Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE A peasant woman who has died of starvation along a road near Kiev Peasant woman gathering spilled kernels

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Soviet Union before its break-up. This is the western part of the Soviet Union. The Ukraine was a part of the Soviet Union. Ukraine as a part of the Soviet Union

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Ukraine Today - An independent country as a result of the break-up of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Weiss Major Genocides of the 20 th Century – The Century of Genocide

Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide Adopted by Resolution 260 (III) A of the United Nations General Assembly on 9 December Article 1 The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish. Article 2 In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Mr. Weiss Genocide There are four kinds of people in every genocide: Perpetrators: 1. Perpetrators: people committing genocide Victims: 2. Victims: the people who the perpetrators are committing acts of genocide on Bystanders: 3. Bystanders: the people who stand by and just watch the genocide. Upstanders: 4. Upstanders: the people who stand up to the perpetrators and try to stop the genocide. (One of the key questions is how do we turn bystanders into upstanders.) Dr. Roger Smith

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE An Independent Ukraine Is Forced To Become A Part Of The Soviet Union Russian Empire Collapses Russian Empire Collapses Austro-Hungarian Empire Collapses Austro-Hungarian Empire Collapses Ukraine declares independence – 1919 Ukraine declares independence – 1919 Chaos of Russion Revolution leads to a divided Ukraine, part in Poland and part in the Soviet Union Chaos of Russion Revolution leads to a divided Ukraine, part in Poland and part in the Soviet Union Russian Empire Collapses Russian Empire Collapses Austro-Hungarian Empire Collapses Austro-Hungarian Empire Collapses Ukraine declares independence – 1919 Ukraine declares independence – 1919 Chaos of Russion Revolution leads to a divided Ukraine, part in Poland and part in the Soviet Union Chaos of Russion Revolution leads to a divided Ukraine, part in Poland and part in the Soviet Union

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Initially the Communist Soviet Union gave a great deal of freedom to the people of Ukraine Initially the Communist Soviet Union gave a great deal of freedom to the people of Ukraine The Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, all non-Communist institutions, were allowed to continue til the end of the 1920’s The Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, all non-Communist institutions, were allowed to continue til the end of the 1920’s Initially the Communist Soviet Union gave a great deal of freedom to the people of Ukraine Initially the Communist Soviet Union gave a great deal of freedom to the people of Ukraine The Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, all non-Communist institutions, were allowed to continue til the end of the 1920’s The Ukrainian Church and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, all non-Communist institutions, were allowed to continue til the end of the 1920’s

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE All of this changed once Stalin came to power. Stalin wanted to consolidate the new Communist empire and to strengthen its industrial base. All of this changed once Stalin came to power. Stalin wanted to consolidate the new Communist empire and to strengthen its industrial base. Ukrainian Church was put under control of the Communist controlled Russian Orthodox Church Ukrainian Church was put under control of the Communist controlled Russian Orthodox Church Over a million leaders of the church, intellectuals, scientists, professors, etc were either sent to labor camps (Gulag) or liquidated. Over a million leaders of the church, intellectuals, scientists, professors, etc were either sent to labor camps (Gulag) or liquidated. All of this changed once Stalin came to power. Stalin wanted to consolidate the new Communist empire and to strengthen its industrial base. All of this changed once Stalin came to power. Stalin wanted to consolidate the new Communist empire and to strengthen its industrial base. Ukrainian Church was put under control of the Communist controlled Russian Orthodox Church Ukrainian Church was put under control of the Communist controlled Russian Orthodox Church Over a million leaders of the church, intellectuals, scientists, professors, etc were either sent to labor camps (Gulag) or liquidated. Over a million leaders of the church, intellectuals, scientists, professors, etc were either sent to labor camps (Gulag) or liquidated.

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE : About 10 million Ukrainians in the USSR died of forced starvation. This was engineered by the Soviet Union and had 3 objectives: 1.Kill a significant portion of the Ukrainian population who had opposed Soviet rule 2.Terrorize the remaining Ukrainian population to submit to Soviet rule 3.Provide funds for Soviet Industrial Expansion (selling wheat, etc.)

