HOLODOMOR

On November 24, Ukraine marked the 75th anniversary of HOLDOMOR or "death by hunger," when millions of Ukrainians starved to death ( estimates range from 2.5 to 10 million victims). The so-called Great Famine of 1932-33, is believed by many to be a genocidal crime, the deliberate imposition of collectivization, requiring the destruction of private property, individual ownership and cultivation of land and relocation to collective farms. Stalin was intent upon paying for the USSR's industrialization with grain exports even though it meant the intentional death of millions of people.

Genocide, the targeting of ethnic Ukrainians? The desire to eradicate the social class of private land owners? Both? Historians argue and debate. In the end, unconscionable mass starvation as a public policy, a political tool.