The Holodomor (, derived from ) was a 1932–33 man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine and adjacent Ukrainian-inhabited territories that killed millions of Ukrainians. Opinions and beliefs about the Holodomor vary widely among nations. It is considered a genocide by Ukraine, and Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sought international recognition of the famine as a genocide. By 2022, the Holodomor was recognized as a genocide by the parliaments of 23 countries and the European Parliament, and it is recognized as a part of the Soviet famine of 1932–1933 by Russia. As of January 2025, 35 countries recognise the Holodomor as a genocide (last being Switzerland on September 24, 2024).

Background The classification of the Holodomor famine as a genocide has been controversial, a situation which was partially attributed to the objections of prominent Holocaust experts who took issue with the politicization of the term genocide. These experts emphasized the fact that there must be an "intent to destroy a whole group of people" and instead of using the word "genocide" as a descriptive term for the Holodomor, they used the term "mass extermination". Raphael Lemkin, who first coined genocide, was a featured speaker at a gathering of Ukrainian Americans which was held to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine in September 1953, describing the 1932–1933 famine as one aspect of a genocide in Ukraine perpetrated by the Soviet authorities between 1926 and 1946.

Recognition

Many countries have signed declarations in statements at the United Nations General Assembly affirming that the Holodomor was as a "national tragedy of the Ukrainian people" caused by the "cruel actions and policies of the totalitarian regime". Similar statements were passed as resolutions by international organizations such as the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO).

Countries to have signed declarations for the United Nations on the Holodomor include Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada,Canadian Senate adopts motion on Famine-Genocide , by Peter Stieda, The Ukrainian Weekly, June 29, 2003, No. 26, Vol LXXI, (accessed on June 26, 2007) Chile, Colombia, Czechia, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Ukraine, and the United States.

National recognition Ukraine During most of the Soviet period, the famine of 1932–1933 was a taboo topic in Soviet Ukraine. Following a series of events, such as the publication in 1986 of Robert Conquest's The Harvest of Sorrow, the broadcasting into Ukraine of its reading aloud on Radio Liberty, the 1988 report of the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, and the influence of the new Soviet policy of glasnost, it became acceptable to publicly broach the subject of the famine. Ukrainian Communist Party head Volodymyr Shcherbytsky gave state and party scholars access to official archives and tasked them with discrediting the allegations of an artificial cause for the famine. Unexpectedly, the Soviet committee's report concluded that the famine was not a fraud. The Ukrainian Communist Party passed a resolution blaming the "criminal course pursued by Stalin and his closest entourage".

On 15 May 2003, the Ukrainian parliament also passed a resolution declaring the famine to be an act of genocide deliberately organized by the Soviet government against the Ukrainians. On 28 November 2006, the parliament passed a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the "Ukrainian people" and making public Holodomor denial illegal. Supporting the bill were BYuT (118 deputies), NSNU (79), Socialists (30), 4 independent deputies, and the Party of Regions (2). Opposing the bill were KPU. 200 deputies did not cast a vote. In all, 233 deputies supported the bill, which was more than the minimum of 226 votes required to pass it into law."Holodomor and Holocaust denial to be a criminal offense", 3 April 2007"What the Verkhovna Rada actually passed", February 28, 2007 Implementing the bill required amendments to the criminal code which were never enacted.

In 2007, Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko declared he wanted "a new law criminalising Holodomor denial", including the designation of the Holodomor as genocide or not, but such a law has never been adopted. KPU head Petro Symonenko accused Yushchenko of "using the famine to stir up hatred" and stated he "does not believe there was any deliberate starvation at all".

On 12 January 2010, the court of appeals in Kyiv opened hearings into the "fact of genocide-famine Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932–33". In May 2009, the Security Service of Ukraine started a criminal case "in relation to the genocide in Ukraine in 1932–33". In a ruling of 13 January 2010, Kyiv's court of appeal recognized "the leaders of the totalitarian Bolshevik regime as those guilty of 'genocide against the Ukrainian national group in 1932–33 through the artificial creation of living conditions intended for its partial physical destruction.'" The court dropped criminal proceedings against leaders such as Joseph Stalin, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Stanislav Kosior, Pavel Postyshev, Vlas Chubar, and others who all had died years before. This decision became effective on 21 January 2010.

