This dissertation examines some of the social and cultural legacies left behind by the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine, now commonly known as the Holodomor. The famine, which killed millions of people in a period of just two years, came to a slow conclusion beginning in the summer of 1933. Despite mass starvation largely coming to an end by that time, the effects of the famine continued to resonate in Ukraine and beyond. The days, months, and years that came to define the famine’s aftermath became instrumental because it was when survivors first dealt with the consequences of the famine and struggled to come to terms with what happened. For many survivors, the end of mass hunger did not mark the end of their suffering, and the remaining years of the 1930s were an important time period when they first started to face the unresolved issues that the famine left behind. In the famine’s wake, survivors confronted the massive death toll through corporeal confrontations, navigated the accompanying grief and trauma that followed loss, contended with fears of future famine, and worked to make sense of the famine experience and its imprint on their lives. In other words, the famine did not simply go away, and it continued to occupy the minds of survivors and international actors well beyond its supposed end in 1933. Beginning during the height of the famine in the spring of 1933 and ending in the late 1930s, this dissertation examines the more immediate aftermath of the Holodomor to better understand the problems that remained and how survivors worked to address them and navigate the persistent interjections of the past while attempting to move forward with their lives. By paying attention to the early aftermath of the Holodomor, it becomes clear that while 1933 may have marked the end of mass starvation, it did not mark the end of the famine’s presence. Studying this time period reveals the earlier origins of how Ukrainians began to grapple with the famine and its effects, despite Soviet attempts to stop them from doing so. As such, this dissertation makes new interjections into the historiography of the Holodomor and the Soviet 1930s by showing how the legacies of the famine in Ukraine continued to endure and how Ukrainians, among others, worked to respond to these legacies and come to terms with a difficult past.
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