Letter from Vlas Chubar to Molotov and Stalin on Agricultural Affairs in the Ukrainian SSR in Holodomor of 1932–33 in Ukraine (2008)

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D OCUMENTS 231 Letter from Vlas Chubar to Molotov and Stalin on agricultural affairs in the Ukrainian SSR In Holodomor of 1932–33 in Ukraine (2008). Excerpts, pp. 36–38. 10 June 1932 In two trips (with a small break), I spent fifteen days in the hardest-hit raions and villages of Kyiv and Vinnytsia oblasts.... [T]he main facts in all these raions and villages are similar enough that some general conclusions can be made.... …Along with the general weakness of the state grain-procurement plan, caused primarily by lower harvests across Ukraine and colossal losses during harvesting...a system of requisitioning of all grain, including seed reserves, from private farmers was introduced, and almost everything of value was confiscated from collective farms. Even if collective farms met their plan targets, they received an extra second and often third [grain quota target]. In many cases, grain issued to collective farmers as advance payment for work was confiscated by brigades for state grain procurement. As a result, the majority of collective farms in those raions were left without grain, without animal feed concentrate for livestock, without food for the disabled, for teachers, etc.... Cases of malnutrition and starvation were noted in December and January both among private farmers (particularly those whose farms and belongings were sold for failing to meet grain targets) and among collective farmers, especially those with large families.... In March and April there were tens and hundreds of malnourished, starving, and swollen people dying of hunger in every village; children abandoned by their parents and orphans appeared.... In addition to grain procurements, the same methods were applied to potato and, especially, meat procurements.... The proper functioning of agriculture has been impaired in the Ukrainian SSR over such a large area that special adjustments are required to state grain and meat procurement targets and other agricultural goals.... V[las] Chubar.

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