Seven to 10 million people died in the Ukraine in 1932 and 1933 as a result of a man-made famine by the leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin.
The “extermination by hunger” is understood by historians as a deliberate genocide to stop the Ukrainian independence movement.
Eighty-three years later, students in Saskatchewan are boarding a tour bus that is parked outside the legislature building to learn about the famine.
“It’s a famine that has not been publicized,” Roma Dzerowicz, executive director of the Holodomor National Awareness Tour, said.
“It was hidden, it was covered up by the Soviet Union, denied, and being a genocide, which basically is a killing of a person for who he is, versus a killing of a person for what he has done, we’re bringing to light social justice.”
The tour bus is filled with interactive displays and stories from survivors.
“A lot of the survivors that have managed to survive were children at the time,” Dzerowicz said.
The bus stopped in Regina Monday and will be travelling across Saskatchewan for the next three weeks. It will then go to Manitoba.
“Saskatchewan’s Ukranian community has been instrumental in raising awareness in our province of this tragedy and this new national resource will help educate students and citizens across the country about the evils perpetrated decades ago on innocent families,” Deputy Premier and Education Minister Don Morgan said.