EU Recognizes Ukraine Holodomor As Genocide

 

DW: European Parliament recognizes Ukraine Holodomor as genocide  

The European Parliament passed a resolution that declared Holodomor — the starvation of millions of people in Ukraine in the 1930s under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin — a "genocide". 

The European Parliament on Thursday voted for a resolution declaring the deliberately induced famine in Ukraine 90 years ago a genocide. 

The text of the resolution said the EU legislature "recognizes the Holodomor, the artificial famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine caused by a deliberate policy of the Soviet regime, as a genocide against the Ukrainian people." 

EU lawmakers "strongly condemn these acts, which resulted in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians, and call on all countries and organizations that have not yet done so to follow suit and recognize it as genocide," the statement read. 

"While condemning the current Russian regime for manipulating historical memory for the purpose of its own survival, Parliament calls on the Russian Federation, as the primary successor of the Soviet Union, to apologies for those crimes," the press release read.  

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: The brutality of Stalin was not only felt in Ukraine, but also throughout the Soviet Union. No ethnic group was spared from the Socialists/Communists in power then, even Russians. 

But IMHO the ones who probably suffered the most during this time were the Kazakhs, where it is estimated that between 38% - 42% of the population died during this period of time (Kazakh famine of 1930–1933).

Ukraine Remebers Holodomor

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky and First Lady Olena Zelenska take part in a ceremony to commemorate the victims of the famine in Ukraine on Nov. 26, 2022. President.gov.ua 

Washington Post: Ukrainians remember suffering inflicted by Stalin, Putin 90 years apart 

KYIV, Ukraine — As Ukrainians lit candles and observed a moment of silence on Saturday to remember millions of their countrymen who died in a 1930s famine, European leaders gathered in the Ukrainian capital, accusing Moscow of using “hunger as a weapon of war against Ukraine.” 

The prime ministers of Belgium, Poland and Lithuania, and the Hungarian president, met with Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, for an “international summit on food security.” 

The gathering was brought about by Moscow’s continuing squeeze on Ukrainian grain exports, which has created food shortages across the globe. 

The German and French presidents and the head of the European Commission also spoke via video, news reports said. Saturday was also the day that Ukrainians remembered the victims of the “Holodomor” — or “death by hunger” — a Soviet-orchestrated famine in 1932-1933, which Ukrainians commemorate annually on the fourth Saturday in November.  

Read more ....  

Update #1: Ukraine remembers Stalin-era famine as Russia war rages (CNBC/Reuters)  

Update #2: 90 Years On, Ukrainians See Repeat of Soviet 'Genocide' (Moscow Times/AFP)  

WNU Editor: This is a sober day of remembrance for my family. My father and his family were in the middle of this famine, and even though my father was 11 at the time, he made sure that his memories were passed on to me. 

And what were my father's memories? 

Praising Stalin at the start of school everyday even though everyone was starving. Posters everywhere praising Stalin for feeding the nation. A neighbor begging my grandmother for her potato peels. Learning how to breed and skin rabbits for protein. As well as learning how to fish. The power of gold, and how a few ounces can save a family from certain death due to starvation. The commissars and their muscle going house to house to confiscate any food. Even using steel poles to poke the backyard in case food was buried. People lying dead and emancipated in the streets for days. Many homes accidentally catching on fire during the winter months by people desperate for heat. 

But the memory that sticks out the most for my father is that Stalin and the Communist apparatus did not discriminate. Ukrainians, Russians, Tartars, other ethnic groups, all were swept up in this man-made genocide. With the exception of the Communists and their supporters .... millions suffered and died.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko Wants Russia To 'Repent' For Holodomor

In central Kyiv on November 25, President Petro Poroshenko and hundreds of other people laid symbolic wheat ears and lit candles before the monument commemorating to victims of the famine.

RFE: Ukraine's Poroshenko Calls On Russia To 'Repent' For Holodomor

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has called on Russia to recognize the famine that killed millions of people in Ukraine under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin as genocide, "or at least repent for it."

Poroshenko made the call at an event in central Kyiv on November 25, the official Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holodomor.

He also said that "the time has come" for Ukraine to adopt legislation against denying the genocide.

"Not recognizing the Holodomor is as immoral as denying the Holocaust," the president said.

Ukraine and about a dozen other countries have recognized the famine as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.

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WNU Editor: Someone should tell Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko that the Communists who ruled the Soviet Union included many ethnic groups .... Russians and Ukrainians included. And those who suffered from their rule included every ethnic group in the Soviet Union .... including Russian-Ukrainians and Ukrainians during the Ukraine famine.

Stalin And The Ukraine Famine

A starving family in a courtyard, featured in Anne Applebaum's new book Red Famine

Daily Mail: The forgotten Holocaust: How Stalin starved four million to death in a grotesque Marxist experiment - which many in Russia STILL deny

Four million Ukrainians were starved to death by Stalin across 1932 and 1933
Some left-leaning figures past and present have sympathised with his regime
But a new book by Anne Applebaum leaves no doubt about his responsibility

One day in the summer of 1933, in a village in Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union, a little boy woke on top of the family stove. He was starving — not just hungry but genuinely starving.

‘Dad, I want to eat! Dad!’ he cried. But the house was cold and from his father there came no answer.

The boy went over to his father, who was apparently still asleep. There was ‘foam under his nose’, he remembered. ‘I touched his head. Cold.’

Read more ....

WNU Editor: My father grew up in Ukraine during the famine (he was 12) .... and the memories from that experienced haunted him throughout his life. I know that if he was alive today he would be critical of this Daily Mail article. The author's focus is that Russians are in denial that the famine occurred  .... I do not now what she is talking about .... no one I know in Russia is in denial on what happened. And if my father was alive today .... he would remind everyone that during the Ukraine famine the Communists did not care on who died .... and that many Russian-Ukrainians also perished. A point that appears to be absent in this book.

Ukraine Remembers The Famine Of 1932 - 1933

AFP: Ukraine remembers victims of Stalin-era famine

Kiev (AFP) - Ukraine on Saturday held a day of mourning for the millions of victims of a Soviet-era famine, with President Petro Poroshenko describing it as an episode in the "war waged by Russia against Ukraine."

Poroshenko, accompanied by Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and hundreds of Ukrainians, laid symbolic wheat ears and lit candles before the Holodomor -- or "death by hunger" -- monument in central Kiev.

The 1932-33 famine happened as harvests dwindled and Josef Stalin's Soviet police enforced the brutal policy of collectivising agriculture by requisitioning grain and other foodstuffs.

Update: Ukraine pays tribute to victims of 1932-1933 famine which claimed some 4.5m lives (Ukraine Today)

WNU Editor: My father .... who lived (and survived) the Ukraine famine at the age of 12 .... would strongly object to this characterization .... Poroshenko: Russia's centuries-old hybrid war against Ukraine led to 1932-33 famine (Ukraine Today). The Communists under Stalin did not care if you were Ukrainian, Russian, Belarus, or any other ethnic group in the then Soviet Union .... the goal was Soviet farm collectivization, and it was to be implemented regardless of the consequences (and it was  implemented at the cost of millions in Ukraine, Russia, and throughout the Soviet Union). But in today's Ukraine .... deeply divided along linguistic/cultural/and religious lines .... the focus among the  leadership in Kiev is to blame Russia, while ignoring the role that Ukrainian Communists themselves had in implementing this genocide 83 years ago.