By Tim Lambert
The Holodomor was a man-made famine in Ukraine in 1932-33. It was caused by Stalin, and it led to the deaths of millions of people.
Stalin decided that farms in Ukraine should be collectivized. The peasants would be deprived of their land and domestic animals. They would be made to work as farm laborers on land now owned by the state. However, collectivisation met with resistance.
Stalin was determined to crush the Ukrainian peasants. He caused a terrible famine in 1932-33 that took the lives of millions of innocent people. In 1932, collective farms were given unrealistic quotas to fill. Soviet law decreed that the peasants would not be allowed to keep any grain until they had met their quotas.
Of course, the quotas could not be met. So Soviet officials confiscated all the grain they wanted, leaving the peasants to starve. Special teams entered people’s homes to search for hidden food. In 1932, Stalin also passed a law stating that taking food from fields was punishable by death. People tried to leave Ukraine, but in 1933, Stalin passed a law preventing anyone from doing so. While millions of people starved in Ukraine, the Soviet Union exported vast amounts of food. The Soviet government suppressed any news of the famine in Ukraine. Stalin also refused to allow foreign charities to help.
How many people died in this man-made famine is not known for sure, but it was undoubtedly several million. This horrific man-made famine is known as the Holodomor, from Ukrainian words meaning death by hunger. For decades, the Soviet Union denied that the famine had taken place. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the facts became undeniable. Many countries have recognised the Holodomor as a genocide. So has the European Parliament.
The Holodomor Memorial in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2015. Another Holodomor Memorial was erected in Toronto in 2018. Holodomor Remembrance Day is held on the 4th Sunday in November.
