The Holomodor: 3-7 million (jan 1, 1932 – jan 1, 1933)

Description:

The Holodomor was carried out by the Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin and the Soviet government under the Communist Party) against the Ukrainian people, particularly Ukrainian peasants between 1932 and 1933 (University of Minnesota Holocaust and Genocide Studies), with an estimated death toll between 3.5 million (lower scholarly estimates) and 7 million (higher estimates).

The Soviet regime also engaged in forced agricultural collectivization, systematic grain confiscation and requisitioning, "blacklisting" of villages preventing food access, denial of mobility through internal passport restrictions (January 22, 1933 decree), executions under the "Five Stalks of Grain" decree (at least 2,000 executed in early 1933), forced labor, systematic destruction of Ukrainian national elite and intellectuals, liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (with 10,000 priests killed according to Raphael Lemkin), suppression and denial of the famine's existence, refusal of international aid, cultural destruction and forced Russification, mass deportations to Siberia, and repopulation of devastated Ukrainian villages with Russian settlers.

It has been labeled as genocide by 35 countries as of January 2025 (including Ukraine 2006, Canada 2008, Australia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Romania, Moldova, Czech Republic, Ireland, Germany 2023, United States - both houses of Congress 2018-2019, Iceland 2023, Belgium 2023, Croatia 2023, Netherlands 2023, Italy 2023, Switzerland 2024, and Vatican City), the European Parliament (December 2022 resolution with 507 votes in favor), Raphael Lemkin (creator of the term "genocide" who called it "a classic example of Soviet genocide"), the U.S. Commission on the Ukraine Famine (1988 report to Congress stating "Joseph Stalin and those around him committed genocide against Ukrainians in 1932-1933"), Italian historian Andrea Graziosi, British historian Robert Conquest, American historian James Mace, and numerous other genocide scholars.

Important note on scholarly debate: While there is consensus that the famine was man-made and caused by Soviet policies, it remains in dispute whether the Holodomor was intentional, whether it was directed at Ukrainians, and whether it constitutes genocide, the point of contention being the absence of attested documents explicitly ordering the starvation of any area in the Soviet Union Atrocitieswatch. Broadly speaking, Russian historians are generally of the opinion that the Holodomor did not constitute genocide, while among Ukrainian historians the general opinion is that it did constitute genocide, with Western historians holding varying views.

Added to timeline:

Date:

Images:

Geo: