Prince George Ukrainians set to mark the Holodomor famine that killed millions
St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Prince George at 2414 Vanier Dr. will host a gathering on Friday, Nov. 25, at 4 p.m. to pay tribute to Holodomor victims.
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Ted Clarke Nov 15, 2022 5:00 AM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message UNBC student Vova Pluzhnikov, in yellow, leads a crowd of runners in the 44 Kilometres for 44 Million Run For Ukraine through the streets of Prince George on March 8.Citizen file photo Listen to this article 00:07:02 November 11th was a day to honour the memories of our military men and women involved in Canada’s war efforts and pay tribute to their ongoing commitment to peacekeeping missions, humanitarian deployments and disaster relief. Vova Pluzhnikov, a Ukrainian citizen who came to Prince George six years ago to study marketing at UNBC, was reminded on Friday of the significance of Remembrance Day for Canadians and he also has the fourth Saturday in November marked on his calendar. Holodomor Memorial Day, on Saturday, Nov. 26, is a day to remember one of the darkest periods in the war-torn country’s history. It’s a tribute to the millions of Ukrainians who died in a famine - a direct result of the Joseph Stalin-led Soviet Union collectivist agricultural policies which set impossibly high quotas for the amount of grain each farm was required to contribute to the country to sustain exports. Holodomor, which means "murder by starvation" is recognized in the Ukraine as a genocide. At least 3.9 million Ukrainians starved to death and some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The fallout of quotas not meeting targets affected other parts of the Soviet Union and the actual number of deaths attributed to the famine was between five and seven million. “It was just another act of terrorism towards Ukrainians,” said Pluzhnikov, who studied history at Kharkiv University before he came to Canada in 2016. “People who fled Ukraine to find a safe spot at that time were targeted and were found by the officials and brought back to their villages and towns and the people suffered the most were the peasants and farmers who were trying to make a living or themselves and their families. “The grain was not redistributed properly and so the people who actually needed the food starved to death. The worst part about that was those people couldn’t leave their villages because of the passport system the Soviets put in. They could only reside in the place where they worked and if they wanted to move to another city they couldn’t do it and were stuck in that situation.” Pluzhnikov’s hometown Kharkiv has been one of the hardest hit cities this year in the Ukraine war. By mid-October, close to 3,000 buildings had been damaged by shelling, including a sports facility next to a Holodomor Memorial statue the now 27-year-old Pluzhnikov first saw as a young boy. “I just have this vivid memory of going there with my parents and them telling me about the events of 1932 and 1933 and telling me that we lost a lot of people and that were targeted by the Soviet government,” said Pluzhnikov. “Part of the problem was a lot of Ukrainian farmers overproduced in the years before and that’s why the quotas went up so much, because they thought our farmers could produce way more. The crops they saved went bad and they couldn’t figure out how to make them grow every single year. Honestly, with the events of this year, if you think about 1932 and 1933, it’s just another chapter of that history book and how the Soviet Union and Russia are terrorizing us once every 100 years. It’s that chapter that keeps repeating itself.” The Holodomor holiday was first established in 1998. Ukrainians also celebrate May 9 as Second World War victory day in eastern Europe and their independence day holiday falls on Aug. 24. Pluzhnikov says he’s become more familiar with the significance of Remembrance Day since he came to Canada. St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Prince George at 2414 Vanier Dr. will host a gathering on Friday, Nov. 25, at 4 p.m. to pay tribute to Holodomor victims. “I truly believe we need more reasons to remember our history and look back and acknowledge every...