
POPULATION CHANGES IN THE KRASNOKUTSK DISTRICT OF THE KHARKIV REGION DURING 1926–1937: DEMOGRAPHIC LOSSES AS A RESULT OF THE HOLODOMOR OF 1932–1933
Author(s) -
Volodymyr Skliar
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
ukraïnoznavčij alʹmanah
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2520-2626
DOI - 10.17721/2520-2626/2019.25.15
Subject(s) - ukrainian , census , population , geography , elite , demography , famine , socioeconomics , political science , sociology , law , archaeology , philosophy , linguistics , politics
The Holodomor of 1932–1933 is the genocide of the Ukrainian people. It became an effective instrument of the Stalinist totalitarian regime policy aimed at humiliating of Ukrainians. The extermination of Ukrainian peasants by the famine of 1933 was accompanied by mass repression of the Ukrainian elite, the cessation of the "Ukrainization" policy and the return to the traditional policy of Russification of Ukraine. The largest demographic losses from the Holodomor of 1932–1933, together with the Kyiv region, experienced also the Kharkiv region. On the basis of the analysis of statistical materials of the census of 1926 and 1937, an intensive reduction of the population of the Krasnokutsk district of the Kharkiv region was revealed. As a result of the Holodomor of 1932–1933, the district lost almost a third of its population. On the place of the extinct Ukrainians, the Stalinist regime settled the migrants, first of all, Russians from the Central Black-Earth region of Russia. Therefore, the immediate human losses because of the Holodomor in the Krasnokutsk region were even greater, because the 1937 census took into account not only the population that survived in this demographic catastrophe, but also the recent migrants. The Holodomor of 1932–1933 in the Krasnokutsk district, like in the other rural areas of the Ukrainian SSR, became a genocide of Ukrainian people. According to the census of 1926 the proportion of Ukrainians constituted 99% of the total population of the Krasnokutst District. But the "dry" statistics of the demographic losses of Ukraine from the Holodomor of 1932–1933 shows the tragic fates of millions of Ukrainian peasants when the whole families were destroyed and the consequences were reflected in subsequent generations.