DISINFO: The famine of 1932-33 was not ethnically directed against Ukrainians
SUMMARY
The famine of 1932-33 was not ethnically directed against the Ukrainians. The term “Holodomor” itself has no right to exist.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring Kremlin narrative about the Holodomor in Ukraine. The Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932–33 is a man-made demographic catastrophe unprecedented in peacetime. Of the estimated six to eight million people who died in the Soviet Union, about four to five million were Ukrainians. The exact number of victims is hard to establish as a lot of evidence was destroyed. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica," the famine was a direct assault on the Ukrainian peasantry, which had stubbornly continued to resist collectivisation; indirectly, it was an attack on the Ukrainian village, which traditionally had been a key element of Ukrainian national culture. Its deliberate nature is underscored by the fact that no physical basis for famine existed in Ukraine. The Ukrainian grain harvest of 1932 had resulted in below-average yields (in part because of the chaos wreaked by the collectivisation campaign), but it was more than sufficient to sustain the population. Nevertheless, Soviet authorities set requisition quotas for Ukraine at an impossibly high level. Brigades of special agents were dispatched to Ukraine to assist in procurement, and homes were routinely searched and foodstuffs confiscated." See the similar disinfo cases here and here.