Holodomor

Historical Outline

Russian Empire

Russian Empire• late to industrialization• late to democratic reform• citizens lacked rights enjoyed by most Europeans

Czar Nicholas II• Russia not prepared for WWI • problems on the front• food riots broke out in the cities• forced to abdicate in early 1917

Bolsheviks and Lenin• overthrow provisional

government and take control in November 1917

Civil War • fighting takes place across the country

against many groups opposed to Bolsheviks

• Bolsheviks ultimately win and consolidate power

War Communism and Famine• no private property, • nationalization of all industry, • rationing of food • government monopoly on foreign

trade.• War Communism & severe drought

lead to 10 million deaths

Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)• created in 1922 • Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic

(Ukrainian SSR) was one of the founding Republics

New Economic Policy• introduced by Lenin

to rejuvenate the economy• embraced by many in Ukraine

Joseph Stalin• ruled the Soviet Union 1928 -

1953• rejected the NEP• Stalinism was characterized by

terror and totalitarian rule

Five Year Plans• organized the economy• peasants forced to give up land and join

collective farms• goal was to quickly industrialize• needed to sell grain to buy parts

Peasants Reject Collectivization• many burn their crops and

livestock rather than hand them over 

Kulaks• Kulaks were the most

successful farmers under the New Economic Policy

• Bolsheviks knew they would be the strongest opponents of collectivization

• They were 'eliminated' as a social class 

Attack on Peasants• those resisting collectivization are

persecuted• Kulaks are arrested, exiled, sent

to prison, tortured or killed

Great Depression 1930s• hardship around the

world• wheat prices to drop • lower prices affected

the first Five Year Plan• government increased

quotas 

Food Becomes State Property• On August 7, 1932 a law came into

force that stipulated that all food was state property

• peasants unable to meet quotas were stripped of all foodstuffs

Starving Peasants• forbidden to take food

from the field• forbidden to flee the

region or leave the country• shot for looking for food

Ukrainian Cities• also saw famine as rations

were cut off to many parts of the country

• urban workers were encouraged to see themselves as the leaders the revolution

Death By Famine• By 1933, 25,000 were

starving to death per day. Diseases were spreading 

• incidents of cannibalism • almost no one outside

Ukrainian SSR knew