Genocide of Ukrainians by Stalin at Holodomor or Murder by Starvation

Have you heard the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, refer to the Holodomor where Ukrainian people once overcame tyranny and that they would persevere again.

So, what happened at the Holodomor with such devastation to make it stand out so resolutely never to allow Russian repression again but fight to the end for freedom if necessary?

You will need moral courage to face the heartbreak of facts with better understanding why Ukrainians will not be repressed by any Russian government, their lies and propaganda, again.

Short Historical Perspective

Ukraine achieved independence with the dissolution of the USSR in 1991 wanting to be considered as a Central European nation like Poland. Their fertile prairies also produced the most wheat in Europe.

However, decades earlier, in 1932, Dictator Joseph Stalin wanted to control their productive farmlands as a huge Russification project; thereby, causing millions of people to starve as one of the most heinous forms of suffering and terror against a country.

Forced collectivization or five-year plans made the situation worse because of poor administration. They called it nationalization as well as to “teach Ukrainians” not to oppose official Moscow as they drove them into collectives to ensure a supply of grain to the Soviets.

And thus the Holodomor or “murder by starvation” began with mass malnutrition and death. Even propaganda movies appeared calling peasants as “counterrevolutionaries” who hid grain and potatoes at a time when workers, who were trying to support the “bright future” of socialism, were starving.

In short time, villages were emptied of food supplies and citizens. Theft of food was made punishable by death or 10 years imprisonment. Reports tell how farmers were not only deprived of their properties but many were exiled to Siberia. Those who were left behind and attempted to escape the zones of famine were ordered shot.

Dictator Stalin imposed relentless searches and confiscation of all food stuffs with severe penalties for not surrendering grain including seeds set aside for the next harvest. Despite the crisis, he actively denied the famine’s existence refusing to ask for foreign aid.

Inhumane Suffering for Millions

People were literally starving to death on the streets. One report stated “at every [train] station there was a crowd of peasants in rags, offering icons and linen in exchange for a loaf of bread. The women were lifting up their infants to the compartment windows — infants pitiful and terrifying with limbs like sticks…”

It is estimated during 1932–1933, hunger killed between seven and ten million people. This is more than Jews in World War II. Their concentration camps were built by extreme hunger … their fascist Hitler was fascist Stalin. The peak death toll speaks for itself in the spring of 1933 when it is estimated almost 24500 Ukrainians died every day!

Because the census at this time showed an alarming population decline the government abolished and destroyed all documentation with penalty of being shot or sent to the gulag to any census taker. Thus the brutality and horror were buried with countless bodies but their spirits will always remember.

The Holodomor can also be described as the Soviet leadership using the man-made famine to attack Ukrainian nationalism. Mass repressions of the 1930’s saw execution of over 1,500 Ukrainian-speaking intellectuals, the exile of many teachers, closing of schools and theatres, and the changing of towns’ names to Russian language. This physical destruction of all aspects of Ukrainian culture and resultant ethnic cleansing of the population were part of this catastrophe which could fall under the legal definition of genocide.

The Holodomor at that time broke the Ukrainian resistance, but it made the desire for Ukraine’s independence from Russia eternal.

The Soviet Union long denied that the famine had taken place by controlling the archives. The victims were silenced for decades and it was not taught in school. Gradually a growing number of memoirs published by survivors began a more serious investigation. To this day mass graves are being uncovered. Books are now being written and movies made.

On November 10, 2003 at the United Nations, 25 countries, including Russia, Ukraine, and United States signed a joint statement on the seventieth anniversary of the Holodomor classifying it as a genocide.

Personal thoughts

It was believed after World War 2 that another European war wouldn't happen. Lessons learned, but it did.

It was believed that Ukraine could maintain its independent nationhood from Russia, but it was massively assaulted by manic Putin for personal glory.

In 2019 there were 39 candidates on the presidential ballot when Volodymyr Zelensky was elected as new president in a two-round system by over 70% of the votes.

President Zelensky was forced to take on a vicious superpower capable of extermination as experienced before, never to be trusted, never again to be put into concentration camps or forced labor.

His role has become not only to protect the Ukrainians to fight or die for their democratic rights but to be the human iconic effort in protecting Eastern Europe and Western democracy itself from Soviet aggression in order to continue to believe in global peace.

How much does the world owe President Zelensky’s courage and the bravery of the Ukrainian people for love of freedom?

We know the world will never be the same when a barbaric war is played before our eyes. The whole world watches this annihilation of heritage, beautiful cities and people. The hearts of the world community are broken, powerless to stop the killing of innocent people with calls to help.

Somehow in this international system of human rights and laws for justice, there must be a way or what is a civilization for?

Only history will rise from the ashes and bones when history has taught unforgivable lessons learned before.

Annemarie Berukoff