The Holodomor. Josef Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov
Holodomor is a Ukrainian word which can be literally translated as “death by hunger”. In the Ukraine it refers to the created famine designed and implemented by the Soviet state to reduce the ethnic Ukrainian population. The famine, also known as the Great Famine, was executed by the Soviets from 1932-33 contemporaneously with similar policies in other Soviet Socialist Republics. In the Ukraine it led to the deaths of up to 12 million people.
Stalin is widely believed to have ordered the famine, which was implemented by party functionaries in the Ukraine and by the NKVD. Foodstuffs and grain were confiscated by the Soviets under the guise of being distributed equitably among all the Ukrainian people. Those accused of hoarding supplies were imprisoned by the NKVD and routinely shot after torture.
The famine did not escape the notice of the international community, which offered aid to the Soviets through religious organizations and through the League of Nations. Stalin rejected all forms of foreign aid. While it is true that the harvests of 1932 were much smaller than had been hoped for, they were sufficient to prevent the widespread starvation which ensued.
Stalin also directed that relocation of ethnic peoples to avert the starvation occurring in certain areas was to be prevented. Forcing the population to remain in place ensured that local food supplies were unable to support survival. During the Holodomor more than 2,500 Ukrainians were convicted by the Soviet government for cannibalism.
In 2006 declassified documents were released by Ukraine which indicate that Ukraine was deliberately denied support which the Soviet Central Committee provided to other regions with different ethnic demographics. These documents support the theory among many scholars that the famine was designed to destroy Ukrainian nationalism by eliminating them as an ethnic majority.
