Day of Remembrance for Holodomor Victims: 85% of Ukrainians Agree Tragedy Was Deliberate Genocide

Zelensky has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to complete work on the Holodomor museum and introduce measures to highlight this topic in Ukrainian society and around the world.

Today, November 27, Ukraine observes the Day of Remembrance for Holodomor victims, the genocide of the Ukrainian people in 1932-33.

At 16:00, the Armed Forces of Ukraine honored the victims of the Holodomor with a lit candle and a minute of silence, while the US Embassy in Ukraine stated its "shared determination to prevent such inhumanity from happening again."

Also, on the eve of this significant date, the sociological group Rating conducted a survey to determine Ukrainians' attitudes toward the tragedy and to find out whom they consider responsible for organizing one of the largest genocides in European history, which affected Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Reactions to the Day of Remembrance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has instructed the Cabinet of Ministers to complete the reconstruction of the first stage and finish the second stage of the Holodomor Museum in Kyiv by 2023.

This is stated in the decree of the head of state No. 598 of November 26, "On measures in connection with the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as a genocide of the Ukrainian people."

Among the Cabinet's assignments:

• organizing an International Forum marking the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine in 2023;
• holding thematic scientific events;
  
• ensuring, with the involvement of the National Academy of Sciences, further research into the famines of the first half of the 20th century in Ukraine, in particular regarding those involved in their organization and implementation, continuing work on compiling the National Book of Memory of the Holodomor victims of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, and identifying people who saved others from famine;
  
• ensuring the implementation of measures to return, in the established manner, documents on the famines of the first half of the 20th century in Ukraine from other states to Ukraine;
  
• providing assistance in implementing public initiatives for search operations and identifying burial sites of Holodomor victims;
  
• creating and opening a Holodomor museum exhibition in Washington (USA).
  

The Cabinet has also been instructed to carry out an information campaign to disseminate objective information about the events related to the Holodomor, as well as to highlight the work of individuals who contributed to researching the Holodomor and to conveying the truth about these tragic events to the international community, in particular James Mace, Garret Jones and Malcolm Muggeridge.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been instructed to continue efforts to secure recognition by foreign states and international organizations of the 1932-1933 Holodomor in Ukraine as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said in an address the day before that military personnel would also join the nationwide "Light a Candle of Memory" action.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

On November 27, at 16:00, Ukrainian servicemen in trenches and headquarters, on ships and fighter jets will join the nationwide "Light a Candle of Memory" action.

Ukrainian Ombudsman for Human Rights Liudmyla Denisova stated that the tragedy was caused by the communist regime's attempt to eradicate the Ukrainian nation, our language and culture, and added that the struggle on this front continues and is renewed.

Liudmyla Denisova 
Ombudsman

Millions of innocent victims are a constant reminder of the threat posed by regimes that trample human rights and freedoms. The totalitarian communist authorities deliberately committed a crime against humanity and sought to destroy Ukrainians as a nation, to eradicate our language and culture. Today Ukraine is once again fighting attempts to destroy Ukrainian independence: military aggression and the occupation of a significant part of the territory of a sovereign state.

The Embassy of Ukraine in the United States also joined in honoring the Day of Remembrance for Holodomor victims.

Kristina Kvien
Chargé d'Affaires of the United States 

Our free peoples are united not only by the memory of those who died during the Holodomor, but also by a shared determination to prevent such inhumanity from happening again.

Survey results

85% of respondents answered that they agree with the statement that the 1932-1933 Holodomor was a genocide of the Ukrainian people. 13% deny this.

43% of Ukrainian citizens believe that Russia should pay compensation to citizens of Ukraine who suffered from the Holodomor in 1932-33.

At the same time, the number of those who believe that Russia should pay compensation to the victims rose from 31% in 2018 to 43% in 2021.

61% support the idea of putting the perpetrators of the Holodomor on trial.

In recent years, support for the idea of putting the perpetrators of the 1932-33 Holodomor on trial has also grown: 37% in 2008, 48% in 2018, and 61% in 2021.

Ukrainians most often hold Joseph Stalin personally responsible for organizing the Holodomor, 44%, and the central leadership of the USSR, 41%.

Another 17% blame the genocide on the USSR's punitive bodies (NKVD, GPU), and 12% on the top leadership of Soviet Ukraine.

Only 3% noted that the Holodomor was the fault of Ukrainian peasants (whom the communists called kulaks) who refused to voluntarily hand over their harvests.

10% adhere to the thesis that the Holodomor was caused by so-called "natural causes."

According to the survey results, 68% of Ukrainians noted that they know well that the Day of Remembrance for Holodomor victims in Ukraine is marked on the last Saturday of November.

Another 24% said they had heard something about it, and 8% do not know at all.

The survey was conducted November 19-21. 1,600 respondents were interviewed by telephone using a sample representative by age and region of Ukraine.