Many scholars say that the Stalinist policies that caused the famine may have been designed as an attack on the rise of Ukrainian nationalism and thus may fall under the legal definition of genocide (see Holodomor genocide question).
一些研究者指出造成饥荒的斯大林主义政策或许被设计作为对乌克兰民族主义（英语：Ukrainian nationalism）抬头的抨击，而且由此可能属于种族灭绝的法律定义（参见乌克兰大饥荒的种族灭绝问题（英语：Holodomor genocide question））。