The head of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Epifaniy, speaking at the international forum “Mass Artificial Famines: Remember and Honor” drew parallels between modern-day Russian-Ukrainian war and the Holodomor in Ukraine.
“By discovering this truth (about the Holodomor – ed.), we are not only learning about the past – we are creating the present and the future. Although the Bolshevik state collapsed 30 years ago, the chauvinist-imperial idea, which was one of the cornerstones of the USSR, hasn’t disappeared. And from the same Kremlin, where Stalin and his allies doomed millions of Ukrainians to death, they now continue, every month, to issue orders to kill our brothers and sisters. Just as back then, the Kremlin leaders saw the freedom-loving Ukrainian nation as a threat to their totalitarian rule, so now, without ideological domination over Ukraine, their ideological successors don’t see their own future,” said Metropolitan Epifaniy.
He quoted the gospel words of Jesus Christ: ” Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32), saying that these words of Scripture should inspire us all to know and learn the truth of the past, to restore real historical memory, not the one artificially created by enslavers and imposed on the Ukrainian people.
According to the head of the OCU, it is this memory that defines each of us and shapes our personality.
“… National memory helps us, as a community, to learn from the examples and mistakes of the past, so as not to be doomed again and again in the future. This is one of the practical properties of memory – to warn, alert, and point to the right path. The Holodomor genocide of 1932-1933 and other artificial famines that Ukraine experienced in the 20th century are horrific crimes committed by the Communist-Bolshevik totalitarian state, the truth of which Soviet authorities had been thoroughly concealing and distorting for many decades,” said Metropolitan Epifaniy.
“The truth exposed the whole misanthropic essence of the totalitarian Bolshevik ideology and the state, which was built on its basis. The truth about the millions killed was an irrefutable proof that the Soviet Union is a real empire of evil, a prison of nations that must be destroyed and condemned. An eternal memory to the victims of the Holodomor genocide and all those who died from the repressive policies of the USSR!” concluded the OCU head.
