The Resistance of the Commissioners During the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in the Local Media of the Kyivan and Chernihiv Regions

Abstract

The article aims to research the specific reflection of the commissioners resistance in the local media of the Kyivan and Chernihiv regions during the Holodomor of 1932–1933. The research methodology includes the combination of number of  historical methods: comparative, contextual, structural and functional analyses. The scientific novelty. The article is a pioneer research of the above-mentioned problem. It was investigated the informational potential of the local media to deepen the scholars notions related to the open and passive resistance of the commissioners against the Holodomor strategies. Conclusions. Despite the local newspapers could not inform about all cases of the resistance but they contain the representative massive of the materials which form clear evidence that the protest moods were the key feature of many commissioners. A significant part of the commissioners from different districts and social groups including the representatives of local authority protested against creating the сircumstances which made survival impossible. The forms of resistance were: non-acceptance unreal plans of the grain procurement and of formation of seed fund with public declaring or not; rejection of the commissioners of district level (usually the representatives of local authority) to come to the villages; voluntary departure from there; imitation of activity; undesirability to take part in the grain expropriation and in the realization of state loan. The local newspapers contain a lot of materials regarding the punishment of the commissioners, even about court sentences. The information potential of the local media will make it possible to research the key trends inherent of existential strategies of the commissioners in both regions.