Diaspora pays tribute to Holodomor victims in Los Angeles

This is reported by Voice Of America, according to Ukrinform.

Professor of Shevchenko University in Kyiv, chairman of the International Association of Holodomor researchers Volodymyr Sergiychuk, who analyzed the number of first-graders of Ukrainian schools in 1932-33, voiced shocking facts.

"How many were supposed to come to school and how many came in 1933 through 1940. This analysis showed that approximately 40% of children did not make it to the first grade. We are saying that the child losses of those who were born in 1924-1932 amount to 3.2 million," Sergiychuk said.

Also presented at the event was the monograph "Ukrainian intelligentsia and the Holodomor" by Victoria Malko, a history teacher at the University of California, Fresno, which tells American students about the Holodomor.

"They understand this story only through the prism of the Soviet past. This new monograph, which was published this year, was written for students of American colleges and universities to explain to them what the Holodomor is," she said.

The story notes that, in addition to spreading information about the Holodomor, the task of the Ukrainian diaspora and the Ukrainian consulate in California is to do everything possible to ensure that the state of California officially recognizes the Holodomor as genocide.

According to the consul general of Ukraine in San Francisco Dmytro Kushneruk, there are years of work ahead for the resolution with the concept of genocide to finally be adopted.

"That is, many states have recognized it, but not California. That is, there is some opposition, some members of the California Assembly focus on the Slavic community as a whole and try to listen to the interests of Russian (communities – Ed.). But I think that over the next few years we will work very hard with them to finally adopt a resolution that would contain the concept of genocide," he said.

The Consulate, together with the Ukrainian community, is also seeking the governor of California to make a proclamation recognizing the Holodomor as an act of genocide.

The World Congress of Ukrainians (UWC) has published a calendar of celebrations of the 88th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-33 – the genocide of the Ukrainian people, which will be joined by world Ukrainians on November 27.