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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-02-05 Daily Xml
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UKRAINIAN FAMINE

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (12:12): I move:

That this house—

(a) notes that 2007-08 marks the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, caused by the deliberate actions of Stalin's communist government of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics;

(b) recalls that an estimated seven million people in the Ukrainian Republic starved to death as a result of Stalinist policies in 1932-33 and that millions more lost their lives in the purge that ensued for the rest of the decade;

(c) notes that this famine resulted in one of the greatest losses of human life in one country during the 20th century and that it has been recognised as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation and its people by the Verkhovna Rada, the Parliament of Ukraine;

(d) honours the memories of those who lost their lives and extends its deepest sympathies to the victims, survivors and families of this tragedy; and

(e) joins the Ukrainian people throughout the world and, in particular, people of Ukrainian origin and descent in South Australia, in solemn commemoration of those tragic events.

It is my great honour and solemn duty to move this motion calling on the house to note the 75th anniversary of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. It is with great sadness that I speak about events and memories which are very painful for Ukrainians in South Australia and around the world. The year 2007-08 marks the anniversary which has become known as the Holodomor—literally, 'death by hunger'.

I was initially contacted about this issue by members of the Association of Ukrainians in South Australia—President John Dnistriansky and Vice-President Volodymyr Fedojuk—and I thank them both for raising awareness of the Great Ukrainian Famine and its 75th anniversary on behalf of Ukrainians and their descendants in this state.

In my research to discover exactly what happened to the Ukrainian people during the Holodomor, I was confronted by horrific photographs of young children dying of hunger and stories of mothers so desperate they would toss their emaciated children into passing railway cars travelling towards cities in the hope that someone might take pity on them.

It must be understood that this famine was not a natural disaster: it was a man-made famine caused by the deliberate actions of Stalin's Communist government of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

An informative exhibition, organised by the Ukrainian Museum in New York City on behalf of the Permanent Mission of Ukraine to the United Nations in 2003, outlined how the Great Famine that enveloped Ukraine in 1932-33 was precipitated by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's policy of collectivisation, under which all privately owned land was expropriated and peasants were forced onto collective farms. It is a sobering reminder of the dangers of socialist economics and political fanaticism.

Stalin's plan was that the collective farms would feed the growing numbers of industrial workers in cities and at the same time supply substantial amounts of grain for sale overseas and then use the proceeds to finance further industrialisation in the Soviet Union.

The Ukrainian peasants, who were forced on to collective farms, were subjected to one of the greatest losses of human life in one country in the 20th century. The deliberate man-made famine was designed to crush resistance and break the will of the Ukrainian people. Stalin's government imposed ever higher grain quotas on the collective farms that were simply impossible to meet and which ensured that no grain was left to feed the peasants and their children who had produced the crops.

In 1932 to 1933 the Soviet government exported almost 30 million tonnes of grain, while seven million Ukrainians starved to death. While millions of people in the Ukraine were dying, very few accounts of the famine reached the west and the Soviet government repeatedly denied that there had even been such an event. The great Ukrainian famine has been recognised as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian nation and its people by the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of the Ukraine, in 2003.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has advised that the Ukraine does not have a resolution in the United Nations at present for the Holodomor to be recognised as an act of genocide—something that surprises me—and that the Australian government does not have a position on having the Holodomor accepted in the United Nations as an act of genocide.

The debate about whether the Holodomor constitutes such an act of genocide is one which must take place at the international level. The world must not forget this deliberate act of starvation of the Ukrainian people, the descendants of whom live among us in this state today. We need reminding that, if we forget the lessons of history, we are often condemned to repeat them.

I call on the house to support the motion in solemn commemoration of the tragedy that was the great Ukrainian famine. I extend to the descendants who now reside in this state our best wishes and sympathies in respect of those Ukrainians who died.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (12:18): I rise to support the Leader of the Opposition's motion and acknowledge what the Ukrainian people had to put up with and how the Ukrainian community in Adelaide commemorated this event last year—it certainly was not celebrated. I attended the commemoration event and was made very welcome by John Dnistriansky.

Mr Kenyon interjecting:

Mr PEDERICK: Absolutely. They were very welcoming people and obviously a very cohesive group, and they reminded me that they will not forget what happened 75 years ago. To give some background on this, Joseph Stalin, the then leader of the Soviet Union, set in motion the events that led to the Holodomor, designed to cause a famine in the Ukraine to deliberately destroy the people seeking independence. As a result an estimated seven million to 10 million people perished in this area. The Ukraine was known then, as it is known now, as the bread basket of Europe. The people were deprived of the very food they had grown and it was put to other people's use and taken right out of their hands.

