But the loss of statehood after the first struggle for independence placed our people under one of the most brutal totalitarian regimes of the 20th century.
Ukraine was a vital resource for the communist regime — yet it was free Ukrainians who threatened it most. That is why the repression aimed at breaking our will and erasing our identity was accompanied by the regime’s deadliest weapon: artificially engineered famines.
The first famine, in 1921–1922, was intended to subdue a nation only recently conquered, and it occurred with the silent approval of the international community. What followed was the destruction of traditional agriculture through so-called “collectivization” and the most catastrophic famine of the century, the Holodomor of 1932–1933, which claimed between 3.9 and 7 million lives, according to different estimates.
The final blow came with another man-made famine in 1946–1947. As a result of this deliberate genocidal policy, Ukraine lost millions of its people. And yet the nation did not surrender: it endured, it resisted, and ultimately restored its statehood.
Today, the heirs of that same regime are again using century-old methods against us: destroying energy infrastructure, mining fields, and poisoning water sources, striking grain elevators, and murdering farmers. The only “liberation” Russia can offer is the “liberation” of Ukraine from Ukrainians.
But today we stand in far stronger circumstances than our ancestors did in 1932. We have our own state and international support — and, most importantly, unity and the resolve to defend ourselves, to avenge our past, and to secure our future.