Time lines of the Famine/Genocide in Ukraine 1932-1933

Canada and the World Ukraine and the Soviet Union

1896 Settlement of the Canadian West: Ukrainian immigrants arrive from the Austro-Hungarian Empire
1900 Ukrainian territories are divided between the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires
1914 Canada enters WWI as part of the British Empire (Entente)
1915 – 1916 The Armenian Genocide
1917 March The Russian Revolution and the breakup of the Russian Empire. Ukraine sets up the Central Rada as a Temporary Government.
1917 Nov The Bolshevik Takeover in Petrograd.
1918 Jan 22 Ukraine declares Independence.
1918-1920 Ukraine attempts to establish an independent state (The Hetmanate and the Ukrainian National Republic. while fighting the Red Army Bolsheviks/Communists), the White Army (Russian Monarchists) the Poles.

1919 Ukraine is left out at the hearings at the Treaty of Versailles.
1918-1921 Civil War rages throughout the former Russian Empire, including Ukraine.
1920 The Bolsheviks gain control of Ukraine with the aid of the Red Army.
1921 – 1922 Famine rages in Ukraine as 1,500,000 Ukrainians starve to death, while food is taken out of Ukraine to feed Russian cities.
1921 The New Economic Policy (NEP) is brought in to rebuild the economy. It allowed for small farm holdings, permitting Ukrainian farmers to continue farming their private land plots and running small businesses.
1922 Ukraine is formally incorporated into the Soviet Union as a republic with Kharkiv, in Eastern Ukraine, as the new capital.
1924 Vladimir Lenin dies and a power struggle between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin continues.
1925 Ukrainization Policy is brought in to appease the nationalistic Ukrainian population. A cultural renaissance arises, as Ukrainian artists, writers, film directors embrace the call and continue developing an indigenous Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian language is encouraged and flourishes in schools and government offices. As a result, some Ukrainian intellectuals join the Communist Party of Ukraine.
1928 Stalin takes complete control of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party, introduces the First Five Year Plan (1928-1933) with Collectivisation and Industrialization as the goals.
1929 Attack on Ukrainian national elites – potential leaders of resistance: Arrest of 700 members and show trial of a fictitious SVU (Union for the Liberation of Ukraine) accused of wanting an independent Ukraine with links to the farmers and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
1930 Ukrainian Autocephalous (autonomous) Orthodox Church is liquidated and leaders are imprisoned or executed.
1930 De-kulakization: 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 farmers are sent to Siberia, are executed, or sent to concentration camps with their families. Property of “rich farmers” is confiscated and transferred to collective farms. Uprisings against the government . One third of them in Ukraine.

1932 Stalin prepares for the Famine-Genocide setting unrealistic grain procurements for Ukraine. Famine in Ukraine. 40% of harvest in Ukraine to be handed over to the government. Little is left for the farmers. Farmers live off their depleted reserves and small plots and farm animals. Ukrainian farmers flee to cities, to Russia and Belarus in search of food. August 7, 1932 “kolhosp property decree”: death penalty for stealing grain in the field. Unproductive villages in Ukraine (1/3) and the Kuban are deprived of manufactured goods and food stuffs - blacklisted. Villages are cordoned off and left to starve.
1933 Widespread starvation in Ukraine, the Kuban and the Caucasus. Dec. 14, 1932 Secret decree blames Ukrainization, national tendencies, for grain problems. The Ukrainian language is forbidden in the Russian republic. In Ukraine, the Ukrainian leadership is purged, gradually replaced by non-Ukrainians and Russification is brought in. January 22, 1933, Secret directive sent to Kharkiv to close the borders of Ukraine and Kuban from the rest of the USSR, to prevent starving farmers from searching for food. In 6 weeks, 220,000 arrested, many shot, sent to the gulag, 85% were sent home to starve. Red Cross, Cardinal Innitzer demand permission to send famine relief; Moscow denies famine and rejects relief.
1933 Hitler comes to power in Germany. United States recognizes the USSR as a sovereign state.
1934 The USSR is invited to join the League of Nations.

“Moryty holodom” is found in documents in Ukraine – means inflicting death by starvation. Kosior, Communist Government in Ukraine, said in March 1933, “famine has not taught the farmers a lesson”.