The atrocities that the Ukrainian people are currently experiencing, must be bringing back memories of horrors for the older generation of that country, something most of us have not heard of.
We've heard of the genocide of the Jewish people in the Holocaust; a subject covered in-depth by books, countless movies and mini-series, speaking of the horrendous war crimes committed by Nazi Germany.
However, I was appalled to learn about the Holodomore of 1932-1933, where 4 to 7 million people perished due to mass starvation in the grain-growing regions of Ukraine, with half of them being children.
The true figures will never be known as the Soviet authorities forbade recording the actual number of deaths, and further silenced news about the famine. Those who dared speak out about it, such as a journalist and administrators of a 1937 census, which revealed the decimation of the Ukrainian population, were arrested and murdered.
Holodomor is derived from the Ukrainian words for hunger - holod and extermination - mor.
Photo by Irena Carpaccio on Unsplash
The origins of the famine lay in the decision by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to collectivize agriculture in 1929. Teams of Communist Party agitators forced peasants to relinquish their land, personal property, and sometimes housing to collective farms, and they deported so-called kulaks—wealthier peasants—as well as any peasants who resisted collectivization altogether. Collectivization led to a drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy, and food shortages. It also sparked a series of peasant rebellions, including armed uprisings, in some parts of Ukraine.
Source
The first time it was spoken of in the Soviet Union, was in 1986 following the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster. Even more shocking is that the Holodomor was only recognized worldwide as a Genocide almost 90 years afterward, in 2019!
Today the Ukrainian people are once again facing horrors, some who were small children during the Holodomor but this time a war that also is causing unspeakable damage and destruction. People are having to flee their homes, leave their belongings behind, and many are separated from their children in order to keep them safe!
What is going to happen to the children who become orphans after this current war?
When will this madness come to an end?
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