“From 1931 to 1934 we had great harvests. The weather conditions were great. However, all the grain was taken from us. People searched the fields for mice burrows hoping to find measly amounts of grain stored by mice…”

(as remembered by Mykola Karlosh)

“I’m asking for your permission to advance me any amount of grain. I’m completely sick. I don’t have any food. I’ve started to swell up and I can hardly move my feet. Please don’t refuse me or it will be too late.”

(From a petition to the authorities by P. Lube)

This was the first instance of a peacetime genocide in history. It took the extraordinary form of an artificial famine deliberately created by the ruling powers. This savage combination of words for the designation of a crime — “an artificial, deliberately planned famine” — is still incredible to many people throughout the world, but indicates the uniqueness of the tragedy of 1933, which is unparalleled, for a time of peace, in the number of victims it claimed.

• Wasyl Hryshko, survivor of the Holodomor. Hryshko, Wasyl. The Ukrainian Holocaust of 1933. Toronto: Bahriany Foundation, Suzhero, Dobrus, 1983, 107