1 00:00:01,280 --> 00:00:04,279 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production 2 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:13,720 Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:13,800 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. Before we 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,479 Speaker 1: start today's episode, today's topic is a serious one, but 5 00:00:21,680 --> 00:00:25,159 Speaker 1: today is also our last chance to let everybody know 6 00:00:25,239 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: that we have a live streaming event coming up on 7 00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,680 Speaker 1: March So if you're listening to this episode on the 8 00:00:32,760 --> 00:00:37,520 Speaker 1: day that we released it, that's tomorrow. It's happening very soon. 9 00:00:38,240 --> 00:00:40,200 Speaker 1: That's going to be at eight p m Eastern, five 10 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,040 Speaker 1: pm Pacific. Several folks, when we have posted about this 11 00:00:44,120 --> 00:00:47,000 Speaker 1: on social media have said things like that's one am 12 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,440 Speaker 1: my time, so I can't come. Well, I have good news, 13 00:00:51,080 --> 00:00:53,640 Speaker 1: which is that the stream is available for seventy two 14 00:00:53,640 --> 00:00:56,920 Speaker 1: hours after the show, So if you are in sometimes zone, 15 00:00:56,920 --> 00:00:59,760 Speaker 1: that is very inconvenient for the times that we've just said, 16 00:01:00,040 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: it's okay. Uh. Normally, when we have a live show, 17 00:01:03,800 --> 00:01:07,759 Speaker 1: that live show becomes an episode of the podcast. That's 18 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,280 Speaker 1: not going to be the case this time. Uh. This 19 00:01:10,360 --> 00:01:13,880 Speaker 1: is a little bit different in terms of the way 20 00:01:13,920 --> 00:01:16,240 Speaker 1: our live shows normally go. Rather than it just being 21 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:19,560 Speaker 1: us doing something that we could also have done in 22 00:01:19,600 --> 00:01:22,280 Speaker 1: the studio. It's a little more interactive thing, so not 23 00:01:22,400 --> 00:01:26,440 Speaker 1: as conducive to going into our feed with everything else. Yeah. 24 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:29,080 Speaker 1: So if you want to hear us talk about some 25 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:34,040 Speaker 1: feuds and have some votes with audience interaction, this is 26 00:01:34,080 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: the thing. But like we said, if you miss out 27 00:01:36,520 --> 00:01:39,960 Speaker 1: on a ticket, you won't get to hear this one. Yeah. Yeah, 28 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:43,200 Speaker 1: So looped live dot com that's where you can go 29 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: to buy tickets. We also have the link to the 30 00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: ticket page pinned up at the top of our Facebook 31 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,800 Speaker 1: and our Twitter. We are very excited about it again. 32 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:57,040 Speaker 1: That's on Thursday, March two, eight pm Eastern, five pm Pacific, 33 00:01:57,280 --> 00:02:02,720 Speaker 1: and now onto the act will episode. One topic that 34 00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:06,160 Speaker 1: we have gotten many, many, many requests for over the 35 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 1: years is the whole Amore. Some folks have even been 36 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 1: persistent enough to write in and request this topic more 37 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:16,840 Speaker 1: than one time. The whole of Moore is the name 38 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:19,600 Speaker 1: that was coined in the nineteen eighties to describe a 39 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: famine that struck Ukraine in the early nineteen thirties. The 40 00:02:23,880 --> 00:02:27,720 Speaker 1: name comes from Ukrainian words that roughly translate to death 41 00:02:27,800 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 1: by hunger, and while there were famines and food shortages 42 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:33,880 Speaker 1: that were taking place in other parts of the Soviet Union. 43 00:02:33,919 --> 00:02:39,280 Speaker 1: At the same time, Soviet policies toward Ukraine specifically made 44 00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,760 Speaker 1: the situation there a whole lot worse, and they were 45 00:02:42,800 --> 00:02:46,480 Speaker 1: part of an intentional effort that was spearheaded by Joseph 46 00:02:46,560 --> 00:02:52,000 Speaker 1: Stalin to destroy Ukrainian culture and identity. This is also 47 00:02:52,280 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: obviously part of the historical context for Russia's invasion of 48 00:02:56,639 --> 00:03:00,480 Speaker 1: Ukraine that started on February of this year. It is 49 00:03:00,520 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: also really truly horrifying, so listening to it in light 50 00:03:04,800 --> 00:03:08,120 Speaker 1: of those events which are ongoing that may make it 51 00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,600 Speaker 1: seem even more horrifying. So take care of yourself while 52 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:14,560 Speaker 1: you're listening. So to give a little bit of background, 53 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:18,440 Speaker 1: Russia and Ukraine share a lot of overlapping history, going 54 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:21,120 Speaker 1: all the way back to the establishment of Kievan russ 55 00:03:21,200 --> 00:03:24,359 Speaker 1: in the late ninth century. Keevan Ross was the first 56 00:03:24,440 --> 00:03:29,320 Speaker 1: Eastern Slavic state, and today Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia all 57 00:03:29,360 --> 00:03:33,000 Speaker 1: trace their origins and cultural identity back to it. But 58 00:03:33,080 --> 00:03:36,720 Speaker 1: over the centuries, the nations, peoples, and ethnic groups that 59 00:03:36,720 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: would form these countries as we know them today they 60 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:44,200 Speaker 1: went through very different trajectories. What's now Ukraine was repeatedly 61 00:03:44,360 --> 00:03:49,480 Speaker 1: divided up and assigned to other nations and empires, including Poland, Lithuania, 62 00:03:49,760 --> 00:03:54,560 Speaker 1: and the Austro Hungarian Empire. Aside from its westernmost regions, 63 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:58,960 Speaker 1: most of Ukraine became part of the Russian Empire in seventee. 64 00:04:00,200 --> 00:04:04,000 Speaker 1: Regardless of which nation or empire they were considered to 65 00:04:04,040 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: be living in, Ukrainians had their own ethnic and cultural identity. 66 00:04:08,880 --> 00:04:11,520 Speaker 1: By the middle of the nineteenth century, most of what's 67 00:04:11,560 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: now Ukraine had come under Russian control, but by that 68 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:20,400 Speaker 1: point Ukrainian had also evolved as its own standardized language. 