The Ukraine Famine of 1932-33

Also along the Pechersky Hills is a memorial to the Ukrainian "Holodomor  "Encyclopædia Britannica. Quote: "The Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33—a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union, about four to five million were Ukrainians... Its deliberate nature is underscored by the fact that no physical basis for famine existed in Ukraine... Soviet authorities set requisition quotas for Ukraine at an impossibly high level. Brigades of special agents were dispatched to Ukraine to assist in procurement, and homes were routinely searched and foodstuffs confiscated... The rural population was left with insufficient food to feed itself."  One walks down the stairs (invisible in the black area) to a display underground of those who lost their lives. 

This statue tells the story best.  The little starving girl has 5 stalks of wheat in her hand.  Anyone who had even scavenged 5 food items was considered an enemy of the state and could be exterminated.   The Ukrainian population could not openly talk about this event until after they became a free country. 

These storks rising seem a fitting representation of the modern Ukrainian people and nation who are rising with strength and vigor from past oppression.