75th Anniversary of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine

This weekend was a somber one. Ukrainians here and in the Diaspora commemorated the 75th anniversary of the "Great Holodomor" of Ukraine of 1932-33, in which millions of peasants died from hunger in a campaign engineered by Stalin. Incredibly - it’s a little-known fact of history that only recently came to the world's attention...thanks in no small part to the tireless lobbying of Ukrainian communities in the USA and Canada, as well as a US Govt commission led by the late scholar James Mace.

In Kiev the main 75th anniversary events were held on Saturday. Locals complained about huge traffic headaches caused by the presence of so many foreign dignitaries - including Kazcynski of Poland and Shaakashvilli (President Yuschenko's best buddy) of Georgia. Conspicuously missing from the honoring of Holodomor were leaders from Moscow, who have objected to recent calls for the deaths to be labeled as genocide.

We attended the Holodomor memorial candle-lighting ceremony on Mikhailivska Ploshcha - though the crowds were thinner than expected it was moving nonetheless. Few places in Kiev offer a better setting than a square book ended by the grand Sophia and Mikhailivski churches! However a minute of silence scheduled for 4PM didn’t materialize....

Later we dropped by the multi-million dollar, 80-foot-tall Holodomor memorial erected on the banks of the Dnipro River near the famous Pecherska Lavra. Soviet-esque is the phrase which comes to mind when you first set eyes on this huge monument to the millions of famine victims. However what I found most moving was a smaller bronze statue of a rail thin girl - very haunting indeed! A driving, wet snow added to the sense of melancholy.

On Sunday I attended a huge display of Holodomor art, through the eyes of Ukrainian artists. Not only do you need a lot of time to view the entire exhibit, you also need to persevere as much of it is quite graphic and heavy. One poster of Stalin playing a drum with the bones of Ukrainian peasants says it all!