Stalin rule, not Russia to blame for Holodomor - MFA

Stalin's rule rather than Russia is guilty of the 1932 - 1933 Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine, Ambassador Volodymyr Vasylenko, Ukraine's representative to the UN Human Rights Council, told a news briefing at international press center "Holodomor. 75th Anniversary of Memory" on Wednesday.

He emphasized that speculations over Ukraine's alleged accusations against Russia are tactless and do not correspond to fact. "We lay no blame on Russia," the ambassador stressed.

Vasylenko noted that Ukraine, in the first place for its own understanding, is studying the subject of Holodomor, its reasons and scope, in order to realize the results better. "And those results were horrible: destruction of historic memory, language and culture. We feel all that now," he underlined.

Responding the Russian party's arguments that a similar hunger struck other countries of the Soviet Union as well, the diplomat said that in Ukraine alone the starvation was accompanied with seizure of not only bread and grain reserves, but all other food, too. "It was not practiced in any other region of the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, million tons of grain was reserved, and even exported. The very fact of the famine was silenced, and authorities refused from foreign assistance". Ukraine's greatest losses owed to the blockade, Vasylenko added. People were barred from leaving Ukraine. All talk about a poor harvest does not correspond to reality either. The yield of 1934 was much less than in 1932 - 1933, but there was no hunger of that scope.

Vasylenko noted that one can find on the Russian MFA website documents that the Soviet government provided support to the starving Ukraine. Yet, the ambassador indicated, the assistance was selective and commonly late. Millions had perished by the time it began. The diplomat also emphasized that the help was provided only with seeds, and only to the Ukrainians who were collective farm members.

Vasylenko expressed the idea that the Holodomor was masterminded to prevent Ukraine's withdrawal from the Soviet Union. He said Ukraine put up the strongest resistance to collectivization, and there was a danger of popular uprising and the country's secession. To prevent that, extermination of the national elite started in the 30s to have spread all over the country. The Holodomor followed up. Stalin's rule was simply afraid of losing Ukraine, Vasylenko stressed.

He also disproved the fact that those were Ukrainians themselves to have been killing their own nation. In his words, at that time there were no Ukrainians among secretaries of regional party committees or special services. Those who even could have a hand in the crime were just rank-and-file rural activists, and there were only few of them, Vasylenko emphasized. Ukraine ought to tell the whole of the world about the Holodomor to prevent similar tragedies elsewhere, he underscored.

UKRINFORM