Non-Holodomor: A youth with gangrene is attended by two hospital workers in a medical facility in Ukraine
Description
- Creator
- unknown, Photographer
- Media Type
- Image
- Text
- Item Types
- Photographs
- Pamphlet illustrations
- Description
- During the 1920’s, many photographs were taken which show starving individuals being cared for in hospitals or other medical facilities. To date, we have found no authenticated photos of famine victims in medical settings during the Holodomor. Medical personnel were instructed to record causes of death other than starvation during the Holodomor because the existence of famine was officially denied. Furthermore, photography during the 1930s in any medical facility was by official permission only, or in model facilities open to visitors, where victims of starvation were not part of the tour.
In 1921, the normally abundant southern steppe areas of Ukraine were suffering from drought and subsequent starvation as severe as in the Volga regions of Russia. However, the Bolsheviks in Moscow requisitioned the harvests from throughout Ukraine to feed the starving populations of Russia’s agricultural regions.The dire conditions in the Ukrainian steppes were further compounded as large numbers of migrants from Russia’s famine zones arrived, expecting to find plentiful sustenance.
When word of famine in Ukraine reached the American Relief Administration (ARA) in late 1921, their investigators were initially denied permission by Moscow to inspect the area. Eventually, Moscow relented and the ARA investigators discovered alarming conditions and urged immediate relief. Following extensive negotiations with the Kremlin and Kharkiv, the ARA was finally allowed to open food kitchens and medical relief programs in January of 1922 throughout the famine-stricken regions of southern Ukraine.
- Notes
- Photo source: Information report series published by the Comité International de Secours a la Russie, Haut Commissariat du Dr. Nansen: no. 22: "La Famine en Ukraine, rapport," by Vidkun Quisling. April 30, 1922. Genève: Imp. de H. Vollet . p.16. http://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/16481/file.pdf
For further evidence of the 1920s origins of this photograph, please see Related Features at right. - Inscriptions
- “Gangraine amenée par la faim.” [Gangrene due to starvation.]
- Date of Original
- 1921-1922
- Subject(s)
- Personal Name(s)
- Quisling, Vidkun
- Corporate Name(s)
- American Relief Administration ; Comité International de Secours a la Russie ; International Save the Children Union ; Nansen Mission ; Red Cross Society of Ukraine (1918-1923) ; Union international de secours aux enfants
- Local identifier
- PD805
- Collection
- Select 1920s famine photos from Ukraine and Russia
- Language of Item
- English; French; Ukrainian
- Geographic Coverage
-
-
Zaporizhia, Ukraine
Latitude: 47.66389 Longitude: 36.25633
-
- Copyright Statement
- Public domain: Copyright has expired according to Canadian law. No restrictions on use.
- Copyright Date
- 1922
- Recommended Citation
- “Gangraine amenée par la faim.” 1921-1922.in Comité International de Secours a la Russie, Haut Commissariat du Dr. Nansen: no. 22: "La Famine en Ukraine, rapport," by Vidkun Quisling. April 30, 1922, p.16. http://diasporiana.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/books/16481/file.pdf
Retrieved from: http://vitacollections.ca/HREC-holodomorphotodirectory/3636221/data
- Location of Original
- Original photograph used in the cited publications held by: Archives d'Etat de Genève (State Archives of the Canton of Geneva), Switzerland.
- Reproduction Notes
- Reproduced from the digitized version of the publication cited above.
