Ukraine, Kyiv. Girl
Statue History. Holodomor.
At the
entrance to the memorial park in Kyiv, there is a sculpture of an extremely
thin girl with a very sad look, holding a handful of wheat in her hands. Behind
her back is the Candle of Remembrance. This monument commemorates the
Holodomor.
What is the Holodomor?
After the end of the First World War, Ukraine was an
independent state, but in 1919 the Soviet Union "sucked" it into the
community of Soviet states. The Ukrainians considered themselves a Central
European country, like Poland, and not an Eastern European country like Russia.
They tried to restore Ukraine's independence.
In 1932, not wanting to lose control of Europe's main source
of grain, Stalin took away the grain-producing land from the Ukrainian peasants
and also all the grain, and all their food, creating an artificial famine. The goal was to
"teach Ukrainians to be smart" so that they would no longer oppose
Moscow. The people who produced the most grain in Europe were left without a
crumb of bread.
The peak of the Holodomor was in the spring of 1933. In
Ukraine at that time, 17 people died of hunger every minute, more than 1,000
every hour, and almost 24,500 every day! People were literally starving to
death in the streets.
Stalin settled Russians into the emptied Ukrainian villages.
During the next census, there was a huge shortage of population. Therefore, the
Soviet government annulled the census, destroyed the census documents, and the
census takers were shot or sent to the gulag, in order to hide the truth.
Today, 28 countries around the world present the Holodomor
as genocide against Ukrainians. Yet, how many are unaware of this history? Why has this been hidden? To
this day mass graves are being uncovered.
The Holodomor at that time broke the Ukrainian resistance,
but it made the desire for Ukraine's independence from Russia eternal.
Today, everyone should learn about this history, with the hope that we can prevent Putin from repeating this tragedy with Ukraine.