Almost a century after the start of a Soviet-made famine in 1932–33 that killed millions, Russia is again perpetrating a genocide, according to Olesia Stasiuk, head of the country’s Holodomor Museum. In an exclusive interview with LRT.lt, she discusses the parallels between the war today and the Holodomor genocide.
What signs of collective trauma stem from the Holodomor?
This year we have the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor genocide and it is very cynical that Russia started a full-scale war against the Ukrainian nation. And, again, today there is a genocide.
[Now], it is very important for our nation, for our people, to win, because we have a very clear understanding of what will happen after, God forbid, we are occupied and the purges, killings, and disappearances will begin.
And for us, this trauma that we suffered, that we remember in the third and fourth generation, is very strong and very much felt today. That is why it is very important for us to win.
How is the war in Ukraine now different, or similar, to what had happened during Holodomor?
After the Russian occupation [in the 1920s], the communist regime spent 10 years preparing it. They saw that, by starvation, they could stop the resistance, the resistance that could lead to the withdrawal of Ukraine from the USSR and the establishment of the Ukrainian state.
At that time it was done by starving Ukrainians. Now, Russia uses wider methods of extermination. [...] At the same time, some things are repeated. They are looting grain in the occupied territories and taking it to Russia, to the occupied Crimea, [also] to Syria.
[Russia] says there will be another Holodomor in Ukraine. It is the first time, at the political level, that they are even using the word Holodomor and not [naming it an] all-union famine, fanning the myth that there was famine across the [Soviet] union.
This is how they scare the Ukrainians again – by pressing such painful points in the soul of every Ukrainian, that we can do this again. But, I think, this pain reminds us that we must fight even harder.
For 90 years, Russia has been denying or inventing different myths that it was the all-union famine. If it was an all-union famine, then why do they have no memorials? There are no graves, no memorial sites, no common grave?
In 2019–2020 there was a second criminal case in Ukraine, [...] where these questions [on why the genocide was organised] were answered. It was to stop [...] the national liberation movement of Ukraine. And to ensure that the Ukrainian [nation] would never be reborn. [...] It was the extermination of a particular part of a nation. [...] It was finally possible to establish that 10.5 million Ukrainians were exterminated during the Holodomor
It was necessary to exterminate all the people that this nation is based on. First of all, the intellectuals, the people that carry culture, who develop the nation spiritually, protect the language and the cultural heritage of Ukraine.
Then, the political leadership, then the foundation of the nation – the villages. At that time, over 80 percent of Ukrainians lived in the villages and it was the basis of the nation, which cherished traditions that were passed on from one generation to the other. Also the Ukrainian Church was destroyed [...] The children, who were brought up already in Russian, they were brought up under the ‘new Soviet man’ [ideology], so they didn't know their ancestors and it was forbidden [...] to remember the people who died of starvation.
And now, they also transfer children, just like during the Holodomor, from one ethnic group to another. That is that they have now stolen 2,000 Ukrainian children and transported them to Russian territory.
The collective trauma that our nation received in the aftermath of the Holodomor genocide is still transmitted vertically, genetically.
I also remember this about my grandmother. [She would not commemorate publicly] her father and eight brothers and sisters. [...] She said, I did not die in the Holodomor and someone will tell them and I will be arrested.
How did this war and genocide [in 2022] begin? The Russians made lists of who should be killed – the political and military leadership of Ukraine, then journalists, teachers, writers, and so on.
Similarly, same as the Holodomor was planned in advance, the genocide [today] was also prepared [beforehand] to destroy the top tier of the nation so that there would be no one to lead the resistance.
And that is why such people were the first to suffer in the occupied territories. They [the Russian troops] were looking for people [...] in Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions, first of all, the teachers and kindergarten teachers, who were then killed.
For 30 years, we have been an independent country, and for all those 70 years when Ukraine was under Russian occupation, there was some form of genocide. When there was no resistance, when it was more or less a peaceful time, it was cultural genocide, spiritual genocide. And when there was resistance? There was a physical genocide.
We can draw parallels and see that it is the same – it is a genocide. But, this time, there are even more atrocities today when Ukrainians – civilians and also military personnel – are tortured and abused.
How can we define, or label Putin’s Russia today?
We heard more than once from their [Russian] speeches and statements that they understood that now Ukraine is going away from them forever, which is why they started this full-scale war.
They want to free us from what? From life, from our country, homes, children, families and so on. No, this is a genocide, the genocide of Ukrainians [and] the Ukrainian nation, which is taking place in the 21st century.
After the whole world stopped Nazism, [...] they did not pay attention to the other regime [the Soviet Union], the totalitarian one too, which was on the other side. And this evil, which was not punished in its time, is coming back with certainty that it will not face anything [for its actions] this time either.
The West has done nothing to Russia, which has not decommunised. And now, we have a symbiosis of communism and fascism, which people call ‘Rashism’. Unfortunately, we now have to defeat [...] a totalitarian regime [...] in the 21st century.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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