Child victim of the Holodomor

Map of Ukrainian SRR in 1932-1933 (7 Oblast`s (Regions) + Moldavian ASSR) administrative borders given in light grey

The Ukrainian famine (1932-1933), or Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор), was one of the largest national catastrophes of the Ukrainian nation in modern history with direct loss of human life in the range of millions (estimates vary). While the famine in Ukraine was a part of a wider famine that also affected some other regions of the USSR such as Kazakhstan^[1] and Volga German Republic,^[2] the name Holodomor is specifically applied to the events that took place in territories populated by ethnic Ukrainians. The word comes from the Ukrainian words holod, ‘hunger’, and mor, ‘plague’,^[3] possibly from the expression moryty holodom, ‘to inflict death by hunger’. Sometimes the expression is incorrectly translated to English as "murder by hunger."^[4] Image File history File links Holodomor2. ... Image File history File links Holodomor2. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (2,048 × 1,536 pixels, file size: 533 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Agricaltural Encyclopedia volume 4 (of 4) article about Ukrainian SRR. published 1935 Moscow authorised to print November, 11 1934 compilation begins March, 15... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (2,048 × 1,536 pixels, file size: 533 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Agricaltural Encyclopedia volume 4 (of 4) article about Ukrainian SRR. published 1935 Moscow authorised to print November, 11 1934 compilation begins March, 15... Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, Ukrayintsi) are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly- citizens of Ukraine (who may or may not be ethnic Ukrainians). ... Droughts and famines in Imperial Russia and USSR are known to have happened every 10-13 years, with average droughts happening every 5-7 years. ... 1937 flag of the Volga German ASSR Coat of Arms of the Volga German ASSR Volga German ASSR location map Volga German ASSR map The Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (German: Autonome Sozialistische Sowjetrepublik der Wolgadeutschen, Russian: Автономная Советская Социалистическая Республика Немцев Поволжья) was an autonomous republic established in the Soviet Union, with its capital...

Most modern historians agree that the famine was caused by the policies of the government of the Soviet Union under Stalin, rather than by natural causes. The Holodomor is sometimes referred to as the Ukrainian Genocide,^[5][6][7][8] implying that the famine was engineered by the Soviets, specifically targeting the Ukrainian people to destroy the Ukrainian nation as a political factor and social entity.^[9] However, some scholars note that natural causes (weather and inadequate harvest) could also have contributed to the famine.^[10][11] <nowiki>Insert non-formatted text hereBold text</nowiki>A famine is a social and economic crisis that is commonly accompanied by widespread malnutrition, starvation, epidemic and increased mortality. ... Iosif (usually anglicized as Joseph) Vissarionovich Stalin (Russian: &#1048;&#1086;&#1089;&#1080;&#1092; &#1042;&#1080;&#1089;&#1089;&#1072;&#1088;&#1080;&#1086;&#1085;&#1086;&#1074;&#1080;&#1095; &#1057;&#1090;&#1072;&#1083;&#1080;&#1085;), original name Ioseb Jughashvili (Georgian: &#4312;&#4317;&#4321;&#4308;&#4305; &#4335;&#4323;&#4326;&#4304;&#4328;&#4309;&#4312;&#4314... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Soviet redirects here. ...

While historians continue to disagree whether the policies which led to the famine fall under the legal definition of genocide, the parliament of Ukraine and the governments of 26 other countries recognized the famine to be such. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 1948 and came into effect in January 1951. ... Verkhovna Rada. ...

Causes and outcomes

Cover of the Soviet magazine Kolhospnytsia Ukrayiny ("Collective Farm Woman of Ukraine") dated December 1932

While complex, it is possible to group the causes of the Holodomor. They have to be understood in the larger context of the social revolution 'from above' that took place in the Soviet Union at the time. Image File history File links Holodomor6. ... Image File history File links Holodomor6. ...

Policy of collectivization

A policy of collectivization was introduced and by early 1932, 69% of households were collectivized.^[12] Even though several other regions in the USSR were collectivized to a greater extent,^[13] the effect of the collectivization on the Ukrainian agriculture was very substantial. The collectivization campaign proved highly unpopular with the rural population: when collectivization was still voluntary, very few peasants joined collective farms. Some of them "self dekulakization" ("samoraskulachivanie") when the peasants slaughtered their livestock. Traditional farming In Imperial Russia, the Stolypin Reform was aimed at the development of capitalism in agriculture by giving incentives for creation of large farms. ...

For this reason, the regime increasingly pressured peasants to join collective farms. To expedite the process of collectivization, tens of thousands of Soviet officials were sent into the countryside in 1929–1930.

At the same time, the "Twenty-Five Thousanders" (industrial workers and mostly devoted Bolsheviks) were sent to help run the collective farms. In addition, they were expected to quash the increasing passive and active resistance to collectivization by engaging in what was euphemistically referred to as "dekulakization": the arresting of 'kulaks' — "well-to-do" farmers and transferring their families to the Urals and Central Asia, where they were to be placed in others sectors of the economy such as timber.^[14] Effectively, the term 'kulak' was applied to anybody resisting collectivization and many of the so-called 'kulaks' were no more well off than other peasants. According to the declassified data, around 300,000 Ukrainians out of a population of about 30 million were subject to these policies in 1930-31 and Ukrainians composed 15% of the total 1.8 million 'kulaks' relocated Soviet-wide.^[15] Twenty-five-thousanders (Двадцатипятитысячники in Russian, or Dvadtsatipyatitysyachniki) was a made-up collective name for the frontline workers from big industrial cities of the USSR, who voluntarily left their homes for rural areas at the call of the CPSU in order to improve the performance of kolhozes during the agricultural collectivisation... Nikolai Getman, Moving out Dekulakization (Russian: раскулачивание) was the Soviet campaign of political repressions, including arrests, deportations, and executions of millions of the better-off peasants and their families in 1929-1932. ... The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ... The Ural Mountains, (Russian: &#1059;&#1088;&#1072;&#769;&#1083;&#1100;&#1089;&#1082;&#1080;&#1077; &#1075;&#1086;&#769;&#1088;&#1099; = &#1059;&#1088;&#1072;&#769;&#1083;) also known simply as the Urals, are a mountain range that run roughly north and south through western Russia. ... Map of Central Asia showing three sets of possible boundaries for the region Central Asia located as a region of the world Central Asia is a vast landlocked region of Asia. ...

