WHEREAS, The Ukrainian Community of Greater Philadelphia, a dynamic community with many organizations and institutions is in sadness commemorating the 85th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Genocide. 85 years ago, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his totalitarian regime committed an act of genocide through the implementation of an engineered famine, confiscating land, grain and animals from the Ukrainian people resulting in 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 its economic, political, and social oppression; and
WHEREAS, At the height of the Holodomor in 1933,
Ukrainians died at the rate of 25,000 a day with nearly a third of its victims being children less than 10 years old; and
WHEREAS, Even as the Soviets continued to export Ukraine’s grain to the rest of the world, Ukrainian farmers, who tended to the farms in the “bread basket of the U.S.S.R”, were tragically starved to 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 intention to destroy Ukraine’s national identity by deporting and executing Ukraine's religious, intellectual and cultural leaders, prosecuting or executing any others who dared to speak of the famine or to speak against the Soviet authorities publicly, further destabilizing Ukraine’s political structure; and
WHEREAS, Under the global theme “Ukraine Remembers, the World Acknowledges,” it is necessary that the Ukrainian Genocide, Holodomor 1932-1933, be officially recognized by the global community as a tragic and heinous crime against humanity to prevent similar tragedies from occurring in the future; now therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That we hereby designate the month of November 2018 as
“
Ukrainian Genocide Remembrance Month” in Philadelphia
.
FURTHER RESOLVED, That an Engrossed copy of this resolution be presented to
Ulana Mazurkevich, President, Ukrainian Community Committee of Philadelphia
, further evidencing the sincere sentiments of this legislative body.
End