Great Famine in Ukraine

GREAT FAMINE IN UKRAINE I ST. VOLOOYMYR BRUTHERHO00 TORONTO 1988 THE GREAT FAMINE IN UKRAINE 1932-33 A Collection of Memoirs, Speeches and Essays Prepared in 1983 in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Famine in Ukraine During 1932-33 The Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Volodymyr diasporiana.org.ua Toronto 1988 All rights reserved by the Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Volodymyr, Toronto Publication Committee Members: V. Rudenko - Committee Head T. Khokhitva - Editor-Administrator P. Makohon F. Podopryhoda The Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. Volodymyr in Toronto dedicates this volume to our descendents, in eternal memory of those who were killed by the man-made famine in Ukraine, perpetrated by Russian Communist rule against the Ukrainian nation. We also commemorate this publication to the Millenium of Christianity in Ukraine. Preface We, the Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. blodymyr in Toronto, are the publisher of this volume, entitled "The Great Famine in Ukraine of 1932-33." In publishing it, we did not expect to uncover some novel secret, nor did we expect to add anything new or unknown to the chronicles of that terrible event in Ukraine. We did not wish to discuss with the world whether this famine was an elemental, natural misfortune, or whether it was consciously created by men, who had unlimited power in a huge country they came to call the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and which includes Ukraine as a sovereign Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. All of this is now evident to the world. We are certain that the time will come when the world will awake from its psychosis; when it will come out from under the spell of Marxist Communism; and will bring down the rightful condemnation of the criminals who engineered this famine, exactly as it justly condemned the more recent criminals - the Nazi Hitlerites. 1983 marked the passing of fifty years since the great famine in Ukraine, and the Ukrainian emigre community commemorated the anniversary of this tragic event. During that year, a number of lectures were delivered, and a number of articles were published on the subject, not only in the Ukrainian press, but also in the media of the countries where Ukrainians have settled, countries of which they have become citizens. These addresses and articles are the testimonies of the people who survived the famine. These are the words of the people who lost their sisters, brothers,fathers, mothers, relatives, neighbours, and CO-villagers. However, all of these articles and addresses are ephemeral. They were heard or read and then passed into oblivion. Nevertheless, we must not forget everything. Sometimes we can and must forget injuries or insults of a personal nature, committed perhaps unconsciously or inadvertently, but a conscious and deliberate crime committed against a whole people, such as that famine, should not only not be forgotten, but should be rememberedfrom genemtion to generation, in order that anything similar does not occur in their future. Therefore, the Ukrainian Orthodox Brotherhood of St. blodymyr in Toronto decided to bring these materials together and publish them as a collection, and thus preserve them. None of the authors are masters of the literary word. They are simple people who speak as they write. They set out their memories of events in simple narrative, just as they had seen and experienced them. Do some of the authors express their opinions about the reasons for the famine? To a simple question, there must be a simple answer: the famine was caused by the communist Muscovite rulers who inhumanely stole absolutely all grain from Ukrainianfarmers, and left them nothing for either food or seed. This occurred because the government demanded more grain from these farmers than they could produce. This was an incomprehensible and barbaric act that cannot be mitigated by any explanation. The communist press (there was no other) released reports abroad, and for self-gratijcation, at home, to the effect that the productivity of agriculture increased dramatically with the introduction of collectivization. However, this was a bluff and a boast that the communists mislead even themselves with. How could agricultural production increase if the transfer from individual control to collective was experimental? Aside from this, the "dekulakization" campaign eliminated more than two hundred thousand of the most prosperous and most productive farms. Over one million, two hundred thousand of the ablest farmers were tomfrom their jobs figures given in ksyl' Hryshko's '%tempt on the Life of a Nation"). Those given control of the collective farms were incompetent and inexperienced in administering large agricultural operations, but they were members of the Communist Party. They directed the work exclusively according to the dictates of the Party, sent "ji-om above." Some of the authors attempt to