The museum signed an agreement on cooperation with the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive
The Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive became a partner of the Holodomor Museum as part of the preparation of the main exposition of the second stage of the National Museum of the Holodomor-genocide .
On July 10, 2023, the Director of the Archive, Olena Kosenko, and the Deputy Director of the Holodomor Museum, Hanna Sokyrina, signed a Cooperation Agreement according to which the Archive handed over to the Museum digital copies of 142 phonodocuments, which contain audio recordings of interviews with Holodomor witnesses, recorded as part of the oral history project headed by James Mace.
These materials will be used in one of the sections of the exposition dedicated to uncovering the truth about the Holodomor, which will tell about the history of the Special Commission of the US Congress on famine in Ukraine, which operated from 1986-1990, and its executive director was James Mace.
Interviews with Holodomor witnesses recorded in the USA and Canada in the 1980s became part of the source base for the commission’s work.
The testimonies of eyewitnesses were especially valuable in the conditions of the lack of access to Soviet archives and the conscious policy of hiding the Holodomor by the communist regime.
Some of the original interview materials (audio recordings) in the 2000s were transferred to Ukraine, and today they are kept in the Central State Audiovisual and Electronic Archive.
Such unique materials (testimonies left by people who survived the Holodomor as an adult) are crucial for the Holodomor Museum. After all, even though, during the existence of the museum, employees visited all regions of Ukraine with expeditions, the witnesses we recorded survived the Holodomor at the age of 2-10 years; therefore, their memories are less informative than those with which the Commission worked.
The representatives of the institutions agreed on further cooperation in scientific and informational projects on the subject of the Holodomor, in particular within the framework of the implementation of the Decree of the President of Ukraine No. 598/2021 “On measures in connection with the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – the genocide of the Ukrainian people ” and “Plan of activities for 2022-2023 in connection with the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine – the genocide of the Ukrainian people”, approved by the Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.