelligentsia, the priest, and the peasant can be eliminated [then] Ukraine will be as dead as if every Ukrainian were killed, for it will have lost that part of it which has kept and developed its culture, its beliefs, its common ideas, which have guided it and given it a soul, which, in short, made it a nation...This is not simply a case of mass murder. It is a case of genocide, of the destruction, not of individuals only, but of a culture and a nation." [73]

...the evidence of a large-scale famine was so overwhelming, was so unanimously confirmed by the peasants that the most "hard-boiled" local officials could say nothing in denial.
(William Henry Chamberlin, Christian Science Monitor, May 29, 1934)

[74]

Mr.Chamberlin was a Moscow correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor for 10 years. In 1934 he was reassigned to the Far East. After he left the Soviet Union he wrote his account of the situation in Ukraine and North Caucasus (Poltava, Bila Tserkva, and Kropotkin). Chamberlin later published couple of books "Russia's Iron Age" and "The Ukraine: A Submerged Nation".[75][76]

Denial of Holodomor

Denial of Holodomor is the assertion that the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine did not occur.[77][78][79][80] This denial and suppression was made in official Soviet propaganda and was supported by some Western journalists and intellectuals.[78][79][81][82][83]

Denial of the famine by Soviet authorities, including President Mikhail Kalinin and Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov, was immediate and continued into the 1980s. The Soviet party line was echoed at the time of the famine by some prominent Western journalists, including Walter Duranty and Louis Fischer. The denial of the famine was a highly successful and well orchestrated disinformation campaign by the Soviet government [77][78][79]. Stalin "had achieved the impossible: he had silenced all the talk of hunger... Millions were dying, but the nation hymned the praises of collectivization", said historian and writer Edvard Radzinsky[79]. That was the first major instance of Soviet authorities adopting Hitler's Big Lie propaganda technique to sway world opinion, to be followed by similar campaigns over the Moscow Trials and denial of the Gulag labor camp system, according to Robert Conquest [48].

Holodomor in modern politics

One of the interpretations of The Running Man painting by Kazimir Malevich, also known as Peasant Between a Cross and a Sword, is the artist's indictment of the Great Famine.[84] "Kasimir Malevich's haunting 'The Running Man' (1933-34), showing a peasant fleeing across a deserted landscape, is eloquent testimony to the disaster."[85]

The famine remains a politically charged topic; hence, heated debates are likely to continue for a long time. Until around 1990, the debates were largely between the so called "denial camp" who refused to recognize the very existence of the famine or stated that it was caused by natural reasons (such as a poor harvest), scholars who accepted reports of famine but saw it as a policy blunder[86] followed by the botched relief effort, and scholars who alleged that it was intentional and specifically anti-Ukrainian or even an act of genocide against the Ukrainians as a nation.

Nowadays, scholars agree that the famine affected millions. While it is also accepted that the famine affected other nationalities in addition to Ukrainians, the debate is still ongoing as to whether or not the Holodomor qualifies as an act of genocide, since the facts that the famine itself took place and that it was unnatural are not disputed. As far as the possible effect of the natural causes, the debate is restricted to whether the poor harvest[67] or post-traumatic stress played any role at all and to what degree the Soviet actions were caused by the country's economic and military needs as viewed by the Soviet leadership.

In 2007, President Viktor Yushchenko declared he wants "a new law criminalising Holodomor denial," while Communist Party head Petro Symonenko said he "does not believe there was any deliberate starvation at all," and accused Yushchenko of "using the famine to stir up hatred."[42] Few in Ukraine share Symonenko's interpretation of history and the number of Ukrainians who deny the famine or view it as caused by natural reasons is steadily falling.[87]

On November 10, 2003 at the United Nations twenty-five countries including Russia, Ukraine and United States signed a joint statement on the seventieth anniversary of the Holodomor with the following preamble:

In the former Soviet Union millions of men, women and children fell victims to the cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime. The Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor), which took from 7 million to 10 million innocent lives and became a national tragedy for the Ukrainian people. In this regard we note activities in observance of the seventieth anniversary of this Famine, in particular organized by the Government of Ukraine.

