Lecture “Holodomor and modern genocide of Ukrainians through the prism of the concept of Soviet genocide by R. Lemkin” at universities.

In November, Ukrainians commemorate the victims of the 1932-1933 famine. In addition to online lectures for children in the Space of Ukrainian Youth, conducted by specialists of the Holodomor-Genocide Museum, and an interfaith service with the participation of the Canterbury for Ukraine Ladies’ Choir, Canterbury for Ukraine organized a lecture for all Ukrainians who want to know their history in order to be able to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

On November 30 at 4:00 p.m., the Holodomor Genocide Museum together with Canterbury for Ukraine held a lecture in Ukrainian at Canterbury Christ Church University and the University of Kent on the topic “The Holodomor and the Modern Genocide of Ukrainians through the Prism of R. Lemkin’s Concept of Soviet Genocide.” The lecture was delivered by the Head of the Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Research Department, Candidate of Historical Sciences Mykhailo Kostiv.

In 1953, international lawyer Rafal Lemkin proposed his vision of Soviet policy towards Ukrainians as genocide. His concept was based on the fact that the attack on the Ukrainian people had four “edges”. The first of them was the destruction of the intelligentsia (the “brain” of the nation), the second was an attack on the church (“the soul” of the nation), the third was the extermination of peasant bread-growers by hunger (the “body” of the nation), and the fourth was the fragmentation of the nation by settling foreigners in Ukraine and dispersion of Ukrainians throughout Eastern Europe.

At the lecture, Mykhailo Kostiv analyzed these points of attack against Ukrainians during the existence of the USSR and considered the persistence of Russia’s xenophobic policy towards Ukrainians, in particular with the beginning of a full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in 2022. After the lecture, Mr. Mykhailo answered questions from the audience.