Ukrainian Famine, one of the worst tragedies of the last century of which the world is just beginning to learn

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Ridgerunner said:
The Ukrainians initially welcomed the German armies with bread and salt. A significant number joined the German forces and SS, thinking the Germans were liberators. Of course, that was not Hitler’s intent, which the Ukrainians found out to their sorrow.

Regardless, the Soviet treatment of Ukraine was far worse than that of the Germans. Miles long columns of ordinary Ukrainians retreated with the Germans rather than live under Soviet rule again. As Solzhenitsyn put it (paraphrasing) “…never before in history had a population retreated with an occupying army rather than be liberated by their own countrymen…”

But most didn’t make it, and most who did were turned over to Stalin anyway. Solzhenitsyn chronicles the “Ukrainian wave” into the Gulags after WWII in his “Gulag Archipelago” trilogy. Ukrainian resistance to the Soviets didn’t end for several years after WWII. For a time, the resistance (which the Soviets called “Banderists” after one of their leaders) even had its own border crossings for refugees.

Ukraine has the largest army in Europe outside the Russian Republic, but it’s poorly equipped. In addition, the Soviets put many ethnic Russian “colonists” in Ukraine, who are there still, and are more loyal to Russia than they are to Ukraine. Ukraine’s position vis a vis Russia is still very precarious. At one time, Ukraine tried to join NATO for protection, but was turned down. That should not have happened.

Russia will again try to incorporate Ukraine into a reconstituted state. Guaranteed.
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Sadly, I think your analysis is correct.
 
It is sad that there is a tendency in Russia to the glorification of the Jewgashvili regime.

The leaders of the Bolshevik totalitarian regime: General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union’s Central Committee Joseph Stalin (Jewgashvili), Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars Vyacheslav Molotov (Scriabin), Secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party Lazar Kaganovich and Pavel Postyshev, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Ukrainian SSR Stanislav Kosior, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR Vlas Chubar and Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine Mendel Khatayevich, organized and perpetrated the genocide of the Ukrainian national group at the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, that is have artificially created conditions aiming to its partial physical destruction
 
The main goal of this artificial famine/genocide was to break the spirit of the Ukrainian farmer/peasant and to force them into collectivization and was used as an effective tool to break the renaissance of Ukrainian culture that was occuring under approval of the communist government in Ukraine. Moscow perceived this as a threat to a Russo-Centric Soviet rule and therefore acted to crush this cultural renaissance in a most brutal sadistic manner. The resulting goal of this artificial famine/genocide was to “ethnically cleanse” Ukrainians from vast territories.

In 1932, the Soviets increased the grain procurement quota for Ukraine by 44%. They were aware that this extraordinarly high quota would result in a grain shortage, therefore resulting in the inability of the Ukrainian peasant to feed themselves. Soviet law was quite clear in that no grain could be given to feed the peasants until the quota was met. Communist party officials with the aid of military troops, OGPU, NKVD secret police units were used to move against peasants who may be hiding grain from the Soviet government. Even worse, an internal passport system was implemented to restrict movements of Ukrainian peasants so that they could not travel in search of food. Ukrainian grain was collected and stored in grain elevators that were guarded by military units & NKVD secret police units while Ukrainians were starving in the immediate area. The actions of this Moscow instigated action was a deliberate act of genocide against the Ukrainian peasant.
 
The news of this act of brutality managed to get out to the West inluding Germany (thru observations from their consulate in Kharkiv), Britain (by various journalists including Gareth Jones & Malcom Muggeridge), Canada (the Ukrainian community) & the United States. The Russo-centric Soviet Union managed to control the message in the United States by co-opting the New York Times reporter Walter Duranty who falsified his reporting on the conditions in Ukraine and won a Pulitzer Prize for doing that). To this day, The New York Times refuses to acknowledge the act of deliberate fraud perpetrated by Walter Duranty, and refuse to this very day to return the Pulitzer Prize on moral and ethical grounds. By refusing to do so suggests they may tacitely approve what Duranty did.

This Famine was a deliberate act of Genocide, a method to ethnically cleanse Ukrainians from the territories of Ukraine and parts of Russia (where Ukrainians were in the majority such as Kuban). At first only several thousand documents were released. Recently another batch of 25,000 documents is being declassified. As more documents are released this event in Ukrainian history has taken on a very ominous tone.

