Holodomor: Man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians

It is also known as the Terror-Famine or Great Famine. At that time, Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. About seven million people starved to death in the Holodomor.

Holodomor Голодомор
Starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, 1933
Country	Soviet Union
Location	Central and eastern Ukraine
Period	1932–1933
Total deaths	7.5 million - 13 million.
Observations	Considered genocide by 16 countries Considered as a criminal act of the Stalinist Regime by 6 countries Considered a tragedy or crime against humanity by 5 international organizations
Relief	Foreign relief rejected by the State. Respectively 176,200 and 325,000 tons of grains provided by the State as food and seed aids between February and July 1933.

Joseph Stalin was the leader and dictator of the Soviet Union, which was a communist country. He made farmers in the Soviet Union change the way they farmed, then he tried to make the farmers work harder for the government-owned farms, for less money. Many people in Ukraine did not want to go along with this. When Ukraine had a famine, Stalin refused to help the people in Ukraine. Instead, the government took food away from people. It became illegal (against the law) to pick up food from the ground of fields. The government also tried to stop people from moving around the country to look for food.

Scholars and politicians using the word Holodomor say the man-made aspects of the famine, was a genocide; some consider the huge loss of life comparable to the Holocaust. They argue that the Soviet policies were an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and therefore is a genocide.

Other scholars say that the Holodomor was an unexpected consequence of the rapid and massive industrialization started by Stalin, that brought radical economic changes to the farmers and the country, and which was not done on purpose.

 

Wiki Commons has media related to Holodomor.

• Ukrainian Genocide Famine Foundation USA Archived 2011-10-28 at the Wayback Machine
• Famine Genocide Commemorative Committee Ukrainian Canadian Congress Archived 2012-08-31 at the Wayback Machine
• Findings of the Commission on the Ukraine Famine Archived 2011-06-04 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine, Report to Congress. Adopted by the Commission, 19 April 1988
• Joint declaration at the United Nations in connection with 70th anniversary of the Great Famine in Ukraine 1932–1933
• Address of the Verkhovna Rada to the Ukrainian nation on commemorating the victims of Holodomor 1932–1933