My first full day in Kiev, after checking "Places to See" in the local tour guide, I find they have a "Holodomor" Memorial. Holodomor is the Ukrainian word for famine. The memorial is specifically for the estimated 8 million people who starved to death during the winter of 1932-1933. At Stalin's order, food was confiscated from the farmers and, at threat of shooting, they were not allowed to leave their villages (see the links to the left). This was to punish them for refusing to give up their land to the Soviet government. The villagers were opposing the government policies.
The memorial was an emotional event. I was compelled to light a candle in memory, and I signed the guest book as follows: "In memory of my grandfather and father. May they live on through their children". My father is not dead, so maybe the words weren't quite correct, but when he goes, his spirit will also live on. "Those were terrible times," was all I could ever get out of him. His cousin was a bit more revealing, and it sounded much like the other accounts I have read; how the people boiled rats and tree bark just to stay alive. The rats were poison, and so many died of disease. Those that survived were primarily in their teens. My dad was 13.
On my walk back from the Memorial, I was still contemplating. As I rode the long escalator back down to the subway, balilaika music was being piped in. It was like all those people were talking to me through their music.....
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