Rochdale’s Ukrainian community remembers 86th anniversary of tragic Holodomor genocide

Date published: 25 November 2019

Members of the local Ukrainian community recognised the 86th anniversary of the Ukrainian Holodomor famine with a service at the Rochdale Memorial Gardens on Saturday (23 November).

The Holodomor was an artificial famine between 1932 and 1933, which saw approximately seven to ten million innocent men, women and children brutally starved to death by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, in an attempt to force the Ukrainians to adopt their ways.

Holodomor is based on two Ukrainian words: ‘holod’ – hunger, starvation, famine; and ‘moryty’ – to induce suffering, to kill.

Ukraine - the breadbasket of Europe - was turned into a mass graveyard, with whole villages wiped out from starvation.

Adults and children were dying from starvation in the streets of towns and cities: at the height of the enforced famine, 17 people died every minute, with 25,000 people dying each day.

Worldwide, the Ukrainian population commemorates the horrific tragedy each year on the fourth Saturday in November. The Ukrainian flag flew at half-mast at Rochdale Town Hall over the weekend of 23-24 November.

The service, which is held every year in Rochdale, commemorates all who were barbarically and systematically starved to death in the enforced famine.

A one-minute silence was observed at the Holodomor Memorial Stone, following a procession from the Town Hall to the Memorial Gardens plus opening speeches.

The service was opened by Olga Kurtianyk (Chair of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain, Rochdale Branch) who welcomed everyone and gave a brief background to the tragic events of 1932-33. 

A religious memorial service led by Rev. Benjamin Lysykanych (Ukrainian Catholic Church) and Rev. Mark Coleman (Church of England) was followed by the laying of wreaths by the Mayor of Rochdale Billy Sheerin, former MP Tony Lloyd and Olga Kurtianyk.  

The weekend also marked the 10th anniversary of erecting the Holodomor Memorial in the gardens, a co-operation with the Friends of Lviv, Rochdale Council and members of the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB), Rochdale Branch. 

Its existence was instigated by Councillor Irene Davidson and former councillor Angela Coric.

Rochdale was the first town in the UK, not only to honour the victims with a memorial stone, but to also recognise the Holodomor as genocide – a motion yet to be acknowledged and followed by the UK government.

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/32806/rochdale-unveils-memorial-for-forgotten-victims-of-holodomor

Archive documents uncovered in Ukraine show that Stalin deliberately targeted Ukraine for the harshest treatment, in the full knowledge that millions were starving and dying.

At the time, two British journalists, Malcolm Muggeridge and Gareth Jones, witnessed and wrote about the famine. Jones had kept diaries of the man-made starvation, which were published in March 1933 after leaving the country.

He was later shot dead in Manchukuo, on the eve of his 30th birthday, after being captured by bandits.

There were strong suspicions Jones was murdered as ‘revenge’ for his publications, which did not look favourably upon the Soviets.

A feature film ‘Mr Jones’ based on the work of Gareth Jones and starring James Norton as Jones is to be released in UK cinemas in February 2020.