When we think of famine, we quickly think of a natural disaster, while there are often political causes as well. A famine like Ukraine’s Holodomor (1932-1933) is now recognized by more and more states as genocide. "The current war makes it easier to recognize the complex violence of the Holodomor as political violence," says cultural scholar Charley Boerman, who researched the memory culture of famines. On 6 February, she will defend her dissertation at Radboud University.
Boerman examined how the Finnish (1866-68), Ukrainian (1932-33) and Greek (1941-44) famines are remembered and carry over into the present. "Famine is still deployed in conflicts today, such as in Ukraine, Sudan and Gaza. Yet people often continue to see famine as a natural disaster and rarely talk about perpetrators."
From harsh winter to food blockade
Stories about victims and perpetrators of famines can strengthen solidarity and group spirit, according to Boerman. In Finland, the story of the famine years is told in many museums and monuments. "Finns emphasize that they suffered as one people", Boerman said. "They praise themselves as self-sufficient people who do not complain. As a cause, they point mostly to the harsh winter. Some historians say the Finnish government failed by not intervening in time in the years leading up to the famine. But because Finland was under self-government within the Russian empire, it is difficult to blame a superpower."
That was easier in Ukraine. Boerman: "Since Ukrainian independence in 1991, the memory of the Holodomor is important for the sense of national identity." There was much nationalist resistance in Ukraine in the 1930s to Stalin’s rapid industrialization and collectivization of farms, which caused several regions to go hungry. In late 1932, in response to the resistance, Stalin banned travel within Ukraine, among other things, making supplies even more difficult. Four million people died. The Soviet Union has always denied this history.
Political causes
Since the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, more and more states are recognizing the Holodomor as genocide, out of solidarity with Ukraine. "The current concrete violence in Ukraine makes it easier to see such a complex form of violence as famine as a form of political violence as well", says Boerman. Because famines are not natural disasters, she emphasizes. There is almost always a human cause, for example the blocking of supplies. "There is food, but no access to food."
Because famines happen so slowly and often have multiple causes, we find it difficult to assign responsibility, according to Boerman. We only recognize it as famine when we see pictures of severely emaciated bodies. While much precedes that image. "To make visible that there may be perpetrators, it helps to link a famine history to something recognizable. When Putin attacked Ukrainian grain silos in 2022, the comparison to Stalin was also quickly made."
The Greek famine during World War II was also suddenly widely remembered again when linked to the Greek economic crisis of 2009. Boerman tells of a Greek MEP who showed terrible archival footage, blaming Germany for famine in Greece. And she points to a cover of the German magazine Der Spiegel, which shows Angela Merker photoshopped in an image of Nazi officers in front of the Acropolis. Those concrete parallels make it clear to the audience that famine is a form of violence that can be resisted, she says. "There are unfortunately other conflicts in which hunger is used. Not all’of them are nearly as visible."