October 16, 1983

CHRONOLOGY OF THE FAMINE YEARS. PART XXXV

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January 1934

Svoboda printed news datelined Moscow in its January 4 issue. According to Pravda, the new year’s preparations for planting were going quite smoothly. This was attributed to the fact that all political offices made sure to collect the proper amounts of grain from the peasants. The newspaper also stated that the Soviets were able to liquidate all the “kulak elements” and saboteurs.

Also on January 4, Svoboda printed an English-language page with press accounts from newspapers across North America which protested against the Soviet Union. These included reports from the Toronto Daily Star, The St. Louis Daily Globe-Democrat and The Minneapolis Tribune. The United Ukrainian Societies of St. Louis passed a resolution and sent a memorandum of the president of the United States at their meeting. They wrote:

“During the past year, several millions of Ukrainians under the Soviets died from actual starvation. The existence of this terrible famine in Ukraine has been repeatedly proven by the leading European and American press. It is impossible to give the exact figures as to the total number of deaths arising from this great famine because the Moscow government has taken all precautions to hide the truth. Nevertheless, it will be sufficient for us to affirm the well authenticated reports of impartial American and European newspaper correspondents, that during the past year several million inhabitants of Ukraine have died of starvation, and that even cannibalism was discovered in several sections of the country.

“Although we do not desire at this time to dwell upon the political character of this famine, since this is a purely humanitarian appeal, yet we cannot refrain from expressing our firm conviction that the famine in Ukraine is not a result of poor crops and drought, as Moscow would have us believe, but on the contrary, it is a result of political and cultural conflict between Ukrainian nationalistic aspirations and Moscow’s imperialistic and centralizing designs and also because of the Ukrainian peasants’ opposition to Moscow’s economic exploitation of Ukraine, to its forcibly imposed collectivization, to its deprivation of the freedom of worship and, finally, to other communistic experiments practiced upon the Ukrainian people.

“During the past winter and spring the people of these agricultural regions, almost completely deprived of staple foodstuffs, have been obliged to feed on the bark of trees and various herbs, on rats and dogs which in fact has caused a high mortality. Helpless bodies of the famished and the sick lay scattered through village streets and market places in towns, because of deaths and wholesale exodus of the populace, entire villages have been wiped out.

“And therefore, in view of all these circumstances, so briefly outlined herein, we the American citizens of Ukrainian descent, on behalf of these starving kinsmen, appeal to your sense of justice and humanity to intercede on behalf of these millions of starving Ukrainians; and furthermore in view of the facts that the Bolshevik authorities in their efforts to screen this terrible famine do not permit the sending of any aid whatsoever to the famine-stricken Ukraine – we appeal to you to prevail upon the American Red Cross to establish a Red Cross base in Ukraine which will serve as a medium of help sent by the Ukrainians and other people throughout the world.”

According to the news reports in Svoboda on January 11, Stalin had received a delegation of “kolhospnyks,” collective farmers, in Moscow. Pravda reported that these farmers said they needed more cultural life in the villages, including movie and play theaters, books, radios and products for everyday life. It was reported that Stalin replied: “The collective farm workers should be happy that now they have the farms governed by other collective farmers, that they have good land to work with. They should continue to work honestly and defend the collective farms.” Turning to one of the women delegates. Stalin added that she should be happy that now it was forbidden to beat women workers. Once it was customary, he said.

On January 13, Svoboda printed an article by Dr. Ewald Ammende about the famine in Ukraine, who used the Manchester Guardian. Neue Zurichter Zeitungand, and United Press as sources for figures of how many people died because of famine in Ukraine.

On January 15, a man named O. Stanislavsky wrote an article from Vienna in which he said that the tragedy of Ukraine – the starving of so many Ukrainians continued.

According to reports from Walter Duranty, which Svoboda printed in its January 16 issue, Communist Party officials and Soviet government offices would be all moved to Moscow, molded into one government. According to Duranty, the Kremlin was centralizing its power in Moscow.

On January 19, Svoboda published an article headlined “Moscow Liquidates the Ukrainianization of Radiyanska Ukraina.” The story stated that Ukrainian-language publications, magazines and newspapers would be printed in the Russian language. This was a plan to stifle Ukrainian nationalists, which were a bigger threat to the Soviet system than “Russian chauvinists.”

On January 20, Svoboda printed a letter it had received from a man in Passaic, N.J., who had a brother in Ukraine, who wrote about the famine. The letter was written during the summer. The brother told of the family starving to death. He stated that his daughter had died and his son was near death. In December, the family in Passaic received a letter from the brother’s wife. She said that the brother had died and she had somehow made it through the fall months. She enclosed a letter her husband had written to his brother before death, telling of the situation in Ukraine and asking for any kind of help.

On January 23, Svoboda printed an article which stated that the Communists were worried about Ukrainian nationalists, because Ukraine had everything necessary to survive by itself which meant it could easily break off from the Soviet Union. Izvestia reported this news.

On January 25, Svoboda reported that Edouard Herriott. French statesman, had been interviewed by Izvestia. He had quite a lot to say about Soviet Ukraine. After touring the region, he stated that Ukrainian culture flourished in Ukraine, as did the Ukrainian press. The famine, he said, was an invention of anti-Soviet sympathizers. That same day, Svoboda reported that the Soviets were thinking of moving Ukraine’s capital to Kiev from Kharkiv.

On January 27, the Ukrainian Bureau in Geneva reported that the community there held an exhibit about the famine in Ukraine exhibit. Included in the exhibit were news clippings, photos of ruined churches and starving people, graphs, diagrams and statistics of how many perished during the famine, as well as letters from eyewitnesses.

That same day Svoboda reported that it had received a letter from a man who had escaped “Soviet paradise.” He stated that the atmosphere in Ukraine was revolutionary.

On January 29, Svoboda carried a story headlined: “Moscow agents lead a special campaign against the freedom of Ukraine.” It stated that the Communists were worried about Ukrainian nationalists. Svoboda stated on January 30, that Pravda had reported that the biggest purge of the Communist Party took place in Ukraine.

On January 31, Svoboda reported on news it had received from the Ukrainian Bureau in London. Quoting a journal called English Review, it printed excerpts from an article written by Malcolm Muggeridge. The news report stated that he wrote an “Open Letter to the Friends of the Soviet Union.” It said: “The dictatorship of the proletariat is bloodless and without humility; it laughs in the face of truth and liberty; it is apathetic to the suffering of the individual and entire classes and nations. It has led to the poverty of the millions, to strife and hopelessness of the people.”

He condemned the many intelligent men, authors and journalists who traveled through Ukraine, who saw the poverty, yet when they reached home, told golden tales of splendor about the country, the success of the collective farms, the happiness and the gaiety of the well-fed and class-conscious peasants.

That same day Svoboda reported on the activities of the National Committee to Help the Hungry in Lviv, which at its most recent meeting praised the Ukrainian Catholic hierarchs and Cardinal Theodore Innitzer for helping the hungry in Ukraine.

* * *

Around the world:

The Nazis began spreading propaganda in the United States.

The first airmail service between Germany and South America was established. It was scheduled to take five days. Prior to this, service between France and South America had been set up; it took 10 days to deliver mail.

 

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