Honouring the seventieth anniversary of the Ukrainian tragedy, we also commemorate the memory of millions of Russians, Kazakhs and representatives of other nationalities who died of starvation in the Volga River region, Northern Caucasus, Kazakhstan and in other parts of the former Soviet Union, as a result of civil war and forced collectivization, leaving deep scars in the consciousness of future generations.[23]

One of the biggest arguments is that the famine was preceded by the onslaught on the Ukrainian national culture, a common historical detail preceding many centralized actions directed against the nations as a whole. Nation-wide, the political repression of 1937 (The Great Purge) under the guidance of Nikolay Yezhov were known for their ferocity and ruthlessness, but Lev Kopelev wrote, "In Ukraine 1937 began in 1933", referring to the comparatively early beginning of the Soviet crackdown in Ukraine.[88]

While the famine was well documented at the time, its reality has been disputed for ideological reasons, for instance by the Soviet government and its spokespeople (as well as apologists for the Soviet regime), by others due to being deliberately misled by the Soviet government (such as George Bernard Shaw), and, in at least one case, Walter Duranty, for personal gain.

An example of a late-era Holodomor objector is Canadian journalist Douglas Tottle, author of Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard (published by Moscow-based Soviet publisher Progress Publishers in 1987). Tottle claims that while there were severe economic hardships in Ukraine, the idea of the Holodomor was fabricated as propaganda by Nazi Germany and William Randolph Hearst to justify a German invasion.

On April 26, 2010, newly elected Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, told Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe members that Holodomor was a common tragedy that struck Ukrainians and other Soviet peoples, and that it would be wrong to recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against one nation. He stated that "The Holodomor was in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan. It was the result of Stalin's totalitarian regime. But it would be wrong and unfair to recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against one nation."[89] In response to Yanukovych's statements, the Our Ukraine Party alleged that Yanukovych directly violated Ukrainian law which which defines the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people and makes public denial of the Holodomor unlawful. Our Ukraine Party also asserted that Yanukovych "ignored a ruling of January 13, 2010 by Kyiv's Court of Appeal, which recognized the leaders of the totalitarian Bolshevik regime as those guilty of 'genocide against the Ukrainian national group in 1932-33 through the artificial creation of living conditions intended for its partial physical destruction.'"[27]

Countries which officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide

Remembrance

To honour those who perished in the Holodomor, monuments have been dedicated and public events held annually in Ukraine and worldwide. The first public monument to the Holodomor was erected and dedicated outside City Hall in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1983 to mark the 50th anniversary of the famine-genocide. Since then, the third Saturday in November has in many jurisdictions been marked as the official day of remembrance for people who died as a result of the 1932-33 Holodomor and political repression.[90]

In 2006, the Holodomor Remembrance Day took place on November 25. President Viktor Yushchenko directed, in decree No. 868/2006, that a minute of silence should be observed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on that Saturday. The document specified that flags in Ukraine should fly at half-staff as a sign of mourning. In addition, the decree directed that entertainment events are to be restricted and television and radio programming adjusted accordingly.[91]

In 2007, the 74th anniversary of the Holodomor was commemorated in Kiev for three days on the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. As part of the three day event, from November 23-25th, video testimonies of the communist regime's crimes in Ukraine, and documentaries by famous domestic and foreign film directors are being shown. Additionally, experts and scholars gave lectures on the topic.[92] Additionally, on November 23, 2007, the National Bank of Ukraine issued a set of two commemorative coins remembering the Holodomor.[93]

As of September 2009, Ukrainian schoolchildren will take a more extensive course of the history of the Holodomor and OUN and UPA fighters.[94]

Viktor Yanukovych and Dmitry Medvedev near Memorial to the Holodomor Victims in Kiev

On May 17, 2010 President Viktor Yanukovych and President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev visited the Memorial to the Holodomor Victims in Kiev to commemorate the victims of the famine.[95]