Collectivization had an adverse effect on agricultural output everywhere, but since Ukraine was the most agriculturally productive area (over 50% of wheat produced in the Russian Empire originated from Ukraine in the beginning of 20th century), the effects here were particularly dramatic. As projections for agricultural production declined, so did collections by the state. For the 1932 harvest, it was planned that there would be 29.5 million tons in state collections of grain out of 90.7 million tons in production. But the actual result was a disastrous 55-60 million tons in production. The state ended up collecting only 18.5 million tons in grain.^[16] The collections by the state were virtually the same in 1930 and 1931 at about 22.8 million tons. For 1932, they had significantly been reduced to 18.5 million tons. These were the total estimated outcomes of the grain harvests:^[16] The subject of this article was previously also known as Russia. ...

Article from Soviet newspaper with first version of plan for grain collections in 1932 for kolhozes and peasants - 5831.3 thousands ton + sovhozes 475 034 tons

Image File history File links Size of this preview: 706 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,282 × 1,089 pixels, file size: 260 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Article about plan for grain collection in Ukrainian SRR for 1932 (first revision from 3) Prewar publication by a newspaper, Soviet legal entity File... Image File history File links Size of this preview: 706 × 600 pixelsFull resolution‎ (1,282 × 1,089 pixels, file size: 260 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Article about plan for grain collection in Ukrainian SRR for 1932 (first revision from 3) Prewar publication by a newspaper, Soviet legal entity File...

Criminal prosecution for withholding or bargaining of grain

On August 7, 1932, the Soviet government passed a law "on the safekeeping of Socialist property"^[17] that imposed from a ten year prison sentence to the death penalty for any theft of public property.^{[18][19][20][17]} Stalin personally appended the stipulation: "People who encroach on socialist property should be considered enemies of the people." Additionally, the age limit for the death penalty was reduced to 12 years old: children were shot for gathering ears of corn left in the field after harvest. Within the first five months of passage of the law, 54,645 individuals had been sentenced under it and 2,110 sentenced to death. Acts as minor as bartering tobacco for bread were documented as punished by 5 years in prison.^[17] is the 219th day of the year (220th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The scope of this law, colloquially dubbed the "law of the wheat ears,"^[17] included even the smallest appropriation of grain by peasants for personal use. In little over a month the law was revised, as Politburo protocols reveal that secret decisions had later modified the original decree. On September 16, 1932, the Politburo approved a measure that specifically exempted small-scale theft of socialist property from the death penalty. It declared that "organizations and groupings destroying state, social, and co-operate property in an organized way by fires, explosions and mass destruction of property shall be sentenced to execution without weakening", and listed a number of cases in which "kulaks, former traders and other socially-alien persons" should be subject to the death penalty. So-called "kulaks", whether members of a kolkhoz or not, who "organize or take part in the theft of kolkhoz property and grain", should also be sentenced "to the death penalty without weakening." But "working individual peasants and collective farmers" who stole kolkhoz property and grain should be sentenced to ten years; the death penalty should be imposed only for "systematic theft of grain, sugar beet, animals, etc."^[21]

Soviet expectations for the 1932 grain crop were high due to the Ukraine's bumper crop the previous year, which Soviet authorities believed were sustainable; as a consequence, when it became clear that the 1932 grain deliveries were not going to meet the expectations of the government, the decreased agricultural output was blamed on the "kulaks", "nationalists", and "Petlurovites". According to a report of the head of the Supreme Court, by January, 15, 1933 as many as 103,000 people had been sentenced under the provisions of the August 7 decree. Of the 79,000 whose sentences were known to the Supreme Court, 4,880 had been sentenced to death, 26,086 to ten years' imprisonment and 48,094 to other sentences. Those sentenced to death were categorised primarily as kulaks; many of those sentenced to ten years were individual peasants who were not kulaks.^[21] The collectivisation campaign in the USSR, 1930s. ... Head Otaman Symon Petlura Symon Petlura (Ukrainian: (Simon Petljura); in English, also occasionally spelled Simon Petliura or Petlyura; May 10, 1879 â€“ May 25, 1926) was a publicist, writer, journalist, Ukrainian politician and statesman, a leader of Ukraines unsuccessful fight for independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917. ...

A special commission headed by Vyacheslav Molotov was sent to Ukraine in order to execute the grain contingent.^[22] On November 9, a secret decree urged the Soviet security agencies to increase their "effectiveness". Molotov also ordered that if no grain remained in Ukrainian villages, all beets, potatoes, vegetables and any other food were to be confiscated.^{[citation needed]} For other uses, see Molotov (disambiguation). ... is the 313th day of the year (314th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

On December 6, a new regulation was issued that imposed the following sanctions on Ukrainian villages that were considered "underperforming" in the grain collection procurement: ban on supply of any goods or food to the villages, requisition of any food or grain found on site, ban of any trade, and, lastly, the confiscation of all financial resources.^[23][24] Measures were undertaken to persecute upon the withholding or bargaining of grain. This was done frequently with the aid of requisition detachments, which raided farms to collect grain. This was done regardless of whether the peasants retained enough grain to feed themselves, or whether they had enough seed left to plant the next harvest.

