(Source: http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/gregorovich/)
Ukraine has some of the most fertile land in
Europe. Yet in a single year, between 1932 and 1933, 5 to 8 million Ukranians died of starvation. This was not because of a shortage of food, but as a result of concerted action in the
Kremlin.
In 1930, the
Soviet Union began its first
Five Year Plan which called for the collectivitzation of
agriculture. In
Russia, this plan was accepted without much complaint; there was already an old tradition of communal farming. In Ukraine, however, private ownership of farms was the rule. Collectivization did not sit well with the
kulaks, the independent small farmers. The resistance in Ukraine was so vigorous that it succeeded in stalling the progress of the Plan.
Moscow was not pleased about this.
Their response was to send the
Red Army and
secret police into Ukraine and confiscate the food. All of it. Towns were invaded and stripped of all food supplies. Harvests were confiscated and locked up in state-controlled granaries. Much of the stolen food was sold in
Russia, or to other European nations.
Between 10 and 25 percent of the population starved.