Pidhainy, S. O., V.I. Hryshko, and P.P. Pavlovych, ed. Black
Deeds of the Kremlin: A White
Book Vol. One. Book
of Testimonies. Translated by Alexander Oreletsky and Olga
Prychodko. Introduction by Professor G. W. Simpson (University
of Saskatchewan) Toronto: Ukrainian Association of Victims of Russian Communist
Terror, 1953. vii + 545pp. Editor’s
Preface, Maps, Diagrams, Black-and-White Photographic Illustrations, including
Portraits, and Drawings, Index, Transliteration Guide, Index of Place Names,
Publication Donors List. LCCN: 53-37018.
It is important for the reader to note and understand that it was necessary
for the names of some individuals to be
given as initials only or changed to protect the author’s anonymity due to the
very real risks of harm to these persons and/or to their families, whether
abroad or in the USSR, at the time when this book was written.
Chapters Include:
“Concentration Camps, Prisons, and Justice in Communist Russia” (3-132)
“Camps of the Deportees” (135-183)
“Collectivization, Liquidation of
Kurkul Class and Famine” (187-305)
“Struggle for Independence of Ukraine and Liquidation of Ukrainian
Intellectuals”
(309-409)
“Graves of Mass Murder Victims” (413-438)
“The Russian Communist Dictatorship in Practice” (441-479)
“Persecution of Religion in the USSR” (483-530)
Articles Include:
“I Accuse,” by Ivan Bahryany (3-19)
Bahrayany also wrote a pamphlet
called, “Why I Do Not Want To Go Home Again,” after World War II, in an
attempt to explain to western officials why the Displaced Persons subject to
forced repatriation had ample cause to fear their return to Stalinist
USSR. Expriences of the people from the
years of the Famine and the Purges were reasons why they did not want to be
repatriated under any circumstances to the USSR.
“Stalin’s Crimes in the Donbas,” P. Lysenko (115-120)
Includes photocopied documents of the Administration of the Northeast
Concentration Camps of the USSR sentencing him to 20 years of penal servitude
plus five years of loss of citizenship.
“I Testify,” by Andriy Zaporozhets (125)
“Ukrainians in Russian Exile Camps,” Ivan
Trotsenko (135-165)
Dekurkulization, Camp Constitution, Camp Command Structure
List of Camp Matyrs (153-163)
“Stalin’s Crimes: A Testimony,” by Petro Stepovy (168-196)
NKVD use of dogs. Camp Conditions.
“The Hamlet of Romanchuky,” Marko A. Kruhly (180)
“During my examination at the Smila prison I inadvertently mentioned the
famine that raged in Ukraine in 1932-1933. When the NKVD agent heard the word
“famine” he jumped from the chair, slapped my face hard and said: ‘What famine?
We have no famine here, only state difficulties’” (180).
“What Did Ukrainian Farmers Gain from Collective Farms?” by Y. Maslivets (192-
196)
“Grain Collection,” by G. T. (200-202)
“But the activists received additional rations for having done food
collection over one-hundred percent” (202).
“Kremlin’s Crimes in the Village of Novoselytsa,”
by P. Hlushanytsya (203-210)
Lists individuals killed, includes description of burial of victims while
still alive.
“The Truth About the Famine,” S.
Sosnovy (222-225)
Includes harvest figures, and percent of Ukrainian population who died.
“Soviet Documents on the Famine in
the Ukraine,” P. Lykho (226-233)
Includes Soviet documents discovered in 1941. “For the last time you are
reminded that any repetition of the mistakes of last year [1932] will
compel the Central Committee to take even more drastic measures,” Josef Stalin (231-232).
“The Year 1933 in Soviet Ukraine,”
by Mykola Prychodko (234-238)
Files discovered by the Germans give real harvest figures; the amount of
which could have fed the population for two and one-half years.
“The Year 1933 in Ukraine,” by R.
Sova (243-244)
“The spring proved to be more fatal than winter. As soon as green shoots
appeared,
the hungry people would fall on them, and, as a rule, die from stomach
disorders” (244).
“What
Happened in Hadyach County,” by S. Lozovy (246-256)
Describes special long poles or other tools/methods used for finding stores
of grain. “Many people went to “graze”
(253).
“Nizhen Famine Sketches,” by V.L. (263-267)
“Closed ration centers” for Soviets, NKVD, and CPU members only (264)
“What? Hungry? You are spreading Hitler propaganda, you promote class hatred…” (266).
“Speak
Russian or Starve,” by I. Chmyr (271-274)
Burial brigades who were ordered to bury the Famine victims were also not
fed. Use of the Russian language was required as a part of de-Ukrainianization.
