Introduction
The history of the 20th century is a chronicle of attempts to destroy humanity in the name of ideology. There were crematoria, there was Srebrenica, there were the killing fields of Cambodia. But on the Ukrainian steppes of 1932–1933, something occurred that defies the very framework of crime. The Great Famine, or the Holodomor, was not merely a tragic episode of millions dying. It was a precise assault on the very existence of a nation—an attack on its language, identity, culture, and will to live. This was no natural disaster. It was a plan—rigorous, brutal, and as cold as a calculation in a Kremlin ledger.
In her analysis, Anne Applebaum describes a crime that shattered the foundations of Ukrainian society. The dispute over recognizing the Holodomor as genocide is not about legal nuances, but about memory and dignity. It is about whether the world will recognize the systematic destruction of a nation as an absolute crime, regardless of the statistical thresholds defined by the UN convention.
The Holodomor: Political Famine, the Black Board System, and Lemkin’s Concept
The Great Famine was not the result of a poor harvest, but a conscious political decision by Stalin. To break the resistance of the Ukrainian countryside to collectivization, ruthless
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the Holodomor and why was it not a natural disaster?
The Holodomor was a carefully planned political operation by the Kremlin, aimed at breaking Ukrainian resistance. The famine resulted not from crop failures, but from the systematic confiscation of grain, the closing of village borders, and the prohibition of food sales.
How did Rafał Lemkin define genocide in the context of Ukraine?
The creator of the concept of genocide considered the Sovietization of Ukraine a classic example of this crime. For Lemkin, it was not merely physical extermination, but a methodical attempt to destroy the very backbone of the nation: its language, traditions, and institutions.
What were the so-called "blacklists" used during the Great Famine?
This was an administrative death sentence for towns that failed to deliver the imposed food quotas. Residents lost the right to purchase food, and police blockades turned these regions into traps with no escape.
Why did Stalin attack the peasants and the intellectual elites at the same time?
The goal was to completely eliminate the nation's capacity for resistance. While famine ravaged the independent countryside, the purges eliminated writers and teachers, leading to the colonization of memory and the permanent Russification of society.
What significance does the Holodomor have for contemporary Ukraine?
The memory of the Holodomor became a cornerstone of Ukrainian national identity. The contemporary conflict with Russia is perceived as a continuation of the same struggle for the right to independently determine one's past and future.
