Edmonton’s Ukrainian community gathered to remember the millions who died during a government-imposed famine over 80 years ago.

The Edmonton branch president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), Serge Kostyuk, estimates up to 10 million people died during the Holodomor imposed by the former Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin in 1932-1933.

“Every Ukrainian family lost someone in that tragedy,” Kostyuk said.

“It was deliberate. It was planned to get rid of the nation.”

A commemoration ceremony was held Saturday at City Hall where survivors of the genocide spoke to the crowd.

Leonid Korownyk said he was just three-years-old at the time but can remember an incident where he took a potato from his aunt and uncle who lived down the street.

“I took a potato and brought it home. I said ‘Look mom and dad, I brought a potato.’ We didn’t have potatoes. They told me ‘No, you are not supposed to do that. You take that potato and you apologise to the uncle and the aunt and don’t do that anymore.’”

Kostyuk, who grew up in Ukraine but has lived in Canada for 10 years, said he remembered stories that his grandparents told about the Holodomor.

“They took cabbage. They took poppy seeds, even from kids. Everything consistently and then nothing left.”

The City of Edmonton is home to the world’s first Holodomor monument, which was built in 1983.

According to the UCC the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide Memorial Day Act was first held in November of 2008. The memorial day is held on the fourth Saturday in November each year.

A ceremony has also been planned at the Alberta Legislature for November 25 at noon.

With files from Stephanie Weibe