 The final item of business today is a member's business debate on motion number 11537, in the name of Marco Biagge, on marking the anniversary of the Ukrainian famine. This debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I invite those members who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now or as soon as possible. If you are ready, Mr Gibson, I would like you to open the debate, please, on behalf of Marco Biagge. I am grateful to my colleague Marco Biagge, who is sitting on my right, for securing this valuable debating time, and I am pleased to be able to move the motion in his name following his recent promotion for which I offer my warmest congratulations. I must say that it is a solemn privilege to speak this evening to Mark International Hlodomor Memorial Day, a subject which is fascinated and appalled me since I read Robert Conquest's seminal work, The Harvest of Sorrow, back in 1986. The term Hlodomor itself literally means extermination by hunger, and refers to the deliberate actions of Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime to crush Ukrainian nationalism and the Ukrainian peasantry, perceived as potentially hostile to Soviet power. Hlodomor ranks amongst the worst acts of genocide in human history, certainly exceeding the death toll of the Paul Pot-imposed genocide in 1970s Cambodia and potentially possibly the Holocaust itself. Despite that recognition, remembrance and understanding of what exactly happened is not as robust as it should be. It is for that reason that International Hlodomor Memorial Day is so crucial in exposing one of the most callous and destructive acts of the 20th century. Hlodomor was part of Stalin's revolution from above. In 1932-33, his regime inflicted a terror famine upon the collectivised peasants of the Ukraine and, indeed, beyond in the Kuban and other areas of high Ukrainian ethnicity. Grain quotas on rural Ukraine were said that the regime knew would be impossible to achieve. Land-owning peasants, kulaks as they were known, or fists, considered wealthy and exploitative but often neither, although independent of mind and therefore reluctant to collectivise were specifically targeted. One of the aims of collectivising the Ukraine, I stated in Pravda, I had been, and I quote, the destruction of Ukrainian nationalism's social base, the individual land holding. Cowing the peasants was a Stalinist objective and on 17 January 1933 Stalin said in Pravda, I quote, today's anti-Soviet elements are people who are quiet, sweet and almost holy. The kulak has been defeated but not completely exterminated. Despite the disastrous effects on productivity of collectivisation introduced in 1929, Stalin raised Ukraine's grain procurement quota by 44 per cent, meaning that there was not enough food to feed the peasants, as law required that no grain from a collective farm could be given to the members of the farm until the regime's quota was met. The quota often exceeded the total harvest leaving families nothing to eat for the coming year. Resistance resulted in execution or deportation to Siberia, and all available food was seized to sustain the well-fed squads of police and Communist Party apparatchics, many sent from distant Russian cities who oversaw and enforced this pitiless destruction of lives and communities. The impact was catastrophic as it was designed to be, and despite office of food aid from overseas and from other states within the USSR, this was refused by the regime. Within a year, between a fifth and a quarter of Ukraine's 25 million people lay dead or dying, and I mean they were so debilitated they were unable to work or even bury their loved ones. Whilst the backbone of the country, the nation's peasants, were dying on mass, the Stalinist regime also targeted the cultural elite, the clergy and anyone else who was able to articulate or represent a sense of Ukraine as a distinct nation. By the end of 1930, prior to the famine, 80 per cent of the country's villages' churches were closed and desecrated, with thousands of clergy shot or deported to gulags. Of Ukraine's 240 authors, 200 disappeared, of 84 leaders of linguistics, 62 are liquidated, the remainder of both groups were understandably cowed into silence and obedience. The Ukrainian Theatre and Academy of Sciences also suffered and the local Communist Party was purged of nationalist deviation. Is this evident and documented desire to wipe out Ukrainian national identity that so obviously points to an act of genocide and not simply an attack on the wider peasantry of the USSR? Due to the wall of secrecy imposed by the former Soviet Union, it is difficult to know how many perished during the Holodomar, however recent research suggests that from 3 to 7.5 million may have died directly as a result of the Soviet imposed famine in Ukraine. As Stalin himself has reported to have said, perhaps betraying his real view on mass murder, one death is a tragedy, one million is a statistic. It is true that when discussing a crime of this magnitude it is possible to lose sight of individual tragedies and I like to take the opportunity to attempt to convey in a small way the intense suffering experience in Ukraine during this time. As well as physical effects, starvation produced psychological symptoms with murder, suicide and denunciations against friends and families widespread. For example, in the village of Bilka one man, Dennis Ishenko killed his sister, brother-in-law and their 16-year-old daughter in order to obtain £30 of flour. The same man also murdered his friend when he saw him carrying four loads of bread he managed to obtain from the city. Others recounted stories of those who had gone insane killing their own children and eating them. One mother who was arrested for such an act was described by those who witnessed her arrest as having a human face but the world in staring eyes of a wolf. She was shot by the regime. In his unpublished