The Holodomor 1932–1933 in Kyiv Region: an Algorithm of the Ukrainian Nation Extermination (According to the Documents of the State Archives of the Kyiv Region)

The purpose of the work is to reveal the Soviet government's step-by-step extermination of the Ukrainian peasantry and the foundations of traditional agriculture in the early 1930s, based on the study and introduction to scientific circulation of a wide range of archival sources stored in the State Archives of the Kyiv Region. The extermination of the population by hunger based on the ethnic principle, as a component and one of the signs of genocide, will be considered as a consistent and conscious process aimed at the physical destruction and mental «subjugation» of the Ukrainian nation as a whole. The research methodology is based on the complex use of general scientific (historical, systematic, retrospective) and special methods, methods of comparative studies, synthesis and generalization of information obtained from different sources in terms of form and content. The combination of the problem-chronological form of presentation of the material with the source-scientific analysis makes it possible to build a cause-and-effect determinant «collectivization – dispossession – free grain procurement – requisition – famine». The scientific novelty of the article consists in covering a diverse range of archival sources of regional content, which differ in origin and form: documents of Communist Party and Soviet bodies of the Kyiv region, agricultural collective farms and documents of personal origin, including memories of Holodomor witnesses, etc. The proposed sources make it possible to highlight the issue from different angles: from the official-state position (documents of party and Soviet bodies and institutions) and from the point of view of the individual perception of contemporary realities by a specific person (letters, statements, memories of witnesses). Based on the documents used, a conclusion can be drawn about the consistent inhumane policy of the Soviet authorities in relation to, in particular, the Ukrainian peasantry, the apotheosis and logical conclusion of which was the Holodomor of 1932–1933. The collectivization, dispossession, free grain procurement, requisitions, the institution of «black boards» became conscious steps on this path. The artificial nature of the famine, the silencing by party and Soviet authorities of the problems, and the massive number of victims confirm the definition of the Holodomor as genocide.