When the Imperial Czars of Russia that lasted for 200 years went to the verge of collapse do to the Bolshevik Rebellion in 1917 lead by Vladimir Lenin, the first leader of the Soviet Union. Vladimir was sought to reclaim and reunite areas formerly controlled by the Czars, including the fertile Ukraine. As a result of doing this act, four years of chaos and conflict followed in Ukraine.
Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, set in motion events designed to cause a famine in the Ukraine to destroy the people there seeking independence from his rule. As a result, an estimated 7,000,000 persons perished in this farming area, known as the breadbasket of Europe, with the people deprived of the food they had grown with their own hands. Viacheslav Molotov was head of the Council for People's Commissars of the USSR, during the time of the Holodomor. Molotov worked closely with Stalin to enforce the Holodomor on the Ukrainian people. He played a huge role in making sure that the Ukrainian people suffered. Viacheslav Molotov personally monitored the confiscation of grain from the Ukrainian people during the Holodomor. Vsevolod Balytsky was the head of the GPU [the Soviet Unions secret police] at the time of the Holodomor. He sentenced many Ukrainian peasants to death, because he falsified [made up] charges against them. He also helped Stalin and the Soviet government exterminate many Ukrainian people during the Holodomor. Balytsky ensured the Ukranian people truly were being starved to death. |