They are already here.

They have a long way behind them.

Millions. Millions of our grandfathers, fathers, brothers, sisters. 

Their wagons set out from heaven. Mothers must be worried not to overlook even that smallest, the most precious who found his peace and silently fell asleep in God's hands. 

For 75 years has been that caravan of souls traveling, trying to reach these heavens – three, five, seven, eight millions of guiltless people, hundreds of thousands families, extinct villages, souls who did not receive their burial services, tormented, massacred unburied destinies.

They want to go home. They see these small lights. 

They trust in us. 

Because we are their unlived lives. 

Dear Ukrainian nation, Brothers and Sisters. 

We are united. Today Ukraine and Ukrainians of the world begin to commemorate 75-th anniversary of terrible catastrophe, which was Holodomor 1932-1933. 

We honor every soul, every victim, and every martyr. 

Even until now we don't know full scale of the tragedy. 

Slowly its deathly face emerges from witnesses' memories, from secret archives, from devilish "detached folders". 

"I remember all this… I was swollen from hunger; my brother was even in the worst condition… He was dying; his swollen body was leaking fluid. I was sitting beside him, he was gritting his teeth and kept asking for a cucumber… Than he died… His dead body has been wrapped in a blanket, the color of this blanket is still in my memory". These are recollections of Hanna Nelasa, born in Luhansk region. This woman overcame her terror and made her testimony.

"Confiscators would stop before nothing – neither before the sufferings of children, nor before their quantity in a family… They kept coming back again and again taking everything they could find. They were worst than fascists". This is Nonna Cherveva from Horlivka.  

Lines from the letter of Mykola Antonowych Reva from Hylivka, Poltava region to Joseph Stalin: "hundreds of thousands of people died of hunger, all before the eyes of communists, who were riding over our dead bodies boldly praising life". Mykola Reva was sentenced to 6 years of prison. 

From the letter of Kaganovich to Stalin: "I fully agree with your evaluation of the state of affairs in Ukraine… The theory that Ukrainians are guiltless victims leads to solidarity and corrupt cover-up… I think that… the time has come… to urge the organization to definite brakethrough…" 

They wanted to brake everywone. 

Evil risen against us. The name to this evil is genocide. The deliberate, accurately planned attempt of suppression.

Its arranger and executor is totalitarian communist regime. It is the mastermind murderer. A pack of bastards had no mercy for any peoples, every subjected nation was filled with rivers of blood. 

In our land Stalin in accordance with deliberate plan chose to victimize Ukrainian peasantry being the core, the basis, the prop of nation. 

"There is no powerful national movement without a peasants army. National question in its essence is a question of peasantry". In that Stalin's phrase lays the answer to the question – why did millions of Ukrainians die.

Terror was being launched deliberately and consequently. During 1932-1933 69 Political Bureau of Central Committee sittings took place where 270 subjects of Ukraine were directly discussed.

They have been working tirelessly. During Holodomor's worst stage 25 thousands of people died each day. 

We must learn about every fact, every command, every name of victims and murderers both. Search for truth cannot be stopped and it shall not stop. 

First they confiscated provisions. Then they surrounded territories of Ukraine and Kuban. One third of our villages were put on the "black lists", they've become famine ghettos and that happened long before Hitler. 

All harvest was for export, all grain that could save millions of lives was processed into vodka. 

There was no chance. People started to consume bodies of the dead. 

Holodomor is not just a pain and a wound. It is a black hole in our history, which could devour not only Ukraine itself but any hope for life as well.

It is a peak of tragedy however it is not the only one. 

I ask that today we recall everyone. 

With your word and prayer I ask you to honor our state's government which 90 years ago has proclaimed and strengthened independence. They have become first victims. Almost all 800 members of Tsentralna Rada were liquidated.
My Nation. I now recall Your tourmented, maimed and humiliated poets. Here, on these squares they were hearing golden hubbub of freedom. They have been ripped thir hearts out. 

I now recall Your national creative, scientific, medical and technical intellectuals who were subjected to mass arrests and systematic terror. They were generously presented their share of death sentences.

I now recall our destroyed churches and priesthood. They were ruined without mercy in order to ruin our souls and faith.

I now recall tremendous and unthinkable numbers of wars' victims. This vortex was about to bring us to the end. 

