کاݪ
یوکرین
Through his famine policy, Stalin successfully collectivized almost all of the Ukraine, the most important agricultural portion of the U.S.S.R. (History Channel). In 1928, Stalin had announced the first of his five year plans for the Soviet Union. The plans were timetables for the rapid industrialization of the Soviet Union and had strict quotas for all raw materials in Russia (History Channel). Without all farms, mines and factories under state control, this plan would be impossible (History Place). After the famine, nobody in the Ukraine dared to challenge his collectivization policy. As the above map (obtained from the History Place website) shows, Russia is a vast land, towering over the Ukraine. The Soviet Union of 1932 contained Russia, the Ukraine, Belorussia, and Transcaucasia (divided in 1936 into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan). This "Union" was more like a Russian Empire, but Russian propagandists tried to hide this from outsiders (History Channel). The Ukraine was second to Russia in population and wealth, and was therefore the most dangerous to Stalin (Ukraine Weekly). Through the Ukranian famine and genocides similar to it (The Kazakstan Famine, The Muslim Deportations) Stalin assured that Russia would dominate the Soviet Union and would not be challenged by nationalism (Infoukes). As part of his plan to destroy Ukrainian nationalism, Stalin promoted colonization of the land by ethnic Russians (Ukraine Weekly). The best evidence of this is the most recent census taken in the Ukraine: over 22% of the people there are ethnic Russians (Grolier). Many of these Russians are descendants of the settlers who arrived in the latter stages of the famine. In Section 14 of Chapter 2 (page not available) in The Ninth Circle of Hell, Olexa Woropay described a clash between surviving Ukranian orphans and ethnic Russian schoolchildren. The orphans ambushed the settlers and severely hurt them, saying, “‘You have murdered our parents by hunger, and occupied our houses. Go away from our homes! Go away from our village!’” The schoolmaster of these orphans was imprisoned for twelve years following the incident. His crime, according to the Soviets, was his failure to teach his Ukrainian students proper love of “the fraternal Russian people” (Woropay). Possibly the most important and diabolical reason for the famine was Stalin’s five year plans (History Place). The famine assured that all farms would fall under state control through forced collectivization. A second function of the famine, though, was to finance the construction of mines and factories. During the famine, Stalin was able to export vast amounts of grain to various nations all over the world. He was able to offer extremely low prices to nations full of starving people (remember that the famine took place from 1932–33, in the midst of the Great Depression). With the money Stalin made from the grain exports, he purchased machines from the very same nations. It is easy to see that the Western nations, including the United States, benefitted from the famine, as the result was massive amounts of grain that could be given to starving citizens and thousands of manufacturing jobs that could be given to the unemployed (History Place). The five year plans helped to make the Soviet Union, with Russia at its heart, one of the most powerful nations on earth in only a little more than a decade (History Channel). Stalin was no stupid man, and he perfectly manufactured the famine to ensure that Russia benefitted as much as possible. Vital to his plan was the secrecy of the Western media.