Remembrance outside Ukraine

Canada

On November 22, 2008, Ukrainian Canadians marked the beginning of National Holodomor Awareness Week. Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney attended a vigil in Kiev.[96] On April 9, 2009 the Province of Ontario unanimously passed bill 147 – The Holodomor Memorial Day Act. This was the first piece of legislation in the Province’s history to be introduced with Tri-Partisan sponsorship: Dave Levac, MPP for Brant (Liberal Party); Cheri DiNovo, MPP for Parkdale—High Park (NDP); and Frank Klees, MPP for Newmarket—Aurora (PC) were the joint initiators of the bill. On June 2, 2010 the Province of Quebec unanimously passed bill 390 - "Memorial Day Act on the great Ukrainian famine and genocide (the Holodomor)."[97]

United States

On December 2, 2008, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Washington, D.C. for the Holodomor Memorial.[98] On November 13, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama released a statement on the Ukrainian Holodomor Remembrance Day. In this he said that "remembering the victims of the man-made catastrophe of Holodomor provides us an opportunity to reflect upon the plight of all those who have suffered the consequences of extremism and tyranny around the world".[99][100]

On March 20, 1982 the Ukrainian Weekly was reporting about a multi-ethnic community meting that was held on February 15 on the North Shore Drive at the Ukrainian Village in Chicago to commemorate the famine which took lives of seven million Ukrainian lives. The Ukrainian Weekly also reported about another meeting taking place on February 27, 1982 in the parish center of the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Great Famine caused by the Soviet authorities. Other events in commemoration were held in other places around the United States as well.