Totalitarianism and bolshevism broke historical continuity of Ukrainian generations, spirit, memory, mentality, culture and language. 

Fear was spread among fractured and substituted nation. The fruits of this fear we reap until now. 

Our current political and social disorder rise out of this endless fear. We fear to turn back to national roots because back then it was equivalent to death. Harshness and complication of our path rises out this fear. The Path towards each other, towards consent and unity. 

Bolshevism and stalinism crimes are identical to those of nazism and hitlerism. They share common nature: inhumanity. 

The time has come to proclaim the request and the appeal for universal condemnation of communist terror, which has been killing us and other nations on this land – Russians, Crimean Tatars, Belo Russians, Jews, Poles, Bulgarians, hundreds of nationalities. 

I say strait to all the apologists of Stalin's regime. Thus speaks The Ukrainian State – your attempts of justification are vain because no justification can be found. Repent your sins for supreme retribution shall come. 

We are not alone in our pain and ire. From here, from Mykhaylivska square in Kyiv, Ukraine appeals to the entire world to unite efforts against totalitarianism and intolerance of life.  

Our tragedy is a warning for everyone. 

Let us speak a word of empathy and grief to every nation and above all to those with whom we passed through the communist hell. Our hearts are sincere, loving and not indifferent to you. Stand by our side today.

We appeal to the world to recognize Holodomor 1932-1933 the genocide against Ukrainian nation and believe that such recognition is inevitable. 

I thank to all the parliamentarians and governments who have already shown us their support and I am glad that international support broadens.

Historical justice shall prevail. 

My present words are no requiem. 

My words are the hymn to the Ukrainian nation and to its vigor, which is indestructible. It has defeated death.

We remained standing after the threat of totalitarian extermination. Ukrainian nation has prevailed because its state has appeared.

We remained standing thanks to millions of honest people, who fought for Ukraine and were building it with their everyday work.

We remained standing because freedom, truth and life were fought for by all Ukrainians – from Donetsk and Lviv, from Luhansk and Uzhhorod, from Sevastopol and Odessa, from Kharkiv and Ternopil, from Poltava and Lutsk, from Dnipropetrovsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, from Simferopol and Chernihiv from Kyiv and from allover Ukraine.

We won our victory in a final battle against evil.

Today we must win another battle. We must return Ukraine to itself.

Our mission is to resurrect united, sound and life-assertig nation wich shall embrace whole Ukrainiane people regardless of views, regional origin or religion. 

The next year is proclaimed The Year of Commemoration of Holodomor victims. 

But it is not a commemorative procession. 

Rather it is a resurrection of memory, purification from lies and filth. This is to be pure and honest work. Only such work may help to bring true national and living order to Ukraine. 

We must dress Ukraine in clean clothes and remove symbols of totalitarianism from its body. Even if it takes more than one eyar. 

We must find and preserve information on every victime of Holodomor and open national memorials to them.

We have to establish grand social dialogue of heritage and dialogue of perspective at the same time because we must move on, must live a full-fledged life of a large contemporary state, must act and seek genuine mutual understanding. 

This way we shall strengthen our future, our new democratic Constitution, our freedom, our justice, our love towards each other, towards mother tonge, towards native land and common destiny.

I pray that God grants us strength to return to ourselves. 

They are already here. 

They have a long way behind them.

Millions. Millions of us. 

These are not tears. 

This is a smile of a little boy in the hands of God.

Highly honored Brothers:

Liubomyr Cardinal Husar, Major Archbishop of Lviv for Ukrainians, and Marian Cardinal Jaworski, Archbishop of Lviv for the faithful of the Latin rite,

1. Recalling the dramatic events of a nation, in addition to the fact that it is simply a necessity, as never before shows itself to be beneficial in stirring up a desire in new generations so that under all circumstances they become watchful guardians of respect for the dignity of every human being. Prayer for the repose of the souls of the dead follows from such recollection, and it becomes for the faithful a balm that softens the pain and becomes active prayer to God, who is “The Lord of all the living,” so that He would grant eternal rest to all those who were unjustly deprived of the gift of life. Appropriate memory of the past, in the end, brings about the ability to pass the boundaries of one nation, going out to other peoples who were also the victims of fatal events and who, sharing grief, can receive consolation.

