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‘Remember The Peasantry’: A Study Of Genocide, Famine, And The Stalinist Holodomor In Soviet Ukraine, 1932-33, As It Was Remembered By Post-War Immigrants In Western Australia Who Experienced It, Lesa Melnyczuk Morgan

Theses

In 1936 Joseph Stalin offered what he called ‘friendly advice’ to his Communist allies in war-torn Spain: ‘One should pay attention to the peasantry, which...is of great importance.’¹ So important, indeed, was the peasantry to the security of the Communist state that Stalin had adopted ruthless, widespread policies in the Soviet Union to ensure their compliance with the centralised regime in Moscow.

The devastating famine experienced in Soviet Ukraine from 1932 to 1933 was an example of such ruthless policies of Stalin’s government. Some scholars argue that in the space of a year up to ten million people died …