The winter of 1932 was not ordinary in Ukraine. The fields were harvested, the barns were full of grain, but there was a strange silence in the air. Government squads wearing red-star caps roamed the village streets. They carried guns and papers that stated how much grain was to be taken from each household in the name of the "state."
This was not a natural famine. It was a famine induced by policy.
Stalin had ordered that Ukraine's quotas be met at all costs. Whether people ate or died made no difference. Not only was grain confiscated, but seeds, vegetables, and even flour hidden in kitchens were also taken. Soldiers dug up floors, broke stoves, and snatched bread from children's hands.
When people tried to flee to the cities, railway stations were closed. Villages were sealed off. Anyone trying to leave was shot. Ukraine had become an open prison where the punishment was hunger.
Within a few weeks, the situation began to collapse.
Mothers were unable to breastfeed.
Children lay on the ground with swollen bellies and empty eyes.
People began eating tree bark, grass, and dirt.
Government records, but much that never went into writing, show that people gradually ceased to be human. Cases of cannibalism were reported in some villages. Police posted notices:
"Eating human flesh is a crime."
But what was the crime?
To die of starvation or to try to survive?
Amidst all this, Stalin, sitting in Moscow, knew what was happening. Reports came in of the death toll, the names of villages, and photographs of the conditions. Yet, he did not change his policies. On the contrary, grain exports abroad continued so that the Soviet Union could appear "strong."
By 1933, it is estimated that 3 to 4 million people had died. Entire villages disappeared from the map. There were no graves, only bodies buried in the ground.
Stalin later said: “There was no famine in Ukraine.”
This wasn't just a lie.
It was a second massacre of millions who had already died of starvation.
History knows this event as the Holodomor.
A famine that wasn't natural,but a weapon used by a dictator.
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