Today, November 25, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933 and mass artificial famines of 1921-1923 and 1946-1947. On this occasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published an address to the Ukrainian people and the world.
"The tragedy over which we cry and remain silent today is so quiet that the whole world should hear it. This is what Ukrainian pain sounds like," he said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked all the states that recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. And at the same time, he called on the world to unite and condemn the crimes of the past in order to stop the crimes of the present.
What is the Holodomor?
The Holodomor of 1932-1933 was an artificial mass famine that led to millions of human casualties in the countryside on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR. Then 7 million people died of hunger. In Ukraine and the world, the Holodomor is perceived as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people, inspired by the government of the USSR.
In 1928, the Soviet authorities introduced forced grain harvesting, when all or most of the grain was taken from farmers at significantly reduced prices. At the same time, the "liquidation" of the wealthiest farms and collectivization took place. Due to inefficient collective farm management and the onset of famine in Ukraine, opposition to the totalitarian regime grew. In the seven months of 1932, 56% of all anti-government demonstrations in the USSR took place in the country. Then the Soviet authorities decided to organize an artificial famine in order to reduce the resistance of the population by destroying part of it.
- In 2006, Ukraine recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
- In 2016, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine appealed to democratic states to recognize the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as genocide of the Ukrainian people.
- Before the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, a number of states had already recognized the Holodomor as a genocide of Ukrainians, including Australia, Georgia, Ecuador, Estonia, Canada, Colombia, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, the USA, Hungary, Portugal, and the Vatican.
- In 2022-2023, the process of recognizing the Holodomor as a genocide intensified — it was recognized by the Czech Republic, Belgium, Moldova, Ireland, Germany, Bulgaria, Iceland, France, Slovenia, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Croatia, Italy, 34 US states, as well as the European Parliament and PACE.