Holodomor claimed 3.2 million victims

At a press conference on 11 November Omelyan Rudnytsky from the Institute for Demography and Social Research of Ukraine’s Academy of Science reported that the demographic losses from Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine had come to 3.2 million.

“We have been able determine the structure of losses. This had not been done before. We took into account at once the regional losses and ethnic aspect.”

According to the data cited, during the years of Holodomor 940 thousand people of working age (from 15 to 60) died in the cities; 262 thousand elderly people and 800 thousand children.

In the villages 660 thousand people of working age perished, 242 thousand elderly and 594 thousand children.

Mr Rudnytsky also commented that over five months of 1933 (from March to July) as many people died as over the whole five preceding years.

He said that the largest number of Ukrainians had died in the Kyiv region (almost 15% of the population), Kharkiv region, Moldovan Autonomous Republic which was part of Ukraine, as well as in the Vinnytsa, Chernihiv, Odessa regions. The least number of victims was in the Donetsk region.

Another representative of the Institute Ludmila Slyusar spoke of the fact that Holodomor had to a large extent destroyed the Ukrainian village which had retained the traditions of the Ukrainian family. She pointed out that this had led to a serious reduction in marriages and births and to a subsequent reduction in the population.