When we, the officials of the Holodomor Research Institute of the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide, wrote about the millions of Ukrainians who were killed, destroyed, executed, and made to suffer by totalitarian communist regime, we did not fully realize that “unpunished evil” would brutally kill and destroy Ukrainians again in their own country, on their land and the tears of mothers for their innocently killed children will turn into bloody rivers all over Ukraine. We kneel and bow our heads to every Ukrainian killed, made to suffer and cry by the Russian fascist occupation regime. Russian torturers will not be forgiven!
The military occupation of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (1917–1921) led to the dismemberment of Ukraine and subsequent annexation – the appropriation of Ukrainian territory, its transformation into an administrative unit of the USSR (annexation began with the formation of the USSR). The conclusion of the military occupation of Ukraine was the adoption of the Constitution of the USSR on January 31, 1924. The totalitarian communist regime destroyed Ukraine as a subject of international law, turning it into a territorial unit. The forced requisitioning of food, looting, terror, and repression by the totalitarian communist regime against Ukrainians led to the deployment of large-scale resistance in Ukraine.
Under the rule of the occupying bolshevik regime, Ukrainians continued to preserve their national identity and state traditions, which were a major factor in uniting the nation and resisting moscow’s policies. From the first years of the occupation of Ukraine, the bolsheviks began the policy of state terror against Ukrainians.
Stalin formed a rigid totalitarian, dictatorial system concentrating all power in his hands. In order to implement these plans, the Stalinist regime, in addition to building heavy industry and a military-industrial complex, had to break the resistance of the so-called internal enemies, which could hinder the plans of the russian communists. During 1921–1933, tens of thousands of anti-Soviet demonstrations attended by millions of Ukrainians took place in Ukraine. The mass extermination of the Ukrainian nation by means of famine began in the winter of 1932 and lasted until the end of 1933. By a resolution of the politburo of the central committee of the CPSU (b) dated November 22, 1932, a special commission was established (members: S. Kosior, S. Redens, A. Kiselyov), which had the right to finally affirm death sentences in cases of those repressed during “grain procurement” in Ukraine. On January 1, 1933 Ukrainian leaders received a telegram from J. Stalin with
resolutions of the politburo of the central committee of the CPSU (b) with an ultimatum to the Ukrainian peasants to give the state allegedly hidden bread, and in case of failure to comply with this requirement, they faced punishment under the law “on five ears”, i.e. execution, and in mitigating circumstances – 10-year imprisonment in a concentration camp. The directive of the central committee of the CPSU (b) and the soviet people’s commissar of the USSR of January 22, 1933, signed by J. Stalin and V. Molotov, blocked Ukrainians within the “territory of famine”, forbidding them to leave Soviet Ukraine and the North Caucasus for other regions of the USSR to buy bread as well as to enter these areas. No other administrative region of the USSR or republic has been subjected to such a decision.
In 1932–1933, the kremlin created such living conditions in the republic which were designed for the total annihilation of the Ukrainian nation through the criminal seizure of all foodstuffs. The Holodomor genocide broke the Ukrainian nation’s resistance to the totalitarian communist regime, and the Soviet government managed to take control of Ukraine. Describing the events of 1932-1933 in the USSR, Raphael Lemkin emphasized: “This is probably a classic example of Soviet genocide, its longest and widest experiment of Russification – the extermination of the Ukrainian nation. … As long as Ukraine preserves its national unity, as long as its people continue to think of themselves as Ukrainians and seek independence, it poses a serious threat to the very essence of Sovietism. … ».
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in its resolution 96 (I) of 11 December 1946, declared genocide to be a crime infringing the rights of international law, contrary to the spirit and objectives of the United Nations; the civilized world condemns it, recognizing that throughout history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity. The publication on April 19, 1988, of a report by the US Congressional Special Commission on the Holodomor Study of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, with James Mace as its executive director, marked the beginning of international recognition of the Holodomor as genocide.
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Holodomor, under the pressure of the public, supported by scientists, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine expressed its official attitude to the Holodomor. The resolution of November 28, 2002 “On the 70th Anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine” called it genocide.
At the same time, Ukraine, as a founding member of the United Nations and a member of the most respected international organizations, insists that the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 be recognized as genocide not only at the institutional level in individual countries but also by universal international organizations. The situation in the russian federation around the interpretation of the Holodomor of 1932–1933 became even more acute. On December 1, 2011, by the decision of the Meschansky District Court of moscow, the books by a Ukrainian researcher of the Holodomor, Doctor of Historical Sciences V. Marochko,
were recognized as extremist and banned from distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation.
The work of the Holodomor Research Institute of the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide continues to be relevant gaining importance in the days of the russian-Ukrainian war.
Once again Ukraine is resisting the destructive aggression of the russian federation, the large-scale information influx of stalinist followers from the kremlin based on lies, intimidation and the death of innocently killed children.
The Ukrainian nation is facing the threat of genocide again. The organizer of the aggressive war against Ukraine, russian president vladimir putin, has for many years promoted the chauvinistic thesis claiming that “russians and Ukrainians are one people”, which denies the cultural identity of Ukrainians, our right to state independence and Euro-Atlantic choice, and even the right to exist. Putin’s criminal regime tried to impose its anti-democratic model of state and society on the Ukrainian nation through political pressure, economic blackmail and bribery of Ukrainian officials, and when these attempts failed, it launched a war against Ukraine in 2014. Russia’s occupation of the Crimea and parts of the east was the first attempt in post-Hitler’s Europe to annex another sovereign country, a gross violation of international law and russia’s obligations under numerous Ukrainian-russian and international treaties.
These criminal actions did not shake Ukraine’s will to defend democracy and European values and to integrate into the Euro-Atlantic community. Then Putin’s neo-totalitarian regime decided to radically resolve the “Ukrainian question” and launched a large-scale military invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the ultimate goal of which is the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and the assimilation of the Ukrainian nation. These goals can only be achieved through genocidal methods. But the aggressor state encountered heroic resistance from the Ukrainian nation and opposition from the civilized world, which condemned russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and began to provide the latter with comprehensive assistance.
Today the Ukrainian army, government and civil society are determined to prevent the repetition of the genocide of the Ukrainian nation organized by red moscow in the twentieth century, seeking to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, European values and international law from neo-totalitarian russia. This is a difficult struggle, because Ukrainians have to resist the aggressor state, which has the second largest army in the world, great human and material resources and commits crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, if the fair struggle of the Ukrainian nation against russia’s aggression is immediately and effectively supported by the international community, there is a chance to prevent a new genocide and stop the world from slipping into World War III.