[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 158 (Thursday, November 15, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2085-E2086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             68TH ANNIVERSARY OF FAMINE-GENOCIDE IN UKRAINE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. BOB SCHAFFER

                              of colorado

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 15, 2001

  Mr. SCHAFFER. Mr. Speaker, as Co-Chair of the Congressional Ukrainian 
Caucus, I rise today to commemorate the memory of millions of innocent 
victims ruthlessly murdered at the tyrannical hands of Joseph Stalin 
and other Soviet communists. This year marks the 68th anniversary of 
the Famine-Genocide perpetrated by Stalin in an attempt to subjugate 
the people of Ukraine.
  In order to achieve his vision of a strong industrialized Soviet 
Union, Stalin sought to force Ukraine into compliance. However, his 
policy of forced collectivization was strongly resisted by the freedom-
loving peasantry. In an effort to break the spirit of the Ukrainian 
people, Stalin used food as a weapon, starving between six and eight 
million people to death, while confiscating and exporting massive 
quantities of grain. This was a naked act of genocide against Ukraine 
and her people.
  The famine was entirely the creation of Stalin's totalitarian 
policies. The Communist State's prohibition of private land ownership 
and Stalin's excessive seizures of agricultural products created an 
intolerable life for the Ukrainian peasantry. This situation escalated 
when state-sanctioned production quotas could not be filled. The quotas 
were designed to guarantee failure. The failure of quota fulfillment 
was interpreted, by Stalin, as anti-Soviet behavior, as treason, and 
acted upon accordingly.
  Stalin ordered the Soviet secret police, the GPU (State Political 
Directorate), later the NKVD (People's Commissariat for Internal 
Affairs), to enforce his quotas by whatever means necessary. The GPU, 
with the help of local party officials, seized all the available food 
and seed, rendering the peasantry incapable of producing even enough to 
feed themselves in the most fertile regions of Europe and Asia. As a 
result, a mass migration of peasantry loomed. Many sought a chance for 
survival in the cities, others merely brought their children to urban 
areas and left them in the hope they would survive, returning, 
themselves, to their villages to die.
  To prevent the migration, the ``social parasitism'' Stalin 
implemented a passport system, which forced the peasantry to remain in 
their villages. Those caught hiding food were either deported to 
Siberian labor camps or shot. Often, the grain collected would begin to 
rot while it waited for pickup. Those trying to steal even the rotting 
grain faced the same fate as those hiding it. Anyone who did not appear 
to be starving was suspected of hording food and faced death or 
deportation. Unable to eat,

[[Page E2086]]

under penalty of death, the peasants starved to death.
  The fate of these victims is a lasting testament to the failure of 
the Soviet system. Stalin's quote, ``a single death is a tragedy, a 
million are just a statistic,'' responding to a question about the 
reported deaths of millions of Ukrainians, is evidence of the horror 
Ukraine faced.
  In 1986, the U.S. Congress appointed a Commission on the Ukraine 
Famine. After two years, the Commission confirmed these terrible events 
did occur and constituted an act of genocide against Ukrainians. Over 
two hundred courageous Ukrainian survivors testified before the 
Commission. Their testimony is preserved in the Congressional Record. 
These terrible events must not be forgotten. Because of the courage of 
survivors and the commitment of those who remember and commemorate this 
tragedy, they will not be.

                          ____________________