Holodomor in Ukraine 1932–1933: An Interpretation of Facts

Abstract

In November 2008 after protracted battles the Verchovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, adopted the ‘Law on the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932–1933’, characterising the national tragedy of the Holodomor as an ‘act of genocide against the Ukrainian people’. In the course of 2008, Ukraine appealed to the United Nations and requested the recognition of this crime committed by Stalin's regime as an act of genocide under the terms of the United Nations Convention. Scholars were called upon to advance the academic discussion on this issue, and the government appealed to a broader public to intensify educational efforts in order to convince the international community as well as the citizens of their own country, Ukraine, that this assessment of the past is valid. Having gained her independence only recently, Ukraine has to revisit her own past and free it from the norms of historical interpretations that have been prescribed by the Short course of the History of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (Bolsheviks) published in 1938. Ignorance of what happened to Ukrainian citizens in the early 1930s is simply unacceptable. Since Khrushchev's secret speech at the 20th Party Congress we have learned many details about what happened in 1937. Forgetting about the events of 1933 means suppressing the citizens of Ukraine, dividing their historical consciousness and creating obstacles for the nation's consolidation.