NATIONAL MEMORY INSTITUTE EXPECTS RUSSIA TO

DIVULGE DOCUMENTS DENYING 1932-33 HOLODOMOR

WAS DIRECTED AGAINST UKRAINE

Olha Bohatyrenko, Ukrainian News Agency, Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, February 13, 2009

KYIV - The National Memory Institute expects that Russia will divulge those documents denying that the Great Famine, Holodomor of 1932-33, was directed against the Ukrainian nation, reads a statement made by the National Memory Institute press service.

The press service said that the chairperson of the Russian Archives Vladimir Kozlov has said that Russia possesses documents dated 1932 and 1933 that prove that Holodomor of 1930s was not directed against Ukraine but the Russian Archives cannot expose them as those are classified.

The National Memory Institute expressed its inapprehension of the reasons on which Russia cannot make these documents public, since the limiting age for the classified status of documents, as a rule, is seventy-five years.

The Institute stressed, Ukraine had many times applied to Russia for documentary help in the study of 1932-33 Holodomor, Ukrainian scientists have published quantity of essays, collected volumes of documents, numerous volumes of testimonies given by Holodomor eye-witnesses and victims.

"Meanwhile, Russia still has published neither a single collected volume of evidence, nor a special collected volume of documents. The Ukrainian side is expecting Russia at last to proceed from meaningful claims and unsubstantiated objections to real research," the statement says.

The National Memory Institute said hereto, Ukraine has collected 213,000 testimonies and found 200,000 documents.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Russia's permanent representative in the United Nations Organisation Vitaly Churkin believes that Ukraine's position on declaring the Holodomor famine of 1932-33 as genocide against the Ukrainian nation stirs up hostility between Ukrainians and Russians.

The Foreign Ministry accused Russia of hampering the UN to consider the resolution on recognizing Holodomor of 1932-33 in Ukraine as genocide. The National Memory Institute is a central body of executive power having a special status.