In the late 1800's Canada had the wisdom to invite Ukrainian people and others from Eastern Europe to the hard task of creating farms on the prairies. The theory was that the poorest farmer on the smallest landholding in Ukraine had to be the hardest worker, and use extreme flexibility, creativity and personal initiative to simply survive there. That was the kind of worker Canada needed. Breaking the prairie scrub land, many of those farmers flourished amazingly well. Canada's prosperity grew.
The Stalinist Soviet government of the late 1920's and early 1930's looked with on with envy, coercively bent on producing a new kind of wealth for the USSR - collective wealth. But first there would be collectivization of lands. It would belong to nobody and everybody at the same time. Inexperienced foremen, inflexible, and brittle, bristled with arrogance upon the slightest criticism. Practically ineffective but ideologically driven they iron fistedly expunged centuries of creativity, initiative and flexibility in one fell swoop with the Holodomor. When subjected to pressure and stress, things break, snap or crack - as Ukraine did in the 1930's. Millions of people died, and with them, the subtly nuanced collective inheritance of farm land management, resources and cultural wealth. And countless personal and shared stories of life and living.....
Horrific events with a multitude of affects - and here we are 80 and more years later seeing Ukraine continue its struggle - how to bounce back from the aftermath of the Holodomor and more, and finally develop the world class leadership capacity to ensure the nation's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. How to engage an entirely disengaged citizenry who remember just how quickly the tallest sunflower always gets noticed and cut down first!!
The future beacons, and those who learn from the past will not make the same errors.
On Saturday, 22 November 2014, International Holodomor Memorial Day and National Holodomor Memorial Day, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress calls upon all Canadians to:
remember the victims of the Holodomor with a moment of silence at 19:32 local time;
light candles of remembrance in homes;
participate in local commemorative events and memorial services.
Calgary's Holodomor Commemoration Ceremony will be held on Nov 22nd, 2014 at 11 AM at St.Vladimir Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 404 Meredith Road NE Calgary. You are graciously invited to wear an embroidered sorochka, and join the community commemoration of the Ukrainian Genocide Famine 'Holodomor'.
May our memory of the victims of the Holodomor – 1932-33 Famine Genocide remain eternal.
Ukraine remembers – the World acknowledges!
