Cannibalism in the Dnipropetrovsk Region during the Holodomor of 1932–1933 (criminal Cases of the branch state Archives of the Ministry of internal Affairs of Ukraine)
Authors: BAIKIENICH Dmytro 
Published: November 2024

The topic of cannibalism has not gained popularity in Ukrainian historiography today. Such a situation has developed due to high triggering, psychologically and morally painful components of the problem and the specifics of working with it. At the same time, its study is highly important for highlighting the consequences of the Holodomor for the Ukrainian people. Isolated expressions of cannibalism were known in steppe regions of Ukraine during the mass artificial famine of 1921–1923. During the Holodomor, this phenomenon gained mass and spread to the entire territory of the USSR. As before, it also arose based on artificially created socio-economic conditions of life. Long-lasting starvation led to a mental breakdown with subsequent destruction of the established prohibitions of the starving’s behavior and became one of the uncharacteristic ways of adaptation. People were driven to despair and lost their dignity. The study covers the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region during the Holodomor. The reproduced dynamics of cannibalism (significant increase) coincides with the escalation and worsening of famine in the spring-summer of 1933 in the region. The localization of places of concentration of cannibalism has a high probability of the most catastrophic food situation in the western part of the region. The highest number of cases of cannibalism are in the Dolynskyi, Novoprazskyi, Oleksandriyskyi, Pavlogradskyi, Petrikivskyi, and Pyatikhatskyi regions. There are 72 known cases of cannibalism in the Dnepropetrovsk region. By gender, 64 women and 29 men were involved in criminal cases. Individual crimes significantly dominate group crimes (in a ratio of 56 to 16, respectively). Most cases of cannibalism occurred within the family or were related to relatives. It was determined that the main group of victims were children (61 cases). The biggest percentage was for own children. Victims are also those children who were complicit in murder and cannibalism but, after the conviction of their parents, remained with “such an experience” in society. Society reacted aggressively to cases of cannibalism - the local population often executed cannibals. Calls and actions against cannibals forced the authorities to intervene and intercept the initiative to solve the problem legally. During the first open cases, the culprits were sentenced to death through fusillade. We see this as an attempt to stop cannibalism as a phenomenon. In total, 17 people were sentenced to death for cannibalism in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Secrecy of criminal cases against cannibals and the transfer of documents for consideration to the State Political Administration authorities shows that the communist regime did not expect the scale of the problem and an attempt to hide such cases from society. The authorities skillfully transferred their blame for driving people to despair and cannibalism onto the “socially hostile element”. Manifestations of cannibalism on the ground were used to continue the polarization of the village, further maraud rhetoric, further entrenchment of postulates of communism, and promotion of agricultural tasks. Criminal cases against cannibals were opened in the local area, in the regional area, they were reviewed and brought forward, and the remainder were confirmed in Kharkiv. In addition to execution, cannibals were sentenced to 10 years in a concentration camp - 70 people. There were also sentences of 5 years of exile, sending to the correctional facility, dismissal for health reasons, or acquittal. At the same time, witnesses of the Holodomor in the Dnipropetrovsk region mentioned a much larger number of cannibalism cases. The absence of criminal cases indicates the likely loss or deliberate destruction of such documents by the communists. In general, criminal cases with accusations of cannibalism and corpse-eating are one of the understudied specific sources of information for the formation of a martyrology of genocide victims - both the killed and the killers. At the same time, the cases contain diverse information of the auxiliary or initial level of research on the regional specifics of the course and consequences of the Holodomor, everyday realities, and factors that led to cases of cannibalism. Keywords: Holodomor, cannibalism, carrion-eating, SPA (State Political Administration), criminal cases, Dnipropetrovsk region.