We know that the 20th century was characterized by major catastrophes, such as the two world wars and totalitarian political organizations. Millions dead, entire nations ruined, and a legacy of servitude and suffering were constant through the decades of 1920 and 1940, especially in the territories where the violence of wars spread: the European, African and Asian. Among the barbarisms committed by European totalitarianism is, indisputably, the burnt offering of the Jews by the Nazism. However, other actions of similar content are still little known. It is the case of the Holodomor, which took place in Ukraine in the early 1930s.
The term "holodomor" comes from the Ukrainian language and means “starvation”, or “starvation death”. This term came to be used to define the genocide of the population of Ukraine, which occurred between the years of 1931 and 1933, during the process of “forced collectivization” of the agricultural fields of that country, then under gives UnitySoviet, led by Joseph
Stalin. The process of forced collectivization was applied by Stalin to the countries of the Soviet Union around 1928 and consisted of demanding (for the State) from the peasants a large part of the surplus produced at very low prices. costs.In addition, a second stage of collectivization came into play around 1930: the properties of the peasants began to be expropriated by the Soviet state, which imposed itself as the main administrator. The Ukrainian population, however, resisted this process. Ukrainians have a historical tradition of opposition to Muscovite, that is, Russian rule, and they strove not to obey Stalin's directives. The then leader of the USSR began a lethal campaign against the Ukrainian population. At first, Stalin persecuted and exposed to vexatious trials several political and intellectual leaders. Ukrainians, executing them summarily, a posteriori, so that there would be no focus of resistance. Then the persecution unfolded on the peasantry itself.
Stalin's orders to the Ukrainian peasants became absolutely strict. There were targets for the production of cereals, which was aimed exclusively at the Soviet central power. In order to fulfill these goals, the peasants had to give up even the part destined for their own consumption. Virtually everything that was produced became government property. Many Ukrainians began to starve to death in the fields, towns and cities. The death toll reached, within three years, about five million. Those who were caught trying to secretly eat potatoes or corn kernels were arrested and taken to forced labor camps.
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Some foreign journalists even visited Ukraine during this period, as MalcolmMuggeridge, who saw the horror that the Stalinist regime had wrought in the region, as historian Robert Service points out:
Muggeridge toured by train through the famine-stricken regions of Ukraine, where he witnessed the consequences of official measures. He saw desperate peasants crowd the train station platforms as he continued his journey south. The bloated bodies of starving children, orphans of parents who had been executed or starved to death, horrified him. The indifference of government and local party officials when he asked what was going on failed to deceive him. He also refused to be deceived by Communist sycophants. Unfortunately, his Manchester editor generally preferred the milder treatment of matters relating to the Soviet Union. [1]
The neglect of newspapers in democratic countries like the one where Malcolm worked for events like this one in Ukraine contributed to the holodomor being forgotten for decades. Newspapers like the “Manchester Guardian” and several famous intellectuals of the time, such as George Bernand Shaw (who also visited the USSR at the same time), had affinities with communist ideology and, for that very reason, did not find it interesting to publicize Stalin's crimes. To close, we also turn to Robert Service, who narrates the impression that another journalist, named Gareth Jones, had of the same event:
Muggeridge resigned from the paper, but not before managing to publish at least some of his dispatches. In fact, the Manchester Guardian has also agreed to publish an account by Gareth Jones, a former secretary to David Lloyd George, who is fluent in Russian. Jones was horrified by what he saw in Ukrainian villages and made vehement speeches on the subject when he returned to Britain. Muggeridge wrote a caustic account of his experiences in his book Winter in Moscow.[2]
*Image credits: Shutterstock and Radovan1
GRADES
[1] SERVICE, Robert. Comrades – History of Revolutionary Communism. Trans. Milton Chaves de Almeida. Rio de Janeiro: DIFEL, 2015. P. 239.
[2]Idem. P. 239.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes