Step by step

…

Step 10 of 16 · June 1933

The peak

About 28,000 people a day die in Soviet Ukraine. Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts lose about a fifth of their population. The OGPU knows the scale, including cannibalism, and keeps its reports secret.

Open the profile of this step →
  • Losses 1932–34 (circle area)
  • 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
1933-06-01 … 1933-06-30
2) Group profile
Population of Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts · The two worst-hit 1932 oblastsSelector: Kyiv: 1,110,800 dead (200.3 per 1,000); Kharkiv: 1,037,600 (191.4 per 1,000)
3) Decisions
  1. No decision of their own
Affected
About 28,000 deaths a day across the Ukrainian SSR in June 1933; about 1 million children under 10 died in the famine as a whole
Gap
The EN Wikipedia is the only edition with the per-oblast table.

Levchuk et al. 2020EN Wikipedia

Hiding the famineHigh confidence
1) Time range
1932 … 1933
2) Group profile
OGPU of the USSR and GPU of the Ukrainian SSR · Chairman Vyacheslav Menzhinsky, deputy Genrikh Yagoda; Ukrainian chiefs Vsevolod Balytsky and Stanislav RedensSelector: Reports sent only to Stalin and the CP(b)U Politburo
3) Decisions
  1. Compiled detailed top-secret reports on deaths, swelling and cannibalism
  2. Kept them out of any published statistics or press until 1989–1991
Affected
At least 2,505 people sentenced for cannibalism; 1,021 case files in the archive, 836 from Kyiv oblast
Gap
Which reports reached Stalin personally is not consistently documented.

Holodomor Museum · cannibalism casesUK Wikipedia · Заперечення Голодомору

All steps