November 11th was a day to honour the memories of our military men and women involved in Canada’s war efforts and pay tribute to their ongoing commitment to peacekeeping missions, humanitarian deployments and disaster relief.
Vova Pluzhnikov, a Ukrainian citizen who came to Prince George six years ago to study marketing at UNBC, was reminded on Friday of the significance of Remembrance Day for Canadians and he also has the fourth Saturday in November marked on his calendar.
Holodomor Memorial Day, on Saturday, Nov. 26, is a day to remember one of the darkest periods in the war-torn country’s history. It’s a tribute to the millions of Ukrainians who died in a famine - a direct result of the Joseph Stalin-led Soviet Union collectivist agricultural policies which set impossibly high quotas for the amount of grain each farm was required to contribute to the country to sustain exports.
Holodomor, which means "murder by starvation" is recognized in the Ukraine as a genocide. At least 3.9 million Ukrainians starved to death and some resorted to cannibalism to survive. The fallout of quotas not meeting targets affected other parts of the Soviet Union and the actual number of deaths attributed to the famine was between five and seven million.
“It was just another act of terrorism towards Ukrainians,” said Pluzhnikov, who studied history at Kharkiv University before he came to Canada in 2016. “People who fled Ukraine to find a safe spot at that time were targeted and were found by the officials and brought back to their villages and towns and the people suffered the most were the peasants and farmers who were trying to make a living or themselves and their families.
“The grain was not redistributed properly and so the people who actually needed the food starved to death. The worst part about that was those people couldn’t leave their villages because of the passport system the Soviets put in. They could only reside in the place where they worked and if they wanted to move to another city they couldn’t do it and were stuck in that situation.”
Pluzhnikov’s hometown Kharkiv has been one of the hardest hit cities this year in the Ukraine war. By mid-October, close to 3,000 buildings had been damaged by shelling, including a sports facility next to a Holodomor Memorial statue the now 27-year-old Pluzhnikov first saw as a young boy.
“I just have this vivid memory of going there with my parents and them telling me about the events of 1932 and 1933 and telling me that we lost a lot of people and that were targeted by the Soviet government,” said Pluzhnikov.
“Part of the problem was a lot of Ukrainian farmers overproduced in the years before and that’s why the quotas went up so much, because they thought our farmers could produce way more. The crops they saved went bad and they couldn’t figure out how to make them grow every single year. Honestly, with the events of this year, if you think about 1932 and 1933, it’s just another chapter of that history book and how the Soviet Union and Russia are terrorizing us once every 100 years. It’s that chapter that keeps repeating itself.”
The Holodomor holiday was first established in 1998. Ukrainians also celebrate May 9 as Second World War victory day in eastern Europe and their independence day holiday falls on Aug. 24. Pluzhnikov says he’s become more familiar with the significance of Remembrance Day since he came to Canada.
St. George’s Ukrainian Catholic Church in Prince George at 2414 Vanier Dr. will host a gathering on Friday, Nov. 25, at 4 p.m. to pay tribute to Holodomor victims.
“I truly believe we need more reasons to remember our history and look back and acknowledge every fallen soldier, and every significant war or conflict that have resulted in us living in peace,” Plushnikov said. “It needs to be celebrated more than once a year.”
Family members in Ukraine still dealing with consequences of war
Pluzhnikov, 27, set the UNBC Timberwolves’ record for career assists in a brilliant five-year basketball career from 2016-22 and used his marketing degree to get a job at RBC in Prince George as a banking advisor. His Run For Ukraine in March raised more than $76,000 for the Canadian Red Cross war relief effort to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
His family remains in Ukraine as the conflict approaches its ninth month. His parents, grandfather and cousins left their Kharkiv homes and have moved to cabins two hours from the city. He says they have a generator and wood stove and have access to food supplies and his mother occasionally goes back to their Kharkiv apartment. His 33-year-old brother was conscripted into the army and is living in western Ukraine with his wife and his military commander and his family. He stays in touch with his family on Instagram and with Facetime calls.
“It takes a toll on me and I try to stay on top of the news and everything that happening back home,“ he said. “I can be blind to the events, but, obviously, having my family there, I can’t look away. It’s impossible for me to not read the news and be on top of that. It keeps happening.
“Looking back at our history, every conflict or war, it’s either ended in a stalemate or a small victory for the Soviet Union or Russia. We fought for our own borders and finally got our own borders and politically we did everything that needed to be done without causing a war, and a lot of countries followed our lead and left the Soviet Union. But back in the day, different people ruled that country and many things have changed and now they have a different person steering their ship and it’s tough to see all that progress being lost to someone who has imperialistic views on the world.”
Nearly 40 per cent of Ukrainians have been displaced from their homes since the war began Feb. 24. Some of the damaged apartment buildings in Kharkiv were located close to factories or other infrastructure targeted by the Russians. In some areas it was difficult to find a single window left intact and many apartment buildings were left with gaping holes from missile attacks. But with winter approaching, people are replacing plywood-covered window frames with glass and some residents will soon be able to move back into their homes.
Pluzhnikov is encouraged by gains the Ukrainian army made late last week to take back Kherson after Russian forces withdrew from the region west of the Dnipro River and he says the resolve of his people to maintain their resistance remains indomitable.
“If Russia stops fighting, the war ends,” he said. “If we stop fighting we lose everything, we lose our independence and everything we’ve fought for in the last 30 years. We can only keep going forward and keep chipping away and liberate all the territories that have been taken away from us but we obviously need a lot of support. It’s been overwhelming how much support we’ve received from different countries and even at the micro level in Prince George, many families have received help.
“But a lot of people have slowed down their support and maybe their activity in terms of spreading the news and sharing the awareness. I understand how tiring it is for people to keep hearing about that news. It takes a toll on everyone.”
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