The Famine - the genocide of the Ukrainian people - has been recognized by the parliaments of Australia, Argentina, Georgia, Estonia, Italy, Canada, Lithuania, Poland, USA, Hungary. [What about] Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada???
65 photos from the Famine commemoration yesterday - here.
It started at Sofiyivska and moved to Mykhailivska Square, a very emotional affair. I got there after the departure of all the VIPs, but there were still so many people - lighting candles, listening to survivors' testimonials broadcast on big screens, just standing there quietly.
Too many media folks, though, especially photographers, but I shouldn't be the one to complain about that. A demented-looking anti-Semite by the Bohdan Khmelnytsky monument. Down on Khreshchatyk, or up in Lipki, not a trace of mourning: Kyiv is a big city now. On Channel 1+1, very inappropriately, the final part of Dancing With The Stars contest show.
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To learn more about the Famine, here's the 1988 report to Congress (via Cyber Cossack).
There is a tree in my home town, Bradford, that was planted as a memorial to the famine. It's just between the Jacobs Well pub and the council offices, and it bears a plaque stating that it was planted in memory of the famine victims by the "Captive Nations Committee", that is to say, some gathering of Bradford Poles and Ukrainians.
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