[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 150 (Thursday, December 7, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMEMORATING THE FAMINE OF 1932-33

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, December 7, 2000

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, on November 18, 2000, more than 1,500 
participants gathered in St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City to 
commemorate the 67th Anniversary of the 1932-1933 Ukrainian Famine.
  Unlike other famines, this was not caused by a lack of food. Instead, 
Joseph Stalin created the famine by confiscating all of Ukraine's crops 
and withholding it from the people. The Kremlin intended to destroy the 
spirit of the Ukrainian peasants by starving them to death. Moscow 
perceived Ukraine's cultural renaissance as a threat to a Russo-Centric 
Soviet rule and therefore enacted the famine to crush their nationalism 
in a most brutal manner.
  Peasants in Ukraine could not escape these horrible conditions. An 
internal passport system prevented them from crossing the border into 
Russia or the Belarusian republic, where there was no famine. In 
Ukrainian regions such as Poltava and Kharkiv, people died in their 
homes or collapsed on the street. Animals were consumed, even the bark 
disappeared from the trees.
  The death toll from the 1932-1933 famine is estimated between seven 
and ten million victims. No real record exists. However, studies show 
at the height of the famine, Ukrainian villagers were dying at the rate 
of 25,000 per day, 1,000 per hour, and 17 per minute. At the same time, 
the Soviet regime was unloading 1.7 million tons of grain on Western 
markets.
  Ukraine has paid a high price for its independence and freedom and 
this famine symbolizes one of the horrors of the old soviet system.

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