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Hardest hit by Stalin's policies were Ukraine's independent landowners, the so-called "kulaks" (Kurkuly in Ukrainian). Hardest hit by Stalin's policies were Ukraine's independent landowners, the so-called "kulaks" (Kurkuly in Ukrainian). In reality anyone who owned a little land, even as little as 25 acres, came to be labeled a kulak. In reality anyone who owned a little land, even as little as 25 acres, came to be labeled a kulak. Stalin ordered that all private farms would have to be collectivized. Stalin ordered that all private farms would have to be collectivized. By the summer of 1932, 69.5% of all Ukrainian farm families & 80% of all farm land had been forcibly collectivized. By the summer of 1932, 69.5% of all Ukrainian farm families & 80% of all farm land had been forcibly collectivized. Hardest hit by Stalin's policies were Ukraine's independent landowners, the so-called "kulaks" (Kurkuly in Ukrainian). Hardest hit by Stalin's policies were Ukraine's independent landowners, the so-called "kulaks" (Kurkuly in Ukrainian). In reality anyone who owned a little land, even as little as 25 acres, came to be labeled a kulak. In reality anyone who owned a little land, even as little as 25 acres, came to be labeled a kulak. Stalin ordered that all private farms would have to be collectivized. Stalin ordered that all private farms would have to be collectivized. By the summer of 1932, 69.5% of all Ukrainian farm families & 80% of all farm land had been forcibly collectivized. By the summer of 1932, 69.5% of all Ukrainian farm families & 80% of all farm land had been forcibly collectivized.

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Historians debate whether or not this was a genocide, based on the strict definition of genocide. Historians debate whether or not this was a genocide, based on the strict definition of genocide. Many historians conclude that millions of Ukrainians did die during the period, but that the same proportion of other ethnic groups also died during the same time period, because they were also target by Stalin and the Communist Government. Many historians conclude that millions of Ukrainians did die during the period, but that the same proportion of other ethnic groups also died during the same time period, because they were also target by Stalin and the Communist Government. Historians debate whether or not this was a genocide, based on the strict definition of genocide. Historians debate whether or not this was a genocide, based on the strict definition of genocide. Many historians conclude that millions of Ukrainians did die during the period, but that the same proportion of other ethnic groups also died during the same time period, because they were also target by Stalin and the Communist Government. Many historians conclude that millions of Ukrainians did die during the period, but that the same proportion of other ethnic groups also died during the same time period, because they were also target by Stalin and the Communist Government.

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE "They were horrible years! Mothers were slicing their children and sticking them in pots to cook them, and then ate them. My mother went into the field where some horses were dying and brought back a horse's head. About five women bit into this horse's head. What a horror it was; people were dropping dead on the road. If you pierced them the blood was like water. So many people died. I remember every thing in the village, including the time they took the crosses off the churches. Two members from the Komsomol (Communist Youth Organization) went up and took the crosses down. They buried them two meters into the ground and old women would go to kiss that plot of ground... Nina Popovych, born 1925, Lysycha Balka, Ukraine - from Irene Antonovych and Lialia Kuchma's Generations: A Documentary of Ukrainians in Chicago, p. 32

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE Then they filled the wooden church full of wheat. During the night mice made their way through the walls, leaving little holes from which women filled their buckets with the wheat. The Komsomol took the wheat from the church, and afterward it stood empty. So many people died in the village that in the cemetery they stopped putting up crosses. During the winter an old woman would take a cross from the cemetery to make a fire in her house so that her children would not freeze." Nina Popovych, born 1925, Lysycha Balka, Ukraine - from Irene Antonovych and Lialia Kuchma's Generations: A Documentary of Ukrainians in Chicago, p. 32

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE "... On one side, millions of starving peasants, their bodies often swollen from lack of food; on the other, soldiers, members of the GPU carrying out the instructions of the dictatorship of the proletariat. They had gone over the country like a swarm of locusts and taken away everything edible; they had shot or exiled thousands of peasants, sometimes whole villages; they had reduced some of the most fertile land in the world to a melancholy desert." Malcolm Muggeridge - British foreign correspondent - May 1933

Mr. Weiss : THE GENOCIDE FAMINE IN UKRAINE " I saw ravages of the famine of in Ukraine - hordes of families in rags begging at the railway stations, the women lifting up to the compartment windows their starving brats, which, with drumstick limbs, big cadaverous heads and puffed bellies, looked like embryos out of alcohol bottles." Arthur Koestler, The God That Failed p. 68