November 6 – the 90th anniversary of Volodymyr Manyak’s birthday

Volodymyr Manyak—writer and publicist, one of the first researchers of the Holodomor in Ukraine, and author of the People’s Book Memorial “33rd: Famine”—was born on November 6, 1934, in the village of Kryshtopivka in Khmelnytskyi.

He began the search for the truth about the genocide of the Ukrainian people back in 1987, thanks to the policy of Glasnost at the time. His wife, Lidiia Kovalenko, a journalist, helped him.

For 4 years, the couple searched for unique archival documents and recorded the testimonies of about 6,000 eyewitnesses to the tragedy. Over a thousand of them were organised and presented in the book “33rd: Famine: People’s Memorial Book.” These were the first testimonies collected in Ukraine about the events of 1932-1933 and, what is significant, from people who survived the Holodomor in adulthood and remembered their experiences in detail. The book “33rd: Famine” is today the most complete documentary source which collects the eyewitnesses’ testimony about the Holodomor in Ukraine.

In 1992, the couple initiated the creation of the Association of Researchers of the Holodomor Genocide of 1932-1933 in Ukraine, headed by Lidiia Kovalenko.

On June 15 of the same year, Volodymyr and Lidiia were in a car accident. On that day, they were returning from the village of Tymoshivka in Cherkasy Oblast, where one of the first monuments to the Holodomor victims in Ukraine was unveiled. Volodymyr died on the spot, and Lidiia was seriously injured. In half a year, she passed away too.

The Manyaks were posthumously awarded the Taras Shevchenko State Prize of Ukraine for their enormous contribution to the revival of truth, and in 2005, Volodymyr Manyak was posthumously awarded the Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, 5th degree.

Regretfully, Volodymyr and Lidiia Manyak’s thorough work “33rd: Famine”, which was published in 1991, has never been reprinted. So the publication has already become a rarity. On the occasion of Volodymyr Manyak’s 90th birthday, we will share memories from this book. Follow our social networks!