In 1932 and 1933, Ukraine took part in one of the biggest genocides the world has ever seen. Although unlike the Holocaust, it never really got much exposure due to the Soviet Union’s tactics of hiding this disaster. The Soviet Union made sure no foreign journalists were able to enter the country, although they did allow a few communist journalists to view what was happening. These communist journalists wrote lies saying that they didn’t see any evidence of the Ukrainian people being starved (Perloff). This tragic event seamlessly went unnoticed to many people, but the Ukrainians would never forget what happened. Ukraine had always been under the rule of the Imperial Czars of Russia. But in March 1917, an opportunity …show more content…
The money that was received from the wheat that was being sold to other countries went towards Stalin’s Five Year Plan to modernize the Soviet Union and to help finance his military. It was estimated that Stalin sold enough wheat to feed all of Ukraine for two years (“Stalin’s Forced Famine”). They had so much excess grain that they would even dump some into the sea or let it rot right in front of the Ukrainian people’s eyes (Perloff). The Soviet Union then closed off all borders so that nobody in Ukraine could get anything in or out of the country. Anyone that got caught with food could be shot on the spot or get put in prison. Starvation started to spread throughout the country and the effects of malnutrition started taking its toll on the Ukrainian people. The Soviet Army dug deep holes where they would throw all the dead bodies that were lying around on the street. People started to cook any animals they could find, whether it was a cat, dog, or bird. They even had to resort to cannibalism (“Stalin’s Forced Famine”). Some people wanted to get the agony over with so they would commit suicide if they had the strength to do it. Others would lay out on the street, too weak to even talk, and just wait until there body was reduced to just skin and bones (Perloff). At the height of the famine, they projected that about 25,000 people died every day and around 7,000,000 died …show more content…
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