[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 201 (Thursday, November 18, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           RECOGNIZING THE ANNUAL COMMEMORATION OF HOLODOMOR

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                            HON. ANDY LEVIN

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 18, 2021

  Mr. LEVIN of Michigan. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 
annual commemoration of Holodomor, the Genocidal Famine inflicted upon 
the people of Ukraine by the Soviet Union in 1932 and 1933.
  In the early 1930s, the Soviet Union engineered a famine to ensure 
the Ukrainian people could not resist Joseph Stalin's totalitarian 
policies. This famine, known and remembered as Holodomor, led to the 
deaths of at least 3.9 million people, or 13 percent of the population 
of Ukraine at the time. Some estimates of the number of those who died 
are much higher. ``Holodomor'' is a combination of the Ukrainian words 
``hunger'' and ``to inflict death'', a fitting name for the tragedy 
that occurred.
  While Soviet bureaucrats suppressed the facts of Holodomor at the 
time, including instructing Western journalists not to write about it, 
it is widely acknowledged as a genocide today. In fact, in 2018, the 
U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate each unanimously passed 
resolutions citing previous declarations of Holodomor as a genocide 
committed by Joseph Stalin and those around him. The vibrant Ukrainian-
American community in Michigan's Ninth District comes together each 
year in solemn commemoration of the millions of innocent lives taken 
and to ensure that this horrific event is never forgotten.
  As a member of the Ukrainian Caucus, I am honored to stand with 
Ukrainian-Americans in my district and throughout our country in 
witness of Holodomor. I encourage my colleagues to join me in 
reflection and remembrance and recommit ourselves to preventing 
genocide anywhere on Earth in the future.

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