Holodomor Remembrance Day

Every year, Holodomor Remembrance Day is observed in the Ukraine and around the world, on the fourth Saturday of November. This holiday commemorates the millions of Ukrainians who starved to death during the Soviet Union’s manufactured famine in the Ukraine from 1932-1933.

In 1932, the Soviet administration demanded that Ukrainian peasants produce extremely high grain quotas, so that it could export grain to fund its Five-Year Plan. When Ukrainian peasants failed to meet these quotas, Soviet authorities confiscated all food from the Ukrainian countryside. Upon being barred from leaving the Ukraine and with nothing left to eat, millions perished. 

Scholars argue that at least four million Ukrainians died during the Holodomor. The Soviet Union denied that the Holodomor ever took place and silenced those who spoke about it.  

While a large number of countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide, the Russian government continues to deny these claims.