The Ukrainian Security Service is to declassify documents about Holodomor

On 18 August a presentation will take place at the Ukrainian Security Service [SBU] of an electronic “Collection of documents of the State Political Department of the Ukrainian SSR on Holodomor* 1932 – 1933 in Ukraine” from the State Branch Archive of the SBU. The Press Centre of the SBU state that the work has been completed on declassifying and ordering documents concerning the Holodomor of 1932-1933 which were previously held either in the SBU State Branch Archive, or in the archives of regional bodies. The collection which was gathered over a period of three years contains 130 documents. These are normative-instruction documents of the DPU [State Political Department] of the UkrSSR, directives, circulars, instructions which were received by the central bodies of the ODPU [General State Political Department], testimony of witnesses, material of criminal investigations, etc. “All the documents concerning Holodomor which have been held up till now in the SBU State Branch Archive have been declassified and may be read”, the SBU reported. * Holodomor refers to the Famine of 1932-1933, artificially induced, which took the lives of between 5 and 10 million people (translator’s note)