"Holodomor" is Ukrainian for "extermination by hunger", and most scholars today agree it was a deliberate attempt to destroy the Ukrainian independence movement. You see, at the time the Ukraine SSR was trying to secede from the Union, again.
After the revolution in Russia Ukraine declared their country to be an independent People's Republic. As a result, four years of war followed in which Ukrainian national troops fought against Lenin's Red Army, and also against Russia's White Army (troops still loyal to the Czar) as well as other invading forces including the Germans and Poles. In 1921, the war ended with a Soviet victory.
Stalin wouldn't have any of that again. As 25,000 Ukrainians died of hunger each day the Soviet Union exported the grain it had confiscated from them. 1,819,114 tons in 1932, and 1,771,364 tons in 1933. Grain that was not yet shipped out was stored in granaries. While the animals that were needed for work on the farms were fed, the people were left to starve. The granaries were guarded by the OGPU and NKVD (what later became the KGB) to ensure no one would steal grain supplies. Anyone who attempted to do so was shot.
The 2008 documentary
The Soviet Story should be seen by everyone. It should be in every school curriculum everywhere and serve as a warning to every future generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPkTro6WnmU
