Holodomor Remembrance Day: today at 16:00 a candle of remembrance should be lit
23 November 07:20
Every year, on the fourth Saturday of November, Ukraine and the world commemorate the Holodomor Remembrance Day. This year, this day falls on November 23. On this occasion, people are called to honor the memory of the innocent victims by joining the minute of silence and the “Light a Candle of Memory” campaign, Komersant ukrainskyi reports
This year, for the third time, we will honor the victims of the communist genocide in the context of Russia’s full-scale genocidal war against Ukraine.
Holodomor Remembrance Day: History
This memorial day was established by a decree of Leonid Kuchma in 1998 and is now celebrated annually on the fourth Saturday of November.
In the early 20th century, Ukraine experienced three Holodomors: 1921-1923, 1932-1933, and 1946-1947. The most tragic of these was the famine of 1932-1933, organized by the Soviet authorities to suppress the Ukrainian national liberation movement and physically destroy a part of the Ukrainian peasantry.
In 1932-1933, in Ukraine and the Kuban, unlike other regions of the USSR, where many people also died of starvation, the famine was an act of genocide, as it was deliberately directed against the Ukrainian nation as such.
In 2010, the Kyiv City Court of Appeal ruled that the Holodomor was caused by deliberate and purposeful measures taken by the top leadership of the Soviet Union and the Ukrainian SSR, led by Stalin, to suppress the Ukrainian national liberation movement and physically destroy a part of the Ukrainian peasantry.
Demographers estimate that the total number of Holodomor victims in the Ukrainian SSR is 3-7 million people.
The Ptukha Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine estimates that Ukraine’s demographic losses as a result of the Holodomor in 1932-1933 amounted to about 4.5 million people, including 3.9 million losses due to supermortality and another 600,000 due to birth deficits.
According to the International Association of Holodomor Genocide Researchers, 10.5 million Ukrainians died of starvation in 1932-1933. The former Kharkiv and Kyiv regions (present-day Poltava, Sumy, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Kyiv, and Zhytomyr) suffered the most. They accounted for 52.8% of the death toll.
In total, at least 30 countries have recognized the Holodomor as genocide, including Britain, Luxembourg, Slovenia, France, Croatia, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and others. The European Parliament also adopted a corresponding decision.
Holodomor Remembrance Day: mourning events
Traditionally, on Holodomor Remembrance Day, a nationwide minute of silence is organized to honor the memory of all the dead
Memorial services are held in Ukrainian churches. On the mourning date, information events and projects about the Holodomors are organized.
On Holodomor Remembrance Day, the action “Light a Candle of Memory” is held. Every Ukrainian can light a candle on a window after a minute of remembrance. Candles are also lit at monuments to the Holodomor victims, in churches, and at the Holodomor Victims Memorial in Kyiv.
on November 23, at 16:00, Ukrainians are urged to join the National Minute of Silence and light candles on their windowsills after dark.
