Holodomor Remembrance Day, 26 November 2005
My first remembrance day here, and what I did not know before that evening.
Today Ukraine remembers those who died in the famine of 1932 and 1933.
This is the first of these evenings I have spent in Kyiv, and I should be honest: before arriving here I knew almost nothing about it. It was not part of the history I had been taught, and I suspect that is true of most people outside this region.
What I have learned in the last year, mostly from people describing their own families, is that this is not distant history here. It is one generation removed from people I work with.
Tonight there are candles in windows across the city at the same hour. I am glad to have understood in time what I am looking at.
My respect to everyone marking today.
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