Over the course of a few short months in 1932 and 1933, more than seven million Ukrainians died in a massive man-made famine now widely known as the Holodomor. These Ukrainians didn’t die because there wasn’t any food. There was grain; they were growing it themselves, in abundance. But then the Soviet state stole the grain and killed the animals so that Ukrainians wouldn’t have anything to eat, and then they sealed the villages so people couldn’t leave in search of food. Holodomor means "death inflicted by starvation" or "extermination by hunger,” and it was designed to kill Ukrainians and crush the Ukrainian soul. The Soviet state suppressed the truth of the Holodomor for decades. Since full-scale invasion, the russian terrorist state has callously destroyed Holodomor memorials throughout Ukraine, including in Mariupol, Luhansk, and Kherson. They seek to erase the mass violence of the past, while simultaneously repeating it in occupied Ukraine today (see: Oleshky). We can’t allow them to do so.

The most effective tool in the war against denialism is truth – and one institution in Canada is wielding this tool with exceptional purpose. In April 2026, the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies launched a Massive Open Online Course all about the Holodomor. The free 13-module course integrates new research, archival documents, survivor testimony, and photographs to honour those we’ve lost, combat denialism, and keep the lessons and victims of the Holodomor top of mind.

In this fascinating episode, Sabrina speaks with Marta Baziuk, executive director of the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta, about the continuing impact of the Holodomor, and what we lose when we don’t remember our past.

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CREDITS
Host and Executive Producer: Sabrina Rani Furminger
Editor: Dexter Pullyblank
Editorial Department Lead: Simon Furminger
Consultant: Olha Byrledianu
Producer: Paul Furminger
Original music: Vyacheslav Sarancha, Snow Music Studio

Episode 13: We Need to Talk About the Holodomor

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