Holodomor Flashcards
Holodomor
In 1932, Joseph Stalin the dictator of the Soviet Union, orchestrated a famine in order to punish Ukrainians for rejecting his policy of collectivization
Stalin’s Motives
- To annihilate the population that openly resisted repressive policies in Ukraine
- To force the surviving Ukrainian population into submission to the Soviet totalitarian regime
- To provide funds for Soviet industrial expansion
Stalin’s Policies
Five Year Plans: policies that directed everything the state did the goal was to rapidly industrialize
● Production quotas - often higher than reasonably possible
● Nationalize all industry and farms
● Grain quotas - sell grain on the foreign market to make profit
What is Collectivization?
The consolidation of individual land and labor into state farms owned farms
Individuals no longer owned their farms and were expected to give up all privately owned property to the state
Dekulakization
Kulaks were prosperous farmers that heavily resisted collectivization and Stalin responded with ruthless force.
● Those who resisted collectivization were eliminated
Resistance to Collectivization
Farmers did not want to obey the collectivization and instead destroyed their property and farm animals over giving them to the state.
● Slaughter of livestock
● Theft and destruction of collective farm property
Result: Collective farms failed to meet quotas
Conditions in Ukraine
- High quotas; were raised 4 times only in Ukraine
- Only area accused of sabotage of grain procurement
due to ‘nationalism’. - Only republic to have borders sealed.
- Blacklisting of villages only Ukraine
- Internal passport system, but not for Ukrainian
farmers. - All food, not only grain was confiscated from selected
villages only in Ukraine
Holodomor
The Ukrainian Holodomor is one of the least known genocides of the 20th century
At the height of the Genocide Ukrainians were dying at a rate of 25,000 per day.
Nearly 1 in 4 rural Ukrainians perished as a direct result of Soviet policy.
