Since 1998, the fourth Saturday of November has been
commemorated in Ukraine as the day honouring the memory for victims of
Holodomors, i.e. numerous attempts by the Soviet regime to kill
Ukrainian peasants en masse by starvation. Of all the starvations of
1920s, 1930s and 1940s, that of the Great Famine of 1932-1933 remains
the most horrifying and tragic. Here are a few things to help you to
understand this tragedy.
What is the Holodomor? The Holodomor is a Ukrainian word meaning “death by starvation” or “killing by starvation”, from
holod (famine, starvation) and
mor
(mass death, epidemics). It is used to define a number of policies
aimed at killing huge numbers of people, in particular the Great Famine
of 1932-1933, which targeted peasants in various parts of the Soviet
Union, but most drastically in Ukraine.