Restrictions on the freedom of movement

Special barricades were set up by the GPU units throughout the USSR to prevent exodus of peasants from the hunger-stricken regions. During only one month of 1933 219,460 people were intercepted and escorted back or arrested and sentenced.^[25]. In Ukraine, these measures has following results - according to the declassified documents [21] -[22] [23] [24] during the 11 days (23/I - 2/II) after the January 22, 1933 Decree 3861 people were intercepted of which 340 were arrested "for farther recognition". At same period at trains and railway stations at whole Ukrainian territory 16773 intercepted (from them 907 not living at Ukraine) – from them arrested 1610. Such figures also included criminals. In same document OGPU informed about number of peasants which already left the Ukrainian territory (94433 persons) for period from between December 15, 1932 and January 2, 1933 (data for 215 districts out of 484) and Moldavian ASRR). Soviet poster of the 1920s: The GPU strikes on the head the counter-revolutionary saboteur State Political Directorate was the secret police of the RSFSR and USSR until 1934. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The government introduced new identity papers and obligatory registration for citizens in December 1932.^[25] Initially, the area of new identity papers and obligatory registration implementation were limited to Moscow and Leningrad (encircling 100 km ) and Kharkov (encircling 50 km) and the wen measures were planned for implementation by June 1933. Year 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1932 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Kharkov (rus: &#1061;&#1072;&#769;&#1088;&#1100;&#1082;&#1086;&#1074;) or Kharkiv (ukr: &#1061;&#1072;&#769;&#1088;&#1082;&#1110;&#1074;) is the second largest city in Ukraine, a center of Kharkivska oblast. It is situated in the northeast of the country and has a population of two million. ...

To further prevent the spread of information about the famine, travel from Ukraine and Kuban region was specifically forbidden by directives of January 22, 1933 (signed by Molotov and Stalin) and of January 23, 1933 (joint directive VKP(b) Central Committee and Sovnarkom). The directives stated that the travels "for bread" from these areas were organized by enemies of the Soviet power with the purpose of agitation in northern areas of the USSR against kolkhozes,same as it happened last year (1932) from Ukraine, but were not prevented. Therefore, railway tickets were to be sold only by ispolkom permits, and those who already reached the north should be arrested.^[26] is the 22nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 23rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For other usage of the initials CPSU see CPSU (disambiguation). ... Central Committee most commonly refers to the central executive unit of a communist party, whether ruling or non-ruling. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Ispolkom (исполком) is an Russian language abbreviation for Ispolnitelny komitet (исполнительный комитет), which may be translated as executive committee. In the Soviet Union an ispolkom was a local organ of executive and regulatory power, an office of the local soviet. ...

Information blockade

The Soviet government denied initial reports of the famine, and prevented foreign journalists from travelling in the region. At same time there was no credible evidence of information blockade arrangements on a considerable number of foreign specialists (engineers, workers, etc) which engaged at many construction site at Ukrainian territory. Scholars who have conducted research in declassified archives have reported^[27] "the Politburo and regional Party committees insisted that immediate and decisive action be taken in response to the famine such that 'conscientious farmers' not suffer, while district Party committees were instructed to supply every child with milk and decreed that those who failed to mobilize resources to feed the hungry or denied hospitalization to famine victims be prosecuted."

Insufficient assistance

However, aid to famine-stricken regions had only a limited impact on the famine. Between February and July 1933 at least thirty-five Politburo decisions and Sovnarkom decrees selectively authorized issue of a total of 35,19 million poods ~ 0,576 million tons[25] of grain for food, seeds and forage for Ukrainian SSR peasants, kolhozes and sovhozes. Such figures does not include grain/flour aid provided for urban population, children and aid from local sources. Stalin personally authorized distribution of aid in the case of a request by Sholokhov, whose own district was stricken.^[28] Pood (Пуд in Russian) or pud is a unit of mass equal to 40 funt (фунт, Russian pounds). ... A kolkhoz (Russian: &#1082;&#1086;&#1083;&#1093;&#1086;&#769;&#1079;) was a form of collective farming in the Soviet Union that existed along with state farms or sovkhozes. ... A sovkhoz (Russian language: &#1057;&#1086;&#1074;&#1093;&#1086;&#1079;, &#1057;&#1086;&#1074;&#1077;&#1090;&#1089;&#1082;&#1086;&#1077; &#1093;&#1086;&#1079;&#1103;&#1081;&#1089;&#1090;&#1074;&#1086;, sovetskoe khoziaistvo), typically translated as state farm, is a Soviet state-owned farm, in contrast with kolkhoz, which is a collective-owned... Russian writer Mikhail Sholokhov Mikhail Aleksandrovich Sholokhov (Russian: Михаи́л Алекса́ндрович Шо́лохов) (May 24, 1905 [O.S. May 11]) - February 21, 1984) was a Soviet/Russian novelist. ...

Documents from the Soviet archives indicate that the aid distribution was made selectively to the most affected areas and from the spring months such assistance has the goal of the relief effort at sowing time was targeted to recovering patients. A special resolution of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Ukraine for the Kiev Oblast March 31, 1933, ordered dividing peasants hospitalized into ailing and recovering patients. The resolution ordered improving the nutrition of the latter within the limits of available resources so that they could be sent out into the fields to sow the new crop as soon as possible.^[29] The food was dispensed according to the special resolutions from the government bodies and additional food was given in the field where the laborers worked. For the post-Soviet party, see Communist Party of Ukraine and Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed). ... Kiev Oblast (also Kyiv Oblast, Ukrainian: ) is an oblast (province) in central Ukraine. ...

Export of grain

Also, the grain exports during 1932-1933 continued, even though on a significantly lower level than in previous years. In 1930/31 there had been 5,832,000 tons of grains exported. In 1931/32, grain exports declined to 4,786,000 tons. In 1932/1933, grain exports were just 1,607,000 tons and in 1933/34, this further declined to 1,441,000 tons.^[30] Officially published data slightly differ Cereals : 1930 - 4,846,024;
1931 - 5,182,835; 1932 - 1,819,114; 1933 - 1,771,364 tons. From that wheat: 1930 - 2,530,953; 1931 - 2,498,958 ; 1932 - 550,917; 1933 - 748,248 tons. Via Ukrainian commercial ports in 1932 were exported(thousand tons): 988.3 -grains, 16,5 othear types of cereals; in 1933 - 809.6,-grains 2.6 -cereals; 3.5 meat, 0.4- butter, 2.5 - fish. Via Ukrainian commercial ports in 1932 were imported(thousand tons): 1932 - no more then 67.2 of grains and cereals 1933 - 8.6 of grains. Received from other Soviet ports - 1932 (thousand tons): 164 - grains, 7.3 - other types of cereals, fish -31.5 and no more then 177 thousand tons of meat and butter 1933- 230 - grains, 15.3 other types of cereals 0,1 - meat , 0.9- butter, fish - 34.3.

Natural reasons

Drought has began to be mentioned as the major reason of Holodomor by Soviet propaganda sources since 1983 ^{[31] [32]}. This explanation has been supported by several Western historians ^[10] However, the drought was not as bad as that of the non-famine year of 1936, and it was centered outside Ukraine, according to the leading Soviet authority on drought ^[33] Nevertheless there was a significant drought in 1931 which caused a significant decrease of harvest while in 1936 decreasing of harvest was not so catastrophic.

Primitive agriculture

Another factor in the decline of the harvests were the shortage of draught power for ploughing and reaping was even more acute in 1932 than in the previous year. The number of working horses declined from 19.5 million on July 1, 1931 to 16.2 million on July 1, 1932. The desperate efforts to replace horses by tractors failed to compensate for this loss. In 1931, the total supply of tractors to agriculture amounted to 964,000 h.p., 393,000 produced at home, and 578,000 imported. But in 1932, because of the foreign trade crisis, no tractors at all were imported.^[34] In the whole of 1932, only 679,000 tractor horse-power was supplied to agriculture, considerably less than in 1931. Only about half became available in time for the harvest, and even less in time for the spring sowing. Animal draught power deteriorated in quality. Horses were fed and maintained even more inadequately than in the previous year.^[34] The acute shortage of horses led to the notorious decision to employ cows as working animals. According to the speech of one Soviet official at one of the most affected by famine region, the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast "in 1932 we employ only 9000 cows, but in 1933 we involve at least 3/4 of their total number; 57000 employed at sowing."[26] February 23, the Lower Volga party bureau decided to use 200,000 cows for special field work. The following shows the number of horses in the USSR:^[35] Dnipropetrovsk Oblast (Ukrainian: , Dnipropetrovs’ka oblast’ or Дніпропетровщина, Dnipropetrovshchyna) is an oblast of central Ukraine, the most important industrial region of the country. ...

Estimation of the loss of life

Rate of population decline in Ukraine and South Russia. 1929-1932

While the course of the events as well as their underlying reasons are still a matter of debate, the fact that by the end of 1933, millions of people had starved to death or had otherwise died unnaturally in Ukraine, as well as in other Soviet republics, is undisputed. Image File history File links Holodomor_Famine_map. ... Image File history File links Holodomor_Famine_map. ...

The Soviet Union long denied that the famine had ever existed, and the NKVD (and later KGB) archives on the Holodomor period opened very slowly. The exact number of the victims remains unknown and probably impossible to find out even within a margin of error of a hundred thousand.^[36] The NKVD (Narodny Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del  ) (Russian: , ) or Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the leading secret police organization of the Soviet Union that was responsible for political repressions during Stalinism. ... This article is about the KGB of the Soviet Union. ...

The estimates for the number of deaths due to famine in Ukraine (excluding other repressions) vary by several millions and numbers as high as 10 million are sometimes cited.^[37][38] Even the results based on scientific methods also vary widely but the range is somewhat more narrow: between 2.5 million (Volodymyr Kubiyovych) and 4.8 million (Vasyl Hryshko). Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. ... Volodymyr Kubiyovych, also spelled Kubiiovych, (Ukrainian: ; 23 September, 1900 (Nowy SÄ…cz, Galicia)) - 2 November, 1985 (Paris, France)) was a Ukrainian geographer with a specialty in demography, a cartographer, an encyclopedist, politician, and statesman. ...

One modern calculation that uses demographic data including that available from formerly closed Soviet archives narrows the losses to about 3.2 million or, allowing for the lack of the data precision, 3 to 3.5 million.^{[39][40][41][42]}

The formerly closed Soviet archives show that excess deaths in Ukraine in 1932-1933 numbered 1.54 million^[43]. In 1932-1933, there were a combined 1.2 million cases of typhus and 500,000 cases of typhoid fever. Deaths resulted primarily from manifold diseases due to lowered resistance and disease in general rather than actual starvation^[44]. All major types of disease, apart from cancer, tend to increase during famine as a result of undernourishment resulting in lower resistance to disease, and of unsanitary conditions. In the years 1932-34, the largest rate of increase was recorded for typhus. Typhus is spread by lice. In conditions of harvest failure and increased poverty, the number of lice is likely to increase, and the herding of refugees at railway stations, on trains and elsewhere facilitates their spread. In 1933, the number of recorded cases was twenty times the 1929 level. The number of cases per head of population recorded in Ukraine in 1933 was naturally considerably higher than in the USSR as a whole. But by June of 1933, incidence in Ukraine had increased to nearly ten times the January level and was higher than in the rest of the USSR taken as a whole.^[45]

