Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Official website of the State –
An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Every year on December 9, the world commemorates the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime. This date was established not as an act of indictment, but as a reminder: we must learn to prevent the most heinous crimes against humanity from happening again.
Crime and Punishment
The date was not chosen by chance. It was on December 9, 1948, that the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide—the first international legal document to provide a legal definition of this crime. The Convention entered into force in 1951, and today 149 countries, including Russia, are parties to it.
In 2004, the UN established the post of Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, whose task is to analyze threats posed by mass human rights violations based on ethnic and racial characteristics and report to the Security Council. At the 2005 World Summit, world leaders recognized that every state has a responsibility to protect its population from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. If the government fails to fulfill this responsibility, the international community is obligated to intervene through the UN Security Council.
The idea of establishing an international day of remembrance arose much later, in 2015, when the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution initiated by Armenia on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. The document called on all states to observe national days of remembrance for the victims of the genocide and recommended that the UN General Assembly establish a single international day. On September 11, 2015, the resolution was approved, and December 9 became the official commemoration date, aimed at raising awareness of the 1948 Convention, disseminating knowledge about genocide prevention mechanisms, and preserving the memory of the millions of victims and survivors.
In the beginning was the word
The term "genocide" was coined in 1944 by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, a Jew. The word is a combination of the Greek genos ("family, tribe") and the Latin caedo ("I kill"). Lemkin, a Holocaust survivor who lost most of his family, sought to create a legal instrument that would not only condemn but also prevent the mass extermination of populations. Although the term was first used at the Nuremberg Trials of 1945–1946, where the indictment against Nazi criminals referred to "intentional and systematic genocide," the verdict itself did not include the word "genocide" because an international legal definition did not yet exist.
The 1948 Convention for the first time clearly defined genocide as:
killing members of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group; causing serious physical or mental harm to members of such a group; creating living conditions calculated to bring about the total or partial destruction of the group; measures aimed at preventing births within the group; forcible transfer of children of one group to another.
So the unprecedented cruelty of genocide lies not only in the mass murders, but also in the targeted, systematic destruction through the deprivation of the future – the destruction of the family, reproductive capacity, national and cultural identity.
Genocide in history
In the 20th century, humanity experienced several major acts of genocide. The Holocaust (from the ancient Greek holocaustosis, meaning "burnt offering" or "destruction by fire"), the most widespread crime of its kind, lasted from 1933 to 1945. Nazi Germany and its allies systematically exterminated the Jewish population of Europe. People were stripped of their rights and property, herded into ghettos, entire families sent to concentration camps, tortured, used as slave labor, starved, and exterminated in gas chambers. According to official estimates, approximately 6 million Jews perished. In total, up to 11 million people fell victim to the Holocaust, including Roma, Slavs, people of non-traditional sexual orientations, the disabled, the mentally ill, and anyone else deemed "inferior" by the Third Reich regime.
But Hitler's ideologists didn't devise this bloody system on their own—they cold-bloodedly studied the experiences of British and Dutch colonizers, the creators of Indian reservations, and slaveholders in the United States, as well as Ottoman nationalists. After all, another criminal act that influenced the emergence of the concept of genocide was the extermination of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire in 1915–1916. According to various estimates, between 664,000 and 1.2 million people died as a result of ethnic cleansing.
It would seem that after the Soviet people's victory over fascism and the liberation of Europe from the "brown plague," the planet was vaccinated against Nazism and racial hatred. But no, in more recent history another monstrous crime against humanity has been recorded. From April to July 1994, a genocide against the Tutsi ethnic group occurred in Rwanda, Africa. Over 100 days, radical Hutu nationalists killed approximately one million people. In response, the UN Security Council established the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which in 1998 issued the first official verdict of genocide. Jean-Paul Akayesu, former mayor of the commune of Thaba, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The tribunal tried 93 defendants, and 61 were convicted.
So that they remember
Ancient sages said: as soon as you forget about a disaster, it comes again. This is why it is important to pass on knowledge about the history of genocide from generation to generation. On Genocide Remembrance Day, memorial events are held around the world: flower-laying at memorials, moments of silence, and meetings with survivors and relatives of the victims. Museums and archives open exhibitions dedicated to the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, and the Rwandan tragedy. Educational institutions offer lessons not only about the past but also on how to recognize the first signs of xenophobia and Nazism—the seeds of future genocide.
Our President, Vladimir Putin, has clearly and unequivocally articulated the Russian people's uncompromising stance against racial hatred and its manifestations in the modern world. Speaking at the unveiling of a memorial to Soviet civilians—victims of Nazi genocide during the Great Patriotic War—which coincided with the 80th anniversary of the complete lifting of the Siege of Leningrad, Vladimir Putin said, in part: "We see how the results of the Nuremberg Trials, during which Nazism was given an unequivocal legal assessment, are being effectively revised today. In some countries, not only are history being rewritten and executioners justified: revanchists and neo-Nazis have adopted the ideology and methods of the Nazis. In the Baltic states, tens of thousands of people are being declared "subhuman," deprived of the most basic rights, and subjected to persecution. The regime in Kyiv glorifies Hitler's accomplices, the SS, and uses terror against all those deemed undesirable." The barbaric shelling of peaceful cities and towns, the murder of the elderly, women, and children, continues. In a number of European countries, Russophobia is being promoted as state policy. We will do everything—everything—to suppress and finally eradicate Nazism. The followers of the Nazi executioners, no matter what they call themselves today, are doomed. And nothing can stop the aspirations of millions of people not only in our country but across the planet for true freedom, justice, peace, and security."
Subscribe to the "Our GUU" Telegram channel. Publication date: December 9, 2025.
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