Stalin’s letter regarding the brutality of officials during the famine which happened in Ukraine
At the First Conference of Workers in 1931, Stalin delivered a passionate speech, commanding workers to play a crucial role in industrialization. He said:
“We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make up this gap in ten years. Either we do it or they will crush us.”
Stalin was originally for keeping the kulak system. But he had to change his mind because it was too inefficient to produce enough to enable people to move to the cities and work in factories. Industrialization had to be done quickly given the German threat. Stalin predicted 10 years ahead of time that they had to prepare or die.
I hate the suffering that happened to the kulaks. Do I feel bad for those who hoarded grain while people were starving? How about those who sabotaged things? Or those who killed half the livestock needed for farming the next year? Those are facts. Do I feel bad? Does it matter what I feel? What does that have to do with anything?
My review of original source documents provide a different story than what we are told. Most of what happened was incompetence at trying to get collectivization going.
This is a letter written by Stalin translated into English:
DOCUMENT 177
Letter from Stalin to Mikhail Sholokhov, May 3, I933, on sabotage by the grain growers of the Veshenskii raion
[HandwrittenI
Dear Comrade Sholokhov:
As you already know, all of your letters have been received. The help for which you are asking has been approved. To investigate the matter, I am sending Mr. Shkiriatov to the Veshenskii mion to see you. I earnestly request you to render him assistance. So that’s that. But not all, Comrade Sholokhov. The problem is that your letters create a somewhat one-sided impression. I would like to write you a few words about that. I am thankful to you for your letters, as they reveal the open sores in party and Soviet work; they reveal how our officials, in their ardent desire to restrain the enemy, sometimes inadvertently beat up their friends and sink to the point of sadism.
Collectivization 397
But this does not mean, that I completely agree with you on everything. You see one side of the situation, and you do not see it too badly. But this is only one side of the matter. In order not to make political mistakes (your letters are not fiction, but outright politics), you must observe widely; you must be able to see things from both sides. The other side is that the esteemed grain growers of your region (and not only from your region) have conducted a “sit-down strike” (sabotage!) and were not against leaving workers and the Red Army without bread. The fact that this sabotage was peaceful and outwardly harmless (bloodless) does not change the fact that the esteemed grain growers actually carried on a “quiet” war against Soviet authority. A war of starvation, dear Comrade Sholokhov. Of course, this circumstance cannot to any degree justify those terrible acts that were allowed to happen, as you are convinced, by our officials. Those guilty of these terrible acts should be punished accordingly. But it is clear as day that these esteemed grain growers are not as innocent as they appear to be from a distance. Well, so long, shaking your hand
Yours
J. Stalin May 5,1933[1]
Another is a resolution passed by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party, November 27, 1932 concerning the harvest and measures to combat sabotage.
Hitler tells Mannerheim Soviet industrial production stopped him in his tracks:
The grain was collected and then centrally sorted because people who weren’t farmers would have starved. People on the ground had the impression Stalin was trying to starve them. That was untrue.
Alexander Finnegan
· Feb 20
Why does my friend of Ukrainian descent try to make me feel bad about the “Holodomor”? He even claims his grandparents almost starved to death under the order of Comrade Joseph Stalin.
1. First, be sympathetic. There was a Ukrainian Famine. It was bad. People did go hungry because food was scarce. These people did suffer. It makes no sense to say they didn’t. 2. From their perspective, they saw Soviet workers collecting all the grain, every drop. They were hungry and grain was bein…
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I am genuinely sad to hear about the suffering of those kulaks who weren’t violent and were people who had their lives ruined by being moved to Siberia. People don’t believe me, but that is their choice.
Alexander Finnegan
· Feb 15
What is the history of famines and starvation in Russia 1850-present day?
“Throughout Russian history famines and droughts have been a common feature, often resulting in humanitarian crises traceable to political or economic instability, poor policy, environmental issues and war. Droughts and famines in Russia and the Soviet Union tended to occur fairly regularly, with fa…
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Further reading:
FOREWORD……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5
https://stalinsocietypk.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/another-view-of-stalin1.pdf
Another View of Stalin by Ludo Martens