However, it is important to note that the number of the recorded excess deaths extracted from the birth/death statistics from the Soviet archives is self-contradictory and cannot be fully relied upon because the data fails to add up to the differences between the 1927 and 1937 Soviet census results.^[39]

The following calculation is presented by Stanislav Kulchytsky.^[39] The declassified Soviet statistics show a decrease of 538,000 people in the population of Soviet Ukraine between 1926 census (28,925,976) and 1937 census (28,388,000). The number of births and deaths (in thousands) according to the declassified records is:

According to the correction for officially non-accounted child mortality in 1933^[46] by 150,000 calculated by Sergei Maksudov, the number of births for 1933 should be increased from 471,000 to 621,000. Assuming the natural mortality rates in 1933 to be equal to the average annual mortality rate in 1927-1930 (524,000 per year) a natural population growth for 1933 would have been 97,000, which is five times less than this number in the past years (1927-1930). From the corrected birth rate and the estimated natural death rate for 1933 as well as from the official data for other years the natural population growth from 1927 to 1936 gives 4.043 million while the census data showed a decrease of 538,000. The sum of the two numbers gives an estimated total demographic loss of 4.581 million people. A major hurdle in estimating the human losses due to famine is the needed to take into account the numbers involved in migration (including forced resettlement). According to the Soviet statistics, the migration balance for the population in Ukraine for 1927 - 1936 period was a loss of 1.343 million people. Even at the time when the data was taken, the Soviet statistical institutions acknowledged that its precision was worse than the data for the natural population change. Still, with the correction for this number, the total number of death in Ukraine due to unnatural causes for the given ten years was 3.238 million, and taking into account the lack of precision, especially of the migration estimate, the human toll is estimated between 3 million and 3.5 million. Not by Their Own Will. ...

In addition to the direct losses from unnatural deaths, the indirect losses due to the decrease of the birth rate should be taken into account in consideration in estimating of the demographic consequences of the Famine for Ukraine. For instance, the natural population growth in 1927 was 662,000, while in 1933 it was 97,000, in 1934 it was 88,000. The combination of direct and indirect losses from Holodomor gives 4.469 million, of which 3.238 million (or more realistically 3 to 3.5 million) is the number of the direct deaths.

A 2002 study by Vallin et al^[47] utilizing similar primary sources to Kulchytsky, and performing an analysis with more sophisticated demographic tools with forward projection of expected growth from the 1926 census and backward projection from the 1939 census found that the total Ukrainian population shortfall from the expected value between 1926 and 1939 amounted to 4.566 million. Of this number, 1.057 million is attributed to birth deficit, 930,000 to forced out-migration, and 2.582 million to excess mortality and voluntary out-migration. Therefore, direct deaths as the result of the 1932-33 famine were somewhere below 2.5 million.

According to estimates^[46] about 81.3% of the victims were ethnic Ukrainians, 4.5% Russians, 1.4% Jews and 1.1% were Poles. Many Belarusians, Hungarians, Volga Germans and Crimean Tatars became victims as well. The Ukrainian rural population was the hardest hit by the Holodomor. Since the peasantry constituted a demographic backbone of the Ukrainian nation,^[48] the tragedy deeply affected the Ukrainians for many years. The Volga Germans are ethnic Germans living near the Volga River and the Black Sea, maintaining German culture, German language, German traditions and religions: Evangelical Lutherans or Roman Catholic. ... The Crimean Tatars (sg. ...

Elimination of Ukrainian cultural elite

The famine of 1932-1933 coincided with the assault on Ukrainian national culture. The events of 1932-1933 in Ukraine were seen by the Soviet Communist leaders as an instrument against possible Ukrainian self-determination. At the 12th Congress of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Moscow-appointed leader Postyshev declared that "1933 was the year of the defeat of Ukrainian nationalist counter-revolution."^[49] This "defeat" encompassed not just the physical extermination of a significant portion of the Ukrainian peasantry, but also the virtual elimination of the Ukrainian clergy and the mass imprisonment or execution of Ukrainian intellectuals, writers and artists. For the post-Soviet party, see Communist Party of Ukraine and Communist Party of Ukraine (renewed). ...

By the end of the 1930s, approximately four-fifths of the Ukrainian cultural elite had been "eliminated".^[50] Some, like Ukrainian writer Mykola Khvylovy, committed suicide. One of the leading Ukrainian Bolsheviks, Mykola Skrypnyk, who was in charge of the decade-long Ukrainization program that had been decisively brought to an end, shot himself in the summer of 1933 at the height of the terrifying purge of the CP(b)U. The Communist Party of Ukraine, under the guidance of state officials like Kaganovich, Kosior, and Postyshev, boasted in early 1934 of the elimination of "counter-revolutionaries, nationalists, spies and class enemies". Whole academic organizations, such as the Bahaliy Institute of History and Culture, were shut down following the arrests. Mykola Khvylovy (actually Mykola Fitillov) (December 14, 1893-May 13, 1933) was a Ukrainian writer and poet of the early Communist Ukrainian renaissance. ... Mykola Oleksiyovych Skrypnyk (Ukrainian: , January 25 [O.S. January 13], 1872–July 7, 1933) was a Ukrainian Bolshevik leader who was a proponent of the Ukrainian Republics independence, and led the cultural Ukrainization effort in Soviet Ukraine. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Lazar Kaganovich Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich (Russian: ) (November 22, 1893–July 25, 1991) was a Soviet politician and administrator and a close associate of Joseph Stalin. ... Stanisław Kosior Trofim Lysenko speaking at the Kremlin in 1935. ...

