Holodomor

The Holodomor,[lower-alpha 1] also known as the Great Ukrainian Famine,[lower-alpha 2] was a man-made famine in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 that killed millions of Ukrainians. The Holodomor was part of the wider Soviet famine of 1930–1933 which affected the major grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union.

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Holodomor Голодомор
Starved peasants on a street in Kharkiv, 1933, Ukraine’s capital at the time
Country	Soviet Union
Location	Central and eastern Ukraine, northern Kuban,[1] Kazakhstan
Period	1932–1933
Total deaths	Around 3.5 to 5 million in Ukraine; see death toll 62,000 or more in the Kuban[2] Over 300,000 Ukrainians in Kazakhstan dead or migrated[3]
Causes	Considered genocide by 26 countries and the European Parliament[4] Considered as a criminal act of Stalin's regime by 6 countries Considered a tragedy or crime against humanity by 5 international organizations
Relief	Foreign relief rejected by the state. 176,200 and 325,000 tons of grains provided by the state as food and seed aids between February and July 1933.[5]
Effect on demographics	10% of Ukraine's population perished[6] Kuban Ukrainian population declined from 915,000 to 150,000 between 1926 and 1939 from various causes[6] Over 35% of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan lost in the famine[3]

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Holodomor
Holodomor Memorial Day National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide
Historical background Famines in the Soviet Union Soviet famine of 1932–33 Kazakhstan famine of 1932–1933 Soviet institutions All-Union Communist Party (Bolshevik) Communist Party of Ukraine (Soviet Union) Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic Secret police (OGPU) Policies First five-year plan Collectivization Dekulakization Law of Spikelets Reversal of Ukrainization policies Propaganda in the Soviet Union
Responsible parties Soviet Union Joseph Stalin Vyacheslav Molotov Lazar Kaganovich Pavel Postyshev Stanislav Kosior Vlas Chubar
Investigation and understanding 1984 International Commission 1985 USA Commission Causes of the Holodomor Holodomor denial Genocide question Holodomor in modern politics
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While scholars are in consensus that the cause of the famine was man-made, whether the Holodomor constitutes a genocide remains in dispute. Some historians conclude that the famine was deliberately engineered by Joseph Stalin to eliminate a Ukrainian independence movement.[lower-alpha 3] Others suggest that the famine was primarily the consequence of rapid Soviet industrialisation and collectivization of agriculture.

Ukraine was one of the largest grain-producing states in the USSR and was subject to unreasonably high grain quotas compared to the rest of the USSR.[lower-alpha 4] This caused Ukraine to be hit particularly hard by the famine. Early estimates of the death toll by scholars and government officials vary greatly. A joint statement to the United Nations signed by 25 countries in 2003 declared that 7–10 million died.[lower-alpha 5] However, current scholarship estimates a range significantly lower, with 3.5 to 5 million victims.[8] The famine's widespread impact on Ukraine persists to this day.

Since 2006, the Holodomor has been recognized by the European Parliament, Ukraine, and 25 other countries as a genocide against the Ukrainian people carried out by the Soviet government.