Columbia School has committed to educating their students on the holodomor, one of Stalin’s most egregious attempts to bend Ukranians to Soviet will in the 1930s.
On Thursday, May 9th, the Holodomor Awareness Tour Bus will be open to the public from 3:10 to 5:30 PM. Students will board the bus, view video and be tested on their knowledge of the genocide.
Costs for the educational tour is made possible in Yorkton by the generous assistance of Key Chev, Yorkton Toyota, and Cap It.
Holodomor, a Ukranian term that translates as ‘murder by starvation’, was put into effect following the forced incorporation of the Ukraine into the Soviet Union in 1921.
In an effort to gain support from the Ukranian people, the Soviets allowed some cultural autonomy, but as the 1920s drew to a close, Stalin had determined he had had enough of what he called “Ukranian borgeois nationalism”. He subsequently ordered the arrest, deportation and even execution of Ukranian leaders -- political, religious, and cultural, in an effort to destablize the country.
Set upon destroying all aspirations of Ukranian independence, the Soviet Union spearheaded massive efforts to eradicate any existence of a distinct Ukranian identity.
One of these ways took seed in 1930, when Stalin ordered the collectivization of agriculture. When Ukranian farms were seized, when the farmers resisted they were forced into collective government farms.
When that didn’t work either, Soviet soldiers simply took their food away in an attempt to force compliance.
This was achieved by the setting of excessive grain quotas -- which the Soviet authorities treated as a debt. Since the grain quotas were unrealistic, entire populations were in “debt”. As the grain farmers were Ukranian, it became an effective way to control the population if not the spirit.
Soviet authorities confiscated grain, going door to door. Not only seizing grain, they also took other foodstuffs such as vegetation including potatoes. Anything that could be consumed was taken.
Since the Soviets forbade people to leave their villages and sealed the Ukranian borders, the starving could not leave for food. As a result, millions of people died.
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, the Canada-Ukraine Foundation, Ukranian Canadian Congress, Holodomor Research and Education Consortium and the Ukranian Canadian Research and Documentation Centre, in partnership with the province of Ontario, have joined together to create the Holodomor National Awareness Tour.
For more information, visit http://www.holodomortour.ca/