69 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:26,599 Speaker 1: Literature written in Ukrainian reflected ukrainians own cultural and ethnic identities. 70 00:04:27,080 --> 00:04:31,320 Speaker 1: Imperial Russia eventually started to see this developing sense of 71 00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:35,080 Speaker 1: language and cultural consciousness as a threat, and in the 72 00:04:35,160 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 1: late nineteenth century, Russian officials started banning the teaching of 73 00:04:39,480 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: Ukrainian and removing Ukrainian books from schools. The Russian Imperial 74 00:04:44,520 --> 00:04:48,520 Speaker 1: government was overthrown in a series of revolutions in nineteen seventeen. 75 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,600 Speaker 1: The Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin took control, changing their 76 00:04:52,640 --> 00:04:56,600 Speaker 1: name to the Russian Communist Party of Bolsheviks in nineteen eighteen. 77 00:04:57,279 --> 00:05:00,760 Speaker 1: As all of this was happening, Ukraine established a provisional 78 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,599 Speaker 1: government and declared its independence, and for about the next 79 00:05:04,640 --> 00:05:09,680 Speaker 1: four years fought to keep that independence. This involved political, diplomatic, 80 00:05:09,760 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 1: and military efforts against other nations and against counter revolutionary 81 00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:18,800 Speaker 1: forces within its own borders. This lasted until nineteen two, 82 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,479 Speaker 1: when Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, part of 83 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:28,839 Speaker 1: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. That same year, parts 84 00:05:28,839 --> 00:05:31,960 Speaker 1: of the Soviet Union faced a famine. This famine was 85 00:05:32,040 --> 00:05:35,640 Speaker 1: brought on by the political instability and warfare of the 86 00:05:35,680 --> 00:05:38,839 Speaker 1: previous few years, and it was made worse by a drought. 87 00:05:39,800 --> 00:05:44,839 Speaker 1: At first, Soviet leaders refused international aid, but eventually a 88 00:05:44,920 --> 00:05:49,360 Speaker 1: campaign for famine relief was underway in Soviet Russia. This 89 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:54,120 Speaker 1: included suspending food taxes, but Ukraine was really facing the 90 00:05:54,200 --> 00:05:58,919 Speaker 1: same conditions, especially in its southern regions. Not only was 91 00:05:59,120 --> 00:06:02,679 Speaker 1: Ukraine left out of aid programs and other relief until 92 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:06,039 Speaker 1: late nineteen twenty two, but it was also expected to 93 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:11,520 Speaker 1: contribute food to Russia, including contributing food from the southern 94 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:15,320 Speaker 1: regions that had been most stricken by the same famine. 95 00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:20,000 Speaker 1: The Communist Party had also instituted a system of war communism, 96 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:25,200 Speaker 1: which involved nationalizing industries and forcibly requisitioning surplus grain and 97 00:06:25,240 --> 00:06:28,880 Speaker 1: other food. This affected the Soviet Union as a whole, 98 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,920 Speaker 1: but it was particularly disruptive in Ukraine, where about eight 99 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:37,120 Speaker 1: percent of the population were farmers. Growing grain was a 100 00:06:37,200 --> 00:06:40,920 Speaker 1: central part of the Ukrainian economy and identity. Ukraine is 101 00:06:41,040 --> 00:06:44,600 Speaker 1: nicknamed the bread basket of Europe and its flag represents 102 00:06:44,640 --> 00:06:48,640 Speaker 1: a blue sky over a yellow field of wheat. Under 103 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,120 Speaker 1: war communism, Ukraine was no longer able to sell its 104 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:57,040 Speaker 1: surplus grain, and as a consequence, it's economy collapsed. Unrest 105 00:06:57,120 --> 00:07:01,479 Speaker 1: was widespread, and agricultural productivity roped since people didn't want 106 00:07:01,480 --> 00:07:04,520 Speaker 1: to spend their time growing surplus grain that would just 107 00:07:04,560 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: be requisitioned with no compensation. Lenin introduced a new economic 108 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:13,480 Speaker 1: policy in nineteen twenty one that addressed some of this, 109 00:07:14,160 --> 00:07:16,800 Speaker 1: but there was still a lot of anti Soviet and 110 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:20,840 Speaker 1: anti communist sentiment. One step that was taken to try 111 00:07:20,880 --> 00:07:25,760 Speaker 1: to reverse that sentiment was a policy of indigenization. Russia 112 00:07:26,040 --> 00:07:29,040 Speaker 1: was by far the largest of the Soviet republics, and 113 00:07:29,160 --> 00:07:33,200 Speaker 1: Russians were by far the largest ethnic group, but the 114 00:07:33,280 --> 00:07:37,360 Speaker 1: Soviet Union was not at all monolithic, nor were the 115 00:07:37,400 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: Soviet republics that comprised it. This indigenization policy encouraged people 116 00:07:43,520 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 1: of different national identities and ethnic groups to really pursue 117 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:51,440 Speaker 1: and develop their own cultures while still being part of 118 00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:55,600 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union. In Ukraine, this led to a huge 119 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: cultural flourishing involving literature, art, music, and language age. Newly 120 00:08:01,400 --> 00:08:05,560 Speaker 1: open schools taught courses in Ukrainian, with Russian treated more 121 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:10,360 Speaker 1: like an elective class. The Ukrainian Autocephalis Orthodox Church became 122 00:08:10,400 --> 00:08:14,480 Speaker 1: independent from the Russian Orthodox Church, and its membership and 123 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:20,000 Speaker 1: clergy both grew rapidly. The idea had been that encouraging 124 00:08:20,040 --> 00:08:24,280 Speaker 1: this kind of diversity and national identity would appease various 125 00:08:24,320 --> 00:08:27,200 Speaker 1: ethnic groups and it would increase their support for the 126 00:08:27,280 --> 00:08:33,000 Speaker 1: Soviet regime. But Lenin's successor, Joseph Stalin, found Ukraine's cultural 127 00:08:33,080 --> 00:08:37,080 Speaker 1: rebirth and it shift away from Russian culture and ideals 128 00:08:37,120 --> 00:08:41,559 Speaker 1: to be threatening. In ninety nine, he started arresting thousands 129 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:46,760 Speaker 1: of Ukrainian scientists, poets, intellectuals and artists, claiming that they 130 00:08:46,800 --> 00:08:50,599 Speaker 1: were part of a secret organization that was plotting against Russia. 131 00:08:50,800 --> 00:08:53,880 Speaker 1: The Russian Orthodox Church had been opposed to the Ukrainian 132 00:08:53,960 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: churches independence from the start. It formally denounced the Ukrainian 133 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:03,040 Speaker 1: Autocephalis or Docks Church as well, and Soviet authorities started 134 00:09:03,040 --> 00:09:07,079 Speaker 1: cracking down on it in nineteen twenty six. This involved 135 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:12,920 Speaker 1: destroying churches and their icons, smashing church bells, arresting religious leaders, 136 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 1: and murdyring bishops. In the face of all of this, 137 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:20,840 Speaker 1: the Ukrainian Orthodox Church abolished itself in nineteen thirty although 138 00:09:21,160 --> 00:09:24,720 Speaker 1: a smaller group of churches held on until nineteen thirty six. 139 00:09:25,559 --> 00:09:29,960 Speaker 1: The Ukrainian Autocephalus Orthodox Church didn't start re establishing itself 140 00:09:29,960 --> 00:09:35,240 Speaker 1: in Ukraine until the nineteen eighties. Another big factor leading 141 00:09:35,280 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: into the Holadamore was Stalin's First five Year Plan, which 142 00:09:39,920 --> 00:09:43,320 Speaker 1: was announced in ninety eight. This was a plan to 143 00:09:43,440 --> 00:09:47,520 Speaker 1: modernize and industrialize all of the Soviet Union. In terms 144 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:52,199 Speaker 1: of agriculture, this would involve collectivizing the farms. Small farms 145 00:09:52,200 --> 00:09:56,240 Speaker 1: would become part of bigger collectives that were under state control, 146 00:09:56,360 --> 00:09:58,679 Speaker 1: and they would sell their crops at prices that were 147 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:02,640 Speaker 1: set by the state. The idea was that this would 148 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:05,880 Speaker 1: make farms more efficient, and that efficiency would allow the 149 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:10,320 Speaker 1: Soviet Union to feed a larger population as it industrialized, 150 00:10:10,920 --> 00:10:14,000 Speaker 1: and to export more crops to bring in more revenue 151 00:10:14,040 --> 00:10:17,040 Speaker 1: to then buy the equipment and material that was needed 152 00:10:17,040 --> 00:10:22,360 Speaker 1: for that industrialization. Of course, farmers resisted this idea, and 153 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:26,520 Speaker 1: there were thousands of uprisings against collectivization all across the 154 00:10:26,559 --> 00:10:31,280 Speaker 1: agricultural areas of the Soviet Union. Many of the poorest 155 00:10:31,360 --> 00:10:33,760 Speaker 1: farmers had received the land they were working in a 156 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,680 Speaker 1: redistribution after the Russian Revolution, and now they were being 157 00:10:37,720 --> 00:10:40,960 Speaker 1: told to give it up. In general, people did not 158 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:44,439 Speaker 1: want to go from controlling their own livelihoods to essentially 159 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:49,200 Speaker 1: being employees of state run farms. The prices set by 160 00:10:49,200 --> 00:10:51,720 Speaker 1: the state were often lower than what people had been 161 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,400 Speaker 1: able to sell their surplus for before, so overall the 162 00:10:55,520 --> 00:10:59,079 Speaker 1: farms were very slow to collectivize, leading the Communist Party 163 00:10:59,120 --> 00:11:02,880 Speaker 1: to start a huge push between January and March of 164 00:11:02,960 --> 00:11:07,920 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty and this included taxing independent farms so heavily 165 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: that the farmers wound up in debt and that forced 166 00:11:11,400 --> 00:11:15,600 Speaker 1: them to join the collective or go bankrupt. Soviet leadership 167 00:11:15,679 --> 00:11:19,880 Speaker 1: also targeted one particular class of farmers. That was a 168 00:11:19,920 --> 00:11:22,520 Speaker 1: group known as kulaks, which was a term that had 169 00:11:22,559 --> 00:11:27,079 Speaker 1: taken on some derisive connotations. Sometimes these people are described 170 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:30,079 Speaker 1: as wealthy farmers, but to be clear, they were not 171 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:34,160 Speaker 1: what most people would think of as wealthy today. The 172 00:11:34,280 --> 00:11:38,080 Speaker 1: Soviet government defined kulak farms as ones that brought in 173 00:11:38,120 --> 00:11:41,960 Speaker 1: an annual income of three hundred roubles per person or 174 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:46,520 Speaker 1: fifteen hundred roubles per family, and hired farm workers are 175 00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:50,160 Speaker 1: owned farm machines. Being able to rent out some of 176 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:54,439 Speaker 1: the farm property or having another income besides farming also 177 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:59,240 Speaker 1: would fit the definition of kulak, but for comparison, the 178 00:11:59,400 --> 00:12:03,880 Speaker 1: average industrial worker only made about three hundred roubles per year. 179 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:08,720 Speaker 1: Authorities didn't really stick strictly to this definition, and a 180 00:12:08,720 --> 00:12:11,200 Speaker 1: lot of people that were treated as kulaks had even 181 00:12:11,280 --> 00:12:14,880 Speaker 1: less than that. The Soviet government believed that if there 182 00:12:14,920 --> 00:12:19,280 Speaker 1: was going to be an organized uprising against collectivization, it 183 00:12:19,400 --> 00:12:23,719 Speaker 1: was probably going to start with these slightly more affluent peasants, 184 00:12:23,760 --> 00:12:27,240 Speaker 1: so it branded them as class enemies, claiming that they 185 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: were exploiting hired workers and taking advantage of their communities. 186 00:12:31,760 --> 00:12:35,480 Speaker 1: Authorities pursued a policy of liquidating the kulak class, or 187 00:12:35,679 --> 00:12:40,720 Speaker 1: decoulak azation. They arrested about fifty thou people, some of 188 00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:45,880 Speaker 1: whom were deported or executed. Authorities also confiscated their property 189 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:50,600 Speaker 1: and their farm equipment. This was catastrophic in addition to 190 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:54,360 Speaker 1: the loss of labor and production from these farms. Many 191 00:12:54,480 --> 00:12:57,680 Speaker 1: of these people described as kulaks were the most skilled 192 00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:01,520 Speaker 1: and experienced farmers in the areas they lived and a 193 00:13:01,559 --> 00:13:04,800 Speaker 1: lot of towns and villages. They were also community leaders. 194 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:07,000 Speaker 1: They were the people who really helps to hold the 195 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:11,760 Speaker 1: community together. So this community resource for knowledge and support 196 00:13:11,920 --> 00:13:16,640 Speaker 1: just disappeared. Between the forced collectivization and the de cool 197 00:13:16,679 --> 00:13:21,320 Speaker 1: acquization campaign. More than two hundred and eighty thousand peasant 198 00:13:21,400 --> 00:13:26,280 Speaker 1: households simply vanished from Ukraine between nineteen thirty and nineteen 199 00:13:26,360 --> 00:13:29,600 Speaker 1: thirty one. And all of this set the stage for 200 00:13:29,679 --> 00:13:32,400 Speaker 1: a famine, and we're going to get into that after 201 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:44,440 Speaker 1: we pause for a sponsor break. After all of the 202 00:13:44,480 --> 00:13:48,760 Speaker 1: factors that we talked about before the break, harvest was 203 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:52,679 Speaker 1: poor across a lot of the Soviet Union. The collectivization 204 00:13:52,880 --> 00:13:56,040 Speaker 1: and de cool acquization process had been really disruptive, and 205 00:13:56,080 --> 00:14:00,400 Speaker 1: then bad weather made it worse. The collective farms also 206 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: had not been run particularly efficiently, even though the whole 207 00:14:03,640 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 1: point was to be more efficient. This was in part 208 00:14:06,320 --> 00:14:09,640 Speaker 1: because that liquidation of the koolat class had involved a 209 00:14:09,640 --> 00:14:13,680 Speaker 1: lot of loss of knowledge and leadership. Soviet leadership also 210 00:14:13,760 --> 00:14:17,520 Speaker 1: set quotas for how much grain each community was expected 211 00:14:17,559 --> 00:14:20,960 Speaker 1: to contribute to the collective, and in many cases those 212 00:14:21,040 --> 00:14:25,160 Speaker 1: quotas were just unattainably high. To even come close to 213 00:14:25,240 --> 00:14:28,640 Speaker 1: meeting them, farming families had to turnover grain that they 214 00:14:28,680 --> 00:14:32,400 Speaker 1: would normally keep for their own food supply. Although these 215 00:14:32,480 --> 00:14:36,440 Speaker 1: quotas existed in all of the Soviet Union's agricultural regions, 216 00:14:36,480 --> 00:14:40,760 Speaker 1: their effects were particularly dramatic in Ukraine, which was expected 217 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:44,560 Speaker 1: to contribute about as much grain and other produce as 218 00:14:44,720 --> 00:14:48,800 Speaker 1: all the rest of the Soviet Union combined. In December 219 00:14:48,880 --> 00:14:53,400 Speaker 1: of one, Joseph Stalin's government started placing more and more 220 00:14:53,440 --> 00:14:57,680 Speaker 1: pressure onto these communities to meet their quotas. A lot 221 00:14:57,720 --> 00:15:01,080 Speaker 1: of the enforcement of these regulations was overseen by the 222 00:15:01,120 --> 00:15:05,400 Speaker 1: State Political Directorate, which is abbreviated from Russian as GPU. 223 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,440 Speaker 1: This was kind of a combined intelligence and secret police force. 224 00:15:10,520 --> 00:15:14,680 Speaker 1: In internal memos about this there is an insistence that 225 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,160 Speaker 1: the poor harvest and the failure to meet the quotas 226 00:15:18,640 --> 00:15:23,240 Speaker 1: was the result of a coordinated program of intentional sabotage 227 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:27,320 Speaker 1: and theft that was meant to undermine the collectivization process 228 00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:30,240 Speaker 1: and ruin the harvest and undermine the Soviet Union as 229 00:15:30,240 --> 00:15:35,560 Speaker 1: a whole. So mass uprisings against collectivization, which involved everything 230 00:15:35,640 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: from work stoppages to destructions of machinery to violent revolts, 231 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:45,280 Speaker 1: that was interpreted as a conspiracy against Soviet leadership rather 232 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:48,480 Speaker 1: than as a response to all of this increasing hardship 233 00:15:48,520 --> 00:15:52,280 Speaker 1: and instability. This is a really destructive cycle in which 234 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:56,800 Speaker 1: people were arrested, deported to Siberia or sent to a gulag, 235 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:00,360 Speaker 1: and then that would spark further uprisings among the who 236 00:16:00,400 --> 00:16:04,680 Speaker 1: had known those folks. Uprisings and unrest continued through the 237 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty two planting and growing season, with farmers struggling 238 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,760 Speaker 1: to both meet their quotas and just retain enough food 239 00:16:11,800 --> 00:16:15,920 Speaker 1: to live on. In most cases it was flatly impossible 240 00:16:15,920 --> 00:16:18,520 Speaker 1: to do both, or in some cases to do either. 241 00:16:19,280 --> 00:16:22,800 Speaker 1: By June of ninety two, Ukrainian leaders were writing to 242 00:16:22,880 --> 00:16:27,440 Speaker 1: Stalin and other Soviet leaders for aid. In August, Stalin 243 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: wrote to his adviser Lazar Kaganovitch, saying that if they 244 00:16:30,640 --> 00:16:34,000 Speaker 1: did not improve the situation in Ukraine, they might lose it. 245 00:16:34,960 --> 00:16:38,440 Speaker 1: Grain quotas were lowered three times in nineteen thirty two, 246 00:16:38,480 --> 00:16:42,320 Speaker 1: but really not enough to address this situation, and the 247 00:16:42,440 --> 00:16:45,480 Speaker 1: quota reductions were also more about trying to keep the 248 00:16:45,520 --> 00:16:49,840 Speaker 1: system of agriculture running, not about a humanitarian impulse. Were 249 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:53,680 Speaker 1: the people who were doing that. Even with those reductions, 250 00:16:53,800 --> 00:16:57,840 Speaker 1: Ukraine was still expected to contribute about of its grain 251 00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:01,760 Speaker 1: to the state. Punishments for failing to meet the reduced 252 00:17:01,840 --> 00:17:05,760 Speaker 1: quotas also became a lot harsher, and the other policies 253 00:17:05,800 --> 00:17:09,000 Speaker 1: that were contributing to the famine, like this continuing push 254 00:17:09,080 --> 00:17:13,160 Speaker 1: for collectivization and the ongoing liquidation of the Kulak class, 255 00:17:13,520 --> 00:17:17,320 Speaker 1: none of that changed. A new decree called the five 256 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,800 Speaker 1: Stocks of Grain Decree went into effect in August of 257 00:17:20,880 --> 00:17:25,520 Speaker 1: ninety two. Under this law, theft of state property was 258 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,879 Speaker 1: punishable by ten years in prison or death, and this 259 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:32,840 Speaker 1: meant that people who stole food because they were starving 260 00:17:33,119 --> 00:17:36,080 Speaker 1: could be executed for it, no matter how little food 261 00:17:36,160 --> 00:17:41,520 Speaker 1: they stole. This applied to everyone, even children. It also 262 00:17:41,600 --> 00:17:44,280 Speaker 1: applied to people who went through fields that had already 263 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,040 Speaker 1: been harvested to glean anything that was left to save 264 00:17:48,080 --> 00:17:53,560 Speaker 1: themselves from starvation. More than fifty thousand people were charged 265 00:17:53,600 --> 00:17:56,800 Speaker 1: with violating this decree, and more than two thousand of 266 00:17:56,840 --> 00:18:01,280 Speaker 1: them were executed. Although the five stocks grain decree applied 267 00:18:01,320 --> 00:18:04,960 Speaker 1: all across the Soviet Union, the vast majority of people 268 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,160 Speaker 1: who were arrested were from Ukraine. Because of the truly 269 00:18:08,359 --> 00:18:13,640 Speaker 1: dire situation there. In the fall of two, Soviet leadership 270 00:18:13,720 --> 00:18:17,120 Speaker 1: started blacklisting towns and villages that failed to meet their 271 00:18:17,160 --> 00:18:22,200 Speaker 1: grain Quotas. Blacklisted towns were banned from receiving food and 272 00:18:22,359 --> 00:18:27,040 Speaker 1: from buying basic necessities like salt or kerosene. More than 273 00:18:27,080 --> 00:18:31,040 Speaker 1: a third of the towns in Ukraine were blacklisted. So 274 00:18:31,119 --> 00:18:34,920 Speaker 1: to some all this up Joseph Stalin's policies had created 275 00:18:35,000 --> 00:18:39,040 Speaker 1: the conditions that sparked the famine, then made the famine worse, 276 00:18:39,640 --> 00:18:43,000 Speaker 1: and punished its victims for being the victims of famine. 277 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,200 Speaker 1: At this point, many farmers started trying to leave Ukraine, 278 00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:49,879 Speaker 1: either to buy food from one of its neighbors or 279 00:18:50,040 --> 00:18:53,080 Speaker 1: just to relocate entirely in the hope of finding a 280 00:18:53,080 --> 00:18:56,720 Speaker 1: better life, and of course Soviet leadership did not want 281 00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,200 Speaker 1: this to happen because Ukraine was the Soviet Union's largeist 282 00:19:00,240 --> 00:19:04,080 Speaker 1: food producer, But instead of taking steps to address the 283 00:19:04,240 --> 00:19:07,920 Speaker 1: escalating famine in Ukraine, which again was being worsened by 284 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:12,840 Speaker 1: unreachable food quotas. Soviet leadership worked to stop Ukrainian farmers 285 00:19:12,920 --> 00:19:18,040 Speaker 1: from leaving. In October, about a hundred thousand Communist Party 286 00:19:18,119 --> 00:19:22,880 Speaker 1: representatives and military personnel were dispatched to Ukraine, as well 287 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:25,600 Speaker 1: as to the Northern Caucasus and the Volga Basin to 288 00:19:25,680 --> 00:19:28,840 Speaker 1: conduct house to house searches to make up for the 289 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:33,520 Speaker 1: shortfall in the quotas. During these searches, they confiscated any 290 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:37,320 Speaker 1: grain or flower or their food that they found. People 291 00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:42,440 Speaker 1: started selling whatever they had wedding rings, household goods, furniture, 292 00:19:42,520 --> 00:19:45,239 Speaker 1: their tools, just to try to buy back some of 293 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:49,400 Speaker 1: their own produce to eat. Calls for aid to Ukraine 294 00:19:49,440 --> 00:19:53,520 Speaker 1: became increasingly desperate, but in ninety two, more than four 295 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:57,080 Speaker 1: million tons of grain were taken from Ukraine, enough to 296 00:19:57,160 --> 00:20:01,000 Speaker 1: feed more than twelve million people for a year. Moscow 297 00:20:01,280 --> 00:20:04,160 Speaker 1: exported more than a million tons of green to other 298 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:08,119 Speaker 1: countries and held enough green in reserves to feed at 299 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,080 Speaker 1: least ten million people. Yet all over the Soviet Union 300 00:20:12,359 --> 00:20:18,359 Speaker 1: people were starving, especially in Ukraine. In December of ninety two, 301 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:22,119 Speaker 1: still tied to the idea that a huge conspiracy was 302 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:27,959 Speaker 1: intentionally undermining agriculture in Ukraine, Soviet authorities started a series 303 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:31,000 Speaker 1: of mass arrests of people who were accused of being 304 00:20:31,040 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 1: involved in secret paramilitary organizations. These organizations did exist. They 305 00:20:36,280 --> 00:20:40,240 Speaker 1: included the Ukrainian Military Organization or u v O and 306 00:20:40,280 --> 00:20:44,439 Speaker 1: the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists or oh u N, but 307 00:20:44,680 --> 00:20:49,000 Speaker 1: this alleged involvement was really being used as a justification 308 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:53,720 Speaker 1: for mass arrests without actually offering any proof that the 309 00:20:53,840 --> 00:20:58,879 Speaker 1: arrested person had any ties whatsoever to these organizations. In 310 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:02,720 Speaker 1: January of nine thirty three, Pavel post Yachev arrived in 311 00:21:02,960 --> 00:21:07,479 Speaker 1: Ukraine as Stalin's personal representative and implemented a series of 312 00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:12,280 Speaker 1: massive purges, removing Ukrainians from positions of leadership and replacing 313 00:21:12,320 --> 00:21:16,359 Speaker 1: them with Russians. On New Year's Day of nineteen thirty three, 314 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:20,040 Speaker 1: an amnesty was announced for anyone who turned in stolen 315 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:24,479 Speaker 1: or hidden grain. The implication was that anyone who didn't 316 00:21:24,520 --> 00:21:28,639 Speaker 1: turn in any grain was clearly hiding something. The house 317 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:32,399 Speaker 1: to house searches that had started in October intensified, with 318 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:37,480 Speaker 1: anything that could be eaten being confiscated, including seed crops 319 00:21:37,480 --> 00:21:41,000 Speaker 1: meant to be planted the next season, and people's pets. 320 00:21:41,800 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: In late January of three, Joseph Stalin and Lazarre Molotov 321 00:21:46,280 --> 00:21:50,840 Speaker 1: ordered the Ukrainian borders to be sealed. Efforts had already 322 00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:54,560 Speaker 1: been underway to keep Ukrainian farmers from leaving, but this 323 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:59,240 Speaker 1: measure also kept people from entering Ukraine, so people couldn't 324 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:02,199 Speaker 1: leave to buy food. That's also kept word of the 325 00:22:02,240 --> 00:22:05,800 Speaker 1: famine from spreading, and it kept any kind of relief 326 00:22:05,880 --> 00:22:10,480 Speaker 1: from being brought into Ukraine. An internal passport system was 327 00:22:10,560 --> 00:22:15,400 Speaker 1: implemented for travel within Ukraine as well, but farmers were 328 00:22:15,480 --> 00:22:18,720 Speaker 1: not allowed to have them, so in addition to being 329 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:21,880 Speaker 1: unable to leave Ukraine to find work or food, they 330 00:22:21,960 --> 00:22:24,479 Speaker 1: also couldn't try to move to a city or a 331 00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:27,679 Speaker 1: different rural area where things might not be so dire. 332 00:22:28,800 --> 00:22:31,439 Speaker 1: Even though other parts of the Soviet Union were also 333 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:36,000 Speaker 1: experiencing a famine, Ukraine was the only Soviet republic where 334 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,080 Speaker 1: these measures were in place. In late January of nineteen 335 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,240 Speaker 1: thirty three, the Pullit Bureau, which was the Communist Party's 336 00:22:43,280 --> 00:22:48,119 Speaker 1: supreme policy making body, resolved that the Ukrainian Communist Party 337 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,119 Speaker 1: had failed to carry out its duties. Pavl Postazev was 338 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:56,280 Speaker 1: named the new head of the party, he implemented another 339 00:22:56,359 --> 00:23:01,560 Speaker 1: wave of purges of Ukrainian intellectuals, cultural figures, and party leaders, 340 00:23:01,800 --> 00:23:04,960 Speaker 1: again replacing the people who were removed from their positions 341 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,080 Speaker 1: with Russians. Many of those who had been arrested and 342 00:23:08,160 --> 00:23:13,760 Speaker 1: imprisoned in earlier years were executed. Ukrainian Communist leader Michoelas 343 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:17,880 Speaker 1: Krupnik took his own life in July three rather than 344 00:23:17,920 --> 00:23:20,919 Speaker 1: go through a show trial connected to all these purges. 345 00:23:21,880 --> 00:23:26,200 Speaker 1: A month earlier, Ukrainian poet and writer Michael Kulvi took 346 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:28,639 Speaker 1: his own life in protest, feeling that that was the 347 00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:32,840 Speaker 1: only action left open to him. The deadliest months of 348 00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: the dam Or were in early nineteen thirty three. During 349 00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,360 Speaker 1: this time, it is estimated that a thousand people were 350 00:23:40,359 --> 00:23:44,720 Speaker 1: starving to death in Ukraine every single hour. People died 351 00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,600 Speaker 1: of starvation while waiting in line for bread, with those 352 00:23:47,640 --> 00:23:51,800 Speaker 1: lines often being thousands of people long. As crops grew 353 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:54,919 Speaker 1: in the early spring of nineteen thirty three, people died 354 00:23:55,040 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: while trying to eat unripe grain uncooked in the fields. 355 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,920 Speaker 1: Parents abandoned their children close to cities, hoping that city 356 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,520 Speaker 1: dwellers with more access to food might take them in. 357 00:24:06,480 --> 00:24:11,359 Speaker 1: Survivors accounts are full of just absolutely desperate steps that 358 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,440 Speaker 1: people took to try to stay alive. Eventually, so many 359 00:24:15,480 --> 00:24:18,920 Speaker 1: people were dying that wagons were sent house to house 360 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:22,680 Speaker 1: to collect the dead. The wagons were drawn by horses, 361 00:24:22,720 --> 00:24:25,520 Speaker 1: which had to be fed at night and in secret, 362 00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:30,080 Speaker 1: otherwise starving people would understandably mob the stables trying to 363 00:24:30,119 --> 00:24:33,800 Speaker 1: get the horses food. Many many farm animals died of 364 00:24:33,840 --> 00:24:36,960 Speaker 1: starvation during this period as well, because there was no 365 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:40,119 Speaker 1: grain to feed them with, and there was also a 366 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:45,120 Speaker 1: wave of just appalling and brutal crimes, including cannibalism, committed 367 00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:47,520 Speaker 1: by people who had reached a point of having to 368 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:53,120 Speaker 1: do just anything possible to find something to eat. Throughout 369 00:24:53,160 --> 00:24:56,200 Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties and early nineteen thirties, the focus 370 00:24:56,200 --> 00:24:58,480 Speaker 1: of the mass arrests and purges had mainly been men 371 00:24:59,160 --> 00:25:01,040 Speaker 1: that men that often them, and where the people trying 372 00:25:01,080 --> 00:25:04,040 Speaker 1: to hold their families and their communities together as the 373 00:25:04,040 --> 00:25:08,720 Speaker 1: wolodamor peaked. Survivors of the famine have described women trying 374 00:25:08,760 --> 00:25:11,920 Speaker 1: to find and store whatever food they could, and trying 375 00:25:11,960 --> 00:25:14,720 Speaker 1: to turn things that would be considered to be inedible, 376 00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:18,080 Speaker 1: like leather and horse hides and dried leaves and twigs 377 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:23,800 Speaker 1: into food. Women also formed mutual aid organizations and banded 378 00:25:23,800 --> 00:25:27,320 Speaker 1: together to try to guard communities food stores, or to 379 00:25:27,440 --> 00:25:32,920 Speaker 1: fight back against food confiscations and arrests. The Soviet government 380 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,200 Speaker 1: took steps to try to cover up the famine. Russian 381 00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,439 Speaker 1: propaganda films depicted Ukraine as a happy and bountiful place, 382 00:25:40,520 --> 00:25:44,720 Speaker 1: as professional journalists and ordinary citizens risk their lives trying 383 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:49,160 Speaker 1: to document what was happening. Foreign journalists and dignitaries were 384 00:25:49,160 --> 00:25:52,280 Speaker 1: allowed into the Soviet Union, but they were given very 385 00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,560 Speaker 1: tightly controlled tours that made it look like everything was 386 00:25:55,640 --> 00:25:59,520 Speaker 1: under control. A small number of journalists did manage to 387 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:03,240 Speaker 1: publish articles on what was really going on. One was 388 00:26:03,320 --> 00:26:07,240 Speaker 1: Welsh journalist Gareth Jones, who published multiple articles on the 389 00:26:07,240 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: famine in ninety two and nineteen thirty three. The Soviet 390 00:26:11,840 --> 00:26:16,280 Speaker 1: Union published extensive rebuttals to this reporting, insisting that everything 391 00:26:16,359 --> 00:26:19,080 Speaker 1: was fine and that reports of a famine were simply 392 00:26:19,160 --> 00:26:25,200 Speaker 1: anti Soviet propaganda. Even journalists outside the Soviet Union questioned 393 00:26:25,320 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: or dismissed Jones's reports. Walter Duranti of The New York Times, 394 00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:33,560 Speaker 1: for example, stated that he quote thought Mr. Jones's judgment 395 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:38,200 Speaker 1: was somewhat hasty. Jones was ultimately forbidden from being allowed 396 00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,160 Speaker 1: to re enter the Soviet Union, and he was murdered 397 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:45,840 Speaker 1: in Japanese occupied Mongolia in ninety five. Yeah, there were 398 00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,280 Speaker 1: there were some other journalists as well who were able 399 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:53,320 Speaker 1: to publish accurate accounts, some of it later, like later 400 00:26:53,359 --> 00:26:57,159 Speaker 1: in the nineteen thirties. We'll get more into the aftermath 401 00:26:57,200 --> 00:27:08,760 Speaker 1: of all of this. After another quick sponsor break, the 402 00:27:08,840 --> 00:27:11,800 Speaker 1: Holidamora came to an end as crops were harvested in 403 00:27:12,760 --> 00:27:15,520 Speaker 1: three and more people were allowed to keep enough of 404 00:27:15,560 --> 00:27:20,080 Speaker 1: that harvest to feed themselves. Accurate death records were not 405 00:27:20,280 --> 00:27:24,040 Speaker 1: kept during the famine, though, so there are multiple estimates 406 00:27:24,080 --> 00:27:27,560 Speaker 1: of how many people died. The most commonly cited figures 407 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:31,760 Speaker 1: today are about five million deaths across the Soviet Union, 408 00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,480 Speaker 1: with about four million of those happening in Ukraine, but 409 00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:39,359 Speaker 1: some estimates are a lot higher, as many as ten 410 00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:43,040 Speaker 1: million total deaths, with seven million of those deaths in Ukraine. 411 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,280 Speaker 1: It's estimated that more than ten percent of the population 412 00:27:47,440 --> 00:27:51,680 Speaker 1: of Ukraine died in the Holidamor, with a much higher 413 00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,800 Speaker 1: death toll in some communities. This, combined with the intentional 414 00:27:55,880 --> 00:27:59,680 Speaker 1: arrests and purges of Ukrainian leaders, intellectuals, artists, and cultural 415 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,960 Speaker 1: figure to just have a devastating effect on the nation 416 00:28:03,040 --> 00:28:07,600 Speaker 1: and its identity. In February of nineteen thirty four, Ukrainian 417 00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:11,919 Speaker 1: writer Boris and Tanenko Davidovich wrote quote, at the present time, 418 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:15,359 Speaker 1: there is no Ukrainian culture, and if there is, it 419 00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:19,480 Speaker 1: is the corpse of Ukrainian culture, because the entire Ukrainian 420 00:28:19,520 --> 00:28:24,720 Speaker 1: intelligentsia and its culture are in exile. Although the Soviet 421 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:28,119 Speaker 1: Union had tried relentlessly to cover up the famine, it 422 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:31,959 Speaker 1: was really impossible to keep it completely secret. But in 423 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,440 Speaker 1: spite of that, there was not really an international response 424 00:28:35,480 --> 00:28:38,640 Speaker 1: to what was going on at the time. Discussions of 425 00:28:38,640 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: the famine in the international community generally framed it as 426 00:28:41,920 --> 00:28:45,040 Speaker 1: an internal matter for the Soviet Union and not something 427 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,880 Speaker 1: that called for some sort of international consequences. The United 428 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:53,560 Speaker 1: States recognized the Soviet government on November sixteenth, nineteen thirty three, 429 00:28:53,640 --> 00:28:56,840 Speaker 1: more than a decade after the Soviet Union was first established. 430 00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,640 Speaker 1: The Soviet Union also became a member of the League 431 00:28:59,680 --> 00:29:04,040 Speaker 1: of Natans in nineteen thirty four. Purges and arrests also 432 00:29:04,120 --> 00:29:09,640 Speaker 1: continued into nineteen thirty four, including replacing Ukrainian leaders with Russians. 433 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:13,880 Speaker 1: Russians were also recruited to repopulate parts of Ukraine that 434 00:29:13,920 --> 00:29:17,440 Speaker 1: had been most affected by the famine. Some of these 435 00:29:17,480 --> 00:29:21,160 Speaker 1: people were volunteers who returned to Russia after about a year, 436 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,480 Speaker 1: but this was part of an ongoing effort to transfer 437 00:29:24,560 --> 00:29:28,800 Speaker 1: more people who were ethnically Russian into Ukraine. The Soviet 438 00:29:28,880 --> 00:29:32,520 Speaker 1: cover up of the famine also continued for years. In 439 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,200 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty seven, there was a census that made it 440 00:29:35,280 --> 00:29:39,520 Speaker 1: obvious that something terrible had happened in Ukraine. Joseph Stalin 441 00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:42,520 Speaker 1: suppressed the census and then had the committee that had 442 00:29:42,560 --> 00:29:46,320 Speaker 1: carried it out executed. Soviet efforts to cover up the 443 00:29:46,360 --> 00:29:50,480 Speaker 1: famine and to break apart Ukrainian culture and society ended 444 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:55,880 Speaker 1: only after Nazi Germany invaded in nineteen forty one. At first, 445 00:29:56,120 --> 00:29:59,520 Speaker 1: many people in Ukraine saw this as a liberation, both 446 00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:02,040 Speaker 1: because of the horrors they had endured at the hands 447 00:30:02,040 --> 00:30:06,280 Speaker 1: of the predominantly Russian Soviet leadership during the famine and 448 00:30:06,440 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 1: the ongoing oppression and dismantling of Ukrainian culture. Some people 449 00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,880 Speaker 1: also thought that because Germany and the USSR were enemies, 450 00:30:15,360 --> 00:30:20,360 Speaker 1: Germany would be on the side of Ukrainian independence. Germany 451 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:24,680 Speaker 1: used these perceptions to its own ends, including using inspections 452 00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,960 Speaker 1: of mass graves from the famine to deflect from its 453 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:32,840 Speaker 1: own crimes, But of course the Nazi invasion brought its 454 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:37,520 Speaker 1: own horrific incidents to Ukraine. Nazi policies were the same 455 00:30:37,600 --> 00:30:39,920 Speaker 1: in Ukraine as they were in any other territory that 456 00:30:39,960 --> 00:30:44,360 Speaker 1: the Nazis occupied. This included the massacre at bobby Ar 457 00:30:44,560 --> 00:30:51,600 Speaker 1: that began on September. More than thirty three thousand Jews 458 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,720 Speaker 1: were killed in this massacre, and the ravine where it 459 00:30:54,840 --> 00:30:58,560 Speaker 1: happened was the site of additional massacres and mass burials 460 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:02,440 Speaker 1: over the remainder of the war. Somewhere between a hundred 461 00:31:02,480 --> 00:31:05,880 Speaker 1: thousand and a hundred and fifty thousand Jews, prisoners of 462 00:31:05,920 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: war and Ukrainian nationalists were killed and buried in mass 463 00:31:10,240 --> 00:31:14,400 Speaker 1: graves there before the war ended. After World War Two, 464 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:18,560 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union continued to refuse to acknowledge or discuss 465 00:31:18,600 --> 00:31:21,600 Speaker 1: the famine of nineteen thirty two and nineteen thirty three. 