DESTROYING SYSTEMIC CONNECTIONS AMONG THE UKRAINIAN ETHNOS THROUGH THE HOLODOMORS

Abstract

The article emphasizes that the use of hunger as a tool of control proved to be a more effective means of destroying the social and cultural structures of the Ukrainian people than open forceful actions. It is emphasized that in the scientific discourse, based on the concept of R. Lemkin, the Holodomor is interpreted as genocide. It included four components: the destruction of the intelligentsia, the liquidation of the UAOC (as the “soul of Ukraine”), the extermination of the peasantry (the bearer of traditional spiritual and material culture, ways of community coexistence and economy) and the settlement of foreign ethnic elements to erase memory and form a culture of fear and taboo of traumatic experience. In the article we rely on the work of J. Mace, who qualified the Holodomor as a “weapon of mass destruction” aimed at the liquidation of the Ukrainian nation as a political factor. The mechanisms of the destruction of the socio- cultural structure of the village are analyzed: the policy of “liquidation of kulaks”, the activities of the “hundred- thousands”, commissars and tow brigades (“red broom”), which forcibly seized food, looted and contributed to social apathy, undermining the economic independence and the peasant’s ability to self-organize and solidarity. Special attention is paid to the psychological and mental consequences of the tragedy, which led to collective historical trauma. The factors that caused the destruction of the ethnic group are highlighted: the total seizure of food, spatial isolation, the repressive ban on spiritual practices and moral degradation, which in some cases reached cannibalism. The preservation of trauma is traced through mechanisms of intergenerational transmission, which is manifested in the attitude towards food, distrust of authority and the predominance of family interests over community interests. The conclusions emphasize that the traumatic experience of the Holodomor became an impetus for consolidation and awareness of the need to gain State Independence as the only guarantee of preserving identity and the possibility of free development and cultural progress. An example of this is the current Ukrainian War of Independence, in which Ukrainians have been resisting a powerful enemy since 2014, realizing the existential nature of the war and demonstrating to the world the indomitability of spirit and the desire to survive and live on their land according to their own rules as a free nation.