The House of Representatives will recognize the famine in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 as genocide. This Thursday, the political groups will vote on a motion from the coalition parties VVD, D66, CDA and ChristenUnie.
The four parties have a majority in the House of Representatives, but initiator Sjoerd Sjoerdsma (D66) is also hoping for broad support from the opposition.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union in the years 1932 and 1933, under the leadership of Joseph Stalin. The famine, known as the Holodomor, killed millions of people.
The famine was caused by the collectivization of agriculture. Small farmers were forced to give way to large state enterprises. The peasants who resist are deported to prison camps in Siberia. Farmers who stayed behind had to give up a significant part of the grain harvest, even though it was already a bad year for the harvest. A catastrophic famine ensued.
Ontvang een melding bij nieuwe berichten over de Nederlandse politiek
Many other parliaments have already preceded the Netherlands
All four governing parties state in the motion that the famine was planned and carried out by the regime of the then Soviet Union. Grain crops were taken and borders closed to prevent Ukrainians from fleeing.
A number of other parliaments, such as that of Flanders, France and the EU, have already called the Holodomor a genocide. This has happened especially in recent months in light of the 90th anniversary.
It is not yet certain that the government will also recognize the Holodomor as genocide. In the motion, the government parties do not go so far as to make this call.
More than two years ago, a parliamentary majority called on the cabinet to recognize the Armenian Genocide. It still hasn’t happened.
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