These facts of historical truth are intended to educate the general populace about this little known event in Ukrainian history.
 
Athanasiy said:
A system of internal passports prevented Ukrainians from leaving their towns and villages. Thus villagers were not able to cross the border and escape the torment by fleeing to other countries. When news of the Famine reached the Ukrainian Diaspora in the United States and Europe, food supplies were sent to Ukraine to assist the starving people. However all food shipments were denied at the border by Soviet authorities. Following the Soviet Union’s policy of denying any allegations having to do with the Famine, all outside assistance was refused. Even journalists were not allowed in Ukraine, because the Soviet government feared that the media would reveal the perpetrated crimes against the Ukrainian people. When an individual claimed that there was a famine in Ukraine they were considered to be spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. Even stating the words “famine” or “hunger” could cause someone to end up in jail.

All the grain taken from Ukrainian farmers were exported to European countries, and the money generated from these sales, were used to fuel Stalin’s Five Year Plan for the transformation of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union purchased many products and weapons from Western countries. Those western countries in return remained silent in regards to the starving Ukrainians. Grain that was not yet shipped out was reserved in granaries. While the animals that were needed for work on the farms were fed, the people were left to starve. The granaries were guarded to ensure no one would steal grain supplies. Anyone who attempted to do so was shot and killed.

Here is the web site about the famine in Ukraine
unitedhumanrights.org/genocide/ukraine_famine.htm
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This is exactly what happens when you rely on the government to feed people.

But I’m sure that someone in the USSR who had a stuffed belly day after day had good feelings about “helping the poor”.
 
SamH said:
Agreed. I know it is not taught in public schools and it certainly wasn’t taught at the college I attended - although the instructors spent time trying to drill in Catholic = Nazi. Those were interesting discussions - nothing ticks a “professor” of more than the simple question “Where did you learn that crock?”
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Weird. They taught us about the Holodomor in public school. They also taught about it in the college courses on human rights and genocide.
 
I see that there is an article in New York Times also
75 Years Later, Survivor Helps Commemorate Ukrainian Famine

In a 1986 book about the famine, “The Harvest of Sorrow,” Robert Conquest tells of a woman sentenced to 10 years of forced labor for gathering 70 pounds of wheat stalks for her family. Ms. Kira ruefully recalled when the combines arrived to cull the 1932 wheat harvest. After the machines completed the job, “everyone who could walk” picked through the bare fields for anything that might have been left behind.

And death was everywhere, she said. “I remember the dead bodies looked like skeletons with big stomachs,” she said. Cannibalism was not unknown. She told a macabre tale about a neighbor who ate her dead children and talked to their bones in hopes that they would return to life. Young people were afraid to walk into town for fear of being abducted by people crazed by hunger, she said.

Ms. Kira was lucky enough to survive the famine. A decade later, she was forced to confront the Nazis, who took her to a labor camp in Austria. She eventually made it to the United States, settling in the East Village in 1954. She vows never to leave the still-thriving pocket of Ukrainian churches, social clubs and restaurants.

The neighborhood is happy to have her. “She holds a special place in the community’s heart,” said Tamara Olexy, executive director of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, located on Second Avenue. “She’s able to bring a human face to a tragedy that is so little known throughout the world.”
nytimes.com/2007/12/19/nyregion/19ukraine.html?_r=0
 
In the 1970s, in the wake of the publication of the Gulag Archipelago, a great number of things became known in the West. I believe Solzhenitsyn treated the famine in part of GA, but I’d have to re-read it; but it was fairly common knowledge in the 1970s and 1980s, especially with the publication of the book mentioned above.

When the Soviet bloc collapsed and the USSR after it, the long shadow of menace withdrew from the US and the West in general. Despite the brief flare-up over concern with China at Tiannamen Square almost 25 years ago, China’s pursuit of economic hegemony with its commu-capitalist methods has blunted any sense of danger from the more overt practice of strict communism in large states.

Soviet propagandists were much better than their fascist opposites – they deliberately kept their uniforms and heroes looking like common folk, rather than racial superheroes; their vocabulary sounded both smarter and duller at once, philosophical and bureaucratic, and they were better able to demonize their opponents as representatives of the old monarchical, aristocratic orders.
 
