Background
The originator of the term "genocide", Raphael Lemkin, was a featured speaker at the manifestation of Ukrainian-Americans in September, 1953 to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Ukrainian Famine. A number of the heads of state, governments or parliaments of countries including Ukraine, Andorra, Argentina, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Moldova, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Spain, United States, and Vatican City, consider the 1932–1933 famine as an act of genocide.
Scholars have documented that the Soviet famine of 1932-33 affected other nationalities. The 2004 book The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 by R.W. Davies and S.G. Wheatcroft gives an estimate of around 5.5 to 6.5 million deaths in the 1932–1933 famine throughout the Soviet Union. Still, the Holodomor remains a politically charged topic.
The term democide, introduced by the academic R.J. Rummel, is "the murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder". One view claims that the famine primarily affected the rural population of Ukraine. However, in 1932, 75% to 85% of the Ukrainian population resided in villages.
Read more about this topic: Holodomor In Modern Politics
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