The National museum “The Memorial in commemoration of famines` victims in Ukraine” presents the exhibition “Tragedy of Ukraine…” dedicated to the Holodomor Commemoration Day. The aim of the exhibition is to show the tragedy of Ukraine of the first half of the 20th century taking as an example the tragedy of a certain village of Ukraine. This year’s exhibition reveals the history of the village of Tarhan, Volodarka district, Kyiv region.
During more than 50 years of its existence, the inhabitants of Tarhan village (located in the south of Volodarka region) experienced development, growth and decline, victories and defeat, struggle for surviving and for their own choice.
In spite of the national-liberation war of 1648-1654, haidamachchyna (members of the Ukrainian rebel armed groups), serfdom, world wars, the village had its largest losses during the period of the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Within one year, the population reduced from one thousand to 600 people. The tragedy was caused by the policy of the Bolsheviks who introduced the system of collective farm management by means of famine.
Peasants were reluctant to join the local collective farm of Tarhan (Labor commune, later the Kalinin collective farm). However, the local party leaders were implementing the ideas of Marx and Lenin by all means. Famine came all over the village. Grown-ups and children were dying of starvation.
There were 400 victims according to the previous statistics compiled by the elementary school teacher Oleksandra Ovdiyuk and the collective farmer Alisa Maslo. Dead bodies were put into carts and buried in a common grave at the cemetery. The people, who were asked to do that, received enhanced bread ration. Now there are seven graves in the village.
The details of that famine were deeply hidden in the memory of the survivors. They have kept them for more than 50 years. The article by Mark Tolts “How many of us did live at those times?” was the first publication about famine 1932-1933 in the magazine “Ogonyok” №51 in 1987. The first monument to the victims of famine 1932-1933 was erected by the local craftsman – self-educated sculpturer Mykola Mykytenko. He had lost his relatives during the famine as well. The ceremony of opening the monument – mournful figure of a woman with a cross on her shoulders, as a hint at the way of the Cross, took place in Tarhan on the 24th of July 1988 under the auspices of the Rural Council head Oleksandr Ushynsky and the head of the collective farm Mykola Barylovych. A capsule with the names of the starved ones was bricked up in the monument with the purpose to take it out in 2033. The service for the dead and the funeral feast were held after the ceremony. It was the first monument in commemoration of the famine 1932-1933 victims in Ukraine.