466 00:31:22,120 --> 00:31:25,440 Speaker 1: Survivors in Ukraine, of course knew about it, as did 467 00:31:25,560 --> 00:31:29,520 Speaker 1: Ukrainians living elsewhere, but the Kremlin denied that it had 468 00:31:29,560 --> 00:31:34,280 Speaker 1: happened for more than fifty years. Soviet research into the famine, 469 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,520 Speaker 1: starting in the nineteen fifties and sixties, was meant to 470 00:31:37,560 --> 00:31:40,520 Speaker 1: try to disprove that it had ever happened, and to 471 00:31:40,600 --> 00:31:44,400 Speaker 1: provide evidence that it had really all been propaganda cooked 472 00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:50,000 Speaker 1: up by Ukrainian nationalists and bourgeois expatriots. The famine wasn't 473 00:31:50,120 --> 00:31:54,720 Speaker 1: totally unknown outside the USSR and Ukrainian immigrant communities, though. 474 00:31:55,160 --> 00:31:59,760 Speaker 1: For example, in nineteen fifty three, past podcast subject Raphael Lampkin, 475 00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:04,000 Speaker 1: who coined the term genocide, gave a speech at a 476 00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:07,760 Speaker 1: New York commemoration of the famine. He also published this 477 00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:12,600 Speaker 1: speech as an article titled Soviet Genocide in Ukraine. In 478 00:32:12,680 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: this he walked through why he believed Russia's destruction of 479 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:22,040 Speaker 1: Ukraine was genocide, incorporating a four pronged plan that included 480 00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,800 Speaker 1: the destruction of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, the destruction of the 481 00:32:25,880 --> 00:32:30,760 Speaker 1: Ukrainian Orthodox Church, the starvation of Ukrainian farmers, and the 482 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:35,080 Speaker 1: replacement of Ukrainian population with non Ukrainians from Russia and 483 00:32:35,160 --> 00:32:40,120 Speaker 1: elsewhere in the Soviet Union. More accurate, scholarly and popular 484 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:43,200 Speaker 1: articles about the Holodomor began to be published in the 485 00:32:43,200 --> 00:32:47,480 Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties, right around the fiftieth anniversary of the famine. 486 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:51,480 Speaker 1: Public statements on the subject increased after the nineteen eighties 487 00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:56,520 Speaker 1: six Chernobyl disaster, including people pointing out earlier Soviet efforts 488 00:32:56,560 --> 00:33:00,680 Speaker 1: to cover up a disaster. The Soviet Union's first official 489 00:33:00,680 --> 00:33:04,960 Speaker 1: acknowledgement of the famine came in nineteen eighties seven. The 490 00:33:05,080 --> 00:33:09,360 Speaker 1: Ukrainian Communist Party also formally acknowledged it on December twenty five, 491 00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:12,600 Speaker 1: Night seven, which was the anniversary of the founding of 492 00:33:12,640 --> 00:33:17,840 Speaker 1: the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. More information became available about the 493 00:33:17,880 --> 00:33:22,320 Speaker 1: whole damore after the collapse of the Soviet Union in nine, 494 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:26,880 Speaker 1: at which point Ukraine again became an independent nation. Much 495 00:33:26,920 --> 00:33:30,640 Speaker 1: of the ongoing historical analysis of the Holodamar has taken 496 00:33:30,680 --> 00:33:36,320 Speaker 1: place in Ukrainian immigrant communities in North America. Harvard University 497 00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,320 Speaker 1: is home to the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, which was 498 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:45,360 Speaker 1: founded in nineteen seventy three with support from Ukrainian Americans. Alberta, Canada, 499 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:48,400 Speaker 1: is home to the lad More Research and Education Consortium, 500 00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:53,920 Speaker 1: which was established in On November two thousand and six, 501 00:33:54,000 --> 00:33:57,880 Speaker 1: the Ukrainian Parliament passed an Act defining the Holadamor as 502 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,360 Speaker 1: an act of genocide, and since then at least fifteen 503 00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,120 Speaker 1: other nations have also formally done the same. Lad More 504 00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:08,840 Speaker 1: Remembrance Day is observed in Ukraine and around the world 505 00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:14,080 Speaker 1: on the fourth Saturday of November. Uh, and that is 506 00:34:14,120 --> 00:34:18,480 Speaker 1: the whole of moral Uh. In lieu of listener mail today, 507 00:34:19,040 --> 00:34:22,920 Speaker 1: we're going to take one last chance to say, live 508 00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,920 Speaker 1: streaming of it coming up just a couple of days 509 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:30,840 Speaker 1: from this podcast coming out. That's March ten. Everything you 510 00:34:30,880 --> 00:34:35,920 Speaker 1: need to know about it is that looped live dot com. Uh. 511 00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:39,359 Speaker 1: It feels a little weird to end this podcast with 512 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:44,680 Speaker 1: that announcement in this particular episode, but uh, we have 513 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,279 Speaker 1: no other no other episodes coming out before the live 514 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,319 Speaker 1: stream is happening. Yes, sometimes that is just how the 515 00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:55,799 Speaker 1: calendar works out. Yeah. Yeah, So we hope to see 516 00:34:55,840 --> 00:34:58,680 Speaker 1: folks there if you would like to write to us 517 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,080 Speaker 1: about this or any other pod asked Where it History 518 00:35:01,160 --> 00:35:04,040 Speaker 1: podcasts that I Heart radio dot com. We are all 519 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:06,520 Speaker 1: over social media at missed in History. That's where you'll 520 00:35:06,520 --> 00:35:10,120 Speaker 1: find our Facebook, Twitter, Pinterests, and Instagram. We have our 521 00:35:10,239 --> 00:35:12,560 Speaker 1: live stream link pinned up at the top of our 522 00:35:12,600 --> 00:35:16,359 Speaker 1: Facebook and our Twitter, and you can subscribe to our 523 00:35:16,400 --> 00:35:19,200 Speaker 1: show on the I heart Radio app and anywhere else 524 00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:26,760 Speaker 1: you get your podcasts. Stuff you Missed in History Class 525 00:35:26,800 --> 00:35:29,879 Speaker 1: is a production of I heart Radio. 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