Holodomor Famine Case Study

Holodomor (Ukrainian Forced Famine)

The Holodomor happened in 1932-1933 to teach Ukraine a "lesson through famine". How the Holodomor came to be happened in 1924 when Vladimir Lenin died and Joseph Stalin gained power of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin created an agricultural collectivization program in 1928 that forced farmers to give up their land, equipment and livestock, and join collective farms that were state owned. This program would feed industrial workers in cities and sell grain abroad. From 1929-1930, Ukrainian farmers fought against the program and stayed individual, these farmers were known as "kurkuls". Stalin decided to "liquidate them as a class" and introduced a policy of class warfare. The new policies from the "dekulakization", ended up with half a million Ukrainians being deported to remote areas like Siberia and are left to die.

In 1932-1933, the Soviet government increased Ukraine’s production quotas, just so they could not be met. Eventually starvation became extensive and in the summer of 1932, a law was made that any person that steals any amount of grain will be arrested and/or executed.

Stalin denied the famine that was in Ukraine and continued to export grain that would’ve kept all of those people alive for 2 years. Ukrainians became so desperate they started eating leaves off of trees, killed animals like dogs and cats, other people went completely insane and resorted to cannibalism. People lying on the sidewalks that were still alive sometimes were thought to be dead and were carried away and buried alive. Many countries and international relief organizations tried offering their help but Ukraine turned them away. It’s an estimate that 2.5-7.5 million Ukrainians died altogether. After those millions of Ukrainians died, the Soviet Union resettled thousands of families from Russia, Belarus and other countries that were related to the