1933 Timoshenko denounces Holodomor

Winnipeg Free Press
Monday, December 25, 1933

SOVIET METHODS ARE

DENOUNCED BY

UKRAINE SPEAKER

Prof. V. P. Timoshenko Says

Peasants Endure Enslavement

Worse Than in Czarist Rule

Forced methods of collectivization of farm lands in the Ukraine by the Communist regime in Soviet Russia have reduced the peasantry to enslavement worse than they had ever endured in the past 70-years even under the czarist rule, declared Prof. Vladimir P. Timoshenko, author of several studies and now lecturer in economics and statistics at Michigan University, when addressing a Ukrainian audience In the Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox cathedral, Saturday night.

Sunday night Prof. Timoshenko was the guest of the Ukrainian Students' club "Prometheus" at a banquet in his honor at the Picardy hall, where a hearty welcome was extended to him by a number of well known Ukrainians in the city. These included Rt. Rev. S. W. Sawchuk. head of the Ukrainian Greek-Orthodox church in Canada; W. Swystun; M. Stechishin, editor of the Ukrainian Voice, and D. Maksemiuk, who spoke on behalf of the Students' club.

The Soviet government in the winter of 1929-30, eager to inaugurate the collective farm system on a large scale, and to exterminate the well-to-do peasantry as a class, had resorted to administrative coercion and pressure because this class of people was considered a menace to the Communist regime, Prof. Timoshenko told a packed meeting Saturday night.

Not only had the property of these peasants been confiscated, including buildings, machinery, equipment and livestock, the speaker went on, but the wealthier peasants were forbidden to join the collectives, and had not been accepted as simple workers on collective farms even after the wholesale confiscation of their property, he said.

Compares Economic Status

Comparing the economic status of the Ukraine during the time of the czar regime and today under the Communist rule, Prof. Timoshenko stated that the people had enjoyed greater autonomy under the absolute monarchy of the czar than they have today under the republican constitution.

Refering to the industrialization of the country under the five-year plan, Prof. Timoshenko stated that the Ukraine benefitted nothing from the industrialization as the gigantic factories were built in the areas outside of Ukraine. The reason for this was, he said, the Communist regime fears that one day the Ukraine may secede from Russia, possibly by intervention, and the industries be used against them.

Saturday afternoon Prof. Timoshenko had a brief interview with Premier John Bracken. The interview centred around his recent book on "Agricultural Russia and the Wheat Problem."