We talked at length about values – Dignity, Freedom of choice and voice, Solidarity, Personal and civic responsibility – these are the foundations of our resilience. Here are the conclusions we reached:
Dignity is one of the key Ukrainian values that has endured through the centuries. It is what enables the people to defend themselves, their freedom, and their land. During the Holodomor, this dignity was deliberately broken through hunger, fear, violence, and terror. The Soviet regime sought to deprive Ukrainians of their inner strength, turning them into subjugated and dependent people. The famine was not only physical destruction, but also a blow to freedom, pride, and self-esteem.
Ukrainians were deprived of their right to vote, to choose, to have a cultural and national identity — everything that shapes human dignity. The genocide aimed to eradicate the capacity for independence and resistance. When people are condemned to survival, it is difficult for them to think about rights, freedoms, and dignity — and this is precisely what the organizers of the crime sought to achieve. But even in those conditions, Ukrainians retained their humanity: they supported each other, saved children, and shared crumbs. It was a quiet but very powerful testimony to dignity.
That is why the topic of the Holodomor is so closely linked to the topic of dignity today. The memory of this tragedy reminds us of the price that can be paid for the loss of freedom — political, national, or internal. At the same time, it shows that even in the darkest times, Ukrainians did not lose themselves. The generations before us paid too high a price for us to be able to talk again today about human dignity as the foundation of statehood.
Preserving dignity means not allowing fear or violence to define who we are. It is about the ability to remain human, to resist humiliation, to call the truth the truth. And that is why it is important to remember the Holodomor: so that we never allow a repeat of what happens when dignity is threatened.
Memory gives us strength, and dignity gives us the ability to build a future in which human beings and life are of the highest value!