Essay Sample on Holodomor: Ukrainian Famine of 1932-1933

Imagine going without food for weeks. It would suck, wouldn't it? That's what the Ukrainian people had to do from 1932-to 1933. Millions of people died during the Holodomor. Ukraine’s imports were shut down and their goods were taken from them. Primary victims of Holodomor were villagers and rural farmers which made up around 80% of Ukraine’s population. Roughly 3.5 million to 7 million people died. Some estimates go higher, but most estimates say the total is around 3.9 million.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Ukrainian territory was split between Australia and Russia. But after World War I, Ukraine set up its government and became independent. In 1922 with the bulk of its territory Ukraine became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Union. In March 1921, the farmers were able to stop the requisitions and bring in the New Economic Policy (NEP). It was intended to bring greater economic freedom. It looked like Ukraine was financially stable, until it all changed. 

In the 1930’s Ukraine was a threat to the soviet union. With Ukraine's wealth and power, the soviet union feared that Ukraine would break apart from the Soviet Union. So in August 1932, Stalin proposed the “Five Stalks of grain”, which stated that anyone, even a child, caught taking any product from a collective field, could be shot or imprisoned for stealing “socialist property”. In 1933 59,645 people were tried and sentenced. About 2,000 people were executed. With Holodomor escalating, many farmers left their villages in search of food which the soviet union didn't like. So they proposed a law that denied any passport that a farmer had. A local Ukrainian named Leon Trotsky said “While we do not have enough bread, the peasants should give a natural tax in the form of bread, to the soviet economy for fear of a merciless massacre”.  

Holodomor ended in 1933. Around 13.3% of Ukraine's population died during the Holodomor. Even after the Holodomor, Ukrainians still didn't stop suffering. They feared that another famine might occur again. A little while later World War II and the 1946-1947 famine happened. In the year 1991, the soviet union banned the use of the word famine. 

Just take a moment and think about what I just said. How would that affect your life? Could you be able to handle it? Those are just a few ideas that people think about while writing or listening to an essay. Holodomor was a terrible thing and it should never happen again. Millions lost their lives and many others were affected because one leader thought that Ukraine was going to break away from the Soviet Union. In this essay, you learned about what started the Holodomor, during the Holodomor, and the aftermath of the Holodomor.