Depicting Genocide: 20th Century Responses to the Holodomor

The Executed Renaissance

The famine was merely one part of a concerted effort to suppress the Ukrainian language, culture, and religious and intellectual life. The Ukrainianization efforts of the previous decade were not only abandoned, but many of the greatest literary and artistic figures in the Ukrainian renaissance of the 1920s were repressed, arrested, and outright killed.

The impact of these events are hard to overstate. One could try to imagine what American literature would have been like if Hemingway, ....., had all been killed in the 1930s. That is very much what happened to Ukrainian literature of the time.

We can visualize this catastrophe though one single photograph taken in 1921. In this remarkable image we see many of the key figures of the Ukrainian "Executed Renaissance", including writers, artists, composers, and other figures in the intellectual ferment of 1920s Ukraine. By exploring their fates, we can gain a more concrete understanding of this cultural disaster.

Killed or Died



Highlighted above are those who were executed by the NKVD, killed while under arrest, or who died as a result of their repression.

Imprisoned, Repressed, or Harassed

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Escaped


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