Essay On Stalin Man Made Genocide

Holodomor: Stalin’s Man - Made Famine Holodomor is a man - made famine that took place between 1932 and 1933. The famine occurred in the Ukraine after the original leader Vladimir Lenin died and Joseph Stalin took control. When Stalin took control, he started new farming policies in which private farmland was ordered to give a large portion of their crops to the government. This made private farmers angry which started a revolt. In response to these revolts, Stalin ordered all farmland and livestock to be seized and no profit given to the farmers who owned the land. This was the start of the year long famine. Even though the famine is registered as a genocide and the events killed more people than Jewish people killed during the Holocaust, it was a barely noticed tragedy. The two parties involved in the Holodomor are the Soviets and the Ukrainians. The Soviets were the government and the army that starved the citizens while the Ukrainians were the citizens that fought to survive the terrible famine. The Soviets clearly had the upper hand in the situation due to the large military influence and government control because of Stalin. There was no separation of the people who lived in the Ukraine; instead, all of the Ukraine was starved and killed. This was a no tolerance policy promoted by Stalin.
There was only one group that had specific names,
and that was the Kulaks. A Kulak was a wealthy farmer that owned twenty- four or more acres of farmland (“Genocide in the 20th”). In response to the farming policies, the farmers started revolts and protests, which lead to drastic actions taken by Stalin. The main reason the Kulaks were classified was so that the Soviets could organize all of the land owners. Doing this allowed for easier organization of taken land.
The people of Ukraine were arrested and starved for acting out against the policies. Anyone who defied Stalin was seen as an enemy of the government. As starvation set in, many citizens turned against each other and fought to survive. Many even resorted to cannibalism. There are no known examples of hate speech.
The only parties involved with the extermination were the military forces that arrested citizens and kept borders on patrol. These military forces kept loyal to Stalin even though many knew it was wrong. The only reason most kept loyal is because if they did leave, they would be branded enemies of Russia. It was undefined if the Soviet military forces were true believers in what they were doing. Even if they did think what they were doing was wrong, they didn’t have much of an opinion in the matter.
One extreme law that was used to keep the Ukrainians and the outside world separated was that nobody was allowed to leave the Ukraine. If someone tried to leave they would be beaten or shot. Another law was people were not allowed to give food or help out the Kulaks in any way. Many fought each other for the smallest scraps of food. Even though food and travel was limited, the people of the Ukraine were still allowed their other laws and freedoms such as marriage and having children.
The deaths of the Ukraine people occurred between the years 1932 and 1933.
The way the people were killed was starvation and prisoners were executed with guns. When the public first heard about it, they did not believe that the famine really happened, so the genocide did not become well known until the 1980’s, when the report of the US Commission on the Ukraine Famine was published (Facts and History). In the end, there was a death toll of over seven million Ukrainian citizens, political leaders, and journalists. This genocide had near the same death toll as Jewish people in the Holocaust, and still many people ignored
it.
Stalin and the Soviets did in fact try to cover up and deny the famine even occurred. One main law that was put in to keep the famine from getting out was that journalists and political leaders were arrested and usually killed. People thought trying to escape were arrested and also killed. Soldiers were also threatened to keep quiet about what they had witnessed. At the end of 1933, the cover up was mostly successful for the moment and nobody was held accountable.
The main reason this topic should even be talked about is because the death of so many innocent people was not even acknowledged until almost fifty years later, and even then, people did nothing but acknowledge the genocide. A way that many victims can cope with the truth is to go and pray for the dead. Another way is to go to physical rehabilitation for malnutrition. There are a couple ways to help the people cope. Going to memorials and remembering the people is one way. Attending ceremonies for those who died is another one. One good point to derive from this tragedy is to remember history in order to not repeat it.