The Famine-Genocide of 1932-33: Estimation of Losses and Demographic Impact

The number of losses due to the 1932-34 Famine in Ukraine has been the subject of many studies and controversies (Commission on the Ukrainian Famine, 1988; Kulchytskyj, 2003; Wolowyna, 2007). The different estimates vary from around 2.6 millions to more than 10 millions. The figure of 10 million, extensively used by the government of Ukraine and some Ukrainian diaspora leaders, seems to be based on statements attributed, among others, to Stalin and the Moscow correspondent of The New York Times, Walter Duranty, who in his official reports to the Times denied the existence of the Famine, as well as in preliminary studies before key statistical data became available to researchers. This wide discrepancy in the number of Holodomor losses is a source of confusion and complicates efforts to publicize the Holodomor and its recognition as genocide. As pointed out in a recent editorial of the Ukrainian newspaper “Kyiv Post” (2008), it is time to agree on a number.