Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-10-22-Speech-3-445"
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"en.20081022.24.3-445"2
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"−
Madam President, the Holodomor, or the artificial famine in Ukraine, is one of the largest-scale crimes committed in Europe during the 20
century. In order to prove that collective economies worked, and to destroy the main threat to the communist Soviet Union, Ukraine’s independent farmers, Stalin’s regime effected an artificial famine which resulted in the deaths of several million Ukrainians. All the food people had was confiscated. The famine drove large numbers of peoples from the countryside to the towns, which the authorities blocked by issuing internal passports and banning rail travel. Those who remained in the villages were forced to forage illegally for food in the fields of the collective farms, which carried a sentence of imprisonment or even execution. They were not allowed to keep a single handful of grain for themselves. A rule of ‘five ears of grain’ was imposed, by which anyone who picked more than five ears of grain faced the death penalty.
Unfortunately, the Holodomor, or the great famine, is an event in history that is still practically unknown in many countries of Western Europe. Until recently, these historical facts were completely denied by the USSR. Any mention of the matter was, before the fall of the Soviet Union, treated as a crime of ‘anti-Soviet propaganda’. Active means of disinformation were used against Western journalists. Only recently have documents from the population registers come to light, revealing the numbers affected by the mass starvation.
The famine in Ukraine has been recognised as genocide by the governments or parliaments of 26 countries, including Poland. I am deeply convinced that the European Parliament will not remain inactive on this issue. We have to recognise that the Holodomor was a crime against the Ukrainian people and a crime against humanity, and firmly condemn the actions of the Stalinist regime against Ukrainian farmers.
I also believe that it is high time that all information on the famine is made public. The countries of the former Soviet Union should open their archives on the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932-1933 to scholars so that impartial studies can be carried out.
This year is the 75
anniversary of this shocking crime. I would like to use this opportunity to extend my deepest sympathies to the Ukrainian people, which had to undergo this huge tragedy."@en1
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