Millions of memorial candles

The honoring of the Holodomor victims on the national level began in 2008 with the decrees of the then President Viktor Yushchenko. In fact, a “silent” memory of their kindred, starved to death in 1933-32, has always remained in Ukrainian families. Even if those events were not directly spoken about, their impact can be seen in the reverence accorded to the last bread crumbs on a table, or the stocking of foodstuffs. That deep pain of Ukrainians must not be treated with cold official language, but with profound human warmth, wrote the Holodomor researcher and The Day’s author, the late James Mace, in a 2003 article for The Day, in which he called to initiate a nationwide action “A Candle in the Window.” “I simply want to propose an act of national remembrance, available for everyone: setting a certain time on the National Memorial Day of 1933 (the fourth Saturday of November) when every member of this nation, each family which had lost one of their relatives, will be able to light a candle in his or her window to honor the departed,” James wrote. This was his answer to the Communists and all those who denied the genocide of Ukrainians for many years.

So how should we respond to the president and his team [following Yanukovych’s denial of the Holodomor at the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg this year – Ed.]? Not with pathos and cold official speeches. The memory of our kin is strong. Naturally, those who do not yet understand the context of those events should be presented with evidence. Certainly, it’s worth thinking about the lessons of this terrible tragedy. And one may, following James’ advice, just light a memorial candle in the window.

An organizing public committee honoring the victims of the Holodomor convened in the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Its members include such honorable persons as the academic Ihor Yukhnovsky, Yevhen Sverstiuk, ex-Deputy Prime Ministers Mykola Zhulynsky and Ivan Vasiunyk, Secretary General of the World Congress of Ukrainians Stefan Romaniv, the rector of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Serhii Kvit, the rector of Lviv National University Ivan Vakarchuk, the cultural figures

Nina Matvienko and Yevhen Stankovych, human rights activist Yevhen Zakharov, and representatives of the church and religious organizations of Ukraine. The Day asked Mykola Zhulynsky how he sees the community’s actions on the eve of the Memorial Day.

Mykola ZHULYNSKY, director of the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, member of the organizing committee for honoring the victims of the Holodomor:

“Logically, when the government turned away from this highly important historical fact for Ukrainians, the community had to take over. The public committee is called to raise the case of honoring the victims of the 1932-33 Holodomor, to a national level. Instead, the present government, backtracked on previous achievements regarding the spread of knowledge about this historical period, and this is worrisome for the Ukrainian community. The fact that the Holodomor was an act of genocide, a planned action, was confirmed by the Law of Ukraine and the Court, which named the initiators of this crime. With his statement in Strasbourg, President Yanukovych cast doubt on the parliamentary resolutions of many countries, which supported the Ukrainians. In such conditions, the public committee has to be active. We cannot afford to lose the social memory of our nation’s great tragedy. To some extent, we are back at the beginning of the 1990s, when many people searched for the documents and wrote down eyewitnesses’ testimonies. But now, when we have obtained this proof, by colossal efforts, when each region has printed its Book of Memory, we are obliged to do everything so that the honoring of the Holodomor victims’ takes place throughout Ukraine, and, even more importantly, is sincere.