The Ukrainian famine or ‘Holodomor’ of 1932–1933 claimed the lives of an estimated 4 to 4.5 million people. General consensus has it that the famines that swept the Soviet Union were caused largely...Show moreThe Ukrainian famine or ‘Holodomor’ of 1932–1933 claimed the lives of an estimated 4 to 4.5 million people. General consensus has it that the famines that swept the Soviet Union were caused largely by the collectivisation drive of the First Five-Year Plan, after which the situation in Ukraine was exacerbated by Stalin’s policies in the winter of 1932–1933. However, the underlying motives for Stalin’s actions with regard to Ukraine remain a matter of lively debate. Combining the existing literature on the initiation of mass indiscriminate violence in general and on the causes of the Holodomor in particular with novel insights from studies on authoritarian politics, I posit that the Ukrainian famine may have been intentionally aggravated because the Ukrainian leadership was considered a liability to Stalin’s rule. Rather than facing these elites head on, I suggest that Stalin weaponised the famine as a means of mass indiscriminate violence to enable the capture of local institutions and to undermine the individual support bases of his potential rivals. In this way the Ukrainian Communist Party was purged from the bottom to the top, culminating with the executions of Stanislav Kosior and Vlas Chubar and the expulsion of Grigory Petrovsky, as well as the executions of Pavel Postyshev and Vsevolod Balytsky during the Great Purges of 1937–1939.Show less
This paper is on one of the seminal events in Ukrainian history, the Holodomor. The paper seeks to apply the theory of genocidal consolidation to the Holodomor to determine the answer to “why”...Show moreThis paper is on one of the seminal events in Ukrainian history, the Holodomor. The paper seeks to apply the theory of genocidal consolidation to the Holodomor to determine the answer to “why” Stalin executed a genocide against the Ukrainian nation. More specifically, the paper seeks to link the mass killings in Ukraine to Stalin and Stalin’s personal position within the Soviet Union. In seeking the answer previously mentioned, the paper relies on the method of process tracing. The underlying hypothesis of the paper is that the theory of genocidal consolidation best explains the Holodomor and links Stalin to it, using the methodology previously described. By using and exploring genocidal consolidation vis a vie the Holodomor the paper also seeks to further bolster the connection between mass political violence and authoritarian politics. Additionally, the paper sought to expand on genocidal consolidation and add to the already existing research and theoretical applications by attempting to explore the Holodomor through genocidal consolidation. Lastly, it should be stated that the often ambitious aims of this paper allow for further exploration on the topic and potential missed linkages between the Holodomor and Stalin.Show less
