[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H12078-H12079]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        COMMEMORATION OF THE 66TH OBSERVANCE OF UKRAINIAN FAMINE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, as a cochair of the Congressional 
Ukrainian Caucus, I rise to commemorate the 66th observance of the 
Ukrainian Famine, to help record this century's largely untold story of 
famine and repression in the former Soviet Union.
  During 1932 and 1933, the people of Ukraine were devastated by 
hunger, though not the kind caused by unfavorable natural conditions. 
Instead, only certain regions or a part of the country suffered famine 
while the government of the former Soviet Union turned their backs upon 
the population.
  The famine of 1932 and 1933 stemmed from political rather than 
natural causes. In 1932, Ukraine had an average grain harvest of 
146,600,000 metric tons of wheat, and there was no danger of famine, or 
at least there should not have been.
  But the famine was first and foremost a planned repression of the 
peasants by the Soviet government for their resistance to collective 
savings. Second, it was an intentional attack on Ukrainian village 
life, which was the bulwark of Ukrainian heritage. Third, it was the 
result of the forced export of grain in exchange for imported machinery 
which was required for the implementation of the policy of 
industrialization.
  The events of 1932 and 1933 are considered a man-made famine because 
food was available. But what happened was politically motivated. It 
characterized the Soviet system and ultimately resulted in the deaths 
of over 6

[[Page H12079]]

million people, including our great grandparents.

                              {time}  2000

  People died by the millions, and they were piled at the village edge 
like cord wood. According to Stalin's commands and the law that was 
enacted in 1932, Party activists confiscated grain from peasant 
households. Any man, woman, or child either could be, and often was, 
executed for taking a handful of grain from a collective farm field or 
was punished by 10 years of hard labor.
  Gangs of Communist Party activists conducted house-to-house searches, 
tearing up floors and delving into wells in search of grain. Those who 
were already swollen from malnutrition were not allowed to keep their 
grain, and those who were not starving were suspected of hoarding food. 
An average peasant family of five had about five pounds of grain a 
month to last until the next harvest.
  Lacking bread, peasants ate pets, rats, bark, leaves, and garbage 
from the well-provisioned kitchens of Party members. There were 
occurrences of cannibalism. People dug in the frozen ground with their 
raw hands to find even an onion for soup. But many villages died out, 
in spite of the fact that party activists continued confiscating grain.
  The unprecedented calamity came in the winter and spring of 1933, 
before a new harvest could be gathered, when the world population was 
left without any means of sustenance and authorities did not organize 
any supplies for the villages. Some villages in the regions of Poltava, 
Kharkiv, and Kyiv were completely deserted by the spring of 1933.
  When the casualties of collectivization, famine, the purges of the 
1930s, and the nearly 6 million who died during World War II are 
combined, it is estimated that more than half the male and one quarter 
of the female population of the Ukraine perished. Along with these 
people, the achievements, lessons, and hopes that one generation 
communicates to another were destroyed. Under the circumstances, it was 
all the more remarkable that Ukrainian society had any strength left 
for self-assertion in the postwar period. In summing up the famine in 
Ukraine, it is no exaggeration to say that the Ukrainians' greatest 
achievement during that decade and this century has been to endure and 
survive.
  In this sense, we must recognize the Ukrainian famine on a yearly 
basis to bring light to the tremendous sacrifices a people had to 
endure. Last year we commemorated the 65th anniversary of the Ukrainian 
famine with a commemorative resolution. Later this week, on November 
20, the Ukrainian community will have an opportunity to commemorate the 
fallen victims of the famine with an ecumenical service and program at 
St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. I join with the Ukrainian-
American community in commemorating this tragic period in the world's 
history, certainly in the history of Ukraine. Always remember, never 
forget.
  And here in America we will attempt to tell the history of a people 
who struggle even today to build a nation where democratic reforms and 
freedom are possible for millions and millions of those who survived 
and those who remember the great price that their families paid only 
because they wanted to be free.

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