8StalinWho

=Who did the Genocide Affect? CK =

The Forced Famine by Russian leader Joseph Stalin that lasted from 1928 to 1933 targeted the Russian state of Ukraine. Somewhere around 7 Million Ukranians were killed in the genocide, which is more than the Jewish Holocaust, all because the Ukrainians refused to give up their country to Soviet Russia. The Ukrainian Independence Movement predates the Stalin Era Russia, Ukraine had been under the domination of the Imperial Czars of Russia for 200 years. With the collapse of the Czar in 1917, it seemed the long-awaited opportunity for independence had finally arrived, Ukraine declared independence shortly after. This new-found freedom didn't last long, as Vladimir Lenin, the new Communist Leader in Russia, went out to reclaim all of the old colonies under the old Czar rule. Ukraine fought against the Red Army for Four long years, until a major victory by Russia was achieved. Russia divided the western part of Ukraine up and divided it up against other nearby nations, and exported all of Ukraine's gross national profit, Grain, to Russian towns and cites such as Moscow. That year there was a big drought in Ukraine, resulting in widespread starvation, and bitter feelings toward Lenin and the Soviets. But when Lenin died in 1924, he was succeeded by Joseph Stalin. The burgeoning national revival movement and continuing loss of Soviet influence in the Ukraine was completely unacceptable to Stalin. To crush the people's free spirit, he began to arrest over 5,000 Ukrainian scholars, scientists, cultural and religious leaders were arrested after being falsely accused of planning a revolt. Stalin also imposed the Soviet system of land management known as collectivization. This resulted in the seizure of all privately owned farmlands, in a country where most of the people were traditional village farmers. Among those farmers, were a class of people called Kulaks by the Communists. They were formerly wealthy farmers that had owned 24 or more acres, or had employed farm workers. Stalin believed any future insurrection would be led by the Kulaks, thus he proclaimed a policy aimed at "liquidating the Kulaks as a class."

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