ukraine: kyiv: remembering the Holodomor

Now that I'm aware of the annual memorial, I try to attend the ceremony honoring the Holodomor every year. It takes place in cities across Ukraine on the fourth Saturday of every November.

This year I was in Kyiv, so I took the metro and walked to the Holodomor memorial mid afternoon.

I know I've mentioned this event in previous posts, but since it isn't well known (or even known at all,) outside of Ukraine, I'll repeat some of the information. I don't know how many people, if anyone, read this, but this is a part of history that should be known.

Back in the 1930s, when Stalin was forcing Communism and commual life on everyone in the Soviet Union, one of the ways he did so was to set grain quotas for every region. That amount of grain was put into government silos, and was not available for people to eat. That amount of grain was often exported. These quotas were often set much too high, even though agriculturalists knew such production wasn't possible.

During the winter of 1932-1933, there was a famine. This was almost entirely for man made reasons, though the Soviet government of the time tried to blame it on bad weather. Yes, the weather during the growing season wasn't nearly as good as usual, but if the grain in the silos had been released to the people, there wouldn't have been a problem. Instead, the grain was held in the silos, and even exported, though people were starving to death.

The borders of the country were closed, so people weren't able to travel to get help, or to share the story. It's horrific.

The official numbers of how many people died vary, and are generally considered to be much lower than the actual number of people who died. I think a middle number is around 7 million, though I've seen as high as 12 million.

Each time I come to this event I'm amazed at the level of security. The president usually gives a short speech, which would require a LOT more security if this were something the American president attended.

I was able to arrive, go through a very old school metal detector, and have someone take a quick glance into my purse. Then I was in the crowd!

To remember the Holodomor, Ukrainians bring the usual flowers and candles, but they also bring loaves of bread and shafts of wheat. After the speeches (by the president and a priest,) people process forward to lay their offerings on and around the memorial. It's somber, and heartbreaking.

Almost every year this time of year is when it first starts to get cold, and I always end up shivering. I have a heated apartment to go home to, with plenty of food. I can't imagine how awful it must've been during the years of starvation.

Never forget.   

ukraine: kyiv: holodomor memorial

Two years ago I was in the Ukrainian town of Poltava during the 4th weekend of November. My friend Susannah and I were there to explore the town just because we could.
Just as the sun was going down, we came to the end of a major pedestrian street in town, and listened to a little bit of a speech. We could see the traditional blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, as well as the red and black flag used by the Ukrainian independent army in WW2. Since the protests of Maidan had started just the week before in Kyiv, we thought this was related to those protests.
We walked down the entire length of the street, which took us to a church area. Not long after, we realized there was a procession coming down the street behind us. A truck playing music, a priest at the head of the line, and many people carrying candles in coloured jars. We saw the flags too.

The procession came to a halt at the church, the priest spoke a bit, then went into the church. People with candles laid them on the ground around the church, along with flowers and food. I still didn't know this was anything special.
After returning to Kyiv, we figured out what we had witnessed: the annual remembrance ceremony of the Holodomor. Many cities remember what happened, usually with a speech by someone of honor, flowers, candles, wheat, bread, food in general, etc... There is always a religious aspect of the remembrance, in addition to the story of what happened.

The Holodomor was a famine that happened during the fall/winter/spring of 1932-33. The Soviet government (and current Russian government) have always said it was a year with terrible weather, (it wasn't as good as previous seasons, but not so bad as to cause this famine,) but the rest of the world generally acknowledges that the famine was man made. During these years the soviet government was forcing people into collective farms, and requiring certain amounts of grain be exported. The amount of grain required for export was too much, there wasn't enough left for people to survive. The situation was awful, especially because the people could see silos full of grain, and couldn't eat.

In an effort to keep events a secret, the government closed the borders, so people weren't able to leave and find food elsewhere. Official numbers of starvation range quite a lot, but most people say the official numbers are nowhere near actual numbers. Unofficially I've seen the range of 7-10 million people who died of starvation.
Last year I had friends in town, we spent the 4th Saturday of November touring chornobyl, which was about a lot of death in a different way. We came back to Kyiv too late to see anything rated to the Holodomor, but we did see flowers, candles, and wheat at the base of a memorial sculpture near St michael's church.
This year I wanted to see what happens at the official Holodomor memorial/museum in Kyiv. I had no idea what time anything started, but I remembered Poltava happening in very late afternoon.

I got to the memorial around 1520, after a couple detours. There were soldiers blocking several walking paths near the memorial, which was annoying as I came close, because I didn't know why. When I came close to the memorial, I had to go through metal detectors and an inspection of my purse.
At that point I realized why the paths had been blocked, and why I'd had to go through security. The President of Ukraine, Poroshenko, was speaking at the remembrance service. I was surprised I was able to simply walk up and attend the ceremony, there is no way that would happen if the US president were to speak at a ceremony like this.

I listened, but understood very little. I heard phrases I know well: "слава украіні, героям слава" (please excuse my terrible spelling)...the phrases mean glory to Ukraine, glory to the heroes. It's a call and response every Ukrainian knows, and one that still brings tears to my eyes after the way it brought unity to the country during the Maidan protests and violence.
After the president finished speaking, someone else spoke for a while, I have no idea who it was. I could hear him calling the names of the different oblasts (states) of the country, I presume a representative of each oblast was in Kyiv for this ceremony. After he finished speaking, most of the barricades seems to disappear. People in the crowd slowly moved forward, to lay candles, flowers, wheat, and other food at the base of the memorial. Up on the hill I saw candles that had slowly been lit during the speeches, they were beautiful (in a sad way) in the dark.

I watched for a while, and listened to the music playing. Other than the music, it was pretty quiet; a sense of reverence for what happened was in the air.
For the first time ever, I went into the museum area of the memorial. Since the temperature outside was at freezing or just below, coming inside felt amazing. There are books listing those who died in the various areas of the country. There are a few statues of starving people and children. There are displays of bread, since it is traditionally made with wheat flour, which wasn't available during this time. There were women singing, rather mournful sounding songs in one corner. On the walls are photos of some Ukrainian lands during this time, you can see buildings but a lack of crops.  It's a small area, but very intense.
I walked back to the metro and was home around 1930, happy to be in a warm place, with plenty of food.