Every year on the last Saturday of November in Ukraine celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Famine. On this day in Ukraine and over the world people light a candles in memory and by a minute's silence in memory of victims of Holodomor of 1932 - 1933 in Ukraine - the most tragic pages in the history of the Ukrainian people as a result of intentional acts of totalitarian power for several years, Ukraine has lost several million lives. This year we celebrate the 80th anniversary of those terrible events.

In those terrible years, in the time of peace and good harvest millions of people were dying of famine. The political system of the Stalin deliberately exterminated people by artificial famine.

Taking into account the scope of the tragedy, cruelty and cynicism of the Holodomor’s execution, modern history of Europe knows no analogies of such a horrific crime.

Nevertheless, the truth about the 1932-1933 Holodomor tragedy in Ukraine has not only been suppressed for decades, the fact of its existence has been denied by the USSR leaders. Only since the Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 started disclosed the truth about causes, character, organization mechanism and scope of the Holodomor of 1932 - 1933 in Ukraine.

In Ukraine and many countries built memorials and installed memorials to the victims of the Holodomor. Paying tribute to the memory of millions lost during the 1932 - 1933 year on November 2008 in Kiev was opened National Museum "Memorial in memory of the victims of Holodomor in Ukraine".

UNESCO, PACE, OSCE and the European Parliament approved documents to commemorate the Holodomor victims. The HolySea and legislative bodies of 14 other countries recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian nation, and the parliaments of other six countries adopted documents commemorating the Holodomor victims.

On April 2010 the PACE approved resolution on the commemoration of the Great Famine (the Holodomor) in the former USSR that recognized the Holodomor as the crime against humanity, called the countries to open up archives, and the scholars to independently study this issue in order to restore complete, objective and politically unbiased truth about this tragedy.

Commemorating today the 80th anniversary of the Ukrainian tragedy we also commemorate the millions of Russians, Kazakhs and representatives of other nationalities that died of famine in Volga region, the Northern Caucuses, in Kazakhstan and other regions of the former Soviet Union as a result of the forced collectivization that left deep incurable wounds in the consciousness of generations.

We are confident that revealing such crimes against humanity, preserving historical memory about the Holodomor`s victims, recognizing and commemorating their tortures will help preventing similar catastrophes in future.

Ukrainian World Congress, under the slogan "Ukraine remembers - the world recognizes" spent preparing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukrainian communities around the world in November 2013. On November 23, 2013 Ukrainian around the world will light candles of remembrance and a moment of silence will honor the millions who lost their lives.

Commemorative event on the 80th anniversary of the memory of the victims of Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine will be held at the Embassy of Ukraine in Greece (Athens, Stephanou Delta str., 2) on November 26, 2013 at 19:00.

 

 

Embassy of Ukraine

to the Hellenic Republic