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Holodomor in Ukraine, 1932-1933

EDM (Early Day Motion) 1452: tabled on 11 July 2023

Tabled in the 2022-23 session.

This motion has been signed by 14 Members. It has not yet had any amendments submitted.

Motion text

That this House recognises the Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine as a genocide of the Ukrainian people; considers that the Holodomor, literally meaning extermination by hunger, was a deliberate campaign of starvation and violence carried out by the Soviet regime against the people of Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of millions; understands that Holodomor was part of Joseph Stalin’s revolution from above which, from 1932 to 1933, inflicted a terror famine on the collectivised peasants of the Ukraine, Kuban and other areas of high Ukrainian ethnicity; notes that Stalin raised Ukraine’s grain procurement quotas by 44%, meaning there was not enough food to feed the peasants, as the law required that no grain from a collective farm could be given to members until the regime’s quota had been met; understands that, due to the secrecy imposed by the former Soviet Union, it is difficult to know how many perished during the Holodomor of 1932-33; further notes, however, research suggesting up to seven and a half million innocent people may have died as a direct result of the Soviet-imposed famine; further understands that, during the height of the famine, international offers of aid and support were turned down by the regime, while vital food stores were allowed to rot in warehouses under armed guard; is aware that many members of the Ukrainian community in Scotland lost relatives during the Holodomor; and calls on the Russian Federation, as the primary successor of the Soviet Union, to apologise for perpetrating genocide on the Ukrainian people.