Governor Proclaims Holodomor Remembrance Day 2023

WHEREAS, 2023 marks the 90^th anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933, known as Holodomor, meaning “Murder by Starvation”; and

WHEREAS, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and his totalitarian regime committed an act of genocide through the implementation of an engineered famine by confiscating land, grain, and animals from the Ukrainian people, resulting in the deaths of millions of innocent men, women, and children; and

WHEREAS, Holodomor 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, it is estimated that Ukrainians died at a rate of 28,000 a day with nearly a third of the victims being children younger 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 area known as the bread basket of the U.S.S.R, were tragically starved to a slow and painful death; and

WHEREAS, with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, archival documents created during this time surfaced that detail the Soviet regime's actions and intention to destroy Ukraine's national identity by deporting and executing Ukraine's religious, intellectual, and cultural leaders and prosecuting or executing those who spoke of the famine or against the Soviet authorities publicly, further destabilizing Ukraine's political structure; and

WHEREAS, the State of North Carolina encourages individuals, groups, organizations, and institutions to remember Holodomor with appropriate activities designed to honor its victims and educate people about the history and crimes of totalitarian regimes to help eliminate tyranny from our world; and

WHEREAS, North Carolina stands in solidarity with the people of Ukraine as they remember the historic tragedy of Holodomor, and as they fight today to defend their country, their democracy, and their freedom;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, ROY COOPER, Governor of the State of North Carolina, do hereby proclaim November 25, 2023, as “HOLODOMOR REMEMBRANCE DAY” in North Carolina, and commend its observance to all citizens.