examine the "reason" for the famine. They try tojnd out what motives led the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to decide to commit this crime, and then carry it out in Ukraine. One of these motives was the Party's constant fear of a renaissance of the Ukrainian nation, a nation that had shown its heroism and character during the years of the revolution and rebirth of 1917-20. It was then that a Ukrainian Sovereign State had been established. This crime was also a punishment for the armed resistance of the Ukrainian people against Russian communist colonialism during these years, and for the unwillingness of the Ukrainian people to accept the communist ideology. The Soviet rulers called this unwillingness "Ukminian bourgeois nationalism" - the ostensible "antithesis" of communist "internationalism," that was simply Russian chauvinism in disguise. The efforts to combat not only nationalism, but even patriotism in Ukraine has continued to be part of the daily agenda of the CPSU throughout the years that Ukraine has been part of the USSR. This is an obvious, and even unconcealed policy of the Central Committee. However, there are conspiratorial policies about which we can only speculate. It is obvious that almost 75% of the Central Committee of the CPSU was of Jewish descent, and with their majority in this body, they could, from a concealed vantage point, exuct revenge on the Ukrainian people for the pogroms carried out by roving bands of undetermined nationality on the territory of Ukraine. This theory is grounded on the actions of Jewish extremists, who shot the President of the Ukrainian People's Republic, Symon Petliura, in the streets of Paris in 1926, and who continue to take hostile actions against the Ukrainian people. Another factor that could have prompted the communist clique to commit the crime of murder by famine, was international trade. As everyone must know, in those days, the main exports of the USSR were timber, various other raw materials and grain. This was written about by Bernard E Lancaster of the New York Herald Tribune. In his article he wrote thar the Soviet Union sold its commodities on the international market at grossly deJated prices in order to dump them, and thereby deepen the economic crisis in the world at the time, and particularly in America. Lancaster claimed that the Soviets also wanted to demonstrate to the world that their communistfatherland had become wealthy simply because they had taken power. Lancaster also explained that they also sought foreign currency for the purchase of machines and weapons for its communist empire. Stalin himself discussed the famine with Churchill when the latter raised the matter of the incredible losses of human life during the years of collectivization and famine. He said: "But of course. Truly, it was horrijic... But it had been absolutely necessary in order that new machines be produced in our factories, and that new tractors appear in ourfields." (Winston Churchill, The Second World War vol. 4, chap. 25.) Stalin S words sufice to give an adequate understanding of communist estimation of the worth of the individual. Stalin slightly raised the curtain behind which the great secret lay hidden. Obviously, the Central Committee of the CPSUplanned the industrialization and militarization of its communist empire, but in so doing it assumed responsibilities upon which its further existence depended. Thus, in order to save itself, they despoiled the Ukrainian poor and middle peasantry, left them without a crust of bread to starve to death, and deported the wealthier, so-called "kulaks" into the northern taiga to fell timber for export. Without a doubt, bringing the famine in Ukraine of 1932-33 to light is dangerous to the communists now in power. Regardless of the passage of fi& years, and the fact that almost none of those (except Lazar Kaganovich) who carried it out are alive, the leaders of the Soviet Union have never been able to publicly admit the guilt of their predecessors, and that of Stalin in particular. Despite the fact that the Party itself has condemned him for his barbarities, they are still afraid to mention that famine and try to act as if it never happened. Some of the authors express bitterness about the Western world S indifference to the tragedy of the Ukrainian people. This indifference truly was and is very strange, although at the time, there were reasons for it. As everyone must know, it was strictly forbidden to write about the famine, or even to mention it in conversation. The leaders of the Soviet Union made every effort to conceal the famine in Ukminefrom the outside world. The Soviet Union also invited only those journalists who were communist sympathizers. These journalists wrote misleading reports in the Westernpress based on data they receivedfrom the Soviet rulers. For this they might have even received compensation from the government of the USSR. This was definitely the case with Walter Duranty.

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