[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 113 (Monday, July 28, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10071-S10072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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SENATE RESOLUTION 202--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE REGARDING THE 
                  GENOCIDAL UKRAINE FAMINE OF 1932-33

  Mr. CAMPBELL submitted the following resolution; which was referred 
to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 202

       Whereas 2003 marks the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine 
     Famine, a manmade disaster that resulted in the deaths of 
     millions of innocent Ukrainian men, women, and children and 
     annihilated an estimated 25 percent of the rural population 
     of that country;
       Whereas it has been documented that large numbers of 
     inhabitants of Ukraine and the then largely ethnically 
     Ukrainian North Caucasus Territory starved to death in the 
     famine of 1932-33, which was caused by forced 
     collectivization and grain seizures by the Soviet regime;
       Whereas the United States Government's Commission on the 
     Ukraine Famine concluded that former Soviet leader Joseph 
     Stalin and his associates committed genocide against 
     Ukrainians in 1932-33, using food as a political weapon to 
     achieve the aim of suppressing any Ukrainian expression of 
     political and cultural identity and self-determination;
       Whereas, as a result, millions of rural Ukrainians starved 
     amid some of the world's most fertile farmland, while Soviet 
     authorities prevented them from traveling to areas where food 
     was more available;
       Whereas requisition brigades, acting on Stalin's orders to 
     fulfill the impossibly high grain quotas, seized the 1932 
     crop, often taking away the last scraps of food from starving 
     families and children and killing those who resisted;
       Whereas Stalin, knowing of the resulting starvation, 
     intensified the extraction from Ukraine of agricultural 
     produce, worsening the situation and deepening the loss of 
     life;
       Whereas, during the Ukraine Famine, the Soviet Government 
     exported grain to western countries and rejected 
     international offers to assist the starving population;
       Whereas the Ukraine Famine was not a result of natural 
     causes, but was instead the consequence of calculated, 
     ruthless policies that were designed to destroy the 
     political, cultural, and human rights of the Ukrainian 
     people;
       Whereas the Soviet Union engaged in a massive coverup of 
     the Ukraine Famine, and journalists, including some foreign 
     correspondents, cooperated with the campaign of denial and 
     deception; and
       Whereas, 70 years later, much of the world is still unaware 
     of the genocidal Ukraine Famine: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the millions of innocent victims of the Soviet-
     engineered Ukraine Famine of 1932-33 should be solemnly 
     remembered and honored on the 70th anniversary of the famine;
       (2) the 70th anniversary of the Ukraine Famine should serve 
     as a stark reminder of the brutality of the totalitarian, 
     imperialistic Soviet regime under which respect for human 
     rights was a mockery and the rule of law a sham;
       (3) the Senate condemns the callous disregard for human 
     life, human rights, and manifestations of national identity 
     that characterized the Stalinist policies that caused the 
     Ukrainian Famine;
       (4) the manmade Ukraine famine of 1932-33 was an act of 
     genocide as defined by the United Nations Genocide 
     Convention;
       (5) the Senate supports the efforts of the Government of 
     Ukraine and the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian parliament) to 
     publicly acknowledge and call greater international attention 
     to the Ukraine Famine; and
       (6) an independent, democratic Ukraine, in which respect 
     for the dignity of human beings is the cornerstone, offers 
     the best guarantee that atrocities such as the Ukraine Famine 
     never beset the Ukrainian people again.

  Mr. CAMPBELL. Mr. President, I rise to submit a Senate Resolution 
regarding the genocidal Ukraine Famine of 1932-33. The resolution 
commemorates the millions of innocent victims of this Soviet-engineered 
famine and support the efforts of the Ukrainian Government and 
Parliament to publicly acknowledge and call greater international 
attention to one of the 20th century's most appalling atrocities.
  This year marks the 70th anniversary of Stalin's man-made famine, one 
of the most heinous crimes in a century notable for events that 
demonstrated the cruelty of totalitarian regimes. Seventy years ago, a 
famine in Soviet-dominated Ukraine, and bordering ethnically-Ukrainian 
territory in Russia, resulted in the deaths of millions of

[[Page S10072]]

Ukrainians--estimates range from between four and ten million. In his 
seminal book on the Ukraine Famine, Harvest of Sorrow, British 
historian Robert Conquest writes, ``A quarter of the rural population, 
men, women, and children, lay dead or dying, the rest in various stages 
of debilitation with no strength to bury their families or neighbors.'' 
Conquest and many others, including eyewitnesses and recently opened 
archives, chronicle the devastating human suffering of this man-made 
famine.
  The Ukraine Famine was not the result of drought or some other 
natural calamity, but of Soviet dictator Stalin's utterly inhumane, 
coldly calculated policy to suppress the Ukrainian people and destroy 
their human, cultural, and political rights. It was the result of 
purposeful starvation. Communist requisition brigades, acting on 
Stalin's orders to fulfill impossibly high grain quotas, took away the 
last scraps of food from starving families, including children, often 
killing those who resisted. Millions of rural Ukrainians slowing 
starved amid some of the world's most fertile farmland, while 
stockpiles of expropriated grain rotted by the tons. Meanwhile, the 
Soviet Government was exporting grain to the West, rejecting 
international offers to assist the starving population, and preventing 
starving Ukrainians from leaving the affected areas in search of food 
elsewhere. The Stalinist regime--and, for that matter subsequent Soviet 
leaders--engaged in a massive coverup of denying the Ukraine Famine. 
Regrettably, they were aided and abetted in this campaign of denial and 
deception by some Western journalists, including Americans.
  The final report of the Congressionally-created Commission on the 
Ukraine Famine concluded in 1988 that ``Joseph Stalin and those around 
him committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-33.'' James Mace, who 
was staff director of the Commission, recently wrote: ``For Stalin to 
have completely centralized power in his hands, he found it necessary 
to physically destroy the second largest Soviet republic, meaning the 
annihilation of the Ukrainian peasantry, Ukrainian intelligentsia, 
Ukrainian language, and history as understood by the people; to do away 
with Ukraine and things Ukrainian as such. The calculation was very 
simple, very primitive: no people, therefore, no separate country, and 
thus no problem. Such a policy is genocide in the classic sense of the 
work.''
  It is vital that the world not forget the Ukraine Famine, honor its 
victims, and reiterate our support for Ukraine's independence and 
democratic development as the best assurance that atrocities such as 
the famine become truly unimaginable. I urge colleagues to join me in 
commemorating this genocide perpetrated against the Ukrainian people.

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