The Parliament of Bulgaria recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people

On Wednesday, the National Assembly of Bulgaria supported the recognition of the Holodomor of 1932-33 as a genocide of the Ukrainian people. The day of remembrance of the victims is established – the last Saturday in November of each year. The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, expressed his gratitude to the Bulgarian authorities.

134 deputies of the Bulgarian parliament voted for the adoption of the decision against 25. The proposal to recognize the Holodomor as genocide was put forward by the pro-Western parties “Democratic Bulgaria” and “GERB”. Earlier, they also advocated military aid to Ukraine to repel Russian aggression.

The parliamentary groups “Vozrozhdenie” and the BSP, often speaking from pro-Russian positions, spoke against it. The leader of “Vozrozhdeniya” Kostadin Kostadinov agreed that the Holodomor was a crime against humanity, but he believes that its purpose was to exterminate people not on ethnic, but on class lines. Boryslav Gutsanov from the BSP even proposed to remove the question from the vote, saying that the parliament should deal with more pressing issues.

Previously, the authorities of the USA, Germany, Ireland, Romania, Moldova, as well as the European Parliament, decided to recognize the Holodomor as a genocide of the Ukrainian people.

• The Holodomor – a mass famine in the Ukrainian SSR in 1932-1933 – was caused by the policy of bread procurement and confiscation of all food stocks of the peasants, carried out by the Soviet government. At least 5 million people died as a result of the famine, the exact figures are unknown. Many historians agree that it was a famine purposefully organized by the Soviet authorities on the territory of Ukraine. The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the Holodomor as genocide in 2006. The Russian authorities oppose such an assessment.