Ukrainian Famine (1932-33)

EDM number 1251 in 2006-07, proposed by John Grogan on 28/03/2007.

That this House, in light of the forthcoming visit of President Yushchenko to the UK, offers its remembrance to the victims of the appalling events of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33; believes that the forced collectivisation of Ukrainian farming, imposition of unbearably high rates of grain tax and the forced mass resettlement of Ukrainian peasants to undeveloped areas of Sibera, Kazakhstan and Far East amounted to a brutal attempt to irrevocably incorporate Ukraine within the political and economic spheres of the Soviet Union; further believes that the relentless and violent implementation of these policies, which led to the deaths of up to 10 million Ukrainians, means that the activities of the Stalinist regime are most appropriately described as genocide; recognises that such a definition is in accord with Article II of the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1948 which states that `acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group including deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,' should be termed genocide; notes that in November 2006 the Ukrainian parliament passed a law which formally defined the famine as an act of genocide; and wishes to associate itself with the actions of the United States, Canadian and Australian senates, who, along with others, have passed motions deploring the famine as an act of genocide orchestrated by the authorities of the Soviet Union.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs.