HOLODOMOR – Literally translated means “killing by hunger”. From the early 1700s Ukraine had been under the domination of Russia’s Czarist system. When the Russian Revolution occurred in 1917 the Ukraine seized the opportunity to declare their independence. But by the end of 1917 the new leader of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, sought to reclaim all of the areas formerly under Czarist rule, especially the fertile Ukraine.

By 1932, nearly 75% of the farms in the Ukraine had been forcibly collectivised (small private farms converted into giant collective farms run by the government) Stalin ordered shipments of food out of the Ukraine until there was simply no food remaining to feed the people of Ukraine

The Soviets then sealed off the borders of the Ukraine, preventing any food from entering the country Soviet police inside the country seized all stored up food claiming it as property of the State

Starvation quickly ensued throughout Ukraine with the very young and elderly feeling the first effects of malnutrition Meanwhile, nearby Soviet-controlled granaries were bursting at the seams from huge stocks of ‘reserve’ grain, not yet shipped out of Ukraine

By the spring of 1933, the height of the famine, an estimated 25,000 people a day were dying in Ukraine Any outside help was halted by Soviet authorities and any existence of a famine was denied

The Soviets were able to bolster their famine denial by duping members of the foreign press through carefully staged photo opportunities in the Soviet Union and Ukraine By the end of 1933, nearly 25% of the population of Ukraine had perished, approximately 7 million, including 3 million children

Classification Ukraine was always separate from Russia so they saw Ukrainians as a different race and they had a different culture then the Russians

Symbolization Stalin classified all the Ukrainian farmers who refused to join the collective farms as Kulaks

Discrimination The government took away their money and refused to support them

Dehumanization Ukrainians who refused the collective farms were considered traitors and the Stalin sends out Russian troops to control them

Organization Soviet Union troops were sent to the areas where the kulaks lived and they confiscated  their land, livestock, food, and sometimes even houses. They would transport them to isolated places in Siberia where there was usually no food at all. 

Polarization Stalin then put up borders that prevented anyone from leaving to get food or anyone entering to give them food 

Preparation The Soviet Union soldiers were ordered to “liquidate them as a class”

Persecution Many Kulaks were sent to remote places with no food just to starve to death

Extermination Most of the kulaks starved to death and others were either shot or dies by disease. At the height of the Holodomor almost 25,000 people died per day. 

Denial Soviet Union officials constantly denied that there was a famine and anyone who tried to say otherwise was accused of spreading anti-soviet propaganda.