Images of Holodomor Memorials

See also

Notes and references

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 - The famine of 1932–33 - Encyclopædia Britannica: "The Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33—a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union, about four to five million were Ukrainians... Its deliberate nature is underscored by the fact that no physical basis for famine existed in Ukraine... Soviet authorities set requisition quotas for Ukraine at an impossibly high level. Brigades of special agents were dispatched to Ukraine to assist in procurement, and homes were routinely searched and foodstuffs confiscated... The rural population was left with insufficient food to feed itself."
  2. 2.0 2.1 Stalislav Kulchytsky, "Demographic losses in Ukrainian in the twentieth century", Zerkalo Nedeli, October 2–8, 2004. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Jacques Vallin, France Mesle, Serguei Adamets, Serhii Pyrozhkov, A New Estimate of Ukrainian Population Losses during the Crises of the 1930s and 1940s, Population Studies, Vol. 56, No. 3. (Nov., 2002), pp. 249-264
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 Helen Fawkes , Legacy of famine divides Ukraine, BBC News, 24 November 2006
  5. 5.0 5.1 France Meslé, Gilles Pison, Jacques Vallin France-Ukraine: Demographic Twins Separated by History, Population and societies, N°413, juin 2005
  6. 6.0 6.1 ce Meslé, Jacques Vallin Mortalité et causes de décès en Ukraine au XXè siècle + CDRom ISBN 2-7332-0152-2 CD online data (partially - http://www.ined.fr/fichier/t_publication/cdrom_mortukraine/cdrom.htm
  7. Shelton, Dinah (2005). Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Detroit ; Munich: Macmillan Reference, Thomson Gale. pp. 1059. ISBN 0028658507. 
  8. According to Stephen G. Wheatcroft and Robert W. Davies "The drought of 1931 was particularly severe, and drought conditions continue to 1932. This certainly helped to worsen the conditions to obtaining the harvest in 1932.", Challenging Traditionnal Views of Russian History, Palgrave:Macmillan, 2002, p. 77
  9. "This famine therefore resembled the Irish famine of 1845-1848, but resulted from a litany of natural disasters that combined to the same effect as the potato blight had ninety years before, and in a similar context of substantial food exports", Mark B. Tauger, Natural Disasters and Human Actions in the Soviet Famine of 1931-1933, The Karl Beck Papers in Russian & East European Studies, 2001, p. 46.
  10. Engerman, David (203). Modernization from the Other Shore. Harvard University Press. p. 194. ISBN 0674011511. http://books.google.com/?id=UkFlO7hoxOMC&pg=PA194&dq. 
  11. Moss, Walter (2005). A History of Russia. Anthem Press. p. 250. ISBN 1843310341. http://books.google.com/?id=yMwdWFtgV0QC&pg=RA1-PA250&dq. 
  12. 12.0 12.1 Peter Finn, Aftermath of a Soviet Famine, The Washington Post, April 27, 2008, "There are no exact figures on how many died. Modern historians place the number between 2.5 million and 3.5 million. Yushchenko and others have said at least 10 million were killed."
  13. 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Dr. David Marples, The great famine debate goes on..., ExpressNews (University of Alberta), originally published in Edmonton Journal, November 30, 2005
  14. 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Stanislav Kulchytsky, "Holodomor of 1932–1933 as genocide: the gaps in the proof", Den, February 17, 2007, in Russian, in Ukrainian
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 Yaroslav Bilinsky (1999). "Was the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–1933 Genocide?". Journal of Genocide Research 1 (2): 147–156. doi:10.1080/14623529908413948. http://www.faminegenocide.com/resources/bilinsky.html. 
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 Stanislav Kulchytsky, "Holodomor-33: Why and how?", Zerkalo Nedeli, November 25—December 1, 2006, in Russian, in Ukrainian.
  17. Davies, Norman (2006). Europe East and West. London: Jonathan Cape. p. 145. ISBN 0224069241. http://books.google.com/?id=z7VmAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Terror-Famine+in+Ukraine%22&dq=%22Terror-Famine+in+Ukraine%22. 
  18. Baumeister, Roy (1999). Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty. Macmillan. p. 179. ISBN 0805071652. http://books.google.com/?id=tGxA-lduhHkC&pg=PA179&dq. 
  19. Sternberg, Robert (2008). The Nature of Hate. Cambridge University Press. p. 67. ISBN 0521896983. http://books.google.com/?id=TFT2l-RH9FIC&pg=RA1-PA67&dq=%22Famine-Genocide+in+Ukraine%22. 
