Ukraine: National Assembly calls deadly famine of the 1930s genocide

Europe 1 with AFP 21:22 p.m., March 28, 2023

The National Assembly on Tuesday recognized as a genocide the Holodomor, the famine caused in the early 1930s in Ukraine by the Soviet authorities, causing the death of several million people, a vote welcomed by the Ukrainian president. In a resolution adopted almost unanimously (168 votes to 2), MEPs called on the government to do the same, to meet Kiev's strong expectation about this painful memory, revived by the Russian invasion of the country.

The France has just recognized #Holodomor of 1932-33 as genocide of the people. Gratitude to the Members of @AssembleeNat for this historic decision. The totalitarian regime of the Kremlin, past or present, could not and will never destroy truth and justice! pic.twitter.com/0JKPplzOG5

— Володимир зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 28, 2023

Zelensky shares his "gratitude" to the Assembly

"Gratitude to the deputies of the National Assembly for this historic decision," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a tweet published in French shortly after the vote. The Holodomor (extermination by hunger), "is the story of organized barbarism" and "the use of famine as a political weapon," pleaded the first signatory of the adopted text, Renaissance MP Anne Genetet. She punctuated her speech with a "Long live free Ukraine", in the presence of the Ukrainian ambassador in France.

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The text was co-signed by members of seven of the ten political groups in the Assembly, with the exception of the groups La France insoumise (LFI), communiste and Rassemblement national (RN). The Insoumises did not take part in the vote, believing that there were doubts about the genocidal nature of these events under international law. "No one can deny the reality of the crime" but "was it a question of exterminating the Ukrainian people as such?" asked LFI MP Bastien Lachaud.

The Communists were the only ones who voted against, considering that parliamentarians were not legitimate to replace historians and judges. "We refuse to contribute to the politicization of issues of memory and history," said MP Jean-Paul Lecoq.

The recognized genocidal character of forced starvation

The adopted text "officially recognizes the genocidal character of the forced and planned famine by the Soviet authorities against the Ukrainian population in 1932 and 1933". It "condemns" these acts and "affirms its support for the Ukrainian people in their aspiration to have the mass crimes committed against them by the Soviet regime recognized." The Assembly invites the government to also record this qualification as genocide and asks it to "encourage free access on the international scene to archives relating to the Holodomor, more particularly in the Russian Federation" in order to document the facts.

The Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Olivier Becht, stressed to the deputies the "obvious resonance with the topicality" of their resolution. He supported it even though "it is not the government's practice to recognize as genocide facts that have not previously been qualified as such by a court".

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Several million inhabitants died in the 1930s

Nicknamed "the breadbasket of Europe" for the fertility of its black earths, Ukraine lost several million inhabitants in the great famine of 1932-1933, against a background of collectivization of land, orchestrated according to historians by Stalin to repress any desire for independence in this country, then a Soviet republic. In mid-December, the European Parliament also described the Holodomor as genocide.

Russia, for its part, categorically refuses this classification, citing the fact that the great famine of the 1930s had not only made Ukrainian victims, but also Russians, Kazakhs, and among other peoples.