[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 135 (Saturday, November 20, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2098]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      THE 71ST ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINIAN FAMINE OF 1932 TO 1933

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                          HON. SANDER M. LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, November 19, 2004

  Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the 71st 
anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932 to 1933.
  The horrors of famine are often brought about by droughts, floods or 
other natural occurrences, but the deaths of more than 7 million 
Ukrainian men, women and children during this period were the direct 
result of deliberate policy decisions by a repressive government.
  Seeking to suppress Ukrainian aspirations for independence, the 
government of the former Soviet Union ruthlessly imposed forced 
collectivization and grain seizures. Survivors have spoken of eating 
bark and weeds to subsist, of the desolation of entire villages, and of 
Red Army soldiers going door-to-door throughout villages confiscating 
food and livestock. Witnesses testified that the harvests of the early 
1930s were bountiful, and while innocents starved in the streets, 
Soviet soldiers guarded storehouses full of grain.
  For decades after these. events, the deaths were covered up and this 
man-made tragedy was denied by Joseph Stalin and the government of the 
Soviet Union. Even today, with first-hand testimony and overwhelming 
evidence, including the final report of the congressionally mandated 
U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, there are still those who seek 
to deny the truth.
  Each year, we in Congress join with Ukrainians around the world to 
remember and honor the victims of this atrocity. Through public 
recognition of the Ukrainian Famine, we work to ensure this senseless 
cruelty against humankind is not forgotten, and that its remembrance 
may help to prevent such tragedies in the future.

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