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 С. Уиткрофт (Stephen G. Wheatcroft), "О демографических свидетельствах трагедии советской деревни в 1931—1933 гг." (On demographic evidence of the tragedy of the Soviet village in 1931-1833), "Трагедия советской деревни: Коллективизация и раскулачивание 1927-1939 гг.: Документы и материалы. Том 3. Конец 1930-1933 гг.", Российская политическая энциклопедия, 2001, ISBN 5-8243-0225-1, с. 885, Приложение № 2
  21. 21.0 21.1 'Stalinism' was a collective responsibility - Kremlin papers, The News in Brief, University of Melbourne, 19 June 1998, Vol 7 No 22
  22. sources differ on interpreting various statements from different branches of different governments as to whether they amount to the official recognition of the Famine as Genocide by the country. For example, after the statement issued by the Latvian Sejm on March 13, 2008, the total number of countries is given as 19 (according to Ukrainian BBC: "Латвія визнала Голодомор ґеноцидом"), 16 (according to Korrespondent, Russian edition: "После продолжительных дебатов Сейм Латвии признал Голодомор геноцидом украинцев"), "more than 10" (according to Korrespondent, Ukrainian edition: "Латвія визнала Голодомор 1932-33 рр. геноцидом українців")
  23. 23.0 23.1 Joint Statement on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine (Holodomor) on Monday, November 10, 2003 at the United Nations in New York
  24. Mordini, Emilio (2009). Identity, security and democracy: the wider social and ethical implications of automated systems for human identification. IOS Press. p. x. ISBN 1586039407. 
  25. Pourchot, Georgeta (2008). Eurasia rising: democracy and independence in the post-Soviet space. ABC-CLIO. p. 98. ISBN 0275999165. 
  26. Yanukovych reverses Ukraine's position on Holodomor famine, RIA Novosti, 27 April 2010
  27. 27.0 27.1 Interfax-Ukraine (27 April 2010). "Our Ukraine Party: Yanukovych violated law on Holodomor of 1932-1933". Kyiv Post. http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/65188/. Retrieved 10 August 2010. 
  28. European Parliament resolution on the commemoration of the Holodomor, the Ukraine artificial famine (1932-1933)
  29. European Parliament recognises Ukrainian famine of 1930s as crime against humanity (Press Release 23-10-2008)
  30. Holodomor court hearings begin in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (January 12, 2010)
  31. Yushchenko brings Stalin to court over genocide, RT (January 14, 2010)
  32. Sentence to Stalin, his comrades for organizing Holodomor takes effect in Ukraine, Kyiv Post (January 21, 2010)
  33. PACE finds Stalin regime guilty of Holodomor, does not recognize it as genocide. RIA Novosti, April 28 2010.
  34. Mace James - "Vashi mertvi vybraly mene". (Your dead chose me) Kiev, 2008. (p.132) here
  35. Ukrainian holod (голод, ‘hunger’, compare Russian golod) should not be confused with kholod (холод, ‘cold’). For details, see romanization of Ukrainian. Mor means ‘plague’ in the sense of a disastrous evil or affliction, or a sudden unwelcome outbreak. See wiktionary:plague.
  36. Голодомор, in "Velykyi tlumachnyi slovnyk suchasnoi ukrainsʹkoi movy: 170 000 sliv", chief ed. V. T. Busel, Irpin, Perun (2004), ISBN 9665690132
  37. Голод 1932-1933 років на Україні: очима істориків, мовою документів
  38. An article by historian Vasily Sokur, containing citations from documents. The author suggests that never in the history of mankind has cannibalism been so widespread as it was during the Holodomor. - http://www.facts.kiev.ua/archive/2008-11-21/92027/. Accessed 21 November 2008.
  39. Steven Bela Vardy and Agnes Huszar Vardy. Cannibalism in Stalin's Russia and Mao's China. Duquesne University, East European Quarterly, XLI, No.2, 2007
  40. Valeriy Soldatenko, "A starved 1933: subjective thoughts on objective processes", Zerkalo Nedeli, June 28, 2003 – July 4, 2003. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian
  41. BBC report
  42. 42.0 42.1 Laura Sheeter, "Ukraine remembers famine horror", BBC News, November 24, 2007
  43. The Ukrainian politician Stepan Khmara during the hearings in the Verkhovna Rada (quoted through Kulchytsky): "I would like to address the scientists, particularly, Stanislav Kulchytsky, who attempts to mark down the number of victims and counts them as 3–3.5 million. I studied these questions analyzing the demographic statistics as early as in 1970s and concluded that the number of victims was no less than 7 million"
