In the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Eastern European nation of Ukraine, formerly part of the Russian Empire, gained its independence. The revolution devolved into the Russian Civil War, which raged from late 1917 into 1923, involving several of the former states once ruled by the Tsars, including Ukraine. The largely agricultural nation found itself divided by the Bolshevik leaning Soviet supporters, based in Kyiv, and those favoring an independent Ukrainian Republic, centered in Kharkov. After years of fighting in what history records as the Ukrainian-Soviet War, the Soviets prevailed, and in 1922, Ukraine became a member of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, under the firm control of the then Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin.

It was under Stalin that a catastrophic famine occurred in Ukraine in 1932-33. Historians labeled this period the Holodomor, a portmanteau in Ukrainian meaning death by hunger, killing by hunger, murder by starvation, or one of several other translations, depending upon the source. How many died during the famine is likewise disputed. Roughly 10% of Ukraine’s population perished during the famine, somewhere between 3.5 and 5 million people. Starvation was not the only cause of death. Hunger and malnutrition led to diseases such as scurvy, typhus, malaria, dysentery, and others.

To some, the Holodomor was a deliberate creation, a genocide commanded by Josef Stalin. To others, it was a naturally occurring famine greatly worsened by inept Soviet leadership. Nearly all historians consider the Great Ukrainian Famine to have been a man-made event, the result of Soviet policies and agricultural “reforms”. Yet its root causes and government reactions to it remain a subject of debate among scholars and historians, as well as international organizations and governments. As of 2023, 34 countries have labeled the Holodomor a genocide. Among them are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and nearly all of Europe.

Those same nations did little to address the famine when it occurred, despite international reporting of the tragedy. Officially, Stalin’s government denied its existence at the time. The Soviet government refused offers of aid from the Red Cross and other organizations, denying that there was a famine at all. Journalists who reported otherwise had their press credentials revoked, and foreign correspondents were ordered to leave the Soviet Union or face arrest and imprisonment. By 1933, when the famine was at its worst, foreign correspondents were restricted to Moscow and only allowed to travel elsewhere if accompanied by representatives of the Soviet government.

Even the noted Western writer George Bernard Shaw fell victim to the Soviet denials, and in 1933 reported that during his escorted travels throughout the famine-stricken region, he did not see a single undernourished person.

Certainly Josef Stalin was no stranger to mass murder. Yet even today, the question of whether the Ukrainian famine known as the Holodomor was a deliberate genocide or a tragically mismanaged natural event is debated. In 2003, the United Nations General Assembly recognized the famine as a “national tragedy”. The Russian Federation, which evolved following the breakup of the Soviet Union, still officially denies the famine was an act of genocide. One can only consider the facts of the event and decide on their own.

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Further Reading:
https://fee.org/articles/george-berna...
https://holodomormuseum.org.ua/en/sov...
https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/collex/e....
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/...
https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-ge...
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/109709...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
https://archive.org/details/cannibalh...
https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-ge...