Remembering the horrors of the Holodomor and Communism

The fourth Saturday of November marks the remembrance for people who died as a result of the 1932–33 Holodomor. This was one of the worst genocides in human history, and was distinctly, a man-made famine. The Holodomor was not only a horrifying piece of history due to the genocide, but also the rampant cannibalism among the starving Ukrainian population.

Please note the following historical images are graphic and may distressing to some readers.

Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, mandated the collectivization of agriculture in 1929. Mobs of Communists seized the means of production by killing and/or expelling farmers, sometimes referred to as Kulaks. Farmers were seen as somewhat wealthier peasants, who owned land and produced the food supply. Once expelled, the victorious revolutionaries were unaware of how to farm properly. This led to the Holodomor and an estimated 7 million people starved to death, although the exact number of dead remains unknown.

According to Britannica, Collectivization led to a drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy, and food shortages. Stalin became frustrated with rebellions and exacerbated the famine by blacklisting certain areas from receiving food imports. He wrote in a letter in 1932 to his colleague Lazar Kaganovich, “If we don’t make an effort now to improve the situation in Ukraine, we may lose Ukraine." Things worsened in the winter of 1932 when communist apparatchiks ransacked homes, taking anything edible. This included food, personal items and pets.

The famine reached its peak in 1932 when visibly dead bodies became common place in the streets of Ukraine.

The darkest moments of the genocide was when Ukrainian's resorted to cannibalism. This includes parents eating their own children, or selling their deceased children as food. Cannibalism became so prevalent that the government released propaganda on the subject.

"People who eat one other because of the famine are not cannibals. Cannibals are those who don't want to redistribute the church's gold to the starving," says one poster.

Psychologist and author Dr. Jordan Peterson, who analyzed the Soviet Union extensively, stated, "There is nothing that you can imagine that's horrible enough, so that it matched the reality of what happened in the Soviet Union between 1919 and 1959."

It is incumbent upon every modern individual to study and understand the horrors of the 20th century. Many countries deny the Holodomor, as do many academic communists. This denialism is not unlike Turkey's denialism of the Armenian Genocide, or neo-Nazis denying the Holocaust. It is not only a travesty to the memory of those who suffered, but surely to those who are yet to come. We must remember history, as not to repeat it.

The promised Utopia of Communism was nothing more than snake oil, leading to one of the most horrifying and deadly events in the history of humanity.