Holodomor Timeline
By Matt Thamakaison
The series of events that led up to the famine genocide in Ukraine.
The story of how hate gained power
Holodomor—death by hunger, in Ukrainian
Ukraine had extensive fertile lands, which are naturally suited to grain production.
Essentially, the Soviet Union wanted to decapitate the leadership of Ukraine.
relume
[ri-loom]
To relight or rekindle (a light, flame, etc.)
Joseph Stalin, Leader of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
In Ukraine, the plan gave Stalin direct control over grain production, which meant he could extract all of the crop to sell to the West, as a way to fund Soviet Industrialization.
Collectivization
[kuh-lee-tuh-vy-zay-shuhn]]
Collectivization, policy adopted by the Soviet government, means that, peasantry were forced to give up their individual farms and join large collective farms
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"Strengthen working discipline in collective farms" – Soviet propaganda poster issued in Soviet Uzbekistan, 1933
No matter how rich or poor, Stalin seized the belongings of these “kulaks" whilst exile, imprison, or execute hundreds of thousands of them.
Famine
[fa-muhn]
Extreme scarcity of food.
A dispossessed kulak and his family in front of their home in Udachne village in Donetsk Oblast, circa 1930s. Photograph: CPA Media Pte Ltd/Alamy
Studies have shown that Soviets took over 4 million tons of grain from Ukraine alone in 1932. That same year, a new law punished anyone who took or hid grain and produce— with 10 years in prison, or the death penalty.
Stalin's oppressive collection policy created a famine that started spreading in grain-producing regions across the Soviet Union.
"There is no place for priests and kulaks in our collective farm!" Soviet poster, 1928
In winter of 1932, Soviet police began seizing not just grain, but anything edible, which included livestock and herbs.
A starving man lying on the ground in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
I the beginning of 1933, many Ukrainians were leaving to find food. Knowing this, Joseph Stalin the borders of Ukraine and policed migration from Ukrainian villages to cities.
People were trying to find food wherever they could. They began eating their animals and pets. So many people were desperate for food that anything living was viable for a meal; some even resorted to cannibalism.
Victim of the Holodomor, Kharkiv, Ukraine, photo by Alexander Wienerberger, 1933.
By 1934, most regions collectivized in Ukraine. Although there isn't an exact number of deaths from the Holodomor, studies estimate more than 3.9 million Ukrainians were killed, and Nearly 1.5 million people were also killed in Kazakhstan.
So many people perished from the Holodomor that the Soviet Union had to send people over to Ukraine to rebuild the labor force.
The article above is adapted from a speech given to Cambridge University Ukrainian Society on 6 February 2009.
Thank you for reading.