As time went on, Lenin took control. At one stage after 1921, he relaxed his grip on the country, stopped taking out so much grain and even encouraged a free market exchange of goods. However, when Stalin came about in 1924—and he was one of the most ruthless humans ever to hold power—he began to see that the continuing loss of Soviet influence in the Ukraine was completely unacceptable, so he decided he would crush the people's free spirit and began to employ the same methods he had successfully used within the Soviet Union. Thus, beginning in 1929, over 5,000 Ukrainian scholars, scientists, cultural and religious leaders were arrested after being falsely accused of plotting an armed revolt. Those arrested were either shot without a trial or deported to prison camps in remote areas of Russia.

Stalin also imposed the Soviet system of land management known as collectivisation. This resulted in the seizure of all privately owned farmlands and livestock in a country where 80 per cent of the people were traditional village farmers. Among those farmers was a class of people called Kulaks by the communists. They were formerly wealthy farmers who had owned 24 or more acres or who had employed farm workers. Stalin believed any future insurrection would be led by the Kulaks, thus he proclaimed a policy aimed at 'liquidating the Kulaks as a class'.

Back in the Ukraine, once proud village farmers were by now reduced to the level of rural factory workers on large collective farms. Anyone refusing to participate in the compulsory collectivisation was simply denounced and deported. A propaganda campaign was started utilising young communist activists who spread out among the country folk attempting to shore up the people's support for the Soviet regime. However, this failed and the people resisted through acts of rebellion and outright sabotage. They burned their own homes rather than surrender them. They took back their property and even assassinated local Soviet authorities.

Ultimately, this put them in direct conflict with the power and authority of Joseph Stalin. Over time, Soviet troops and police were brought in. They were originally ordered to fire over the farmers' heads but then shot directly at them. But the resistance continued. The people simply refused to become cogs in the Soviet farm machine and remained stubbornly determined to return to their pre Soviet farming lifestyle. In Moscow, Stalin responded by dictating a policy that would deliberately cause mass starvation and result in the deaths of millions.

By mid-1932, nearly 75 per cent of the farms in the Ukraine had been forcibly collectivised. On Stalin's orders, mandatory quotas of foodstuffs to be shipped out to the Soviet Union were drastically increased from August through to January 1933, until there was simply no food remaining to feed the people of the Ukraine. Much of that huge crop was dumped on the foreign market to generate cash to aid Stalin's five-year plan for the modernisation of the Soviet Union and also to help finance his massive military build-up. If this wheat had been left in the Ukraine, it would have been enough to feed those people for up to two years.

Despite Ukrainian communists appealing to Moscow for a reduction in the grain quotas and also asking for emergency food aid, Stalin just responded by denouncing them and rushed in 100,000 more Russian soldiers to purge the Ukrainian Communist Party. Starvation ensued throughout the Ukraine, with the most vulnerable—the children and the elderly—first feeling the effects of malnutrition. The once smiling young faces of children vanished forever amid the constant pain of hunger. It gnawed away at their bellies, which became grossly swollen, while their arms and legs became like sticks as they slowly starved to death. Mothers in the countryside sometimes threw their emaciated children onto passing rail cars hoping that their children might get a better life in Kiev.

However, people in cities like Kiev were dropping dead in the street, and their bodies were being carted away in horse-drawn wagons and dumped in mass graves. While the police and Communist Party officials remained quite well fed, desperate Ukrainians ate leaves, killed dogs, cats, frogs, mice and birds and then cooked them. Others, who had gone mad with hunger, resorted to cannibalism, with parents sometimes even eating their own children.

Meanwhile, the Soviet-controlled granaries were said to be bursting at the seams from huge stocks of reserve grain which had not yet been shipped out of the Ukraine. In some locations, grain and potatoes were piled up in the open, protected by barbed wire and armed guards, who shot down anyone attempting to take the food.

By the spring of 1933, at the height of the famine, an estimated 25,000 people died every day in the Ukraine. Entire villages perished. In Europe, America and Canada, persons of Ukrainian descent, and others, responded to news reports of the famine by sending in food supplies. But Soviet authorities halted all food shipments at the border, because it was the official policy of the Soviet Union to deny the existence of a famine and thus to refuse any outside assistance. Anyone claiming that there was, in fact, a famine was accused of spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Inside the Soviet Union, a person could be arrested for even using the words 'famine', 'hunger' or 'starvation' in a sentence. The Soviets bolstered their famine denial by duping members of the foreign press and using propaganda so that the west would not get the right message.

Stalin's five-year plan for the modernisation of the Soviet Union depended largely on the purchase of massive amounts of manufactured goods and technology from western nations. That is why those nations were unwilling to disrupt their trade agreements with the Soviet Union.

By the end of 1933, nearly 25 per cent of the total population of the Ukraine, including three million children, had perished. The Kulaks, as a class, were destroyed and an entire nation of village farmers had been decimated. With his immediate objectives achieved, Stalin allowed food distribution to resume inside the Ukraine and the famine subsided. However, political persecutions and further roundups of 'enemies' continued unchecked for many years.

I join with the Ukrainians to remember this event. May we never see such a disgraceful attitude towards human beings ever again. I commend the motion.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (12:27): I will be very brief. I support the motion moved by the Leader of the Opposition and I extend my deepest sympathies to the people in the Ukrainian community world wide for what happened, particularly during the 1930s.

It is very important that we do not forget what happened in the past because, if we do not know our history, we do not have a future. We should learn from what has happened in the past. To some extent, I think Stalin has been allowed to get away with his actions. He is dead, and history has been more gentle to him than to Hitler, but they were both intensely evil people. We have to be careful that we in no way glorify these people who are sometimes described as mad; I think they are more accurately described as evil. We know what Hitler did to people of the Jewish faith, to the disabled, to gypsies, and so on—it was wicked, evil behaviour.

Importantly, it should tell us that if good people do not challenge this sort of behaviour, evil people will thrive. So, we are all responsible, in a way, to make sure that we do what we can, and that our government—along with other governments, and federally—acts early to deal with people who engage in inhumane treatment of our fellow citizens throughout the world.

I think one can argue about some aspects of so-called multiculturalism, but one of the great things of that policy collectively in Australia has been a focus on tolerance of people from different backgrounds. Clearly, we need to acknowledge differences, but we also need to acknowledge that, ultimately, there should also be cohesion and oneness. That is important because it highlights to children the need to encourage empathy, tolerance and understanding of others, particularly when dealing with people of different religious faiths or from different racial or tribal backgrounds, whatever the difference may be, and to accept and tolerate, in an acceptable way, the differences that may exist.

This crime against the Ukrainian people was more than just simply a matter of tolerance; it was an evil act. One can look at many countries—not only at Ukraine but also at a lot of other countries in Europe and in Asia—where there has been similar treatment of people, and that is an appalling indictment on the human species. While the perpetrators should take the main blame and responsibility, I emphasise the point again that we all have a responsibility to deal with people, whether it be a Mugabe or whoever, and not be cowards and hold back. This happened during the Second World War, when I am sure that people in the West knew some of the things that were happening. This event was early in the thirties, but I am sure authorities in the West knew that some of these things were happening (and, likewise, during Hitler's regime) but did little about it.

Dr McFETRIDGE (Morphett) (12:31): I rise in support of the Leader of the Opposition's motion to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor, the Great Ukrainian Famine. I will not go into the detail because this subject has been well presented by both the leader and the member for Hammond. The sad fact that we are here even speaking about this disaster is an indictment in itself. Man's inhumanity to man is something we all need to recognise. As politicians, whether it be in the South Australian government, the federal government or the United Nations, we need to make sure that we do all in our power to highlight the atrocities that have been seen historically, and are currently happening around the world, to make sure that action is taken.

We are here to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor. What will we be saying in 75 years about Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe and his henchmen are conducting genocide and the destruction of the food bowl of Africa? The Ukraine was the food bowl of the Soviet Union and some parts of Europe. The world has seen Pol Pot and Hitler and many other incidents and occurrences where megalomaniacs were able to wield power with dire consequences for millions of people and when lives were lost or badly affected. In this case, millions of lives were lost because of a deliberate action to starve people into submission, to starve any resistance and to starve people into oblivion so that a megalomaniac could achieve his own goals.

The history of Stalin is one we all should be ashamed of. All those who supported him and who continue to support any of his ideologies should be condemned. Certainly, world leaders—and I use that word guardedly—or those in power around the world who continue atrocities, such as we are seeing in Zimbabwe today, need to be condemned. We need to do more than just condemn them; we need to have a strong United Nations and a strong world authority that can say, 'Enough is enough.' We cannot close our eyes just because of economic prudence and political agendas. We have to make sure that man's inhumanity to man does not continue. I support the motion.

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen) (12:35): I will make only a brief contribution. I came down to the chamber not expecting to speak on this motion but, when I listened to the contributions of the leader and the member for Hammond, I was motivated to make at least a small contribution.

It never ceases to amaze me that human beings can treat each other in the way detailed by those speakers in relation to the events of 1932-33. It bewilders and amazes me when I see what people are capable of doing to each other en masse. I have noted that the chamber has remained remarkably quiet during the addresses on this, and I am grateful for that because I think it indicates that, on occasions, we do rise to an appropriate level of behaviour in this place and recognise the sombre issues that sometimes confront us.

