Holodomor was ignored by the world

Anniversary reminds us of need for compassion, writes Serge Cipko.

In 1932-33, a terrible famine gripped Ukraine. Brigades of activists under the supervision of the Soviet state security service were ordered to go to villages and requisition grain and other foodstuffs from the peasants. At the beginning of 1933, measures were introduced to stop peasants from leaving their districts of residence. Both the coerced removal of food from the villagers and the controls placed on their movement, condemned millions, mostly in the countryside, to a slow and agonizing death.

How did the rest of the world react as the famine was claiming so many lives? In the opinion of Michael Luchkovich, countries outside the Soviet Union, including Canada, were largely indifferent to what was happening in Ukraine. Luchkovich served as the Member of Parliament for Vegreville between 1926 and 1935.

It was shocking to him in the extreme, he said in a 1962 open letter to Dean Rusk, the U.S. secretary of state, “how little regard was paid to the death of millions of Ukrainian peasants who died in the Communist-inspired famine of 1932-1933.” The death of an “alley cat that had wandered into a park was cause for a greater commotion than the demise of such a colossal number of Ukrainian farmers.” Where, he asked, “was our world conscience?” He then added: “Did any country speak out with righteous indignation against such genocide?” It was, he said, “extremely painful.”

Luchkovich was aware that there were efforts to alert the public at large to conditions in Soviet Ukraine, for he mentioned such instances when he spoke in the House of Commons in February 1934. He referred to protest actions organized by Ukrainian groups across North America. These included several protest meetings in Edmonton, as well as others elsewhere in Alberta — in Calgary, Willingdon, Vegreville, Myrnam, Smoky Lake, and Mundare.

At community halls, speakers would tell gatherings about the appalling conditions in Ukraine, letters received from relatives would be read out loud, and resolutions would be drafted and then sent to governments in Ottawa, London, Washington, D.C., and Geneva (League of Nations). The senders were often told in replies they received that relief could not be organized in Soviet territory because there was no indication that such an action would be acceptable to Moscow.

After the League of Nations (of which the U.S.S.R. was not a member until September 1934) had discussed the famine behind closed doors in September 1933, petitioners were directed to address themselves to organizations “of a purely non-political character” such as the International Red Cross. Yet, about a year earlier, the Alliance of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies of the U.S.S.R. had declined an offer of aid made by a Ukrainian group.

The frustration sensed by Canadians who wanted to help the starving in Ukraine was expressed in a preamble to a resolution that was published in the Dauphin Herald and Press on Nov. 2, 1933. The preamble read in part:

“We hear so much of Disarmament, World Peace, League of Nations, et cetera. yet not a word has been said by the League on this appalling situation. Is there any difference whether masses of people are killed by a bullet or from lack of food? Is not the death from hunger, famine and starvation the most horrible that could be imagined?”

On Nov. 21, the memory of the victims of the Holodomor was honoured in the Alberta legislature at a commemoration ceremony in recognition of the Ninth Anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine and Genocide (Holodomor) Memorial Day Act. Robert E. Wanner, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, said during his opening remarks that “we must remember the worst of our history in order to realize a better future.”

And 85 years after the start of the famine, we are reminded of the vitalness of meaningful action in humanitarian situations. We are challenged even today on how we are to respond when confronted by a catastrophe.

Is there any difference whether ... people are killed by a bullet or from lack of food?