In the 1920s, the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church had gained a following amongst the Ukrainian peasants due to the Soviet policy of weakening the position of the Russian Orthodox Church (see History of Christianity in Ukraine). Nonetheless in the late 1920s the Soviet authorities went after the Ukrainian Church as well, were thousands of parishes were closed and clergy repressed. By 1930 the church was taken off the Soviet Registry and the Secret Police made sure that it did not exist unofficially. At the same time the widespread action against the surviving Russian Orthodox Church parishes was dramatically reduced. In 1921 a Synod created the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) in Kiev and ordained Metropolitan Vasyl (Lypkivsky) as its head. ... The Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (Russian: ), also known as the Orthodox Christian Church of Russia, is a body of Christians who are united under the Patriarch of Moscow, who in turn is in communion with the other patriarchs and primates of the Eastern Orthodox Church. ... This article should include material from Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kiev Patriarchy, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, and Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko). ...

However, this repression of the intelligentsia occurred in virtually all parts of the USSR. Furthermore, there is no credible evidence that the repression of the Ukrainian elite was accompanied by restrictions of cultural expression. In 1935-36, 83% of all school children in the Ukrainian SSR were taught in Ukrainian even though Ukrainians were about 80% of the population.^[51] In 1936 from 1830 newspapers 1402 was Ukrainian, as also 177 magazines. In 1936 was published 69 104 thousands Ukrainian books.

Was the Holodomor genocide?

The inventor of the term "genocide", Raphael Lemkin, was a featured speaker at the manifestation of Ukrainian-Americans in September 1953 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the famine.^[9] Today, the heads of state, governments or parliaments of 26 countries, consider the 1932-1933 famine as an act of genocide. Among these countries are Ukraine, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Spain, United States, and Vatican City. In addition, scholars have documented that the famine affected other nationalities. The 2004 book The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 by R.W. Davies and S.G. Wheatcroft gives a best estimate of around 5.5 to 6.5 million deaths in the Soviet-wide 1932-1933 famine.^[52] Still, the Holodomor remains a politically-charged topic not settled even within the mainstream scholarship. For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Rafael Lemkin (June 24, 1900—August 28, 1959) was a lawyer of Polish-Jewish descent. ...

Robert Conquest, the author of one of the most important Western studies published prior to the declassifying of the Soviet archives, concluded that the famine of 1932–33 was artificial—that is a deliberate mass murder, if not genocide committed as part of Joseph Stalin's collectivization program under the Soviet Union and many historians agree. In 2006, the SBU declassified more than 5 thousand pages of Holodomor archives. These documents show that Moscow singled out Ukraine, while regions outside it were allowed to receive humanitarian aid.^[53] Some historians maintain, however, that the famine was an unintentional consequence of collectivization, and that the associated resistance to it by the Ukrainian peasantry exacerbated an already-poor harvest.^[54] Researchers state that while the term Ukrainian Genocide is often used in application to the event, technically, the use of the term "genocide" is inapplicable.^[9] They argue that since the Holodomor did not affect cities, and was limited to rural areas of Ukraine, it is not plausible to argue that the government tried to destroy the Ukrainian people as such. It has been suggested that the Holodomor be classified not as genocide, but as democide.^{[citation needed]} Mass murder (massacre) is the act of murdering a large number of people, typically at the same time, or over a relatively short period of time. ... Josef Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (Georgian: , Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jughashvili; Russian: , Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) (December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953), better known by his adopted name, Joseph Stalin (alternatively transliterated Josef Stalin), was General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Unions Central Committee from... Traditional farming In Imperial Russia, the Stolypin Reform was aimed at the development of capitalism in agriculture by giving incentives for creation of large farms. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Traditional farming In Imperial Russia, the Stolypin Reform was aimed at the development of capitalism in agriculture by giving incentives for creation of large farms. ... A resistance movement is a group or collection of individual groups, dedicated to fighting an invader in an occupied country or the government of a sovereign nation through either the use of physical force, or nonviolence. ... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Democide is a term coined by political scientist R. J. Rummel for the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Rummel created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government murder that are not covered by the legal definition...

In controversy, the term democide, introduced by the academic R.J. Rummel, is "the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder".^[55] That the rural population (in 1932 75% to 85% of Ukrainians resided in villages) does not represent the whole nation, what terminology to use for the designation of an event that led to the death of a significant share of the population of Soviet Ukraine in 1932-1933, as well as the dispute to what extent the Soviet government deliberately aggravated the famine are the arguments that are often used for confrontation and politicization of the tragedy.^[56] Democide is a term coined by political scientist R. J. Rummel for the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder. Rummel created the term as an extended concept to include forms of government murder that are not covered by the legal definition... Rudolph Joseph Rummel (born October 21, 1932) is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii and alternative historian. ... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Politicide is a punk band formed in the early 80s. ... Mass murder (massacre) is the act of murdering a large number of people, typically at the same time, or over a relatively short period of time. ... State motto: &#1055;&#1088;&#1086;&#1083;&#1077;&#1090;&#1072;&#1088;&#1110; &#1074;&#1089;&#1110;&#1093; &#1082;&#1088;&#1072;&#1111;&#1085;, &#1108;&#1076;&#1085;&#1072;&#1081;&#1090;&#1077;&#1089;&#1103;! Official language None. ...

