[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 164 (Wednesday, October 3, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6503-S6504]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
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. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate
proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 608, S. Res.
435.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
The senior assistant legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 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.
There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the
resolution which had been reported from the Committee on Foreign
Relations, without amendment, and with amendments to the preamble.
Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, I ask further that the resolution be
agreed to; that the committee-reported amendments to the preamble be
agreed to; that the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and that the
motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with
no intervening action or debate.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The resolution (S. Res. 435) was agreed to.
The committee-reported amendments to the preamble were agreed to.
The preamble, as amended, was agreed to.
The resolution with its preamble, as amended, reads as follows:
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'';
[[Page S6504]]
(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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