CANORA- Nov. 18-24 is Holodomor Week, which includes Holodomor Day on Nov. 23. Holodomor is defined by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress as: hunger, starvation, famine, and to induce suffering, to kill.
Prior to a meeting of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Canora Branch, at the Canora Ukrainian Heritage Museum on Nov. 20, members were served a paltry lunch of crackers and tea, as a way of paying tribute to those who suffered during the 1932-33 Holodomor in Ukraine.
Holodomor Week this year coincided with 1,000 days of war in Ukraine, which fell on Nov. 19.
Dorothy Korol shared a message from UCC Canora.
“We count the days because there are so many,” said Korol.
“These days are difficult to understand. Why should a peaceful country be invaded this way? What did it do to deserve this destruction, pain and suffering? What does all this accomplish?
“There are other questions,” she continued. “What can we do? Pray for peace? Give a donation to something that might help? Help the displaced people in some way? This all seems inadequate compared to the obvious need.
“So, we mark the day and hope we can soon stop counting. We do what we can, hoping it at least helps a little. We pray that the world is watching and is prepared to help.”
“Above all, we pray for wisdom and strength in the solutions for Ukraine and her people, and we pray for peace.”
Fr. Ivan Simko, one of the newest UCC members, prayed for those who lost their lives and suffered in the Holodomor, and shared his reflections.
“Many millions were killed all for the sake of subjugating the Ukrainian people to Soviet Russian rule. Eighty years later, Maidan started on Nov 21, 2013, 11 years ago. That event brought about the annexation of Crimea, the destabilizing of Eastern Ukraine, and eventually the escalation of the war on Feb. 24, 2022, 1,000 days ago (90 years after the Holodomor).
“At the Holodomor celebration two years ago at the legislature in Regina, Ukrainian newcomers likened the full-scale war to another Holodomor, a continuation of the Russian agenda. They emphasized the importance of remembering the Holodomor in the 1930s, as well as giving the provincial government their firsthand account of what things were like in Ukraine before coming to Saskatchewan.
“Fear and war are never God’s will, but are used by evil forces to manipulate and destroy,” continued Fr. Simko. “By gathering in memory of the Holodomor of old, we also gather in hope at the end of the Holodomor of new, the Holodomor of today, the one that threatens the livelihood of Ukrainians in Ukraine, and the wellbeing of many newcomer Ukrainians and heritage Ukrainians from all over the world.
“We gather together to keep the Ukrainian culture, history, and identity alive and flourishing.
"We do this not just as humans of the earth, but as people created by God to love Him and neighbour. It is only through God’s grace and power that the war will end, and it is only through Jesus Christ that we will be able to find lasting peace in our hearts long after the war has ended.
"We pray for the sovereignty of Ukraine, and for all those who have died in the war and for all those suffering within it and because of it. Amen.”
A message from the UCC for Holodomor 2024 states:
“We unite:
- In memory of all who, through the centuries, were lost to a nation;
- In honour of the Holodomor survivors with whom the community was blessed; their will to survive and hope for a brighter future:
- In sharing the stories of the People of Truth, who tried to alert the world:
- In honour of the women and men who throughout history until today defend Ukrainian territory and the Ukrainian people from the genocide assault of the enemy:
- In recognition of the bravery and resilience of the Ukrainian people today with their heartbreaking yet inspirational stories.”
According to information on the Holodomor published by the UCC, with financial assistance from the BCU Foundation’s Yurij Skripchinski Holodomor Education Fund:
“In a region considered to be the Soviet Union’s breadbasket, Stalin’s communist regime committed a horrendous act of genocide against millions of Ukrainians. An agrarian nation of agriculturists was subjected to starvation, one of the most ruthless forms of torture and death.
“This government imposed exorbitant grain quotas, in some cases confiscating supplies down to the last seed. The territory of Soviet Ukraine and the predominantly Ukraine-populated Kuban region of the Northern Caucasus (Soviet Russia) were isolated by armed units, so that people could not go in search of food to the neighbouring Soviet regions where food was more readily available,” continued the information.
“The Bolshevik regime had already experimented with the weapon of starvation in 1921-23, when it took advantage of drought to create famine conditions in Ukraine to crush resistance to its rule. In 1932, Stalin decided to vanquish the Ukrainian farmers by means of starvation and thus break the Ukrainian national revival that had begun in the 1920s and was rekindling Ukrainian aspirations for an independent state.
“Stalin always believed that the national question was ‘in essence, a peasant question’ and that ‘the peasantry constitutes the main army of the national movement.’ The Ukrainian peasantry was the carrier of the age-old traditions of independent farming and national values, both of which ran counter to the communist ideology and aroused the unrestrained animosity of the Bolshevik leaders
“Enforced starvation reached its peak in the winter-spring of 1933 when 25,000 persons died every day. As a result of the Holodomor, 20 to 25 per cent of the population of Soviet Ukraine was exterminated.”
The information published by the UCC includes eyewitness accounts of the Holodomor.
“It was Stalin who gave the order to pillage Ukraine, to take away the grain and export it while our children died by the thousands,” Mykhailo Prokopenko, Cherkasy region.
“What drought was there? This [starvation] was all due to Stalin’s orders. He hated Ukrainians and wanted to exterminate them. His henchmen would come and seize everything they could. They were Stalin’s thugs. Merciless scoundrels took away all the food from the people,” Mykola Melnyk, Dnipropetrovsk region.
“Even if people had hidden a few beans or peas, everything was confiscated. I think the Holodomor was deliberate and planned. God spare us from reliving it again,” Ksenia Datsenko, Cherkasy region.
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