“The Cursed Thirties,” by Petro Drobylko (278-279)
“I am almost illiterate and write in a simple manner, but what I write is
true, and truth, they say, shall overcome evil” (279).
“A Letter
from My Wife,” by Ivan Shewchuk (280)
A soldier in the 8th Rifle Regiment received a famine-letter
from his wife begging for him to help her and their children. Hearing that he’d
read this letter to his comrades, his commander forced him to denounce her
letter as one written by a kurkul or by class enemies for the purpose of
disrupting Army discipline. His family perished before he could return to them.
“How Communists Deceive Foreign Missions,” by F. Fedorchuk (281-282)
City streets were cleared of the dead bodies of Famine victims in
preparation for foreign visitors.
Persons selected as healthy enough in appearance for the “Potemkin
Village” staged-scene of a well-fed populus, were cleaned up, and their roles
explained to them. After threats of ‘a
fate worse than death,’ by the GPU, dressed as customers enjoying a happy
social time in a restaurant, these people played theis parts as convincingly as
they could, since their lives literally depended on the success of their
deceitful performance. When the
foreigners departed, the clean clothing and foodstuffs had to be returned to
the GPU.
“Mental and Physical Effects of
Famine,” by M. Mischenko (302-305)
Testimonies of children. Physical manifestations of prolonged starvation.
“Seven years later, it became
apparent that the increase in children in 1933
was so insignificant that there were
no children to start school” (304).
Concluding chapters address the subjects of: Independence for Ukraine, Investigations of graves of Mass Murder
Victims, the “Russian Communist Dictatorship in Practice,” and Religious
Persecution.
Pidhainy, S. O., Editor-in-Chief, et al. The Black Deeds of the Kremlin: A White Book, Vol.
Two. The Great Famine in Ukraine.
With an introduction by Charles J. Kersten. Detroit: The Globe Press; The Democratic
Organization of Ukrainians Fomerly Persecuted by the Soviet Regime in U.S.A. (DOBRUS);
the World Federation of Ukrainian Fomer Political Prisoners and Victims of the
Soviet Regime (FUP), 1955. xxv + 710 pp.
Editor’s Preface. Photostatic copies of Documents, Black-and-White
Photographic Illustrations, Charts. Endpapers comprised of a collage of four Chicago American newspaper articles.
National Library of Canada: 95019509X.
“Famine as a Political Weapon,” Petro Dolyna (5-135).
“Planning and Preparation of Famine” (29-66)
State Ownership of Livestock:
The law protected not only the physical untouchability
of kolkhoz-owned pigs, but even their nerves. A young collective farm
worker was given a ten-year term in jail
for ‘joking with a girl in a pigpen nearby, thereby
disturbing the peace of the collective hogs (32-33).
Subscription lists to Ukrainian magazines used to find Ukrainian
nationalists to be arrested (57)
Comparison with Famine of 1920’s Russia and China with Ukrainian Famine of
1932-33 (59-65)
International aid programs were drastically different in these earlier
Famines, and provides the researcher perspective into the feelings of those
suffering the 1932-33 Famine during which very little help from any quarter was
available to provide life-sustaining assistance.
“Organizing the Famine” (67-118)
Chart:
Comparison of Diet in Regions and Districts of Ukraine: “poppy, weeds,
crows, children, bark, carrion, offal, hedgehogs, anything’” (70-71).
Valuables taken to Torgsin store (84
Percent of Death by Famine (121)
“NKVD freight trains of corpses” (79)
Masquerade clothes to be returned (93-94)
This in reference to the clothing provided during the staged deceitful
performance of apparently well-fed persons shown to foreigners touring
Ukrainian cities in order to deceive them about the realities of the Famine.
Grain stores smouldering
“from internal combustion,” H. Hang (102)
Grain was improperly heaped in piles that were burning by internal
combustion. [See related Pravda
article (266-267)]
Guardtowers over crops, shooting of starving
trying to reach food (107-108)
Children were among those shot as they attempted
to reach food..
World Opinion (109-118)
Source List (134-135)
“The Great Famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933” by Ivan Dubynets, et al (141-710)
“Ivan Dubynets: A Memorial” (141)
“The Village ‘Active’ and the ‘Thousanders’”
(143-151)
Referring to the approximately
25,000 Party members sent from Moscow and Leningrad to enforce collectivization
and grain confiscations. Includes statistics from Pravda 24 January 1930.
“De-kurkulization and Deportation of the De-kurkulized” (153-204)
List of Families Sent to
Camps (172-175)
Photo-Documents:
“Orders Threatening Punishment for Betrayal of
Denouncers” (183)
“Snitches” were a legally protected group.
