It is very difficult to answer this question as it has a lot of sides and views. I can identify genocide of Jew nation, but can’t say it about Ukrainians. “The famine, in other words, was not a natural phenomenon but a politically engineered cataclysm”,-Carynnyk, the Canadian poet wrote. I completely agree with this statement, as I agree with other one: “The famine seems to have been designed as part of a campaign to destroy them [Ukrainians] as a political factor and a social organism.” – James Mace, a Ukrainian historian says.
But we should forget that famine was not only in Ukraine, but also in regions along the Black Sea and the North Caucasus, and some other Slavonic countries.
Anyway, we can look on famine as on a normal reaction of country after long anguished war. It, of cause, could be a good explanation and would not raise a lot questions. But that’s the point! The famine of 1932-1933 was caused artificially!!!
This subject is full of different hidden rocks, mysteries and I’m sure we don’t know all the truth yet.
But analyzing this question, I want to offer to call it “mass extermination” rather then “genocide”.
“The famine’s intent was to terrorize a people conquered by a colonizing power”. This is what Chalk and Jonassohn, famous scholars wrote. This is the statement I agree with completely.
To Be Continued….
Bibliography:
Bilinsky Yaroslav. “Was the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 genocide?” Journal of Genocide Research, (1999): 147-156.
You brought out some good quotes and I’m glad to see the MLA formatted citation at the end of this article. I’m reminded of Dr. Mace as a well known historian who died several years ago in Kyiv, he was only about 52 or so. He was actually NOT Ukrainian but an American who identified with this topic because of his Native American heritage from the Oklahoma region of the U.S. Mace had said that Ukraine was a “Post-genocidal” society but I like your description that it is a country that has suffered from “mass extermination” as well. Are you going to have this as your research topic? It is a difficult one!!!