Thus, the seventieth anniversary of the sad events of the famine-genocide call forth such feelings in my soul: millions of people suffered a terrible death through the pernicious activities of an ideology that throughout the twentieth century became the cause of suffering and grief in many parts of the world. On this occasion, Honored Brothers, I wish to participate spiritually in the memorial ceremonies that will be held in honor of the countless victims of the great famine that occurred in Ukraine during the reign of the communist regime. I speak of the terrible plan carried out with cold calculation by those in power in that era.

2. Returning to those sad events, Honored Brothers, I ask you to express to the civil authorities and your fellow citizens, who are especially dear to me, my solidarity and participation in prayer. These planned memorials are intended to commemorate the victims of the country’s children, to strengthen true love for the homeland. This is not directed against other nations, but, rather, hopes to revitalize in the human soul feelings of the dignity of every human being, regardless of which nation he or she belongs to.

The persuasive words of my predecessor, Pope Pius XI of blessed memory, come to mind, as he was considering the policies of the Soviet government of the time. He saw a distinct difference between the rulers and the ruled and, at that time as he spoke in defense of the latter, he clearly revealed the responsibility of a system that “ignores the true origin and purpose of the State; because it denies the rights, dignity and liberty of human personality.” (Encyclical “Divini Redemptoris” [March 19, 1937], 14)

In connection with this, how can one fail to recall the destruction of so many families, the suffering of countless orphans, the collapse of all social structures? Feeling close to all those who suffered the consequences of the sad events of 1933, I again wish to confirm the necessity of preserving the memory of these facts, so that yet another time together it may be said: May this never be repeated again! Becoming aware of the mistakes of the past becomes a constant stimulus for building a future that is more suited to human needs. This combats any ideology that distorts the life, dignity and proper desires of the human being.

3. The experience of this tragedy should today guide the feelings and activities of the Ukrainian people on the road to concord and cooperation. Unfortunately, communist ideology has left its mark with deep divisions also in the spheres of social and religious life. It is necessary to make efforts for a sincere and active reconciliation: in this way the victims, who belong to the whole Ukrainian nation, can be properly honored.

The Christian feeling of sorrow for those who died as a consequence of insane, death-dealing plans, should be accompanied by a desire to build a society in which the common good, natural law, justice for all, and human rights will be the constant guides for the active renewal of the hearts and minds of all those who have the honor to belong to the Ukrainian nation. In this way, recalling the past becomes a source of inspiration for present and future generations.

4. During my unforgettable visit to your country two years ago, speaking of the sorrowful period that Ukraine suffered through seventy years ago, I recalled “the terrible years of the Soviet dictatorship and the dreadful famine at the beginning of the 1930s, when Ukraine, ‘the breadbasket of Europe,’ was no longer able to feed its own children, who died by the millions” (meeting with representatives of the world’s of politics, culture, science, and business at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv, June 23, 2001).

We hope that, with God’s assistance, the lessons of history will help us to find lasting encouragement for mutual understanding. I have in mind constructive collaboration, in order to build together a country which will develop on every level in a harmonious and peaceful manner.

Achieving this noble goal depends, first of all, on Ukrainians, to whom has been entrusted the preservation of the Eastern Christian tradition and responsibility for developing it into an original union of culture and civilization. This is a special inheritance, which Ukraine is called to carry into the construction of the “common European home,” in which each nation will be able to find an appropriate reception with respect for the values of its own originality.

5. Honored Brothers, on such an exceptional occasion, how can we not return in thought to the planting of the Gospel carried out by Saints Cyril and Methodius? How can we not anew recall with gratitude the witness of St. Volodymyr and his grandmother, St. Olha, through whose mediation the Lord granted your people the grace of Baptism and new life in Christ? With soul enlightened by the Gospel, it is possible to better understand how it is necessary to love one’s homeland, so that it actively makes its contribution as it progresses on the road of culture and civilization. Membership in a certain nation should be accompanied by sacrificial efforts and the sincere exchange of gifts received as an inheritance from previous generations, in order to build a society open to other peoples and the exchange of traditions.

I express my wish that the Ukrainian people will know how to look upon historical events with the eyes of reconciliation. I trust in the spiritual consolation of the Most Holy Mother of God for all those who still suffer from the consequences of these tragic actions. I accompany these feelings with the Apostolic Blessing that I share with you, Honored Brothers, and with all those who are entrusted to your pastoral care, asking the generous blessings of heaven upon all.

Pope John Paul II