Swiss Parliament recognizes genocidal nature of 1930s famine in Ukraine

The lower house of the Swiss Parliament, the National Council, recognized the Holodomor of 1932-1933 as an act of genocide, according to Ruslan Stefanchuk, the speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada.

The Holodomor was a man-made famine that occurred in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, resulting in the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. It is widely considered to have been deliberately orchestrated by the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin as part of a broader Soviet famine, with the goal of collectivizing agriculture and suppressing Ukrainian nationalism.

The declaration acknowledges “systematic actions aimed at mass and deliberate starvation to destroy a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” as an act of genocide, according to Stefanchuk.

“This is truly a historic decision. It is an extremely important step towards restoring historical justice and preserving the memory of millions of innocent victims,” Stefanchuk stated.

The Swiss Parliament’s website reports that the declaration was approved with 123 votes in favor, 58 against, and 7 abstentions.

The text of the declaration notes that “four million Ukrainians, about two million Kazakhs, and hundreds of thousands of Russians died during the famine in Ukraine in 1932 and 1933,” according to the Swiss Parliament’s website.

The National Council’s declaration specifically states: “The National Council recognizes as an act of genocide clearly systematic actions that lead to mass and deliberate famine and are committed with the intention of destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious group as such, in whole or in part.”

The parliaments of about 30 countries worldwide, as well as the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, have recognized the Holodomor as genocide against the Ukrainian people.

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