Turning Blind Eyes to Empty Stomachs

Between 1932 and 1933, the Soviet Union (USSR) experienced one of the worst famines recorded in European history.Yet, the vast majority of individuals across the globe were kept unaware of this tragedy, and many remain unaware to date.Throughout these two years, Joseph Stalin's USSR deliberately starved the Ukrainian countryside, causing the deaths of an estimated six to eight million Ukrainian peasants from hunger, malnutrition, and disease. 1 This event came to be known as the Holodomor, meaning 'death by hunger' in Ukrainian.Russian propaganda and international concern over diplomatic relations prevented western nations from sending aid to the famine victims and contributed to the widespread silence regarding the famine.Specifically, Stalin's refusal of aid and intentional censorship of the press meant that most of the world was oblivious to what was taking place in Ukraine.However, the governments of western nations, such as the United States, Britain, and Canada, were conscious of the famine.The nations refused to act, in an effort to maintain international political stability with the USSR.Continued Russian denial kept the true events of 1932 to 1933 obscured for many decades to follow.This attack on Ukrainian lives began with Stalin's Five-Year Plan.Introduced in 1928, the plan aimed to industrialize the nation, financed through forced savings from the peasants.The basis of the plan was collectivization: the process in which Ukrainian peasants were forced to give up their individual farms and join collective farms owned by the government.They were also required to pay higher rates for machinery, and sell their grain for lower prices.Further, they were forced to consume less of their production, so that the government could collect and sell excess grain abroad for a profit, and to invest into the nation's industry. 2By 1931, the state collection of crops was almost half of the total harvest.Farms that possessed seeds were forced to surrender them to the government for the next harvest, meaning that they had nothing left to consume or plant for themselves. 3Left with little but potatoes and beets, many resorted to slaughtering and eating their cattle.By 1932, the situation had only escalated.A diary entry from recorded in 1932, written by Holodomor survivor Oleksandra Radchenko, reads: "Famine, artificially created famine is taking on a nightmarish character.No one can understand why they are pumping out grain to the last kernel…and they nevertheless continue to demand grain for sowing and sowing material in general…And the children go hungry, worn out, emaciated, tormented by tapeworms, as they eat only sugar beets." 4 By 1933, according to a newspaper interview with an anonymous Ukrainian woman who had escaped: "There have been cases of a mother starving with her children and then killing and eating them when she sees that they are about to die.Or you are walking along the street and you see a corpse.You look around to see whether anyone is watching, and you cut off a piece of flesh and then bake or cook it." 5Collectivization and

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