In Douglas Tottle's Fraud, Famine And Fascism

Genocide is always organized and the killings planned out. Soon after the organization stage, polarization begins, driving the groups apart and beginning an extremist regime. The “Final Solution” was approved and planned under the rule of Adolf Hitler and implemented by the German SS. Overall, the German SS murdered more than one million Jews (Source 3). Under the rule of Joseph Stalin, the killing of kulaks and other peasants was organized. Starting in 1929, ten million peasants were moved to Arctic work camps. The remaining peasants were forced into collective farming where they were forced to meet the government’s demanding grain quota (Source 1). Like the Holocaust, government agents were trained to carry out the plans to eliminate their targeted people group and preventing them from escaping the oppression. As the beginnings of these genocides continued, the Jews and the Ukrainians were alienated more and more. In both genocides, people with opposing views were deported because they were seen as a threat. In Russia, Soviet propaganda promoted “The new Soviet man”, one who idealises the Soviet’s past and overlooks Stalin’s heinous crimes (source

¬¬Marissa Bracey World History and Voices Ms. Phillips & Mr. Cline May 5, 2015 Holodomor: The Eight stages of Genocide Genocide is a term that was created in 1944 to describe violence against a specific ethnical, racial, national, or religious group with the intent to destroy or wipe out that entire group. This is an unfortunate event that has caused millions of casualties and left even more in grief. The famine-genocide of Ukraine took place over the span of 16 long years, killing over 7 million farmers and families, over one third of the lives lost were children. Joseph Stalin is to blame for the horrors caused in Ukraine, his communist ways and power hungry drive allowed him to force millions of farmers out of their land and into poverty.

Alongside the 20th century, another devastating genocide that occurred was the Holodomor in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933. Holodomor translates to “death by hunger.” Stalin instituted collectivization and raised Ukraine’s grain production quotas to an impossible 44%. He authoritatively mandated that no grain was to be given to the Ukrainians until the regimes quota was met, hence, this led to the starvation of the entire population in Ukraine .

It started in 1920 when Ukraine tried to break away from the Soviet Union, but it was unsuccessful because Stalin wouldn’t let them. Stalin then at the end of the 1920s, wanted to shut down Ukraine’s autonomy. He does so by having individuals arrested, sent to prison, and even executed (Sebag, 2008). Ukraine used to be the bread basket of Russia. That was until Stalin and his crew took over and held over ¾ of Ukraine hostage. While he was having people imprisoned and executed, he also ordered the collectivization of agriculture. Most of Ukraine were peasants and farmers. The majority of these people owned a good amount of land, and some even owned livestock. There were people who were against collectivization. These people were called Kulaks, which are rich peasants. Thousands of people were thrown out of their homes and even deported. (Bohdan, 2013)

Genocides occur across our globe from the past, but also are not uncommon in the present. Holodomor was a horrible genocide in the Soviet Union from 1932-1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. This cruelty of a slow death by starving was a purposeful act by Joseph Stalin and the leaders at that time. To cease further genocides in our world today, it is imperative to know how this corruption and disaster starts, so it can be prevented in the future. By understanding the Soviet leader’s motives and the lives affected by this famine, this will lead to further comprehension about power and communism. Power corrupts those who are given the authority, infringes upon their morals, and can make them commit horrible atrocities.

have rotted in some field just sinking into the ground from sitting for many years. Although the

In his speech, Stalin also mentions that kulaks, which were wealthy peasants, must be eliminated as a class. (Document 3) In this speech Stalin explained that agriculture must change in order to feed the growing population of industrial workers. The collective farms would receive the needed modern technology and scientific equipment, and it would all result in increased food production. Stalin made clear that the kulaks must be driven out in order for the plan to be successful. Once again, Stalin is using the power of speech to gain support for his collectivization plan. An excerpt from A History Civilization describes the horrific effects of Stalin’s collectivization. Stalin began deporting the capitalistic farmers (kulaks) to forced labor camps or Siberia, and peasants were being machine-gunned into submission. Peasants slaughtered huge amounts of horses, cattle, sheep and goats, burned crops and broke plows in desperate revolts. The amount of Russian livestock lost due to collectivization was immense. (Document 4)

Most of the bodies lay unidentified for days. No one, including the grower who employed the workers, even knew their names.

The Black Death was one of the largest epidemics the world had ever seen, having wiped out mass amounts of people the plague came to completely shift European medieval society into the modern era. The black death showed no regard as to who it affected, it affected rich and poor, man, women and children all the same. The plague was so widespread among Europe that death was increasingly frequent. Such an epidemic caused people to have a completely new idea of life and death. In this essay I intend to argue that the key components of medieval society’s outlook on life and death are how death affected the living, through the ways people coped the mass amounts of loss. The various interpretations of the cause were a way for society to

20th century was a very turbulent time. During that time, a lot of famous genocides happened. It is very important and educational for us to learn some of these genocides and take this history as a mirror. In this article I will compare and contract Nazi Holocaust with Stalin’s Forced Famine from several aspects.

through the winter. This was bad for the land as many farmer dug up the land, replanted

Imagine living with little to no food and the only food source being the people around? The people in Ukraine had no choice but to live without food during the years of 1932 and 1933. Joseph Stalin the leader of the Soviet Union caused his own people to die due to starvations. The Soviet Union used starvation to ¨control¨ the Ukraine population so that the peasants did not come above everyone else. In 1933 the citizens were freed but they did not feel free because the whole time they had to please Stalin so they still felt as if they broke the rules they would be killed (Mass). Everything they did was meant to be for Stalin but they felt more as if it was for their survival. Most of the genocide classification requirement were covered excluding symbolization. Holodomor was classified as the crime against humanity and was the man made genocide. There was no escape, only starvation, collective farms, torture, and exterminations.

The collectivization began with the infiltration of about ten men per village from the communist party and the soviet government known as Twenty Five Thousanders. They were an elite group with unlimited power and weapons. They gradually arrested dignitaries and influential villagers such as Priest Bondar. The villages were becoming defenseless and had no leaders to look up to. Propagandists took over homes and left families with nothing but the clothes they had on.

Stalin’s plan was to make Russia an industrial giant, so Stalin created the five-year plan to work on the farms and factories of Russia. Stalin’s five-year plans were a series of nation wide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union (Wikipedia). What that meant was that peasants who didn’t have jobs were required to work on a specific goal that Stalin had to increase what was considered as an economy booster. The first Five Year Plan introduced in 1928, concentrated on the development of iron and steel, machine-tools, electric power and transport. Joseph Stalin set the workers high

Adding to the deplorable oppression borne by the proletariat during the Five Year Plans, Stalin introduced a collectivisation campaign which not only sparked a persecution of kulaks, but also induced a widespread famine. The Stalin government’s compulsory agricultural policy was largely a failure with regard to its goals. Beginning in 1929, all farms were to be collectivised, with the aim of improving agricultural output and hence, industrialisation. The USSR’s initial system of farming was inefficient, but the introduction of fertilisation and tractors modernised agricultural techniques, increasing the nation’s capacity for production, supporting Historian Jamieson’s statement. However, the policy was catastrophic due to the mass movement of peasant resistance that saw farmers defiantly burning crops and slaughtering livestock, regarding the campaign as a violation of their freedom. By 1933, agricultural production fell dramatically; grain by 17 million tonnes and cows and pigs by a total of 23 million, to below what it was in 1913 (Downey, 1989, p. 19). This