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 XXIV
August 1-15, 1933
A brief commentary on the situation in Ukraine was printed on the pages of Svoboda on August 1. Written by O. Snovyda, it was titled "The End of a Comedy," and it referred to the suicide of Mykola Skrypnyk, minister of education in Soviet Ukraine and an advocate of Ukrainianization policies. The author stated that the suicide should serve as a "reminder to Ukrainians" that Moscow, whether it be Red or White, wishes only to destroy Ukraine. The author also said that no Ukrainian should ever think that Moscow wants to work together with Ukraine, or work toward some kind of compromise, adding that all Moscow wants to do is wipe Ukraine off the map of Europe.
That same day, news from a French newspaper was printed in Svoboda. The news was that rumors were circulating about Ukrainians seceding from the Soviet Union with the help of the Germans.
On August 3, the news on the front page of Svoboda was that the Communists in the Soviet Union were struggling with the bureaucracy of the collective farm system. According to Moscow reports, there were plenty of Communist Party members who "directed offices" and did not work in the fields as they were supposed to, and some farms had more office workers than field workers. Therefore, the Communist Party had begun purging these "workers." New York Times correspondent Walter Duranty reported that one collective farm had decreased its worker staff by one-third. He interviewed a peasant who stated that the bureaucracy was running the workers to the ground; he said he was glad to see Moscow cracking down on these "office workers." Duranty commented that the number of these Communist Party "parasites" kept increasing.
That same day, Svoboda reported on news from Berlin. Apparently a few Ukrainian newspapers that wrote about Ukrainian separatism, nationalism and "Petliurism" had reached Germany. Berlin reports said that this was making the Communists uneasy and that the Communist press constantly referred to them as "counterrevolutionaries." The Communist press was pointing its finger at the activities of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, in particular, which - although it had been destroyed by the Communists earlier - continued acting as the "nest of counterrevolutionary work."
Also on August 4, a letter, written by a Kiev resident, who was originally from western Ukraine, appeared in Svoboda. It had been sent to the man's relatives in Lviv, who forwarded it to the Dilo newspaper. Dilo then sent the letter to Svoboda. Following are a few excerpts.
"Currently, my wife, my children and I are going absolutely hungry. We had some potatoes a while back, and things were bearable then, but now we eat potato skins with no sauce. I work, I have a job, but it brings me nothing. To live like the middle class, one has to bring home at least 1,500 karbovantsi a month; I get 200.
"... They don't allow you to go back home and they don't allow you to survive here. It looks like we'll have to die a death of starvation like those around us. I beg you, call the family together and send us a package - anything, even some lard; for I have forgotten the look and the taste of it.
"... I thought that as an educated man, I could get at least a piece of bread, but the learned people are also dying of hunger."
The author of the letter also wrote that robberies were common in the area and that "bandits live while the honest folk die." He described himself as "naked, barefoot and hungry" adding: "see what I waited for 15 years under the Soviet regime."
He noted that lice were everywhere, people were dying of typhoid, and swollen and hungry people were in the streets of the city.
On August 4, the headline in Svoboda read: "Unsuccessful Harvest in the Soviet Union." The news came from Pravda, which reported that the peasants were not prepared for the harvest, and the machinery broken down in the fields. The newspaper also stated that the harvested grain was left out in the fields, to either be rained on or dried out by the sun.
The newspaper gave several reasons for this, including the Communist regime's lack of knowledge concerning agricultural matters, the lack of good machinery, and the lack of people who knew how to run the machines. The reports also noted the fact that 10 million peasant farmers who knew what to do in the fields had been exiled or were working in factories or mines. The people working in the fields were not farmers by trade, and most were so tired and overworked that they could not produce to the best of their abilities.
According to the news in Svoboda, the Soviet press continued to report that during this harvest the peasants had fulfilled their quota to the state.
On August 5, on the front page, Svoboda printed news from Paris which came from a biweekly newspaper, Sotsialistichesky Viestnik. According to the correspondent of the newspaper, the Ukrainian Communists were always 100 percent pro-Stalin and always led Stalin's battles with the opposition, including Trotsky loyalists.
However, the correspondent reported that in order to strengthen the Communist bond in Ukraine, it was necessary for the Ukrainian peasantry and Ukrainian intelligentsia to grow closer. So, the Ukrainian Communists, with Skrypnyk as their leader, began a nationalistic movement.
Moscow, however, saw things differently, the correspondent reported. It accused Skrypnyk of leading separatism in Ukraine.
The correspondent also reported that Ukrainian Communists demanded unbelievable amounts of grain from the peasants, telling them that these were direct orders from Moscow.
The correspondent also wrote that Moscow was so scared by Ukrainian separatism that it had signed an agreement with Poland about how to deal with Ukrainians trying to make a break from Moscow. This coincided with the arrests and exile of the Ukrainian intelligentsia.
On August 7, Svoboda reported on news published in Pravda, which said that the harvests were getting better and blamed the failure of the previous weeks' harvest on the weather.
On August 8, Svoboda printed news from Lviv about Metropolitan Andrey Sheptysky's issuance of a statement calling on all Ukrainians in western Ukraine to help their brothers and sisters in need in eastern Ukraine. He said that the population in eastern Ukraine was dying of hunger, a hunger imposed on the people by the Soviet regime. The regime, he said, was based on "injustice, deception, godlessness and laziness."
"The cannibalistic system of state capitalism has turned this recently rich land into a ruined state, and led its people to a death by starvation," he said. The metropolitan said he wanted to call world attention to the plight of the persecuted Ukrainians.
On August 10, the headline in Svoboda read "Let Us All Unite in Eastern Ukraine's Tragedy." The news came from Lviv's Noviy Chas newspaper, which described the famine and the great terror of the Ukrainian people in Soviet-occupied territory.
* * *
Around the world:
Mohandas Gandhi was once again arrested in Bombay, as he called for England's cancellation of certain laws in India. His wife and in followers were also arrested.
The Philippines continued to seek independence from the United States by sending a delegation to Washington.
Austria protested to the League of Nations about Germany's meddling in its internal affairs. Austria accused Germany of agitation via radio transmissions, flying airplanes into its territory and sending Fascist agitators into the country.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, July 31, 1983, No. 31, Vol. LI
| Home Page ||