[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 176 (Wednesday, November 14, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     REMEMBERING UKRAINE'S HISTORY

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                           HON. MARCY KAPTUR

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 14, 2007

  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to record painful events in 
Ukraine's past. Throughout Ukraine's more than millennium-long history, 
it has often been attacked and occupied due to its geo-political 
location, fertile lands and rich natural resources. Because the 
Ukrainian nation continuously fought to ward off the enemies and 
preserve its freedom, many occupying powers resorted to oppression in 
order to maintain their control of Ukraine. It is widely held that one 
of the most brutal policies designed to subjugate Ukraine was carried 
out by the Stalinist regime of the former Soviet Union.
  History records that in order to suppress the numerous rebellions of 
the Ukrainian peasantry to the collectivization and Russification 
policies aggressively implemented by the Communists, Stalin set out to 
destroy the entire nation. His government imposed draconian grain 
quotas and enforced their fulfillment with brutality seldom seen in 
history. Secret police and specially created brigades were instructed 
to confiscate everything down to the last grain. They also confiscated 
money and any valuables in order to deprive people of any means for 
survival. Severe and swift punishments--often death--were delivered for 
any attempt to steal even a miniscule amount of grain or other 
foodstuffs. The Royal Consulate of Italy reported in 1933: ``through 
barbaric requisitions . . . the Moscow government has effectively 
engineered not so much a scarcity . . . but rather a complete absence 
of every means of subsistence throughout the Ukrainian countryside.'' 
Stalin also sealed off the Ukrainian border to prevent migration. In 
1932, a directive was issued to arrest anyone who tried to leave 
Ukraine without proper documentation. According to Russian scholar 
Ivnitsky, 219,460 individuals were arrested per this directive and 
186,588 of them were sent back to their villages to die.
  Eyewitness accounts provide vivid and gruesome details. Here is what 
one witness described to the House Select Committee on Communist 
Aggression in 1954: ``The farmers with faces and legs swollen from the 
hunger of the famine were invading the town and were dying in masses in 
the streets. The administration of the town was unable to bury the dead 
farmers in time, and there was a repulsive odor in the air during all 
this time. The police, or rather militia patrols, driving along the 
streets, collected the corpses. They also took those completely 
exhausted by starvation who arrived in town to ask for `a little bit of 
bread', put them on the mound of corpses saying, `you'll get there, 
don't worry.' I saw this all myself, and quite often.''
  It is hard and painful to comprehend that these actions were not 
known to the world, in part because of the denial of the famine-
genocide by Soviet authorities and refusal of offers of international 
aid. The tragic events of 1932-1933 in Ukraine remained hidden for many 
decades. The world is still largely unaware of the cruelty with which 
the totalitarian Stalinist regime killed 7-10 million innocent people 
in an effort to break a people who strove for freedom and independence. 
The Ukrainian American community has done much to change this 
situation. On the occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the Ukrainian 
famine-genocide, we remind the world of the honors that the Ukrainian 
nation survived and honor the memory of the innocent victims of the 
inhumane policies of the Stalinist regime. Remembering the events of 
the past helps to ensure that this type of tragedy does not recur 
anywhere in the world.

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