Whilst this is an anniversary of something that occurred over 75 years ago, as the leader said in his speech, those who forget the lessons of history are destined to repeat them. To my mind, it is bad enough when one sees a famine occur because of natural circumstances, such as one might see in Africa with droughts and so on—but to think that a single individual was able to perpetrate such an atrocity against an entire people. I am ashamed to say that until this morning I knew nothing about it, and I read a fair bit of history. I certainly have studied some Russian history, but not as much as I perhaps should have. It is an embarrassment to me that I knew nothing about the events that have been spoken about this morning. I think that, as humans, we should all be deeply ashamed to think that we are capable of doing these sorts of things one to the other.

So, it is with a somewhat sombre heart that I indicate my gratitude to the leader and to the member for Hammond for their speeches on this matter, and I look forward to the support of the entire house for the motion.

Mr KENYON (Newland) (12:37): This motion is a good opportunity to ponder a few things. It is important that we do remember the events that occurred in the Ukraine 70 years ago, not just because there are still people alive (not many, I suspect) who lived through this, and it is appropriate to reflect on their suffering. As people have already said, those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. So, it is our duty to remind ourselves of these events so that we can guard against them in future.

It is also a reminder of the pain and suffering that can be inflicted upon people by despotism. It reminds us of the benefits of our democracy, not just the orderly running of a society but that, generally, democracies almost entirely avoid these episodes. Those countries that are committed to democracy do not tend to suffer these events, and that is why it is a reminder as well that we are right to encourage democracy in other countries, not just because despotic governments are likely to attack other countries, thus involving us in wars, but also because fellow human beings are less likely to suffer in a democracy. So, I think we are right to support democracies, particularly fledgling democracies.

Personally, I have a view that there is a certain amount of nobility in attempting to remove despotism across the world. We should not forget, too, that these events, in various forms, are going on around the world even as we speak. This is not an event limited to 70 years ago. In Africa, there are despotic regimes, and the member for Fisher mentioned Robert Mugabe essentially starving his country into submission, and that is occurring now. In China, right at this very minute, people are being imprisoned, or are in prison, simply for believing that they should have a different system of government or that they should not be part of China; Tibetans, for instance.

So, this sort of despotism is alive and well, and we choose every day to assist it in some small way. For example, in the case of China, we buy Chinese goods all the time; we trade extensively with that country.

The irony is that Chinese investment may affect a lot of people positively in this country, but at what cost to other people—fellow human beings in another country? The good thing—and the reason I am glad to see this motion in the house—is that it gives us the opportunity to reflect on those points.

Mr GOLDSWORTHY (Kavel) (12:40): I obviously speak in support of the motion brought to the house by the leader. This is a sombre issue that the leader has raised, but it is important that true facts of events such as this are revealed and exposed for what they are, and that they are not just closed within the pages of history.

I had the real pleasure of attending a lunch that the Ukraine association hosted last year, and I have to say that it was an absolutely enjoyable occasion. The Attorney-General was there, as well, and a number of other dignitaries, and I met President John and Vice-President Roger and their lovely wives, and we had a very enjoyable afternoon. They were very welcoming, caring, friendly people, and it was a real pleasure to spend most of the afternoon with them. It was an occasion that I am sure I will always remember.

At the lunch, President John spoke to me about this particular issue, and he said that he had presented to the Parliamentary Library here a book that had been written about the history of this particular set of events that took place in the Ukraine in the 1930s, and he gave me some details of what actually took place.

Obviously the Soviets had a different version of the event. They said it was a famine that caused the death of millions of those people in farming communities in the Ukraine. It was not a famine at all. They had the heavy-handed, brutal, torturous hand of the Soviet government come down on them to a point where it oppressed them into starvation. The leader and the member for Hammond have quite specifically outlined the course of events. The grain produced through that region was confiscated, basically, for the purpose of building up other areas of the Soviet Union, resulting in the deaths of the Ukrainian farmers.

That is a very important point to raise. It was not a famine that caused the deaths of millions of these people. It was the implementation of direct policy by the torturous, murderous Soviet regime that brought about this course of events. We talk today about crimes against humanity, but there is no doubt that this was a particular crime against humanity in the Ukraine.

Other members have spoken about Stalin, and the member for Fisher is correct that, in history, he is not necessarily depicted as severely as Hitler, but Stalin was a mass murderer. He was a tyrannical, torturous, extremely cruel mass murderer, and he pushed that philosophy right down through his regime. There is no getting away from those facts and, as I said, it is very important that these matters are revealed with absolute accuracy. I was very pleased to attend the lunch hosted by the Ukrainian association. It was a very enjoyable afternoon and I had a lovely afternoon chatting with the vice president's wife whom I sat next to, and she is a lovely person.

In closing, I want to say that the Ukrainian people who have migrated particularly here to South Australia provide a rich vitality and energy and have a friendly and accepting manner. They add to the tapestry of our South Australian cultural life in a significant way.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mrs Geraghty.

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