Ukraine’s first four presidents jointly took part in a ceremony early on Nov. 26, Holodomor Remembrance Day, to honor millions of Ukrainians who perished in the 1930s during a Soviet-induced famine.
Joining current Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych at the Bykivnia Graves National Historical Memorial Complex in Bykivnia, were former leaders Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010), Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) and Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994).
According to news agency Interfax-Ukraine, participants of the ceremony honored the victims with a minute of silence.
Addressing Ukrainians on Holodomor Remembrance Day, Yanukovych wrote on his www.president.gov.ua website: “Every year, at the end of November, we honor the memory of the victims of terrible famines that killed millions of people. An unprecedented global tragedy has caused irreparable damage to Ukraine. The terrible years of totalitarianism have also become a spiritual disaster: many temples were destroyed, hundreds of thousands of peasants, workers and intellectuals were physically destroyed and sent to [concentration] camps, and almost all Ukrainian families suffered.”
He added: “Keeping the memory of the tragic events of our past, the Ukrainian state is steadily moving forward, developing civil society on the principles of human rights and freedoms and laying a solid foundation for future generations.”
Yanukovych has a different view of the Holodomor than his predecessor, Yushchenko. While president, one of Yushchenko’s major agendas was to attain international recognition of the Holodomor as being an attempted Genocide against the Ukrainian people. The effort was strongly opposed by Russia, which claims that the Holodomor was a tragedy that affected other Soviet people and did not have an inherent aim of wiping out Ukrainians or crushing their yearning for independence. Yanukovych sides with Russia on this sensitive issue.