“Instruction of the Application of Terror Against
Farmers” (193)
“Threat for
Not Supplying Grain,” (196)
“Additional
Requisition of Grain,” (199, and 227, 352)
Some farmers were able to pay the initial tax, so an extra levy was applied
to break them completely.
“Order to
Control De-kurkulized Farmers,” (207)
“Kurkul Farm
Sold at Auction,” (213)
“Kurkul
Children Deprived of Education,” (221)
“Annihilating the Church
and Destruction of Religious Life” (205-236)
Includes world opinion and actions to support religion in the USSR, as well
as Metropolitan Alexei’s interview with the Soviet press in which he hid
the facts of the ongoing religious persecution.
“Owner’s Destruction of the Stock,”
(237-243)
“Salt Prices Escalate” (237)
Photo-Document:
“Order Forbidding Destruction of Livestock,” (241, 259)
“Ruin of Co-operative Trade and the Paralysis of the Distribution of
Consumer
Goods” (245-260).
Photo-Document:
Requisitioning of Seed” (248)
“Grain Collecting” (261-272)
“Pravda Notes Grain Confiscated Rottting” (266-267)
“All Sunflower Seed for the State,” (270)
“A Self-Imposed Tax for
Cultural Purposes,” (271)
An additional 50% of
regular farm tax
“Complete Collectivization and its Downfall” (273-290)
Photo-Documents:
“The Milk
and Livestock Requisitioned” (283)
“Compulsary Savings
Banks for Peasants” (285)
“A List of
the Dekulakized” (287)
“Retreat and Collapse of
Collectivization” (291-307)
Photo-Documents:
“Requisitioning
of Potatoes, Poultry, and Hay,” (297)
“Call to Arms Against the Kurkuls” (301)
“Reorganizing the Forces” (309-322)
“Order for the
Widespread Sale of Liquor” (316)
“The Return of the De-kurkulized Children”
(319-320)
“Saving Distribution; Trade and
Agricultural Industries” (323-342)
“Penalties for Irregular
Meat Supply” (327-328)
Quoted from Visti 12 February 1933
“Resolution of the
Council of People’s Commissars of Ukraine” (328-330)
Visti 21 June 1933
“Speculators and Black
Markets” (333-334)
“Gifts of Merchandise to Those Who Give All Their
Grain” (334-335)
“The Hide Industry” (340-342)
Shortages occurred in livestock products of hides and furs as well as a
result of the animals dying of neglect or eaten so entirely for food. Leather or fur clothing and shoes were
unavailable, and often removed from the dead victims of the Famine. Hunger was
so great that pieces of leather, shoes, and boots were eaten for the nutrient
value of the leather.
“Farmers Terrorized by Politcal and
Economical Campaigns” (343-374)
Photo-Document:
“The De-kurkulized Are Given Poorest Land” (345)
“All the Grain Seized,
None Left for Seed” (361-362)
Quoted from Visti 19 March 1932
Photo-Document:
“Ban on the Manufacture of Sunflower Seed Oil”
(365)
“Complete Collectivization”
(375-389)
Photo-Document:
“More liquor
to be sold” (379)
“Kurkul’s
livestock confiscated for collective farms” (383)
“Peasant’s
goods confiscated” (385)
“Victims Seek Protection from the
Government” (380-381)
Appeal written to Visti 23 September 1932
“Resistence of Famers and the Women”
(391-411)
It is important to note that the people did not just willingly submit to
their tormentors, but did try to save themselves—and this against the
overwhelming superiority of force applied against them by the government.
Photo-Documents:
“Demand for
Confidential Report on Peasant Morale” (393)
“Deprived of
franchise” (397)
“The Women Revolt” (398-403)
“The Growing Conflict between the Collective Farmers and the Government,
the Communist Party of Ukraine and the
All-Union Communist Party, and between Ukraine and Moscow” (413-429)
Photo-Document:
“Demand for
Weekly Reports on the Kurkuls” (417)
“The
Organized Preparation of the Famine” (433-470)
“The Struggle of Ukrainian Peasants for
Bread” (471-483)
“The Growing Conflict Between the
Collective Farmers and the Government, The
Communist Party of Ukraine, the All-Union Communist Party, and Between
Ukraine and Moscow” (413-429)
Photo-Documents:
“Demand for
Weekly Reports on the Kurkuls” (417)
“A Daughter of De-kurkulized Parents Works in a
Collective Farm
Under an Assumed Name” (425)
See Also reference to the diary of a kulak’s son, who decried his familial
heritage in Stalinism: New Directions
