SENATE RESOLUTION 13

(By Senators Rucker, Woodrum, Woelfel, Plymale, and Hamilton)

[Introduced January 24, 2023]

Observing the 90th Anniversary of the Holodomor Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-1933.

Whereas, Ninety years ago, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his totalitarian regime committed genocide through the implementation of an engineered famine, confiscating all food supplies from the Ukrainian people, resulting in the deaths of up to 10 million innocent men, women, and children; and

Whereas, This genocide, Holodomor, meaning “murder by starvation,” was specifically designed by the Soviet regime to punish independent-minded Ukrainians for their resistance to Joseph Stalin’s political, economic, and social oppression; and

Whereas, Even as the Soviets exported Ukraine’s grain to the rest of the world; Ukrainian farmers, who tended to the farms in the “breadbasket of the Soviet Union,” were starved in a slow and painful death; and

Whereas, Hundreds of archival KGB documents created during this genocide detailed and described the Soviet regime’s actions and intentions to destroy Ukraine’s national identity by deporting and executing Ukraine's religious, intellectual, and cultural leaders, and prosecuting or executing others who dared to speak of the Holodomor; and

Whereas, The official recognition of the Holodomor as a genocide by the government of Ukraine represents a significant step in adjudicating Soviet crimes and in restoring Ukraine’s national identity as a free and democratic nation; and

Whereas, In relating the historical context of the 1932-1933 Holodomor, and the current war in Ukraine, it is fitting that the global theme: Ukraine Remembers, the World Acknowledges, be officially recognized around the world as a tragic and heinous crime against humanity in order to prevent similar tragedies from occurring; therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate:

That the Senate on this 90th Anniversary of the Holodomor, honors the memory of those innocent men, women, and children who lost their lives; and, be it

Further Resolved, That the Clerk is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to Marianna Davidovich, Chief External Affairs Officer for the Foundation for Economic Education.