The reverberations of famine: understanding the aftermath of the Holodomor, 1932–1933

This article uses the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine, now commonly known as the Holodomor, as a case study for understanding the short-term and long-term implications of famine on communities and the world. Much of the scholarship focused on famine continues to focus on the origins of famines and preventative famine modeling, but far fewer works have fully engaged with the repercussions of famine that follow mass starvation. This article argues that the reverberating effects of famines must be understood as part of the total famine experience, and it demonstrates how the Holodomor provides a useful multi-pronged model for understanding the aftermath of famine through social/cultural, political, global, and medical/health contexts. As such, the example of the Holodomor offers us new perspectives that can be used to model the aftershocks of famine that continue to resonate in both local and larger global contexts.