CHRONOLOGY OF THE FAMINE YEARS (PART II) (02/27/83)

CHRONOLOGY OF THE FAMINE YEARS

This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of history's most horrifying cases of genocide the Soviet-made Great Famine of 1932-33, in which some 7 million Ukrainians perished.

Relying on news from Svoboda and, later, The Ukrainian Weekly (which began publication in October 1933), this column hopes to remind and inform Americans and Canadians of this terrible crime against humanity.

By bringing other events worldwide into the picture as well, the column hopes to give a perspective on the state of the world in the years of Ukraine's Great Famine.

PART II

March 1932

On March 1, 1932, Svoboda carried news of the killings of Ukrainian peasants trying to escape to Rumania from Ukraine. The headline read: "Bolsheviks have once again shot Ukrainian peasants trying to cross the Dnister." The secret police killed 200 men, women and children who were fleeing from Ukraine and Soviet government tyranny.

The story, datelined Bucharest, explained that as the peasants approached the middle of the frozen river, the Communist police began shooting. When the shooting stopped, corpses lay strewn over the ice.

Representatives in the Rumanian Parliament sought information on the earlier killings of 20 Ukrainian peasants who tried to make their way over to the Bessarabian side of the Dnister, searching for asylum from the Communists. The representatives asked the government to put a stop to the shooting of peasants who were trying to escape the famine in Ukraine and the Soviet Communist regime.

Four days later (March 5), Svoboda once again wrote about the Ukrainian peasants shot crossing the Dnister. Svoboda reported that more people than originally reported were killed on the crossover to Rumania. A commission was established in Rumania; its mission was to take care of the dead and bury the corpses scattered on the icy river.

News reached Svoboda from Bucharest that among the members of the commission was a Russian soldier of the Red Army. When asked why the government took such brutal action toward the escaping peasants, the soldier replied "This is an internal Russian matter. Every citizen of Russia knows that emigration without special permission, or escape from Russia is punishable by death."

By the middle of the month, March 14, Svoboda had received news from Moscow about the spring planting of crops in the Soviet Union. According to the story, the Soviet press had informed the entire peasant population that it was behind schedule. Ukraine was 40 percent behind the planned work in preparing for spring planting.

News from Rumania again appeared on the pages of Svoboda on March 21. It was reported that a group of 32 peasants tried to make it across to Rumania. But, with the approaching warmer weather, the ice gave way and 14 people drowned. Eighteen made it to Rumania.

On March 23, Svoboda carried the news that the Communists continued to shoot peasants and committed atrocities in villages on the Soviet border. Among the incidents was the killing of peasant women who blocked the churches as Communist soldiers tried to destroy them.

Svoboda also received news that although so many Ukrainian peasants were being shot trying to make their way over to Bessarabia, the wave of people trying to escape did not cease. From Bucharest came word that some peasants were now trying to cross over with their entire families. One group of peasants collected its horse-drawn wagons, loaded them with water barrels and approached the Dnister River under the pretext of wanting to draw water. As soon as the wagons came to the middle of the river, the peasants drove at full speed to the Rumanian side. The Communists immediately began shooting. Only one wagon made it across to safety. A newspaper in Bucharest revealed that members of peasant families had hidden inside the water barrels. The news report also said that several Communists who had refused to shoot innocent peasants were themselves shot by Soviet government authorities.

During the last week of March, on March 24, Svoboda once again received news that Ukrainians who tried to make their way to Rumania were shot.

From Moscow, Svoboda received news that the Soviet press was carrying reports denying that the Communists had ever killed any women who were trying to reach Rumania. The Soviet press said: "This is an absurd fabrication by enemies of the Soviet Union."

News from Moscow about the cost of food in Russia reached Svoboda on March 29. It was reported that one chicken egg, available only at restaurants, went for the equivalent of 40¢ (U.S.). In general the citizens of Moscow had not even seen a chicken egg since the beginning of January, and even if eggs did come in, it was doubtful that the people would be able to afford them, the paper said.

On March 30, 1932, Svoboda reported that a correspondent of The New York Times had traveled around the border of Bessarabia where the Dnister River flows. He also visited various hospitals where Ukrainian peasants were recuperating from gunshot wounds inflicted upon them by the Communist soldiers.

The correspondent, whose name Svoboda did not disclose, also visited survivors who did make it over to Bessarabia from the "Soviet paradise." The correspondent, who interviewed some of the survivors, wrote: "Everyone tells the same story, they had to flee because of the famine, which they experienced after the Bolsheviks ruined all the peasants' farms, trying to get them into collective farming. Those who guarded their individual farms were arrested and sent to Siberia."

Most of the cases the reporter encountered were identical. Each refugee knew of the danger he faced yet decided to flee because "it was better to die from the bullet of a Bolshevik than to live with the cold, the hunger and the fear that one day the secret police would cart you off to Siberia."

The correspondent talked to a Mykola Bukovan who had decided to escape with his family. He took a wagon loaded with barrels across the ice; inside were his wife and two sons, age 7 and 3. The Communists started shooting. He managed to jump off the wagon with the 7-year-old and make it across to safety, being shot only in his side. As he ran across the border to Rumania, he heard the screams and moans of his wife and 7-year-old son who lay wounded inside the barrels.

The Communists began to leave the corpses on the river as a warning to Ukrainians who may want to try escaping, the reporter said. A group of refugees who made it across to Rumania asked the League of Nations to stop these atrocities. The refugees brought over samples of the bread that Ukrainians live on: it was made of corn, a blend of straw and ergot droppings. The ergot on rye when consumed, in some cases, caused gangrene.

So it was in Ukraine in March 1932.

Around the world, the sensational kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's son made headlines and an extensive police search was on.

In Washington, the House of Representatives passed a resolution to distribute to the poor 40 million bushels of wheat obtained from the Federation of Farm Workers. Other resolutions called for distributing bread to the needy.

In the mining districts of Pennsylvania, including Wilkes-Barre, Scranton, Pottsville and Shenandoah, 20,000 workers walked off their jobs. The strike protested the increased number of unemployed miners, as well as the internal politics of the United Mine Workers Union.

The League of Nations in March began discussing the conflict between Japan and China.

Eamon De Valera became head of the Irish Free State in March. He immediately abolished the oath of allegiance to England and refused to pay land annuities to Britain.

Fascists in Italy celebrated 13 years of rule, and Benito Mussolini told the people that the worst of the economic crisis was over.

Paul von Hindenburg received the most votes in Germany's elections for president, but because he did not win an absolute majority of votes, the elections were to be held once again on April 10.

From western Ukraine, news reached Svoboda that Plast members and other young Ukrainian activists continued to be arrested and brought to trial for nationalist behavior. Other news from Ukraine, from the Hutsul region, warned that a food shortage was evident there also, as many people went hungry.

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