2023 Senate Joint Resolution 81
ENROLLED JOINT RESOLUTION
Relating to: commemorating November 7, 2023, as Victims of Communism Memorial Day.
Whereas, it has been 175 years since the publication of The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
and Friedrich Engels; and
Whereas, it has been 106 years since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and the establishment
of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin; and
Whereas, the formation of the Soviet Union led to decades of oppression and violence against
the Russian people; and
Whereas, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s policy of agricultural collectivization forced millions
of Russians off their land and led to a catastrophic famine in the Soviet Union; and
Whereas, Joseph Stalin used the famine to kill more than 3 million Ukrainians to eliminate
chances of Ukrainian independence in what has today become known as the Holodomor; and
Whereas, the historical ramifications of the Holodomor are still felt to this day, most recently with
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unjustified invasion of Ukraine; and
Whereas, estimates of Stalin’s death toll range from 6 million to 20 million people through mass
murder, deportations, forced labor, and the Great Purge; and
Whereas, the Soviet Union imposed communist states across Eastern Europe following the end
of World War II, leading to a mass emigration of 15 million people from Eastern Europe to the free
nations of Western Europe; and
Whereas, following the communist takeover of China, dictator Mao Zedong’s Great Leap
Forward policy led to the deaths of 45 million people; and
Whereas, numerous genocides on a smaller scale have taken place by communist leaders like
Fidel Castro in Cuba, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh in North Vietnam, the Kim family in North
Korea, and others; and
Whereas, it is estimated that nearly 100 million people have been killed by communist regimes
worldwide; and
Whereas, communism has continuously proven to be a failure and is not compatible with
American principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and free market capitalism; and
Whereas, President Ronald Reagan declared that “freedom and democracy will leave Marxism
and Leninism on the ash heap of history”; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the Wisconsin
Legislature commemorate November 7, 2023, as Victims of Communism Memorial Day.
Representative Robin J. Vos
Speaker of the Assembly
Senator Chris Kapenga
President of the Senate
Date
Richard A. Champagne
Acting Senate Chief Clerk