Holodomor Flame arrives in Britain

From the Tameside Advertiser:

TAMESIDE’S Ukrainian community gathered this week to mark one of the darkest hours in its people’s history.

Scores of people with family ties to the former Soviet country filled Ashton’s Ukrainian Club to remember the famine of 1932-3.

Martyn Chymera, of the UK’s Holodomor Commemoration Committee, said: “For a long time the Holodomor was hidden behind the Iron Curtain. But this is a chance to tell the world — it’s such a significant part of history. People should be aware of it as they are aware of other tragedies.”

Ukrainians all over the world want the famine officially recognised as genocide.They say that the United Kingdom and other countries need to accept that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin deliberately starved millions of Ukrainians in order to suppress dissent across the Soviet Union.

Mr Chymera added: “The British government probably are scared of the Kremlin’s reaction and want to keep good relations with Russia.”

The Ukrainian community in Tameside dates back to about 1946, when Ukrainians started entering the UK after World War Two. Many of them headed for Yorkshire and Lancashire, where they set up communities in mill towns.

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