What is Holodomor and why should we all know about it?
It has been over a month since the start of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. The vicious attack causes all the horrendous atrocities we see on the news, social media, or even at school, yet there’s so much more we’re unable to witness from afar. Underneath the tick layers of hideous and vile war crimes done by Russia in the past two decades, and especially during the past month, lies a gruesome genocide Ukrainians will never forget. And neither should the world.
Article II of UN’s “Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” clarifies that genocide is an act with a delibirate intent to destroy, partially or fully, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. Ukranians have officially recognized Holodomor as a genocide in 2003 and ever since then a number of nations have followed their steps. But what exactly is Holodomor?
The term Holodomor means “death by starvation”, and truthfully so, the events that unfolded in Soviet Ukraine in the early 1930s were exactly what they’re called. Ukraine, being one of the most crucial members of the Soviet Union since December 1922, also played a tremendous part in being one of the main suppliers of grain, specifically wheat. However this agricultural tradition was quickly led to a significant decrease after late 1920s when Joseph Stalin became determined to collectivize agriculture, leading private farms to turn into being state-owned. This initiative, while sounding promising with its estimations on producing far more produce, was not supported by the Ukrainian farm-owners, leading their lands to be forcefully taken away from them. Despite Stalin’s appealing ideas on collectivization, Ukrainian farmers and peasants have experienced horrible waves of food shortages and expected plummeting in production, leading to serious uprisings in the country. As a form of punishment for resisting collectivization, Ukrainians were unable to receive food and to pour even more salt on the fresh wounds, peasants were forbidden to leave the country for the sole reason of searching for food. From 1932 to 1933 was when the horrible outcomes truly started to show themselves in a frightening manner - reports of malnutrition and rapidly rising cases of death by starvation became noticeable in Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, and Kyiv Oblast, later spreading onto other regions like an easily transmittable virus. Despite this, the Communist Party stayed determined to proceed with the atrocities, urging police forces to enter peasant households and confiscate their only source of food.
To this day, it is unknown how many deaths this man-made famine has led to, however it is estimated that roughly 3-7 million people have died due to hunger and malnutrition, out of which the majority were ethnic Ukranians. The collective trauma caused by Holodomor lives on in the core memory of Ukrainian people and continues to be one of the most deadly genocides known to humankind.
Elene Kalandadze
30.03.2022
Sources used:
http://www.hrweb.org/legal/genocide.html
https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/376-16#Text
https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor#:~:text=On%20November%2028%2C%202006%2C%20the,22%20US%20states%2C%20including%20Minnesota.
https://theweek.com/articles/449691/ukraines-fraught-relationship-russia-brief-history
https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/souvar/works/1930/02/fiveyearplan.htm
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/great-ukrainian-famine-1932-33.html
https://education.holodomor.ca/understanding-holodomor-loss-numbers/