Ukraine had before been the most productive agricultural area of the Soviet Union. Stalin was determined to crush all traces of Ukrainian nationalism. In 1932, Stalin raised Ukraine's grain procurement quotas by forty-four percent. This meant that there would not be enough grain to feed the peasants, since Soviet law required that no grain from a collective farm could be given to the residents of the farm until the government's quota was met. Stalin's decision and the methods used to put it into practical effect condemned millions of peasants to death by starvation. Any man, woman, or child caught taking any grain from a collective farm could be, and often was, executed or deported. Those who did not appear to be starving were often suspected of having a hidden supply of grain. Party officials, with the aid of regular troops and secret police units, waged a cruel war against peasants who refused to give up their grain.

"No domestic animals were left in the villages, and even dogs, cats and other animals disappeared. Even sparrows were scarcely seen in the streets, everything had been eaten, whether living or dead. Leather footwear, sawdust, straw and chaff were consumed. When the snow thawed in the fields the people caught gophers, moles, mice and other rodents - all were eaten."

"That spring, there was not a household where someone had not died from famine. Whole families died out; there was no one to dig communal graves. Peasants mobilized by the village Soviet dug the earth with difficulty and many died there themselves. Decomposing corpses lay in houses for weeks. The stench spread far beyond the villages. By the beginning of June, not more than one quarter of the population remained in the villages, but they were incapable of any work." (Argumenty I Fatky, (Moscow) 1988, No.32)

"In some people, famine devoured all that was human in their soul and bred in its place beastly instincts... In our village, one man became insane from hunger; he butchered, cooked and then ate, first his mother and then his wife." (Molod' Cherkaashchyny, (Cherkasy, Ukraine) 1988, No.30)