Famine in Ukraine, 1932–1933 — genocide against the Ukrainian nation

Once, in February this year, on “The Day of the Defenders of Motherland,” which used to be “The Red Army Day” in the Soviet times, my son returned from school with a disgusting military-style blue tunic and a shower gel which he got as gifts from the girls of his class. The Soviet traditions persist.
I feel it is getting to be harder and harder for me to ignore the mindlessness and forgetfulness of this ailing society, the cursed spinelessness of my downtrodden people who do not seem to learn by their own mistakes and keep making them over and over again — it is particularly evident when they chose those who will govern them, without minding the consequences, without caring.
It is increasingly horrifying to realize that millions of my fellow Ukrainians who were imprisoned, physically and spiritually murdered by the Soviet regime, who were killed by the Famine of 1932–1933, were not just the victims of terrible injustice — they were the carriers of truth, mercilessly destroyed.

Myroslava Barchuk on the great tragedy of the Ukrainian people which took millions of lives and has left an indelible mark on the Ukrainian mentality.
wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20032/44
 
the most glaring question I ask myself is this - why the world does not know about it ?
It is impossible to forget about this hurrible tragedy, knowing that this tragedy has not even known very so many people.
the tragedy should be a reminder and a warning for many people even in our time.
God is a the God of truth.
therefore it is impossible to be silent and ignore this terrible tragedy
 
Athanasiy said:
Famine in Ukraine, 1932–1933 — genocide against the Ukrainian nation

Once, in February this year, on “The Day of the Defenders of Motherland,” which used to be “The Red Army Day” in the Soviet times, my son returned from school with a disgusting military-style blue tunic and a shower gel which he got as gifts from the girls of his class. The Soviet traditions persist.
I feel it is getting to be harder and harder for me to ignore the mindlessness and forgetfulness of this ailing society, the cursed spinelessness of my downtrodden people who do not seem to learn by their own mistakes and keep making them over and over again — it is particularly evident when they chose those who will govern them, without minding the consequences, without caring.
It is increasingly horrifying to realize that millions of my fellow Ukrainians who were imprisoned, physically and spiritually murdered by the Soviet regime, who were killed by the Famine of 1932–1933, were not just the victims of terrible injustice — they were the carriers of truth, mercilessly destroyed.

Myroslava Barchuk on the great tragedy of the Ukrainian people which took millions of lives and has left an indelible mark on the Ukrainian mentality.
wumag.kiev.ua/index2.php?param=pgs20032/44
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It is a mindlessness and delusion shared by a lot of westerners.😦
 
I was taught about this in History classes in Britain in the 1970’s.
 
triumphguy said:
I was taught about this in History classes in Britain in the 1970’s.
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speaking for myself, I didn’t learn about the Ukrainian famine until I started researching the
history of communism about 4 years after I went to high school.
 
Jaysuitical said:
In the 1970s, in the wake of the publication of the Gulag Archipelago, a great number of things became known in the West. I believe Solzhenitsyn treated the famine in part of GA, but I’d have to re-read it; but it was fairly common knowledge in the 1970s and 1980s, especially with the publication of the book mentioned above.
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He most definitely did, along with the forced famine in the Volga Region. But how many people, particularly young ones, have ever read Gulag Archipelago?

One very disturbing thing about today’s Russia is that nobody has been prosecuted for any of those crimes. Lenin, who was not responsible for the Ukrainian terror-famine, but was responsible for the Volga Region famine, is still enshrined in Moscow. Solzhenitzyn opined that the soul of Russia would never be cleansed of the sins of that era until it faced them and accounted for them.

I look forward to the day when they unceremoniously take Lenin’s body out and bury it in some unknown place in the tundra and dismantle his shrine to the last stone. I hope I live long enough to see it, as there seems to be no move at all to do it.

I’ll add that Gulag Archipelago should be required reading in every high school in the United States. It’s about a lot more than just the Gulags, but explores the sources and forces of spiritual corruption and virtue as well. Of course, no one who studied it closely would support socialism ever in his life, but would shrink from it like he would from a decaying corpse. So it will never be taught in high school or college, either one.
 
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