Australia Resolution #680 was adopted by the Australian Senate on 30 October 2003, stating: The Senate a) Notes that 2003 is the 70th anniversary of the enforced Famine in the Ukraine caused by the deliberate actions of Stalin's communist government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; b) Recalls that an estimated 7 million Ukrainians starved to death as a result of Stalinist policies in 1932–33 alone, and that millions more lost their lives in the purge that ensued for the remainder of the decade; c) Notes that this constitutes one of the most heinous acts of genocide in history; On 22 February 2008, the Australian House of Representatives issued a statement on the 75th Anniversary of Ukrainian Famine, which stated: 75th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine That the House: (1) notes that 2007 marks the 75th anniversary of the Great Ukrainian Famine—Holodomor of 1932–33, caused by the deliberate actions of Stalin's communist Government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; (2) recalls that an estimated 7 million Ukrainians starved to death as a result of Stalinist policies in 1932–33 alone, and that millions more lost their lives in the purge that ensued for the remainder of the decade; (3) notes: (a) that this constitutes one of the most heinous acts of genocide in history; (b) that the Ukrainian Famine was one of the greatest losses of human life in one country in the 20th century; and (c) that it remains insufficiently known and acknowledged by the world community and the United Nations as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation and its people, but has been recognised as such by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine); (4) honours the memory of those who lost their lives; (5) joins the Ukrainian people throughout the world, and particularly in Australia, in commemorating these tragic events; and (6) submits that the Australian Government support a resolution to the General Assembly of the United Nations, which may be submitted by the Government of Ukraine, that the Holodomor in Ukraine in 1932–33 be recognised as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation and its people.

Canada The Holodomor has been recognized by the prime minister of Canada, the Senate of Canada, and the House of Commons of Canada. With the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons, the government of Canada has declared that the fourth Saturday in November be known the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day. The Senate unanimously adopted a motion on the recognition of the Holodomor as a "Famine-Genocide" in 2003, for Canada "to condemn any attempt to deny or distort this historical truth as anything less than a genocide", and called for a day of remembrance for "those that perished during the time of the Ukrainian Famine Genocide" to be commemorated on the fourth Saturday of November, and for historians, educators, and parliamentarians "to include the true facts of the Ukrainian Famine/Genocide of 1932–33 in the records of Canada and in future educational materials". The day of remembrance was adopted in 2008.

With the concurrence of the Canadian Senate, the House of Commons passed "An act to establish a Ukrainian Famine and Genocide ('Holodomor') Memorial Day and to recognize the Ukrainian Famine of 1932–33 as an act of genocide", in part stating:

Whereas the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide of 1932-33 known as the Holodomor was deliberately planned and executed by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin to systematically destroy the Ukrainian people's aspirations for a free and independent Ukraine, and subsequently caused the death of millions of Ukrainians in 1932 and 1933. ...

Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows: 1. This Act may be cited as the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide ("Holodomor") Memorial Day Act. 2. Throughout Canada, in each and every year, the fourth Saturday in November shall be known as "Ukrainian Famine and Genocide ("Holodomor") Memorial Day".

Canada has also signed all four of the joint declarations by delegations at the United Nations General Assembly recognizing and condemning the Holodomor. In 2019, an official statement about the genocide was issued from the prime minister Justin Trudeau on Holodomor Memorial Day, in part reading:

Today, we remember the millions of innocent people in Ukraine who suffered and died during the Holodomor. From 1932 to 1933, the totalitarian Soviet regime launched a campaign of starvation across Ukraine. Millions died, and countless others were arrested, deported, or executed in a genocide designed to break their will. In the face of these horrors, the people of Ukraine endured, protecting their language, their culture, and their identity. In 1991, after decades of Soviet rule and oppression, they gained their independence. For too many years, the perpetrators of the Holodomor denied its existence and hid the full extent of the unspeakable suffering from the international community. It falls to each one of us to ensure their stories are never erased.

Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec have also passed legislation recognizing the Holodomor similar to those on the national level. The Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan recognized the Holodomor as genocide in 2008 with the passage of The Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day Act. In 2019, the Saskatchewan legislature lit a memorial candle for the duration of Holodomor Memorial Week to commemorate and remember the victims of the famine genocide. A statue titled "Bitter Memories of Childhood" was installed in the park grounds surrounding the Saskatchewan Legislative Building in 2015 to remember the victims of the Holodomor. After attending the candle lighting ceremony in the legislature, Canadian minister Greg Ottenbreit laid a wreath at the statue.

Colombia The Chamber of Representatives of Colombia passed Resolution 079 in December 2007 recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The resolution's goal was to "condemn the Genocide, which became the cause of 7 million victims among children, women, men and elderly people."

Italy