СОЦІАЛЬНІ АСПЕКТИ ГОЛОДУ 1946-1947 рр.: ДОЛЯ ДІТЕЙ УКРАЇНСЬКОГО ПРИДУНАВ'Я
SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE FAMINE OF 1946-1947: THE FATE OF CHILDREN OF THE UKRAINIAN DANUBE REGION

Summary/Abstract: The article presents the events that took place after the victorious end of the Second World War, when the population of Soviet Ukraine had to start a peaceful life hoping that the hardest and the worst was over. However, this was not destined to be. Real life circumstances dispelled all dreams of a happy future. Another test for Ukrainian people was famine. The famine in Ukraine in 1946-1947 was caused by various factors. First of all, it was a planned action of the Soviet authorities in order to remove the remnants of grain from the peasants to help the «fraternal nations» from the socialist camp and to rebuild industry, to restore the military-industrial complex. The second reason was the post-war devastation, which led to the destruction of all parts of Ukraine’s economy. Third reason was a severe drought that finally undermined ruined agriculture. The grain procurement plans of 1946-1947 were unrealistic for Ukraine, but the party leadership withdrew bread from the village by administrative-command methods. As a result, when the plans were fulfilled by only 62.4%, the authorities resorted to repression. The local leadership was accused of sabotage and «anti-Bolshevik attitude to grain procurement. » The population began to starve because people were left without grain. The famine reached its apogee in the winter and spring of 1947. The famine covered almost all Ukrainian territories. The southern regions of Ukraine suffered the most from famine. This tragic page of the history of the Ukrainian people, which was carefully hidden in Soviet times, reveals to investigators terrible historical facts. As is well known, the totalitarian Stalinist regime punished people mercilessly for the mere mention of famine, describing such actions as the spread of slanderous fabrications about Soviet power. Memories of those who died innocently had been erased from people’s memory for many years. Children were especially vulnerable during the years of terrible famine. Young children, as well as elderly people, were not spared by famine. In order to save the life of their child, mothers took them to the city and left them at railway stations, on the porches of residential buildings and on the front steps of hospitals, nurseries, kindergartens, orphanages. Parents tried, by all means, often at the cost of their own lives, to protect their children from starvation. Despite their efforts, children were deprived of any food for a long time and in addition to unbearable physical torture, underwent moral suffering. They did not understand why their mother did not want to feed them, because they want to eat so much, and their father, always so strong, allowed strangers to take everything out of their yard. According to various historians, between 1.5 and 4 million children died of starvation during the Holodomor. And those who survived, grew up and told their descendants about the crime of genocide decades later. They remained for life in the unofficial and unrecognized in Ukraine status of «victims of the Holodomor».

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