Baffled as to why Russia doesn’t open up the archives on Holodomor

The Ukrainian Institute for National Remembrance has issued a statement saying that it does not understand why the Russian State Archives are refusing to publish documents relating to the events of 1932-1933 in Ukraine.

The Institute mentions that the Head of the Russian Archive Vladimir Kozlov stated that Russia has documents dated 1932-1933 which prove that Holodomor in the 1930s was not an action directed against Ukraine. He stated at the same time that at present the Archive could not make these public since they were classified documents.

The Institute’s statement expresses bewilderment over the methods by which Russia denies that Holodomor was genocide. “They are similar to those used by one of Chekhov’s characters: “This can’t be because it can never be”.

The Ukrainian side does not understand the reasons for this excessive secrecy and notes that the limits for classifying documents do not as a rule exceed 75 years. It points out that Ukraine has on a number of occasions approached Russia seeking help in investigating the documentary evidence of this tragedy and adds that Russia has not published any collection of witness accounts and no special collection of documents.

Reported at: http://human-rights.unian.net/ukr/detail/189674