Kent State exhibit explores forced famine

KENT -- One of the most tragic events of the 20th century, only recently making its way into history books, is the focus of a unique exhibit at Kent State University.

The photo and film display examines Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's extermination of up to 10 million Ukrainians from 1932 to 1933. The mass murder has become known as the Holodomor, Ukrainian for "famine genocide."

"He decided to crush the Ukrainian nation, and he selected a terrible means, a famine," said Dr. Michael Kalinski, a Kent State University professor who brought the exhibit to campus as part of the University's 10th annual Symposium on Democracy.

Kalinski explained how "Stalin ordered all food, all harvest, taken away from the entire territory of Ukraine, and it was done forcefully," and how "any attempt to hide the food was punished severely."

The professor, who was born in Ukraine says, "that's why as the famine continued any resistance went out. Stalin was known to say there were too many Ukrainians to send to Siberia."

The holodomor affected Kalinski's family. "My own Grandfather, a Ukrainian priest, died in 1932 in the midst of famine," Kalinski revealed. He said his grandmother dared not tell him of his grandfather's death for fear of being imprisoned herself for 25 years.

The exhibit is located in Room 200 of White Hall on the Kent State campus. It will run through May 8. Kalinski says visitors to the special event will be deeply affected.

"If you will see one picture from that time," he promised, "it will change you."

Click on the video to the right to see Dick Russ' video report on the special KSU exhibit.