memoirs, esteemed Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak of Dr Shavago fame wrote about his experiences of travelling to Ukrainian collective farms in the early 1930s. He said in a quote, The consequences for Ukrainian society which bore much of the fighting and suffered horrific destruction following the Nazi invasion of 1941's aftermath can only be imagined. Was denial of the Holodomor by the Soviet regime while it existed was to be expected, there is no excuse for that now. Given the documented evidence of Stalin's loathing of Ukrainian nationalism, his views on the potential threat it poses regime and his murderous attacks on Ukrainian cultural identity, to most minds prove the Holodomor was an act of genocide. I'm disappointed that more nations and international organisations are unwilling to recognise this fact and I welcome to continue efforts by the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain and others to ensure that crime is fully recognised and remembered. A growing number of states from 25, including Canada, Australia, the USA and Poland, all officially recognise the Holodomor as a deliberate act of genocide against the Ukrainian people. The European Parliament and General Assembly of the United Nations have recognised the Ukrainian famine as a crime against humanity and man-made tragedy, but both stopped short of recognising it as an act of genocide. Despite a member's debate in the House of Commons, the UK Government has also declined to do so. As Robert Burns wrote in A Man was made to mourn, man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn. A few nations, Presiding Officer, have suffered over the last century the way Ukraine has, and I hope that in this Parliament we recognise that fact and the Holodomor in remembrance of so many innocent men, women and children who died. I know Colin, Jamie McGregor. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Well, I too congratulate Mark Abiadgy on his new job and also on securing today's important debate and I thank Kenny Gibson for standing in so well. This is a very sensitive and sobering issue. The vast famine in Soviet Ukraine in the years of 1932 to 1933, known as the Holodomor, this past Sunday Ukraine remembered those who died during this dark chapter in Ukrainian history 81 years ago. This event would probably have been hid away to a dusty corner of the vast archives of the Soviet Empire if it hadn't been for a brave Welshman named Gareth Jones. He was a journalist and adviser to David Lloyd George, who travelled to the Ukraine when whispers of horrendous famines started to emerge. He defied the authorities that did not allow any journalist in the region and ventured into what he described as once the richest farmland in Russia, which was now a desert. The sight that met him was indeed gruesome. Corpus is lying on the street. People so starved that they could not be recognised as human beings and a country enmeshed in deep despair. He exposed this to the world and was, as a consequence, banned from returning by a Soviet Union that branded him a liar. His life came to a brutal end when he was murdered in the Far East a few years later. Gareth Jones is, as described once by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, an unsung hero of the Ukraine. Famine was not rare in the USSR during the 20s and 30s as a result of policies that were inherently doomed to fail and with disastrous consequences. The Holodomor was in particular a tragedy as the Soviet Government did not allow any Western aid nor any policies that would have helped to relieve the situation. This was contrary to the previous approach adapted towards famines in Russia. Unfortunately, many, both back then and today, see it as a way to physically weaken the concept of Ukrainian nationality. Last year, the Euro-made protests started and the Ukrainian nation rose to show its will for freedom. The desire to take off Russia's dominance, proving the ability to chart its own course. Thousands of people have died in Ukraine this year and its borders were violated as Crimea was illegally annexed. Eastern regions are almost destroyed and lost their remaining economic viability. People of Donbas are left without water, electricity and food. This is not a new Holodomor and it is not equal to it, yet it is paramount that we continue to act with a sense of urgency. A message of unanimity against the Russian actions and unity with the Ukrainians was sent at the G20, but that summit is now over. The war in Ukraine, unfortunately, however, is not. Between three and seven million Ukrainians died during the famines. Many were Ukrainian country people, women and children. They were told to hand over their land in favour of collective farms as part of Stalin's communist totalitarian utopia, but they refused to comply. The people were asked to abandon their church in favour of atheism and they resisted. Hard-working Ukrainian farmers wanted a chance of prosperity and they were told they had to give up everything they had. They resisted but they faced a horrible destiny, long-drawn death by starvation. We should not forget Ukraine's Kulaks and the Kulaks elsewhere in the other parts of the Soviet Union, the Kirkles or relatively affluent farmer class which Stalin declared he wanted to eliminate. The overwhelming majority of Kulaks were executed, sent to gulags or imprisoned and many historians believe the removal of these experienced land managers made the famine even worse. Centralised policies like telling people from the centre to make hay when it was raining, it was as bad as that. The never should we allow the world to forget these atrocities committed by the communist regime of the Soviet Union and they should never be allowed to happen again. We now move the closing speech from Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary, for seven minutes or thereby please. I thank Mark Obiasio for lodging the motion