By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
KIEV, Ukraine –Ukrainians gathered to remember the 1933 famine that killed millions. President Yanukovych urged citizens not to politicize the tragedy in the light of recent events.
In 1933, famine killed millions of Ukrainians in what many called genocidal death by hunger, or “the Holodomor.” Some citizens were able to survive by gathering cheap cornmeal, wheat chaff, dried nettle leaves, and weeds. While some historians believe the number of those who died was approximately 3.3 million, others estimate much higher numbers.
Many survivors believed that Joseph Stalin wanted the Ukrainian peasants starved into submission, so that he could force them onto collective farms. When the Kremlin demanded more grain than the farms had, Bolshevik forces pillaged villages for anything edible.
“The brigades took all the wheat, barley – everything – so we had nothing left,” said survivor Nina Karpenko. “Even beans that people had set aside just in case. The brigades crawled everywhere and took everything. People had nothing left to do but die.”
Many villagers migrated to the cities in search of food, but often died before finding sustenance. As corpses began littering the roadsides, reports of cannibalism piled up. As entire villages died off, some of the most fertile land in the world became silent wastelands.
Soviet authorities eventually closed Ukraine’s borders, which prevented Ukrainians from traveling abroad to retrieve food.
“The government did everything it could to prevent peasants from entering other regions and looking for bread,” said Oleksandra Monetova, from Kiev’s Holodomor Memorial Museum. “The officials’ intentions were clear. To me it’s a genocide. I have no doubt.”
“There was a deathly silence,” said Karpenko. “Because people weren’t even conscious. They didn’t want to speak or to look at anything. They thought today that person died, and tomorrow it will be me. Everyone just thought of death.”
By the time children returned to the schools in 1934, over half the seats in each room were empty.
Russian authorities deny that the Holodomor was intentional, stating that other Soviet regions suffered around that time. Further, Russia has declared that “genocide” is a nationalistic interpretation of what happened.
Since 2006, Ukrainians have marked the fourth Saturday of each November as Holodomor Remembrance Day.
On 23 November 2013, thousands marched through central Kiev to protest Ukraine’s decision to snub the EU in favor of Russia.
In response, Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych denounced “the politicization of tragic historical events.”
Yanukovych said, “Today we must discard the political debate and unite. On this sad day, we are all united by the memory about our dead compatriots. This day [the Holodomor Remembrance Day] should be out of politics.”
For further information, please see:
Bloomberg Businessweek – Ukraine Marks Tragic Date amid Setback on EU Hopes – November 23, 2013
International Business Times – Ukraine Commemorates Millions Who Died in Stalin’s Holodomor Reign of Terror – November 23, 2013
Interfax Ukraine – Yanukovych Says Politicization of Tragic Events Is Unacceptable – November 23, 2013
BBC – Holodomor: Memories of Ukraine’s Silent Massacre – November 22, 2013