    Cited through Stanislav Kulchytsky, "Reasons of the 1933 famine in Ukraine. Through the pages of one almost forgotten book" Zerkalo Nedeli, August 16–22, 2003. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian. However, Stanislav Kulchytsky in Демографічні наслідки голодомору 1933 р. в Україні. (Demographic consequence of Holodomor of 1933 in Ukraine),Canada, Kiev, Institute of History, 2003, p. 4, notes that the demographic data were opened only in late 1980s; Stepan Khmara had no access to such data in 1970s.
  44. Viktor Yushchenko, "Holodomor", The Wall Street Journal, 27.11.2007
  45. Ukrainian President Yushchenko: Yushchenko's Address before Joint Session of U.S. Congress
  46. 46.0 46.1 46.2 46.3 46.4 46.5 46.6 46.7 Stanislav Kulchytsky, "How many of us perished in Holodomor in 1933", Zerkalo Nedeli, November 23–29, 2002. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian
  47. Valentin Berezhkov, "Kak ya stal perevodchikom Stalina", Moscow, DEM, 1993, ISBN 5-85207-044-0. p. 317
  48. 48.0 48.1 Robert Conquest, The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine Oxford University Press New York (1986) ISBN 0-195-04054-6
  49. Stanislav Kulchytsky, Hennadiy Yefimenko. Демографічні наслідки голодомору 1933 р. в Україні. Всесоюзний перепис 1937 р. в Україні: документи та матеріали (Demographic consequence of Holodomor of 1933 in Ukraine. The all-Union census of 1937 in Ukraine), Kiev, Institute of History, 2003. pp. 42-63
  50. Stalislav Kulchytsky, "Reasons of the 1933 famine in Ukraine. Through the pages of one almost forgotten book" Zerkalo Nedeli, August 16–22, 2003. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian.
  51. Stanislav Kulchytsky, "Reasons of the 1933 famine in Ukraine-2", Zerkalo Nedeli, October 4–10, 2003. Available online in Russian and in Ukrainian
  52. Davies and Wheatcroft, p.415
  53. Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 429
  54. Davies and Wheatcroft, p. 512
  55. 55.0 55.1 Sergei Maksudov, "Losses Suffered by the Population of the USSR 1918–1958", in The Samizdat Register II, ed R. Medvedev (London–New York 1981)
  56. Robert Potocki, "Polityka państwa polskiego wobec zagadnienia ukraińskiego w latach 1930-1939" (in Polish, English summary), Lublin 2003, ISBN 83-917615-4-1
  57. Служба безпеки України
  58. SBU documents show that Moscow singled out Ukraine in famine 5tv - Ukraine Channel Five. 22 November 2006. Retrieved 23 November 2006
  59. Mark Tauger. Published correspondence (pdf)
  60. "Debate: Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33: A Reply to Ellman", in Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, No. 4, June 2006, pp.625-633. (note on conquest (p. 629))
  61. "Debate: Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33: A Reply to Ellman", in Europe-Asia Studies, vol. 58, No. 4, June 2006, pp.625-633. (p. 626))
  62. Comment on Wheatcroft by Robert Conquest, 1999
  63. Ellman, Michael (09 2005). "The Role of Leadership Perceptions and of Intent in the Soviet Famine of 1931–1934" (PDF). Europe-Asia Studies (Routledge) 57 (6): 823–41. doi:10.1080/09668130500199392. http://www.paulbogdanor.com/left/soviet/famine/ellman.pdf. 
  64. 64.0 64.1 Michael Ellman, Stalin and the Soviet Famine of 1932-33 Revisited Europe-Asia Studies, Routledge. Vol. 59, No. 4, June 2007, 663-693. PDF file
  65. Adam Jones. Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge; 2 edition (August 1, 2010). ISBN 041548619X pp. 136-137
  66. 66.0 66.1 Mark B. Tauger, The 1932 Harvest and the Famine of 1933, Slavic Review, Volume 50, Issue 1 (Spring, 1991), 70-89, (PDF)
  67. 67.0 67.1 See also the acrimonious exchange between Tauger and Conquest.
  68. 68.0 68.1 68.2 Stanislav Kulchytsky, Hennadiy Yefimenko. Демографічні наслідки голодомору 1933 р. в Україні. Всесоюзний перепис 1937 р. в Україні: документи та матеріали (Demographic consequence of Holodomor of 1933 in Ukraine. The all-Union census of 1937 in Ukraine), Kiev, Institute of History, 2003. pp.63-72
  69. Dr. David Marples. ANALYSIS: Debating the undebatable? Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933
  70. Wheatcroft, S. G. TOWARDS EXPLAINING SOVIET FAMINE OF 1931-3: POLITICAL AND NATURAL FACTORS IN PERSPECTIVE, Food and Foodways, 2004, 12:2, 107 — 136
  71. Heroes and villains by David R. Marples Budapest: Central European University Press 2007.
  72. Steven Rosefielde. Red Holocaust. Routledge, 2009. ISBN 0415777577 pg. 259
  73. Raphael Lemkin Papers, The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation, Raphael Lemkin ZL-273. Reel 3. Published in L.Y. Luciuk (ed), Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine (Kingston: The Kashtan Press, 2008). Available [www.uccla.ca/SOVIET_GENOCIDE_IN_THE_UKRAINE.pdf online]
