Holodomor: Terrible Stories from Ukraine’s Great Famine

Commemorative events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the Great Ukrainian Famine or Holodomor – one of the biggest national disasters in the modern history of Ukraine, which was accompanied by the death of millions of people – took place in the past days in Ukraine and in the Ukrainian Diaspora.

A joint United Nations declaration signed by 25 countries in 2003 speaks of 7-10 million deaths however further research has reduced the estimated death toll to between 3.3 and 7.5 million.

According to 2010 findings of the Kyiv Tribunal, the demographic losses due to the famine amounted to 10 million, with 3.9 direct deaths from the famine and an additional 6.1 million as a birth deficit.

Most analysts believe that the famine in Ukraine was a consequence of the economic policy followed by the Soviet Union under Stalin’s leadership and in particular the collectivization program that was implemented.

Without being officially recognized, it is often referred to in US government documents as genocidethe result of a political plan.

On November 28, 2006, it was officially recognized by the Ukrainian parliament as a genocide, and November 25 was designated as a day of remembrance.

The Holodomor of 1932-1933 has been recognized as genocide by the European Parliament and 32 countries of the world, according to the Consul of Ukraine in Thessaloniki Yevhen Shkvyra.

Terrible stories were heard in Thessaloniki

In Thessaloniki, on November 24 and 25, terrible stories were heard about the Holodomor (a word composed of holod meaning hunger and mor meaning extermination), at events organized by the Hellenic-Ukrainian Initiative Association and the Union of Greeks of Ukraine in Greece, under the auspices of the Consulate of Ukraine.

Holding in their hands a bouquet with three ears of corn tied with a blue-yellow ribbon, Ukrainians and Greeks came to the commemoration events and the memorial prayer for the victims of the famine that took place in the Metropolis of Thessaloniki.

They all related terrible stories they heard from their ancestors.

“The neighbor was begging my grandmother to give her her cat…”

“All I know of my family, who survived the Holodomor of starvation, was the story of my grandmother, who passed on her mother’s story to us. Great-grandmother Sonia lived with her ten children in the Greek village of Yalta on the Sea of ​​Azov. In 1932, Sonia, alone after her husband had died, managed to keep all her ten children alive,” said Vasilisa P., a Ukrainian war refugee who has been living in Thessaloniki for about two years, speaking to APE-MBE.

“The living conditions were horrible. A neighbor of Sonia begged to give her the cat, since there was nothing for them to eat… Dogs did not bark, cats did not meow, cows, pigs and chickens have disappeared… Sonia did not sacrifice her cat, nor did she slaughter it to feed her children.

My great-grandmother was fearless and strong but also a religious woman, although religions were banned in the USSR. The family was saved from starvation with the “gifts” of the Sea of ​​Azov. Sonya transported fish – anchovies in her carriagefrom Yalta, to the market town of Berdyansk, about 60 kilometers away.

Another neighbor of hers, who had “stolen” from the field of the working Kolkhoz just ten ears of wheat to feed her starving children, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and her children were left at God’s mercy… their fate was unknown” recounted Vasilisa.

The tragic story of the ancestors of a good friend of hers was conveyed to the Athenian/Macedonian News Agency by president of the Greek Community of the currently occupied Mariupol Nadia Tsapni.

“The vast plains were deserted and the houses abandoned. This image was remembered by my friend’s mother, who was a ten-year-old girl in those years. Her family was saved, because they managed to leave the village in Mariupoli, though during the famine there was a ban on peasants moving to the cities. In our Greek villages, for some reason this prohibition did not exist. Maybe because during that period the Azovstal metallurgy factory was founded and there was a great demand for workers”, said Nadia Tsapni.

Another story, about two Ottoman gold coins that saved a family of Azov Greeks, ancestors of the lawyer, from starvation Volodymyr Rysenkobecame famous through facebook these days.

“My great-grandmother saved her family by selling the Ottoman gold coins that remained in her possession as jewelry sewn into her dress. Our family had them since the 18th century, when they still lived in the Crimea. The “Greek” villages of Donbas seem to have disappeared from hunger… The great-grandmother and her husband had left the village that had disappeared from the famine, from their ancestral home to the Greek village of Starobeshevo, where corpses lay in the streetsunder old stone fences.

The gold coins were exchanged for some grain and flour in the town of Yuzovka, where they were staying at the home of a distant relative. Finally the Ottoman gold coins, which kept them as heirlooms for two centuries, saved them during the Holodomor. The much-coveted bread, which they bought in 1923 with Ottoman coins, was mentioned by the great-grandmother to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren half a century later. No one wanted to remember…» writes Volodymyr Rysenko.

A terrible poem about the child…

Particularly moving was the moment when Andriy Savenko, from Kyiv, spoke about Ukrainian literature, in which this national tragedy was reflected. Among the poets was the well-known Ukrainian writer Ulas Samchuk (1905-1987), who wrote a heartbreaking poem, Mr. Savenko said, and read it in his own Greek translation:

“Ragged like the shadow and in pain /The mother bends down and wraps the child/… Sleep, don’t wait for bread in vain, /And don’t wake up, it’s better not to return to life /Where we have arrived, hunger accompanies us As a maid. The world around has lost its humanity / Have you heard the rumours? They say: a woman put her two children in the pot. The father rolled his eyes. Shut up, crazy, shut up! What words are these? The mother stiffened as if caught, / And he slapped her hard.”