| |
By Dr. Roman Serbyn, Professor of Russian and East European History
University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada
The Ukrainian Weekly, Ukrainian National Association
Parsippany, NJ, November 6, 1988, No. 45, Vol. LVI
Much has been written in recent years about the man-made famine that ravaged
Ukraine in 1932-1933 and caused the deaths of 7 million to 10 million
people. This is in stark contrast to the largely ignored famine of
1921-1923 -the first of three famines that Ukraine's population has suffered
under the Soviet Communist regime, and a famine that, contrary to popular
belief, was not caused by drought and crop failures, but by the policies of
the Soviet state.
What follows on the next few pages of The Ukrainian Weekly is a pull-out
section about the 1921-1923 famine, featuring an article prepared and
illustrations collected by Dr. Roman Serbyn, professor of Russian and East
European history at the University of Quebec in Montreal. Prof. Serbyn is
currently preparing an album of several hundred photographs and a monograph
on the first man-made famine in Ukraine. He is co-editor with Dr. Bohdan
Krawchenko of "Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933" (Edmonton: Canadian
Institute of Ukraine Studies, University of Alberta, 1986).
by Dr. Roman Serbyn
Grain requisition and export - not drought and poor harvest - were the real
causes of the first great famine in Soviet Ukraine which occurred in
1921-1923. This is borne out by Western and Soviet documents alike.
The famine was concentrated in the rich grain-growing provinces of southern
Ukraine, an area inhabited by about a third of the republic's 26 million
citizens. It affected both the rural and the urban population. Most of the
victims were Ukrainians; national minorities like Germans, Jews and Russians
also suffered. Between the fall of 1921 and the spring of 1923, 1.5 million
to 2 million people died of starvation and due to accompanying epidemics.
Saving this population would have required no more than half a million tons
of grain or equivalent foodstuffs per year. During the two years of the
famine, the Bolshevik government took from Ukrainian peasants many times
that amount. Most of the confiscated grain was shipped abroad: the first
year to Russia, and the second to Russia and the West. Ukraine was also
obliged to send additional "voluntary" famine relief to the Volga, and to
feed some 2 million people who came from Russia as refugees, soldiers and
administrators.
At the time of the famine, many witnesses recorded the tragedy, and some of
them even hinted at its criminal nature. But the passage of time dulled the
memory of succeeding generations, and subsequent publications dealing with
Ukraine and the Soviet Union said little of substance about this particular
disaster. More surprisingly, the Ukrainian community itself has preserved
but a vague memory of these events. Today most Ukrainians would be
hard-pressed to explain why the famine had broken out, why it lasted so long
and what was done to overcome it.
Famine and epidemics
-
The High Commissariat of Dr. Fridtj of Nansen was a Geneva-based
international organization devoted to famine and refugee relief work. In his
capacity as Dr. Nansen's representative, Captain Vidkun Quisling toured
Ukraine in early 1922, and filed some of the best informed and most detailed
reports on the famine. On February 25, after inspecting the province of
Zaporizhzhia, Quisling wired:
-
"The situation is terrible. Local official statistics show that of the
province's l,288,000 inhabitants, 900,000 are without food. This number
will certainly grow by 200,000 before the end of April. Sixty percent of the
famished are children. Public resources are exhausted and public
institutions can provide only 10,000 rations daily."
Two days later he reported: "the situation in the province of Katerynoslav
is just as bad...At this time it is estimated that 520,000 persons are
without food, including 200,000 children. By the end of May there will be
730,000."
In mid-March, Quisling found that "in the province of Mykolayiv, about
700,000 persons, or half of the population, is without food. It is estimated
that by the end of March the number will rise to 800,000, and by the end of
April to 1 million... 40 to 50 percent of the starving children die...The
situation is particularly bad in the city of Kherson and the surrounding
district, where many villages have died out and remain desolate." By the
fall of the same year, the city of Kherson was reduced to one-quarter of its
normal population.
Quisling's most complete report, titled "Famine Situation in Ukraine," was
written in March and published by the High Commissariat in April 1922. It
gives a detailed account of the famine conditions in the five provinces
completely overcome by starvation: Odessa, Mykolayiv, Katerynoslav,
Zaporizhzhia and Donetske; it also describes the affected districts of three
other provinces; Kremenchuk, Poltava and Kharkiv. A dozen photographs of
famine victims and a map of the famine regions accompany the document. The
report faults the Soviet government for not recognizing the famine in time
and criticizes the regime for doing so little about it afterwards. It
concludes that unless help comes quickly, the number of the starving will
reach 7 million by the summer.
-
NOTE: To read the entire article by Roman Serbyn about "The
First Man Made Famine in Soviet Ukraine 1921-1923" click on:
-
http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/458814.shtml
By Dr. Roman Serbyn, Professor of Russian and East European History
University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada
The Ukrainian Weekly, Ukrainian National Association (UNA)
Parsippany, NJ, November 6, 1988, No. 45, Vol. LVI
The Ukrainian Weekly Archive: www.ukrweekly.com
Check out their large archive of material related to the genocidal
famine in Soviet Ukraine during 1932-1933. For those interested
in Ukraine a subscription to this newspaper is a must.
|
|
back
