Ukraine commemorates 90 years of the Holodomor, the great famine caused by Stalin
A statue commemorating the Holodomor, the great famine which killed millions in Ukraine in 1932-1933, in kyiv, November 28, 2020. © REUTERS - VALENTYN OGIRENKO
Text by: RFI Follow
3 mins
Ukraine commemorates the Holodomor on Saturday, November 26, the great famine of 1932-1933 caused by the Stalinist regime.
According to historians, 15% of the Ukrainian population died during this landmark episode in Ukraine and which has acquired a very special resonance since the Russian invasion.
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Between 3 and 6 million people would have been victims of this great famine organized by the Stalinist regime in the south of the Soviet Empire, from Kazakhstan to Ukraine, passing through Russia and the Cossack regions
.
In Ukraine, this famine was baptized “
Holodomor
”, which literally means extermination by hunger.
For several years, kyiv has been campaigning for the Holodomor to be recognized as a genocide.
And this year, this tragic episode echoes painfully since the
Russian invasion
.
But the Soviet Empire and Russia are two different realities, recalls the historian Éric Aunoble, specialist in Ukraine and communism at the University of Geneva, interviewed by
Juliette Gheerbrant
of the international service of RFI.
"
It is a term that appeared in the Ukrainian diaspora in North America in the 1970s and 80s, and which is quite marked by the debates of the time under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, with the new cold war, the denunciation of the 'USSR as ''evil empire'', etc.
And this discourse is repeated in Ukraine at independence.
But, again, the famine of 1933, Joseph Stalin and his regime can be blamed for it, but Russia as a national state did not exist at that time.
This is where there is a kind of perpetual reinterpretation of history, the actions of contemporary Russia are interpreted as being a continuation of the actions of the USSR, which all the same has hardly any basis, all the more, moreover, given the ideology of Vladimir Putin,
".
Fear of a reversal in Soviet Ukraine
Russia categorically refutes the term genocide, arguing that the great famine which raged in the Soviet Union had not only Ukrainian victims, but also Russians, Kazakhs, Volga Germans and members of other peoples. of the southern Soviet Empire.
But in Ukraine, for fear of revolt, Stalin prevented the population from circulating to find food elsewhere, aggravating the toll.
►
To read also:
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“
The famine is not specific to Ukraine, what is specific is the fear of political destabilization caused by the famine.
We have letters from Stalin saying that he thinks that because of the proximity of Poland, the Polish power would take advantage of it to try, with the help of Ukrainian nationalists, to overthrow the power in Soviet Ukraine.
It is for this reason that the authorities absolutely want to prevent the hungry from spreading to other regions, whereas in northern Kazakhstan, in the Volga basin and even in the Kuban, the hungry have had the possibility of move.
There were millions of deaths, but those who managed to get out of the famine zones were saved, whereas in Ukraine, they were kept in place by police cordons
, ”explains Éric Aunoble.
►
To read also:
Pope Francis speaks directly to the Ukrainian people after nine months of war
(
With AFP
)
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