Lecture “The Holodomor in the Donetsk Region: An Oral History of the Crime”

The history of the Holodomor in the Donetsk region is a complex story, as the situation there was not one-sided. On the one hand, in Stalino, Makiivka, Horlivka, Mykytivka, Debaltsevo and other cities and towns, thousands of people from all over Ukraine found refuge in numerous mines and factories. Without passports, but with control over the railways, they managed to escape from villages surrounded by internal troops and find any job in exchange for food rations. On the other hand, there was a village that suffered terrible destruction in the broadest sense of the term ‘genocide’: collectivisation, dekulakisation, grain procurement and fines in kind, Russification and the distortion of traditional culture.

Most of the information about all this has been preserved in oral history. After all, when the archives were closed to researchers and official historians remained silent about this crime, older people who had managed to survive whispered and quietly recounted their experiences, first to their families, and then dared to speak publicly, repeatedly asking interviewers, “Won’t we get in trouble for this?”

On Saturday, 25 October, we are pleased to invite everyone to the Holodomor Museum for a lecture that will reveal the mechanism of genocide from the perspective of microhistory based on an analysis of the residents’ memories in the Donetsk region. Anna Hedio, head of the Department of Ukrainian History at Borys Grinchenko Kyiv Metropolitan University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor, will reveal stories of everyday life and focus on the experience of survival of ordinary people. The lecture will also address the Holodomor in villages heavily populated by Greeks from the North Azov region: Urums and Roumeans.

During the event, you will learn about:

• survival strategies and cases of self-sacrifice;
• the diet of the population during the famine;
• the recording and underreporting of the number of deaths;
• the distortion of funeral ceremonies during the Holodomor.

Date: Saturday, 25 October 2025, at 14:00
Location: Hall of Memory, Holodomor Museum (3 Lavrska Street).

Visitors to the lecture “The Holodomor in the Donetsk Region: Oral History of the Crime” will also be able to view the temporary exhibition “The North Azovian Greeks: Paths of Identity,” prepared by the public organisation “The North Azovian Greeks: Urums and Roumeans” in partnership with the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide and the Mariupol Local History Museum.

The lecture is organised by the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide and the public organisation, “The North Azovian Greeks: Urums and Roumeans.”

Admission is free with prior registration!

You can register here.