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Step 6 of 16 · January 1933

House searches and the movement ban

Stalin's New Year telegram starts house-to-house searches. Three weeks later peasants are banned from leaving Ukraine and the Kuban to look for food, and Postyshev arrives to take charge.

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  • Where the losses will fall
  • Cordon of 22 January 1933

Circles show each 1932 oblast's total losses for 1932–34 (HURI); no month-by-month split per oblast is published. Borders and the cordon are approximate.

Claims

FamineHigh confidence
1) Time range
1933-01-01
2) Human profile
Joseph Stalin · General Secretary of the VKP(b) CC, telegram to the CP(b)U CC and RNK UkrSSR
3) Decisions
  1. Promised no repression to anyone handing over "stolen and hidden" grain
  2. Threatened the 7 August law for anyone still hiding grain
Affected
Ukrainian village households; searches often took all food, not only grain
Gap
Kulchytsky reads it as the signal for the genocidal phase; Davies and Wheatcroft as a standard procurement threat.

HRECEncyclopedia of Ukraine

FamineHigh confidence
1) Time range
1933-01-22
2) Human profile
Joseph Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov · Secret directive of the VKP(b) CC and SNK USSR; carried out by the OGPU under Genrikh Yagoda
3) Decisions
  1. Blamed the peasant exodus from Ukraine and the Kuban on "enemies" and Polish agents
  2. Banned mass departures of peasants from the Ukrainian SSR and the North Caucasus
  3. Ordered arriving peasants elsewhere arrested and sent back; stopped rail tickets for peasants
Affected
By 13 Mar 1933: 219,460 peasants detained, 186,588 sent back, 2,823 convicted (OGPU report)
Gap
The split of the 219,460 between Ukraine and the North Caucasus is not known.

EN WikipediaHREC

FamineHigh confidence
1) Time range
1933-01-24
2) Group profile
VKP(b) CC · Resolution blaming the CP(b)U for the failed 1932 planSelector: Moscow
3) Decisions
  1. Sent Pavel Postyshev as Second Secretary of the CP(b)U CC and head of the Kharkiv party
  2. Moved Mendel Khataevich to Dnipropetrovsk; Balytsky took over the Ukrainian GPU
Affected
The CP(b)U apparatus

EN Wikipedia · Pavel PostyshevHREC

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