Headline report about famine in Ukraine published in February 1935 in 'Chicago-American' newspaperRussia has issued the first of three volumes of documents on the SovietUnion's catastrophic famine of the early 1930s. Russian officialsclaim the widespread starvation was the result misguided Kremlinpolicies, but in Ukraine the famine is considered an act of genocide.
Thefirst of three volumes on the Soviet famine of the early 1930s consistsof about 6,000 documents, many recently declassified by Russianauthorities. The publication follows decades when the very mention ofthe famine was prohibited, even by those who survived it.
The book and accompanying DVD were presented by Russian historians and archivists at a Moscow news conference on February 25.
Thescholars' conclusion is consistent with the Kremlin's position thefamine was not limited to Ukraine and that its victims, mostly peasantsand landowners, were targeted not because of their nationality, butrather their social class.
The United Nations defines genocideas acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, anational, ethnical, racial or religious group. There is no mention ofclass.
Result of Misguided Policies?
Josef Stalin (file photo)
Historians say Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ordered theconfiscation of grain in fertile regions of Russia, Kazakhstan, thenorthern Caucasus and Ukraine not only to break widespread oppositionto collectivization, but also to increase grain exports to buy weaponsand fund industrialization. Russian historian Viktor Kondrashyn saysfamine was the result of misguided policies.
Kondrashyn saysthere was no intent behind the famine. He says nobody, not evenStalin, wanted or planned the famine. The historian says it was theresult of mistakes and miscalculations behind a poorly plannedcollectivization policy.
Some Consider 'Holodmor' Act of Genocide
Vladislav VerstiukUkraine's National Memory Institutedeputy director, historian Vladyslav Verstiuk, categorically rejectsKondrashyn's claims. He points to a message Stalin delivered inJanuary 1933, in which the dictator issued a threat specifically toUkrainian peasants, "give us your grain, or you will be punished."
In Ukraine, the famine is known as the Holodomor or death by starvation, and is considered an act of genocide.
Verstiukadds Stalin wanted to break what was considered to be a disobedientrepublic to make clear to others his intent to create a highlycentralized Soviet state.
Verstiuk says the Soviet Union ofthe 1920s was not at all similar to the Soviet Union that people stillremember, a unitary post-war state that was only formally divided intoconstituent republics. This model, he says, came into existence afterthe Holodomor. He adds that the breaking of Ukraine was seen as a wayof subordinating other republics under absolute obedience to Stalin,which indeed happened.
'Passportization' Measures
Verstiuk notes that forced starvation inUkraine's rural regions was accompanied by famine in large Ukrainiancities, which did not happen in urban Russia. He also points toso-called passportization measures enacted in 1933 to preventUkrainians from leaving their republic in search of food, and to thesimultaneous execution of Ukraine's independent-minded leaders andintelligentsia.
He says Russian-language schools replacedUkrainian ones and newcomers from other Soviet republics were sent toareas devastated by starvation.
Verstiuk says no one triedto escape from Russia to Ukraine. Instead, he says there was plannedrelocation of peasants into Ukraine, and notes documentation of aspecial Resettlement Committee that directed tens of thousands ofpeople into areas depopulated by the famine.
But the head of the Russian State Archive, Vladimir Kozlov, rejects claims of genocide in Ukraine.
Kozlovsays not a single document exists that would even indirectly suggestthat a strategy was adopted against Ukrainians that was different fromother regions, moreover, a strategy aimed at genocide.
VladislavVerstiuk says no document is likely to be found, because Bolshevikswere not so simple-minded as to put such intentions in writing. But henotes the Kremlin did not change its policies over several years, evenwhen presented early on with evidence of widespread starvation, a pointconfirmed by the director of the Russian State Economic Archive, YelenaTiurina.
Tiurina says documents completely reject the recentlyaccepted legend that the center did not know what was happening inlocal areas. She says the center knew everything perfectly well, downthe smallest details.
Victims of Stalin's rule
Russian officials have accused Ukrainianleaders of politicizing the famine and of seeking to drive a wedgebetween the peoples of both countries. Russia and Ukraine alsodisagree about the number of famine victims.
Valeriy Tishkov,a scholar at the Russian Academy of Sciences, has called for anaccurate analysis and chastises Russian historians for allegedlyinflating the number of victims in Russia in response to Ukrainianestimates, which run between 6 million to 10 million victims in Ukraine. Both sides agree that millions perished of artificially induced hungerthroughout the USSR.
President Viktor Yushchenko, center left, and his wife Kateryna lay flowers at monument to victims of Soviet-era famine during commemorative ceremony in Kyiv, 22 Nov 2008In November, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko recalled the victims of Stalin's rule.
PresidentYushchenko says Ukraine bows its head with brotherly respect andsympathy before all peoples beside Ukrainians who suffered underStalin's regime, including Russians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, CrimeanTatars, Moldovans, Jews and dozens upon dozens of others. TheUkrainian leader also urges former Soviet Republics, above all theRussian Federation, to collectively condemn the crimes of Stalinism andthe totalitarian Soviet Union.
The Kremlin has not responded toMr. Yushchenko's call, and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev declinedan invitation to attend last November's 75th anniversary commemoration ofthe famine in Kyiv.
A number of countries have recognized theHolodomor as genocide, including the United States, Canada, Australia,Italy, and Poland.
