Hiding the famineHigh confidence
- 1) Time range
- 1934-01-03
- 2) Human profile
- Boris Skvirsky · Counselor of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, on Litvinov's instructions
- 3) Decisions
- Called the claim of deliberate starvation "wholly grotesque"
- Claimed Ukraine's population was growing about 2% a year
- Affected
- The US public record right after diplomatic recognition
EN Wikipedia · Denial
Hiding the famineMedium confidence
- 1) Time range
- 1933 … 1935
- 2) Group profile
- Civil registry (ZAGS) offices of the Ukrainian SSR · Under NKVD supervision; TsUNKhU inspectors from MoscowSelector: Village and town level
- 3) Decisions
- Recorded starvation deaths as "unknown" or "exhaustion"
- 1934: withdrew 1932–33 death books from local offices (documented for Kharkiv region); some destroyed
- Affected
- The vital statistics: Kyiv's medical inspectorate collected 9,472 bodies in 1933 but 3,997 were recorded
- Gap
- No order to destroy the books has been found; the RU Wikipedia says many books turned up in 2007–08.
Holodomor MuseumRU Wikipedia
Hiding the famineHigh confidence
- 1) Time range
- 1937-01-06 … 1937-09-26
- 2) Group profile
- Sovnarkom of the USSR, NKVD and the Military Collegium · Sovnarkom chaired by MolotovSelector: Targets: TsUNKhU staff in Moscow and regional statistics chiefs
- 3) Decisions
- Judged the census (162 million counted against about 168 million expected) "harmful"
- Arrested Olimpiy Kvitkin (census bureau chief), Lazar Brand, Mikhail Kurman and most regional chiefs (March 1937)
- Arrested Ivan Kraval (head of TsUNKhU) on 31 May; shot him on 26 Sep 1937
- Annulled the census on 25 Sep 1937 and sealed the data for about 50 years
- Affected
- The only interwar count that captured the famine's demographic hole
- Gap
- The fates of Kvitkin, Brand and Kurman are not confirmed.
EN Wikipedia · 1937 Soviet censusRU Wikipedia · Краваль