and congratulating him on his recent appointment and looking forward to working with him in the Scottish Government. I also thank Kenneth Gibson for leading the motion and for both of them in securing this evening's debate. I am in no doubt that by securing this debate they have promoted greater understanding of the Halodomor and the magnitude of its impact in Ukraine and on the Ukrainian people. I want to reflect on Kenneth Gibson's words and how we all have a duty to face man's capacity to be inhuman on such a horrendous scale. Robert Burns captured that capacity when he wrote, The Halodomor was a horrific man-made tragedy of an unimaginable scale. It serves as an important reminder of the inhumanity and cruelty that can exist in this world and the pain and the suffering of the Ukrainian people must never be forgotten. As we have heard, the famine that took place between 1932 and 1933 was the culmination of events that began in 1929 when the Soviets imposed fatal deportation orders on Ukraine's prospering farmers as well as the deportation and execution of academic, religious and cultural leaders. The famine was directly caused by the policies of the Soviet Government. The authorities mercilessly seized grain from the Soviet Union's agricultural regions in order to feed the countries rapidly expanding urban workforce. Jamie McGregor used the words and quotes from Gareth Jones and contemporary observation in reflecting the sheer cruelty of what that meant. At the height of the famine, 25,000 Ukrainians were dying a day. The Soviets chose not to put an end to such horror when they had the ability to, is inexplicable and a gross violation of human rights. It is estimated that between 3 and 10 million people died. The majority of the deaths were in Ukraine. For years, the tragedy was overlooked by the western world. It has also been inexplicably denied by others. However, the memory of these horrific events was kept alive by Ukrainians inside the country and their diaspora around the world. The efforts of those people as well as many historians have allowed the world to remember those who lost their lives and reflect on the lesson from history that the Helodomor provides for us. I am proud that Parliament is debating this event here today. In doing so, we are raising awareness of a horrific and regrettable event in history that must not be forgotten. There is no doubt in this Government's view that the famine occurred and was brought about by Stalin and his Government's actions. It is completely unfavorable to me that a leader responsible for the people living under the Soviet regime could proceed with policies that would clearly have such devastating effects on the people of Ukraine. The main goal of the famine was to break the resistance of the Ukrainian peasants and force them to collectivise. I do not think that any reasonable manner of women with any shred of humanity would say that the means justified the end. It is clear that the Soviet regime was deeply resentful of any form of Ukrainian nationalism. There are numerous examples of how Stalin's policies were disproportionately hostile towards Ukraine. The fact that during the famine Stalin closed the eastern border of Ukraine to prevent starving peasants from entering Russia in search of food is clear illustration of that. On the substance of one element of the motion, I say that members will be aware that foreign affairs are, of course, a matter reserved to the United Kingdom Government. The UK Government's policy is that the recognition of genocides is a matter for judicial decision under the terms of the 1948 UN genocide convention. The Halodomor predates the establishment of the concept of genocide in international law and the convention was not drafted to apply retrospectively. However, the events of the Halodomor are a tragic example of man's humanity and act as a reminder that Scotland's strong and enduring commitment to human rights cannot be taken for granted. That places a responsibility on us as a nation to ensure that other countries develop and maintain a similar commitment. The Scottish Government uses our international engagement as an opportunity to help to increase respect for an understanding of human rights worldwide. I just want to reflect on the contribution that the Ukrainian community has made to Scotland. I recently had the pleasure of visiting the Ukrainian Community Centre in Edinburgh, where I learned about the rich culture and traditions that the community brought with them to Scotland. The community centre has a wonderful collection of materials relating to the community's history in Scotland. The Scottish Government is working closely with the centre so that these resources can be displayed to the public and promote wider awareness of the Ukrainian community's contribution to this nation. I would also like to add my voice and the voice of the Scottish Government to those welcoming the Ukrainian community to our and their Parliament. Humanity, Presiding Officer, knows no boundaries, national or other, and we together should recognise our sense of history, both just and unjust. There is no question in my mind that the people of Ukraine were the victims of the most unspeakable offences perpetrated by a vicious regime that had no hesitation in committing crimes against humanity all for the sake of an ideology. The debate is about remembering those who are subjected to such humanity and indignity through no fault of their own. The Hallodomor is a tragedy of epic proportion. A ruthless dictatorship with a heartless ideology caused the deaths of many millions of innocent people. Presiding Officer, I have been invited by the Association of Ukrainians of Great Britain to attend the event to remember the Hallodomor this Saturday in Edinburgh, and in attending on behalf of the Scottish Government, I will speak for the people of Scotland when we say that we must remember and we must never forget.