CHRONOLOGY OF THE FAMINE YEARS (PART XIX) (06/26/83)

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 XIX

April 16-30, 1933

The headlines in Svoboda on April 18 read: "Bolsheviks Execute Peasants." According to reports from London, English correspondents had learned that the populace of three villages was exiled to the North for taking part in a rebellion against the secret police. Some peasants were executed for interfering with spring planting on collective farms. The news stated that the Communist regime had decided not to bother with court trials in these cases, but to dispose of the peasants in its own way - execution or exile. The peasants found out about the executions in the town newspapers, which, according to the London reports, "once in a while" published lists of the executed individuals.

Svoboda reported on April 22 that Communist newspapers in the Soviet Union said that the "Bolsheviks were pleased with their planting campaign." The reports indicated that three times as many fields had been planted this year than during the previous one. The regime believed that one good harvest would considerably change the mood of the peasants and their attitude toward the Communist Party. For this reason, the regime was paying the most attention to the agricultural situation in the countryside.

According to reports from the Kharkiv newspaper Komsomolska Pravda, cited by Svoboda on April 24, the peasants in Ukraine had begun taking actions against collective farming. They had sabotaged the grain collection stations and interfered with grain delivery. The newspaper reported that these actions were planned by the "Petliurivtsi" and Ukrainian "chauvinists." The Soviet newspaper had listed names of a few collective farm workers who had spoken out against collective farming. The workers had stated that the peasants were not used to this system; that the peasants knew enough about the agricultural system to be productive and did not need instruction on how to plant and harvest; and that they resented government meddling in their fields.

Komsomolska Pravda also listed the names of a few "agitators-provocateurs," who, according to the newspaper, provoked the peasants to rebel against collective farming, telling them that "Moscow is stripping and ruining Ukraine."

The newspaper also stated that in order to spread these feelings among the Ukrainian peasantry, the agitators composed nationalistic "kolomyiky," destroyed agricultural tools on the farms, beat up Soviet agents at the farms, and disseminated nationalistic propaganda in schools and institutions. Nationalistic slogans were found on the walls of public buildings, reported the Soviet newspapers.

On April 25, Svoboda reported that Komsomolska Pravda had asked Moscow to organize a new movement against Ukrainian nationalists. A correspondent for the paper reported that the "nationalistic elements try to isolate Ukraine culturally from Moscow" by distributing Ukrainian materials in the schools. He added that Moscow must pay attention and bring a stop to the "contraband" Ukrainian nationalist materials and propaganda, which were being promoted also with the help of official Ukrainian Soviet institutions.

On April 27, the headlines in Svoboda read: "Ukraine in the Claws of Terrible Hunger." In a story published in London's Daily Express was Gareth Jones, Lloyd George's secretary, who had spent time in Kharkiv in 1930, 1931 and 1933, revealed that the towns were overcrowded with hungry and defenseless children and that the populace seemed listless and apathetic to its situation.

He reported that in 1930 Kharkiv had been growing, everyone had hope for the future, new buildings had been going up. In 1931 he had returned to the area, which was still expanding, and had observed the Soviets boasting that "socialist buildings would soon exceed America's." Mr. Jones reported that then there was a fiery spirit, courage, hope and faith in a better future.

In 1933, Mr. Jones saw a totally different Kharkiv. The city had deteriorated; the streets were filthy and in disrepair. The large buildings had never been finished, and the walls were crumbling, he wrote. The populace was embittered and indifferent, with no hope for the future. Thousands of homeless and hungry children wandered the streets in search of a kopeck with which to buy a piece of bread, he said.

In the train stations outside of Kharkiv he saw hungry and apathetic souls. "The populace laughs at the Soviet regime, laughs bitterly because of its terrible slavery and its slow death by starvation. The bitter laughter through tears and jeering anecdotes have become the people's only form of amusement," he wrote.

According to reports in Svoboda, in addition to rampant hunger in the towns and villages, typhoid fever had struck the people.

On April 28, Svoboda carried a commentary signed with the initials "O.S." The author wrote that after over 15 years of existence, the Soviet Union was coming to a tragic end. Collectivization had brought the complete destruction of agriculture and terror to the people.

* * *

Around the world:

An economic war was on between England and the Soviet Union, as the English placed a ban on importing grain, cotton, lumber and petroleum from the Soviet Union.

Ramsay MacDonald and Franklin Roosevelt met in Washington to discuss the world economy, as they readied themselves for the International Economic Conference to take place in London in June.

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution calling for a 30-hour work week as a way to curb unemployment in the country.

Ukrainians in western Ukraine continued to be persecuted by the Polish government. A correspondent for the Chicago Daily Tribune stated that a Ukrainian revolutionary organization (the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) led by Evhen Konovalets had become international in scope and had sympathizers in the United States, Europe and Canada, as well as in Poland. Most of these were young Ukrainian students, the correspondent wrote.

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