One of the most tragic chapters in Ukrainian history was the Holodomor of 1932-1933
These events led to a demographic catastrophe, claiming the lives of between 7 and 10 million Ukrainians. Even today, these figures may be inaccurate, as recording mortality statistics was prohibited, and mentioning famine as a cause of death was even more so. Nevertheless, the scale of the atrocities in Ukrainian territories, where the population was nearly 30 million at the time, was immense.
5 The Holodomor was a man-made weapon of the communist regime, used to subjugate the Ukrainian people, breaking their resistance to collectivization and their desire for national identity. A sinister role in the organization of the genocide was played by the so-called law on five ears of corn, passed in August 1932. According to this law, anyone caught appropriating even the smallest amount of grain from collective farm fields faced execution or imprisonment for at least 10 years.
The grain procurement policy involved extracting food from Ukrainian villages, accompanied by searches and requisitioning of all stocks of grain and food. Villages were left without any resources for survival, leading to mass starvation. These horrific chapters of history still resonate with pain in the collective memory of the nation, leaving deep psychological scars for the descendants of those who survived.
6 In addition to direct demographic losses, the Holodomor caused a distortion of value orientations and deep changes in social behavior. In particular, fear of external control and distrust of state structures became entrenched in Ukrainian society. As contemporary research highlights, these events continue to impact the modern societal psychology of Ukrainians, fostering a psychological defense against the repetition of such tragedies.
For many decades, the truth about this crime was concealed, and the scale of the tragedy was denied. Prominent researchers, artists, and journalists played a crucial role in shedding light on and recognizing the Holodomor, risking their safety for the sake of truth.
The First Attempt to Raise Awareness
The first person to draw the attention of the Western audience to the mass famine in Ukraine was Welsh journalist Gareth Jones. He illegally visited the USSR, where he witnessed the consequences of food confiscations. In his report published in the "Manchester Guardian" and "New York Evening Post", Jones not only described the famine but also emphasized the deliberate implementation of these actions by the Soviet authorities. Unfortunately, his report was edited. Meanwhile, Moscow denied the veracity of this information, significantly complicating the dissemination of the truth on an international level.
7 Another British journalist, Malcolm Muggeridge, who was in the USSR at the same time, described what he saw with his own eyes in Ukrainian villages in his reports for the "Manchester Guardian": starving, emaciated peasants, confiscated bread, desolate fields, and chaos. Muggeridge sent his materials via diplomatic mail, as publication through other means would have been blocked. Like Jones, Muggeridge emphasized that the famine was a result of the Soviet government's policy that aimed to destroy the peasantry as a class.
8 Despite the testimonies of Jones and Muggeridge, the Soviet authorities actively denied the famine. One of the most influential journalists of the time, Walter Duranty, who headed the Moscow bureau of the "New York Times," issued strong denials of the famine, calling Jones's reports exaggerations. Duranty gained a prestigious reputation, having received the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for a series of reports from the USSR.
9 Bringing the truth about the Holodomor in Ukraine to light became a death sentence for Jones at the hands of the totalitarian regime and led to the end of his life. However, it was through his work that it later became possible to argue that the famine in Ukraine was a deliberately organized genocide. These events are depicted in the Polish film "The Price of Truth," released in 2019.
The Second Attempt to Prove
Some countries were already aware of the horrific events occurring in Ukraine, but from the 1930s until 2006, the Holodomor was not labeled as genocide, and this tragedy was characterized differently.
0 This was facilitated by powerful Soviet propaganda, which diligently concealed the truth about the tragedy and insisted that the famine was a result of failed agricultural policies or weather conditions. As previously mentioned, due to some influential figures like Walter Duranty, the famine was denied and normalized, presenting the situation as internal difficulties that the USSR supposedly coped with successfully. Furthermore, it was difficult to blame the socialist world during the rise of Hitler and throughout World War II, as the USSR, along with other countries, took an opposing stance against Nazi Germany. Therefore, for a long time, the West hesitated to jeopardize relations with the USSR to avoid losing a potential ally.
After World War II, the tragedy of the famine continued to be silenced and censored. It was only in the late 20th century, thanks to the efforts of researchers like James Mace and the activism of the Ukrainian diaspora, that the process of understanding and recognizing the Holodomor as genocide began in the West.
1 James Mace was an American historian and researcher who dedicated his life to studying the Holodomor in Ukraine and proving that it was a conscious, artificial attempt at mass terror.
After graduating from the University of Oklahoma, he began researching Ukrainian history at the University of Michigan. His 1981 dissertation focused on national communism in Soviet Ukraine. In this work, Mace demonstrated that the ideals of national liberation were incompatible with communist ideology. Since then, he actively studied the events of the famine in Ukraine and sought facts that would prove that the tragedy was a form of political terror.
2 As part of the U.S. Congress committee investigating the Holodomor, James Mace collected unique archival documents and eyewitness testimonies that confirmed the deliberate nature of the famine as a means of destroying Ukrainian identity. His work contributed not only to the official recognition of the artificial famine as genocide but also introduced the new term "post-genocidal society" – a concept describing a society where fear, loss, and danger, ingrained in the collective consciousness, create conditions for distrust of authority, apathy, and constant social vigilance.
In this regard, Mace was one of the first to address the phenomenon of transmitting fear across generations, including genetic changes resulting from such collective trauma. Today, thanks to the science of epigenetics, the concept pioneered by Mace has been validated.
3 Furthermore, Mace initiated the annual commemoration of the victims of the Holodomor. The idea of lighting a "Candle of Memory," inspired by the image of Taras Shevchenko with a candle, became a symbol of honoring the victims and drew the attention of the global community to the Ukrainian tragedy.
4 The Law of Ukraine "On the Holodomor of 1932-1933"
In 2006, comprehensive legal recognition of the Holodomor as an act of genocide was established. The Law of Ukraine "On the Holodomor of 1932-1933" was passed.
However, the process of international recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people dragged on until 2018 in the USA and until 2022 in the European Parliament due to a number of political and historical reasons.
5 First and foremost, political interests long prevented many countries from officially recognizing the Holodomor as genocide. In the USA, recognition was delayed due to the strategic balance of relations first with the USSR during the "Cold War," and later with Russia. Only after the annexation of Crimea and the beginning of the war in Donbas did the U.S. Congress officially recognize the Holodomor as genocide in 2018.
6 In Europe, the recognition of the Holodomor was closely linked to the geopolitical situation, as many EU countries depend on Russian energy resources and prefer to avoid confrontation. However, in 2022, amid Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Parliament adopted a resolution recognizing the Holodomor as genocide.
Thus, for both the USA and Europe, the recognition of the Holodomor became not only a restoration of justice but also a political statement in the context of Russia's full-scale military aggression against Ukraine. The history of the international recognition of the Holodomor illustrates how the significance of historical truth gradually unfolds through the efforts of researchers dedicated to the struggle against tyranny and the distortions of the past. Today, the Holodomor is perceived as a deliberate act of extermination of the Ukrainian people. Currently, over 30 countries, including Canada, Poland, the USA, Estonia, and Georgia, have recognized the Holodomor as genocide.
Daria FROLOVA