On Holodomor Remembrance Day, Interior Minister Igor Klimenko spoke about a unique map created based on Soviet-era criminal cases, visually presenting data on cannibalism cases in 1932–1933.
Details were provided by Channel 24, quoting Igor Klimenko. Reading the data is quite difficult, but necessary. This is how we can learn our true history. It is important to point out that in 1956, the Soviet government destroyed some of the materials on cannibalism. But not all.
What we know about the interactive Holodomor map from the Ministry of Internal Affairs
“The Holodomor is a grave and cynical crime against humanity. A tragedy against the Ukrainian people, caused by Russia. This is confirmed by documents and recollections of eyewitnesses of those events. Russia is doing the same now, torturing captured soldiers and civilians with starvation. The Ministry of Internal Affairs, in cooperation with the Holodomor Museum, has digitized and published thousands of criminal cases related to the actions of Soviet executioners. Photocopies of more than a thousand archival cases are already available on the electronic map, as well as information about the same number of documents destroyed in 1956,” Igor Klimenko wrote. He stressed that the published materials prove that the famine was a deliberate tool to attempt to pacify the Ukrainian people. Therefore, Ukraine must remember this in order to never give up its freedom.
It should be noted that the work on the map took quite a long time. In 2020, the Ministry of Internal Affairs signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Holodomor Museum, and the archives of criminal cases on genocide were opened. Then, declassified archival cases were transferred to the museum, and in 2023, 1,022 cases of cannibalism during the Holodomor of 1932-1933 were digitized. Now we have added information on more than a thousand cases of cannibalism – the Soviet government destroyed them in 1956, but at least some information has been preserved in the so-called selective lists for destruction. In total, we have almost 2,050 of the tragic stories.
Using electronic map tools, it can be seen that the spread of cannibalism clearly coincides with the geography of the regions most affected by the Holodomor, as previously established by Ukrainian scientists. This once again confirms the horrors of the genocidal policy of the Soviet empire towards Ukraine and refutes the Russian myth about the all-Union famine in the USSR, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a statement.
The interactive map of the Ministry of Internal Affairs about the Holodomor is very valuable for researchers, because it shows:
- data on cannibalism from testimonies published in the volume of the National Book of Memory of the Holodomor in the Kyiv region, making it possible to verify part of the oral history testimonies and identify cases that were not recorded by punitive bodies;
- the administrative division of the Ukrainian SSR in 1933, making it possible to use a modern map of Ukraine;
- where grain procurements were the toughest, which means that correlations can be made with the peasant rebel movement, especially in the southern Kyiv region – today’s Cherkasy Oblast.
Important! Work on applying data to the map is still ongoing, the map can be viewed on the Ministry of Internal Affairs website in a special section. Now it is available at this link.
Translating History 