According to the US Government Commission on the Ukrainian Famine, [27] the seizure of the 1932 crop by the Soviet authorities was the main reason for the famine. The US commission stated that "while famine took place during the 1932-1933 agricultural year in the Volga Basin and the North Caucasus Territory as a whole, the invasiveness of Stalin's interventions of both the Fall of 1932 and January 1933 in Ukraine are paralleled only in the ethnically Ukrainian Kuban region of the North Caucasus". It is also notable, however, that 20% of Ukraine's population at the time consisted of nationalities other than Ukrainian while the rural population, most strongly affected by the famine, had a stronger Ukrainian majority that the population of Ukraine overall.

At the international conference of the Ukrainian Holodomor, which was held in October 2003 at the Institute of Social and Religious History of Vicenza, 28 conference participants that included the well-respected historians like James Mace, Hubert Laszkiewicz, Andrea Graziosi, Yuriy Shapoval, Gerhard Simon, Orest Subtelny, Mauro Martini, etc. - endorsed a resolution addressed to the Italian government and the European Parliament with a request to recognize the Holodomor as an act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.^[57][28] For other uses, see October (disambiguation). ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Vicenza is a city in northern Italy, is the capital of the eponymous province in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, straddling the Bacchiglione. ... Orest Subtelny - Ukrainian historian, professor at Department of History and Political Science, York University. ... This article or section should be merged with Politics of Italy This article needs to be wikified. ... Established 1952, as the Common Assembly President Hans-Gert Pöttering (EPP) Since 16 January 2007 Vice-Presidents 14 Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou (EPP) Alejo Vidal-Quadras (EPP) Gérard Onesta (Greens – EFA) Edward McMillan-Scott (ED) Mario Mauro (EPP) Miguel Angel Martínez Martínez (PES) Luigi Cocilovo (ALDE) Mechtild... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ...

On May 15, 2003, the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) of Ukraine passed a resolution declaring the famine of 1932–1933 an act of genocide, deliberately organized by the Soviet government against the Ukrainian nation. Governments and parliaments of several other countries have also officially recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide.^{[5][6][7][8][58]} is the 135th day of the year (136th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Verkhovna Rada. ... For other uses, see Genocide (disambiguation). ... Ukrainians (Ukrainian: Українці, Ukrayintsi) are an East Slavic ethnic group primarily living in Ukraine, or more broadly- citizens of Ukraine (who may or may not be ethnic Ukrainians). ...

At the conference on Recognition and Denial of Genocide and Mass Killing in the 20th Century, City University of New York, 13 November 1987 was stated that the Soviet Ukraine suffered a man-made famine in 1932–1933 during which millions died. As the United States Government Commission concluded this was part of the central governments's attack on Ukrainian nationality and culture. The United States Government received numerous contemporary intelligence reports on the famine from its European embassies, but chose not to acknowledge the famine publicly. Similarly, leading members of the American press corps in the Soviet Union willfully covered up the famine in their dispatches. In both cases, political considerations relating to the establishment of diplomatic relations with the U.S.S.R. seem to have been critical factors in this cover-up [29].

However, the Russian Federation officially denies that the Holodomor was an ethnic genocide. The Russian diplomat Mikhail Kamynin has stated that Russia is against the politicisation of the Holodomor, and this question is for historians, not politicians.^[59] At the same time, the vice-speaker of the Russian State Duma, Lyubov Sliska, when asked in Kiev when Russia would apologise for its repressions and famines in Ukraine, replied, "why always insist that Russia apologise for everything? The people whose policies brought suffering not only to Ukraine, but to Russia, Belarus, peoples of the Caucasus, and Crimean Tatars, remain only in history textbooks, secret documents and minutes of meetings."^[59] Ukrainian mass media censured Evgeny Guzeev, the Consul-General of the Russian Federation in Lviv, who stated that "the leaders of the period were sensible people, and it is impossible to imagine that this was planned."^[60] For other uses, see State Duma (disambiguation). ... Lyubov Konstantinovna Sliska (Russian: , b. ... “Lvov” redirects here. ...

A significant step in the world recognition of Holodomor was the Joint declaration at the United Nations in connection with 70th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933 (10 November 2003),^[61] evaluating Holodomor as a great tragedy. According to Valery Kuchinsky, the chief Ukrainian representative at the United Nations the declaration was a compromise between the positions of Great Britain, United States and Russia denying that Holodomor was a genocide and the position of Ukraine that insisted on recognition of Holodomor as a form of genocide.^[60] is the 314th day of the year (315th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... UN and U.N. redirect here. ...

Comprehending the famine

The famine remains a politically-charged topic; hence, heated debates are likely to continue for a long time. Until around 1990, the debates were largely between the so called "denial camp" who refused to recognize the very existence of the famine or stated that it was caused by natural reasons (such as a poor harvest), scholars who accepted reports of famine but saw it as a policy blunder^[62] followed by the botched relief effort, and scholars who alleged that it was intentional and specifically anti-Ukrainian or even an act of genocide against the Ukrainians as a nation.

Nowadays, most scholars tend to agree that the famine affected millions. While it is also accepted that the famine affected other nationalities in addition to Ukrainians, the debate is still ongoing whether the Holodomor qualifies as the act of genocide since the fact that the famine itself took place or that it was unnatural are not disputed. As far as the possible effect of the natural causes, the debate is restricted to whether the poor harvest^[54] or post-traumatic stress played any role at all and to what degree the Soviet actions were caused by the country's economic and military needs as viewed by the Soviet leadership.^[63]

Still, the Holodomor issue is politicized within the framework of uneasy relations between Russia and Ukraine (and also between various regional and social groups within Ukraine). The anti-Russian factions in Ukraine have a vested interest in advancing the interpretation that the Holodomor was a genocide, perpetrated by Russia-centric interests within the Soviet government. Russian political interests and their supporters in Ukraine have reasons to deny the deliberate character of the disaster and play down its scale.

The Ukrainian communities are sometimes criticized for using the term Holodomor, Ukrainian Genocide, or even Ukrainian Holocaust, to appropriate the larger-scale tragedy of collectivization as their own national terror-famine, thus exploiting it for political purposes.^[56] Ukrainian Holocaust is a term used by some (mostly Ukrainian) historians to refer to the Holodomor, a 1932–33 famine and a major national catastrophe in Ukraine. ...

One of the biggest arguments is that the famine was preceded by the onslaught on the Ukrainian national culture, a common historical detail preceding many centralized actions directed against the nations as a whole. Nation-wide, the political repression of 1937 (The Great Purge) under the guidance of Nikolay Yezhov were known for their ferocity and ruthlessness, but Lev Kopelev wrote, "In Ukraine 1937 began in 1933", referring to the comparatively early beginning of the Soviet crackdown in Ukraine. ^[64]. The Great Purge (Russian: , transliterated Bolshaya chistka) refers collectively to several related campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the 1930s, which removed all of his remaining opposition from power. ... Yezhov along Moscow-Volga channel. ... Lev Kopelev Lev Kopelev (Russian: Лев Зиновьевич Копелев, German spelling Lew Kopelew: April 9, 1912 – June 18, 1997) was a Soviet Russian author and a dissident. ...

While the famine was well documented at the time, its reality has been disputed due to ideological reasons, for instance by the Soviet government and its spokespeople (as well as apologists for the Soviet regime), by others due to being deliberately misled by the Soviet government (such as George Bernard Shaw), and, in at least one case, Walter Duranty, for personal gain. Gareth Richard Vaughan Jones (1905 – August 1935) was a Welsh journalist who first publicised the existence of the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33 in the west. ... Political Ideologies Part of the Politics series Politics Portal This box:      An ideology is an organized collection of ideas. ... Apologetics is the field of study concerned with the systematic defense of a position. ... George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856–2 November 1950) was an Irish dramatist, literary critic, and socialist. ... Walter Duranty Walter Duranty (1884–1957) was a Liverpool-born British journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a set of stories he wrote in 1931 as The New York Times Moscow correspondent, covering Joseph Stalins Five-Year Plan to industrialize the Soviet Union. ...

An example of a late-era Holodomor objector is Canadian journalist Douglas Tottle, author of Fraud, Famine and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard (1987). Tottle claims that while there were severe economic hardships in Ukraine, the idea of the Holodomor was fabricated as propaganda by Nazi Germany and William Randolph Hearst to justify a German invasion. Tottle is not a professional historian and his revisionist work did not receive any serious attention in the historiography of the subject. For other uses, see Journalist (disambiguation). ... Douglas Tottle is a Canadian Journalist and the author of the controversial book Fraud, Famine, and Fascism the Myth of the Ukrainian Genocide from Hitler to Harvard Books Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth from Hitler to Harvard by Douglas Tottle See Also Holodomor Historical Revisionism (political) ... For other uses, see Propaganda (disambiguation). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933&#8211;1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... For other people named William Randolph Hearst, see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation) William Randolph Hearst I (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper magnate. ... Combatants Germany Romania Finland Italy Hungary Slovakia  Soviet Union Commanders Adolf Hitler Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb Fedor von Bock Gerd von Rundstedt Heinz Guderian Günther von Kluge Franz Halder Ion Antonescu C.G.E. Mannerheim Giovanni Messe, CSIR Italo Garibaldi, ARMIR Iosef Stalin Kliment Voroshilov Semyon Timoshenko Fyodor Kuznetsov...

Remembrance

To honor those who perished in the Holodomor, monuments have been dedicated and public events held annually in Ukraine and worldwide. The fourth Saturday in November is the official day of remembrance for people who died as a result of Holodomor and political repression.^[65]

In 2006, the Holodomor Remembrance Day took place on November 25. President Viktor Yushchenko directed, in decree No. 868/2006, that a minute of silence should be observed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon on that Saturday. The document specified that flags in Ukraine should fly at half-mast as a sign of mourning. In addition, the decree directed that entertainment events are to be restricted and television and radio programming adjusted accordingly.^[66] Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian:  ) (born February 23, 1954) is the current President of Ukraine. ... The Flag of Ukraine (Ukrainian: ; translit. ...

A monument in the capital of Ukraine - Kiev Image File history File links HolodomorKyiv. ... Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ...	"Light the candle" event at a Holodomor memorial in Kiev, Ukraine Image File history File links HolodomorKyivSvichky. ... Map of Ukraine with Kiev highlighted Coordinates: , Country Ukraine Oblast Kiev City Municipality Raion Municipality Government  - Mayor Leonid Chernovetskyi Elevation 179 m (587 ft) Population (2006)  - City 4,450,968  - Density 3,299/km² (8,544. ...	A memorial cross in Kharkiv, Ukraine Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1200x1600, 192 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... Map of Ukraine with Kharkiv highlighted. ...	A Holodomor memorial in Poltava Oblast, Ukraine Image File history File links HolodomorPoltava. ... Poltava Oblast (Полтавська область, Poltavs’ka oblast’ or Полтавщина, Poltavshchyna in Ukrainian) is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine. ...
A memorial cross in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine Image File history File links Size of this preview: 431 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (554 × 770 pixel, file size: 88 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Location Map of Ukraine with Dnipropetrovsk highlighted. ...	A memorial in Winnipeg, Canada Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1200x1600, 300 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... For other uses, see Winnipeg (disambiguation). ...	A Holodomor monument in Edmonton, Canada Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (1712x2288, 710 KB) Summary Source: http://www. ... For other places with the same name, see Edmonton (disambiguation). ...	A memorial in Windso