  74. "1934" The Ukrainian Weekly (English)
  75. The Ukraine: A Submerged Nation, published in 1944
  76. What Is the Ukraine Famine Disaster of 1932-1933? (English)
  77. 77.0 77.1 Nicolas Werth, Karel Bartošek, Jean-Louis Panné, Jean-Louis Margolin, Andrzej Paczkowski, Stéphane Courtois, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression, Harvard University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-674-07608-7, pages 159-160
  78. 78.0 78.1 78.2 Richard Pipes Russia Under the Bolshevik Regime, Vintage books, Random House Inc., New York, 1995, ISBN 0-394-50242-6, pages 232-236.
  79. 79.0 79.1 79.2 79.3 Edvard Radzinsky Stalin: The First In-depth Biography Based on Explosive New Documents from Russia's Secret Archives, Anchor, (1997) ISBN 0-385-47954-9, pages 256-259
  80. Robert Conquest Reflections on a Ravaged Century (2000) ISBN 0-393-04818-7, p. 96
  81. Famine denial The Ukrainian Weekly, July 14, 2002, No. 28, Vol. LXX
  82. The Soviet Union dismissed all references to the famine as anti-Soviet propaganda. Denial of the famine declined after the Communist Party lost power and the Soviet empire disintegrated @ Encyclopedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity By Dinah Shelton; Page 1055 ISBN 0028658485
  83. After over half a century of denial, in January 1990 theCommunist Party of Ukraine adopted a special resolution admitting that the Ukrainian Famine had indeed occurred, cost millions of lives... Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts - Page 93 ISBN 0415944295
  84. Dmytro Horbachov, Fullest Expression of Pure feeling, Welcome to Ukraine, 1998, No 1.
  85. Andrew Wilson, "The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation", Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 0300093098, p.144
  86. J. Arch Getty, "The Future Did Not Work", The Atlantic Monthly, Boston: March 2000, Vol. 285, Iss.3, pg.113
  87. Большинство украинцев считают Голодомор актом геноцида, Korrespondent.net, November 20, 2007
  88. Subtelny, Orest (1988). Ukraine: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,. ISBN 0-80205-808-6. 
  89. Interfax-Ukraine. "Yanukovych: Famine of 1930s was not genocide against Ukrainians". Kyiv Post. http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/65137/. Retrieved 30 April 2010. 
  90. Bradley, Lara. "Ukraine's 'Forced Famine' Officially Recognized. The Sundbury Star. 3 January 1999. URL Accessed 12 October 2006
  91. Yushchenko, Viktor. Decree No. 868/2006 by President of Ukraine. Regarding the Remembrance Day in 2006 for people who died as a result of Holodomor and political repressions (Ukrainian)
  92. "Ceremonial events to commemorate Holodomor victims to be held in Kiev for three days." National Radio Company of Ukraine. URL Accessed 25 November 2007
  93. Commemorative Coins "Holodomor – Genocide of the Ukrainian People". National Bank of Ukraine.URL Accessed 25 June 2008
  94. Schoolchildren to study in detail about Holodomor and OUN-UPA, UNIAN (Jne 12, 2009)
  95. http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/66919, Kyiv Post (May 17, 2010)
  96. "Ukrainian-Canadians mark famine's 75 anniversasry". CTV.ca. http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081122/ukrainian_famine_081122/20081122?hub=TopStories. Retrieved 2008-11-23. 
  97. "Quebec passes bill recognizing Holodomor as a genocide". Canadian Business. http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/cnw/article.jsp?content=20100602_182502_0_cnw_cnw. Retrieved 2 June, 2010. 
  98. "Ukrainian Genocide Memorial Groundbreaking Ceremony in Washington, D.C.". Renaissance Research. http://renaissanceresearch.blogspot.com/2008/12/ukrainian-genocide-memorial.html. Retrieved 2008-12-02. 
  99. Remembrance of Holodomor in Ukraine will help prevent such tragedy in future, says Obama, Interfax-Ukraine (November 14, 2009)
  100. Statement by the President on the Ukrainian Holodomor Remembrance Day, whitehouse.gov (November 13, 2009)

Further reading

Declarations and legal acts

Books and articles

External links

Map Number of countries which officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide

 Andorra,  Argentina,  Australia,  Canada,  Ecuador,  Spain,  Estonia,  Georgia,  Italy,  Lithuania,  Peru,  Poland,  Paraguay,  Ukraine[a 1],  United States,  Hungary,  Vatican City,  Mexico,  Czech Republic,  Colombia,  Latvia

  1. There seems to be a disagreement between branches of Ukrainian government over the issue. See Holodomor_genocide_question#Genocide_debate:_Ukrainian_position for details

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