The Holodomor: The Secret Genocide

When extremists attempt to intensify divisions between groups, the government usually begins attacks, violent actions, and takes drastic measures. In the situation of Holodomor, a large amount of Ukraine’s religious, political, and intellectual leaders were arrested, tortured, and often murdered in order to remove any dangerous opposition. By taking these actions, Stalin polarized the Ukrainian population, separating the Ukrainian working class from the peasants. Stalin also began removing a large amount of the population out of Ukraine, and into harsh survivable lands such as Siberia and labor camps, these settings were referred to as a “Dump site” where the main purpose was to eliminate the farmers and keep rotting bodies out of

During the Holocaust and the Holodomor, the Jews and the Ukrainians both experienced classification and symbolization. They both experienced

In the beginning of 1932, the Soviet government had sharply increased the Ukraine's production quotas in the collectivized farms. This ensured that the people would not be able to meet them. This resulted in an even larger widespread of starvation. In the summer of 1932, Stalin ordered a decree that called for the arrest or execution of any person that was caught taking any amount of grain or food item from their place of work. This led to military blockades stationed around many Ukrainian villages, preventing food from coming in and the starving people from going out in search of food. Soviet guards were brought into the villages to confiscate any hidden grain. Eventually all food from any farmer’s home was taken. When news of the Famine reached the outside world, food supplies were sent from the United States and Britain, however through Stalin, the shipments were denied and new policies from the Soviet Union that denied their part in the famine refused all outside aid were instilled. Stalin refused entry even to journalists, as he feared the media would reveal the Soviet Unions’ crimes against the Ukraine.

“As defined in article 2 of the Convention of the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is any act with intent to liquidate a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” (“Office of the UN...”1) . Genocide has been an issue around the world for several centuries, and sadly it continues to this day. There is one specific genocide that many historians study, the forced evacuation of the Chechens. Although this may be classified as a relocation, it was declared an act of genocide by the European Parliament in 2004 (Brauer and “Office of the UN…”).

The definition of genocide, according to the United Nations, was the attempt to destroy “a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group” by killing members, causing mental or bodily harm, harsh living conditions, prevention of births, and separating children from their families. There are four patterns of genocide, which do not always occur in every genocide since they’re not all the same. The four patterns include persecution, which is hostility and ill-treatment, especially toward a specific race, political, or religious belief done by the ruler or government. Next is displacement or when a group of people is forced to leave their native country. Continuing, public humiliation is another pattern that freely shows off a group of people being tortured or persecuted in plain sight. Finally when selective groups of people face at terrible fate while another group is spared the same fate as them is selective murder. Those were the four, very cruel and unfair, patterns of genocide.

We must take into account every innocent victim who lost their life that year and we must remember that Ukraine rose from this with strength and pride. The famine, the executions, the collective farms, the victims, the pain and suffering, all will be remembered. This was a crime against humanity, all in

“The Ukrainian grain harvest in 1932 resulted in below average production but it was more than enough to sustain the population,” (Britannica) but because the Soviet Union continued to export in high amounts there was not enough for the people. Then in August 1932 a law was passed making theft of socialist property a crime, therefor it became very difficult for people to get any type of food. “Around six to eight million people died due to starvation in the Holodomor, four to five million were Ukrainians and the famine directly affected the Ukrainian peasantry”

A genocide according to Dictionary.com, is “the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.” Genocides can happen when someone of power wants to eliminate a potential threat, spread terror among enemies, to aquire economic wealth, or to implement a belief or ideology.

When you deprive people of food you take away their power, strength and now you control them now. Before Stalin era, the Ukraine was under the domination of Imperial Czars of Russia ruled for 200 years. In 1917, they collapsed and Vladimir Lenin took over, seizing everything that the Czars controlled. Coming next was four

The crime of genocide is one of the most devastating human tragedies throughout the history. And the word genocide refers to an organised destruction to a specific group of people who belongs to the same culture, ethnic, racial, religious, or national group often in a war situation. Similar to mass killing, where anyone who is related to the particular group regardless their age, gender and ethnic background becomes the killing targets, genocide involves in more depth towards destroying people’s identity and it usually consists a fine thorough plan prearranged in order to demolish the unwanted group due to political reasons mostly. While the term genocide had only been created recently in 1943 by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-Jewish legal

In 1988 Henry Huttenbach (18) said “Genocide is any act that put the existence of any group in jeopardy.” It is in my belief that this definition defines genocide to the best of its ability. Of course, it being so short it can be interpreted in several different ways, but this is my interpretation. I believe that “any group” and “jeopardy” are the most important words in the definition. They are the reason that the definition can be interpreted differently.

The killing of a large group or an entire race or religion is genocide. Many people ask why they occur and the answer is they want everyone to be similar to them or they are trying to prove that they are the most superior. Genocide still happens nowadays because of differences and those differences cause people to kill others who aren’t the same as them. Genocide will continue to happen worldwide forever and ever because people will always be different, have there own opinions, and some will never

genocides of the 20th century – the result of deliberate starvation created by the Soviet

Genocide is a term that can be defined as a planned and systematic destruction of whole or parts of certain national, religious, race, ethnic, cultural or political group (Akhavan 21). Genocide is deliberated with a different set of actions for a purpose to destroy an essential foundation of life. Genocide is characterized with the massive killing of members of a group, causing mental or bodily injuries to a group of people, imposing mechanisms to prevent birth, removing particular group children and putting conditions of life in order to bring to an end existence of a particular group. Therefore, genocide is an illegal action and a crime recognized and punishable by international law (Charmy 35). For instance, Rwanda genocide is characterized by ethnic tensions within the country. Initially the definition of the term genocide as by genocide convection only comprised of racial, ethnic, national and religious groups. They argued that inclusion of other groups cannot strengthen but rather weakens it. This definition failed to recognize other groups such as political groups, economic and cultural groups that are essential elements of genocide. Genocide therefore, is generally considered the worst moral crime the ruling authority can commit against those it controls Naimark (2017).

For as long as human history has existed, genocide as existed along with it. Even though the term itself was not coined until the 1940s by Raphael Lemkin in response to the Holocaust, the act of genocide has been occurring for millennia. In 146 BCE the first recorded act of genocide occurred with the Roman destruction of Carthage According to the Genocide Convention, genocide is defined as “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. Genocide happens for a multitude of reasons and is often a combination of circumstance that leads to its occurrence. The Rwandan genocide in the 1990s is a prime example of genocide and while it can be explained using several sociological theories, it most closely correlates with Marxism and Conflict Theories.