«When We Starve» and «In Memory of Konstantyn Bokan» Holodomor Film Presentations,Toronto 2019-11-25

Two short films about the Holodomor Famine-Genocide which took place in Ukraine during 1928-34, during the First Soviet 5 Year Plan, were presented in Toronto, Canada at the prestigious Old Mill restaurant, on Monday, November 25th 2019.

When We Starve (15 minutes)
A film produced by Ukrainian-Americans about the medical effects of starvation during the Holodomor, presented by Dr.Borys Buniak

In Memory of Konstantyn Bokan : One of Millions of Victims of the Holodomor (10 minutes)
Produced by the League of Ukrainian Canadians under the direction of Stefan Ostafichuk

There were officially 3 Holodomors in Ukraine during the Soviet occupation period - 1921-23, 1928-34 and 1946-47. The peak of the worst Holodomor was 1932-33 and often only this part of the series of Soviet Holodomors is discussed and written about. Recently a new Holodomor famine was discovered by Dr.Liudmila Hrynevych in 1928-1929 with about 100,000 direct and indirect deaths. This could be considered as a run up to the peak in 1932-33, coinciding with the policy of rural collectivization and the 5 Year Plan. Dr.Ewald Ammende wrote in his important book about the famine - Human Life in Russia (1936), that people were still starving in 1935 in some parts of the Soviet Union.
The 3 major Holodomors were mostly rural famines artificially created by the Soviets through excessive forced food confiscation from the population.
A lot of research into the Holodomor of 1932-33 was done in the 1980s in the West, including the Ukraine Famine Research Project of the US Congress, led by Dr.James Mace.
International Commission of Inquiry into the 1932-33 Famine in Ukraine
A 4th Holodomor took place right after the communist revolution in the cities of the former Russian empire, which targeted and starved out the middle and upper classes who were not able to escape abroad. Class-based ration cards were issued, with only the working classes issued enough to survive on - in theory, and even for them food was not always supplied. The former middle and upper classes of the Russian empire, such as professionals, teachers, business persons, etc. were put on reduced starvation rations which was not enough to survive, and prevented from obtaining food by other means. Private sale and trade in food was banned - labelled as "speculation." Food brought in from the countryside was confiscated by soldiers on trains, and private means of transport were confiscated. At this early time the Soviets got the idea of forcibly confiscating food from farmers - a policy which was the main mechanism of subsequent mass famines in the Soviet Union, China, Ethiopia, Vietnam and other communist countries.
Similar and more widespread and sophisticated measures were repeated during subsequent 3 Holodomors, showing that it they were deliberate and calculated policies used by the Marxists against targeted ethnic groups and classes of people they wanted to eliminate by denying them access to food. All of those events were strictly covered up and denied by the Soviets afterwards, and were only recognized in Ukraine after the fall of the Soviet Union when the country became independent. The memory of the Holodomor was preserved by Ukrainian emigrés in the western world who escaped from the Soviet Union.
Some people who sympathize with communism still try to deny or minimize the numbers of victims of those tragic events. Stalin himself admitted to Churchill that during the First 5 Year Plan 1929-34 there were 10 million victims associated with collectivization of agriculture which coincided with the famine. Dr.Robert Conquest estimated 14.5 million victims during that period. The official Soviet estimate of the first major Holodomor from 1921-23 is 5 million people starved to death. An estimate of Holodomor of 1946-47 is 1.5 million victims. Several million people could have also died of starvation in the post-revolution urban class-based forced famine which is not widely recognized or researched yet, with a large number of victims in St.Petersburg, but also in other cities during 1918-1919.

Sponsored by BCU Foundation in partnership with Ucrainica Research Institute, US Holodomor Committee and the Ukrainian Medical Association of North America.
League of Ukrainian Canadians and Ucrainica Research Institute