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“REMEMBERING VICTIMS OF UKRAINIAN HOLODOMOR ON THE 76TH ANNIVERSARY” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E2735 on Nov. 6, 2009.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
REMEMBERING VICTIMS OF UKRAINIAN HOLODOMOR ON THE 76TH ANNIVERSARY
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HON. SANDER M. LEVIN
of michigan
in the house of representatives
Friday, November 6, 2009
Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, this year marks the 76th anniversary of the famine that was deliberately and systematically inflicted upon the Ukrainian people by Josef Stalin's brutal regime. I rise today in solemn memory of the Ukrainians who were killed between 1932 and 1933.
The Ukrainian famine, referred to as Holodomor or ``Death by Starvation,'' remains one of the least known human tragedies. An estimated 7 to 10 million Ukrainians perished when the Soviet government, using food as a weapon to suppress the nationalism and identity of the Ukrainian people, seized the country's 1932 grain crop and executed thousands who resisted. The country's borders were sealed to prevent starving Ukrainians from fleeing and to prevent any outside relief efforts from reaching the people.
In its effort to suppress the Ukrainian nation, the Soviet Union perpetrated a famine so brutal that it ranks as one of the starkest examples of inhumanity in modern history.
For generations, the Soviet Union tried to ban discussion of the famine, deceptively portraying the millions of deaths as the result of drought, food shortages, or unavoidable circumstances. We know this is false. The recently opened Soviet archives show the premeditated, political nature of the famine. The commendable work of Ukrainian scholars and the Ukrainian-American community is helping to bring these horrors to light and to ensure our collective memory of this terrible act.
I am proud that Congress has supported efforts to recognize the Holodomor, particularly legislation allowing Ukraine to donate a memorial in the District of Columbia honoring the famine's victims. The Ukrainian Government, the Ukrainian-American Community, and the Department of the Interior have identified a site for this memorial and the Ukrainian Government is now working toward a design. This memorial is deeply significant to the 1.5 million Ukrainian-Americans, indeed to all of us, and will serve as a tangible reminder of the horror tyranny can inflict.
I urge all of my colleagues to join me in remembering the victims of the Ukrainian Holodomor on its 76th anniversary and in renewing our commitment to ensure events such as this are never repeated.
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