His frail hand covering his heart, Mykhailo Matvienko, 92, peered at the yellow flame of a candle on his kitchen table on Saturday and recounted his childhood during the Great Famine.

A searing event seen as one of the great atrocities of 20th-century Europe, the Ukrainian famine of 1933 killed more than three million people, by most estimates, and has become a touchstone in post-Soviet Ukrainian society.

“It is very important to remember the famine,” Mr. Matvienko said. He lit his first candle in the morning, and kept them burning through the day.