[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 14, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S1737]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 435--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 85TH 
    ANNIVERSARY OF THE UKRAINIAN FAMINE OF 1932-1933, KNOWN AS THE 
  HOLODOMOR, SHOULD SERVE AS A REMINDER OF REPRESSIVE SOVIET POLICIES 
                     AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF UKRAINE

  Mr. PORTMAN (for himself, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Casey, Mr. Rubio, Mr. 
Gardner, Mr. Inhofe, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Brown, Mr. Johnson, Mr. 
Wicker, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Murphy, and Mrs. Shaheen) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 435

       Whereas 2017-2018 marks the 85th anniversary of the 
     Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933, known as the Holodomor;
       Whereas, in 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainian people 
     perished at the will of the totalitarian Stalinist government 
     of the former Soviet Union, which perpetrated a premeditated 
     famine in Ukraine in an effort to break the nation's 
     resistance to collectivization and communist occupation;
       Whereas the Soviet government deliberately confiscated 
     grain harvests and starved millions of Ukrainian men, women, 
     and children by a policy of forced collectivization that 
     sought to destroy the nationally conscious movement for 
     independence;
       Whereas Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the borders 
     of Ukraine sealed to prevent anyone from escaping the manmade 
     starvation and to prevent the delivery of any international 
     food aid that would provide relief to the starving;
       Whereas numerous scholars worldwide have worked to uncover 
     the scale of the famine, including Canadian wheat expert 
     Andrew Cairns, who visited Ukraine in 1932 and was told that 
     there was no grain ``because the government had collected so 
     much grain and exported it to England and Italy,'' while 
     Joseph Stalin simultaneously denied food aid to the people of 
     Ukraine;
       Whereas nearly a quarter of Ukraine's rural population 
     perished or were forced into exile due to the induced 
     starvation, and the entire nation suffered from the 
     consequences of the prolonged famine;
       Whereas noted correspondents of the time were refuted for 
     their courage in depicting and reporting on the forced famine 
     in Ukraine, including Gareth Jones, William Henry Chamberlin, 
     and Malcolm Muggeridge, who wrote, ``They (the peasants) will 
     tell you that many have already died of famine and that many 
     are dying every day; that thousands have been shot by the 
     government and hundreds of thousands exiled. . .'';
       Whereas title V of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, 
     and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations 
     Act, 1986 (Public Law 99-180; 99 Stat. 1157), signed into law 
     on December 13, 1985, established the Commission on the 
     Ukraine Famine to ``conduct a study of the Ukrainian Famine 
     of 1932-1933 in order to expand the world's knowledge of the 
     famine and provide the American public with a better 
     understanding of the Soviet system by revealing the Soviet 
     role'' in it;
       Whereas, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, archival 
     documents became available that confirmed the deliberate and 
     premeditated deadly nature of the famine, and that exposed 
     the atrocities committed by the Soviet government against the 
     Ukrainian people;
       Whereas Raphael Lemkin, who devoted his life to the 
     development of legal concepts and norms for containing mass 
     atrocities and whose tireless advocacy swayed the United 
     Nations in 1948 to adopt the Convention on the Prevention and 
     Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, authored an essay in 
     1953 entitled, ``Soviet Genocide in [the] Ukraine,'' which 
     highlighted the ``classic example of Soviet genocide,'' 
     characterizing it ``not simply a case of mass murder [, but 
     as] a case of genocide, of destruction, not of individuals 
     only, but of a culture and a nation'';
       Whereas Ukraine's law N 376-V ``About the 1932-1933 
     Holodomor in Ukraine'' of November 28, 2006, gave official 
     recognition to the Holodomor as an act of genocide against 
     the Ukrainian people;
       Whereas President George W. Bush signed into law Public Law 
     109-340 on October 13, 2006, authorizing the Government of 
     Ukraine ``to establish a memorial on Federal land in the 
     District of Columbia to honor the victims of the Ukrainian 
     famine-genocide of 1932-1933,'' which was officially 
     dedicated in November 2015;
       Whereas the Government of Ukraine and the Ukrainian 
     communities in the United States and worldwide continue their 
     efforts to secure greater international awareness and 
     understanding of the 1932-1933 tragedy; and
       Whereas victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 will be 
     commemorated by Ukrainian communities around the globe, and 
     in Ukraine, through November 2018: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) solemnly remembers the 85th anniversary of the 
     Holodomor of 1932-1933 and extends its deepest sympathies to 
     the victims, survivors, and families of this tragedy;
       (2) condemns the systematic violations of human rights, 
     including the freedom of self-determination and freedom of 
     speech, of the Ukrainian people by the Soviet government;
       (3) recognizes the findings of the Commission on the 
     Ukraine Famine as submitted to Congress on April 22, 1988, 
     including that ``Joseph Stalin and those around him committed 
     genocide against the Ukrainians in 1932-1933'';
       (4) encourages dissemination of information regarding the 
     Holodomor of 1932-1933 in order to expand the world's 
     knowledge of this manmade tragedy; and
       (5) supports the continuing efforts of the people of 
     Ukraine to work toward ensuring democratic principles, a 
     free-market economy, and full respect for human rights, in 
     order to enable Ukraine to achieve its potential as an 
     important strategic partner of the United States in that 
     region of the world, and to reflect the will of its people.

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