The Holodomor Is Genocide

What Is This Myth About?

Russian propaganda systematically attempts to diminish or deny the genocidal nature of the Holodomor, reducing it to a “Soviet-wide famine” that supposedly affected all peoples of the USSR equally. This is done in order to absolve Moscow of responsibility for the deliberate destruction of millions of Ukrainians.

Facts That Prove the Deliberate Nature

The “Law of Five Ears of Grain”

On August 7, 1932, the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR adopted the decree “On the Protection of the Property of State Enterprises, Collective Farms, and Cooperatives,” known as the “law of five ears of grain.” Stealing even a few ears of grain from a collective farm field was punishable by death or 10 years in labor camps. This law was enforced with particular brutality specifically in Ukraine.

”Blacklists”

Entire villages in Ukraine were placed on “blacklists” — all goods were cut off, and all grain and food were confiscated. This practice was applied on a massive scale in Ukraine and the Kuban (where a significant Ukrainian population lived).

Travel Bans

On January 22, 1933, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR issued a directive forbidding peasants of Ukraine and the Kuban from leaving their regions. This decision did not apply to other regions of the USSR, which proves the deliberate targeting of Ukrainians.

Confiscation of All Food

In Ukraine, peasants were stripped not only of grain but of all food — meat, vegetables, and preserves. Special brigades searched homes and seized anything edible. Such total confiscation was not carried out in other regions of the USSR on such a scale.

What Do Researchers Say?

Raphael Lemkin (Author of the Term “Genocide”)

Raphael Lemkin himself, who introduced the concept of “genocide” into international law, wrote a paper in 1953 titled “Soviet Genocide in the Ukraine,” in which he directly classified the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. Lemkin identified four components of this genocide: the destruction of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the liquidation of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Church, the starvation of the peasantry, and the resettlement of Ukraine with non-Ukrainian populations.

Robert Conquest

British historian Robert Conquest, in his book “The Harvest of Sorrow” (1986), was one of the first in Western historiography to systematically study the Holodomor and concluded that it was artificial and deliberate in nature. Conquest estimated the number of victims at 5–7 million people.

Anne Applebaum

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum, in her book “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” (2017), drew on newly declassified Soviet archives to prove that the famine was a deliberate policy of Stalin, aimed at destroying the Ukrainian peasantry as the foundation of national identity.

International Recognition

Over 30 countries have recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people
The European Parliament (2008) recognized the Holodomor as a crime against the Ukrainian people
A joint statement by 25 countries at the UN (2003) recognized the Holodomor as a national tragedy of the Ukrainian people
The number of victims is estimated at 3.5–7.5 million people

Why Does Russia Deny It?

Recognizing the Holodomor as genocide means acknowledging that the Soviet regime (of which modern Russia considers itself the successor) carried out the deliberate destruction of millions of people on the basis of nationality. This destroys the myth of “friendship of peoples” and “brotherhood” that Russia uses to justify its interference in Ukraine’s affairs.