Was history one of your
least favorite subjects in school? Were you weary of endless dates, names and
boring accounts from the remote past that seemed to have no connection to your
present life? If so, welcome to the club of recovering history-haters!
Nevertheless, would you
be interested to learn about a shocking event that was never mentioned in your
school history books? What if this event was unsurpassed, both in its scope and
cruelty, even compared to Hitler’s Holocaust? Would you be interested to hear
from a real person affected by this event?
Created by the Soviet
totalitarian regime, Holodomor of 1933 was one of the most brutal events in
Ukrainian history, still debated by scholars and politicians today. The word
itself means “Massive killing by forced hunger”. This tragic event directly
affected my family. My grandfather had 12 siblings, and only he and his sister
survived during 1933.
George Santayana said,
“Those who don’t remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. I am speaking
today in hope and prayer that atrocities like Holodomor are fully acknowledged,
learned from and never repeated.I would like to present
to your judgment today the causes, the cruelties and the controversy of
Holodomor.
For those of you who don't know, Ukraine is the second largest country
in Europe, and its size can be compared to the territory of Texas with twice as
much population (around 46 million). It is famous for incredibly rich soil good
for farming and a variety of natural resources. It is also famous for its
freedom-loving and talented people.
What caused
Holodomor?
I would like to briefly summarize the series of events that led to it as
presented in The Curriculum for Educators on Holodomor for Illinois schools,
where the study of genocides is now mandated.
In 1917 the socialist
revolution led by Vladimir Lenin sweeps over Russia.
In 1922 Ukraine is
included as one of the 15 Soviet republics.
In 1924 Stalin replaces
Lenin as the Soviet Union leader and turns out to be one of the worst dictators
in history.
In 1928 Stalin decides
to take over private farming by turning private farms into collective farms
(so-called collectivization). He wants to finance his industrialization
ambitions by exporting humongous amounts of grain. Since people by nature don’t
part very readily with what they consider their own, the collectivization is
done by force, through regular troops and secret police. Ukraine, having an
especially freedom-loving population, shows a strong resistance, and since
agriculturally it was a very strategic place (called “the breadbasket” of
Europe), Stalin resolves to break the resistance at any cost.
And then the Holodomor
began.
What makes Holodomor
stand out as one of the most brutal events in human history? Cruel
policies, shocking death toll and lack of international support.
In spite of bountiful crops, the
government ordered full confiscation of agricultural products, followed by full
confiscation of all food. Through constant searches, literally every grain of
wheat and every crumb of food was taken out of houses before the eyes of
starving families, including already cooked food on the stoves.
To top it all, military
blockades were set up between the villages and the cities, to make sure people
didn’t get any help and nobody escaped the famine zone. People were trapped.
These policies resulted
in the shocking number of deaths, especially among children. According to
the report for the Congressional Commission on the Ukrainian Famine, submitted
to Congress on April 22, 1988, death toll varies between 5.5 and 9 million. In 1933 people in Ukrainian villages died at
the rate of 25 000 per day or 1,000 per hour or 17 per minute. The population
was reduced by 25% in one year.
People were dying slow,
torturous deaths in their homes. There were no dogs or cats in the
neighborhoods, they were all eaten. People ate dead animals, grass, leaves,
dirt. Parents did not let children out into the streets in fear that they would
be caught and eaten by neighbors, until parents themselves started eating their
own children.
People were too weak to
dig graves and bury the dead. The dead were lying around and decomposing in the
streets and in the houses. The Soviet officials
hired those still alive and strong enough to collect dead bodies from homes in
order to bury them all in big anonymous graves.The price for collecting one dead body
was 200 grams of bread. In order to get bread the dead body collectors would
take people who were still alive on their beds and put them into graves still
alive. The reasoning was, “They will die anyway, and it will save us an extra
trip to your home tomorrow”.
The saddest cruelty of
all was that the Soviet government skillfully and persistently lied through the
media to the outside world about the state of affairs in Ukraine. In spite of
these lies the U.S., as well as some European countries knew about the famine
through its secret diplomatic channels and brave journalists.
Thus, a famous Welsh
journalist, named Gareth Jones, as stated in official Gareth Jones archives, made
two trips to Ukraine during the famine and wrote numerous articles about its
atrocities in British and U.S. newspapers, as you can see on this slide.
Yet the U.S. and other
countries chose to take a passive position in this matter because of the
lucrative economic treaties with the Soviet Union.
Today nobody denies the
reality of Holodomor anymore. Yet there is a significant controversy around it among
politicians and historians as to its causes and scope. The driving force of the
controversy is what I would call a blinding political agenda. There are two
camps that have been arguing about Holodomor.
The first group claims
that Holodomor was an act of intentional genocide of Ukrainian people by the
communist regime. Holodomor was officially pronounced as genocide by Ukrainian
government in 2006. 8 other countries have acknowledged it as genocide,
including the U.S. and Canada.
The second group claims
that it was a tragic, yet unintentional time of hunger due to bad crops or
unwise economic decisions. It also reduces the number of victims to 1 or 2
million people. Guess what, the second group actually consists of people who
are still in love with the communist ideology and who don’t want to face the
role they or their country played in this event. Russian government is part of
this group.
November 25 is an official National
Day of Remembrance for the victims of Holodomor in Ukraine. There is hardly a
family that has not lost someone that tragic year. In the evening people bring
thousands of candles to a big square in downtown Kiev and light them in rows in
front of St Michael's orthodox cathedral. They also light candles and put them
in the windows of their homes. It is their way of saying, “We remember, we
repent, we don’t want to ever repeat it again”. Let us remember, too.
