Editing Holodomor (section)

=== Scope and duration ===
The famine affected the Ukrainian SSR as well as the [[Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic]] (a part of the [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukrainian SSR]] at the time) in spring 1932,{{sfn|Pyrih, 1990; No. 1-132.}} and from February to July 1933,{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2004|p=204}} with the most victims recorded in spring 1933. The consequences are evident in demographic statistics: between 1926 and 1939, the [[Demographics of Ukraine|Ukrainian population]] increased by only 6.6%, whereas Russia and Belarus grew by 16.9% and 11.7% respectively.{{sfn|USSR Census|1939}}{{sfn|Demoscope Weekly| 2012}} The number of [[Ukrainians|Ukrainians as ethnicity]] decreased by 10%.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-02-29 |title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей. |url=https://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_26.php |access-date=2024-08-15 |archive-date=29 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240229113741/https://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_26.php |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-05-20 |title=Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей. |url=https://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_39.php |access-date=2024-08-15 |archive-date=20 May 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240520171244/https://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/sng_nac_39.php |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref>

From the 1932 harvest, Soviet authorities were able to procure only 4.3 million tons of grain, as compared with 7.2 million tons obtained from the 1931 harvest.{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2004|pp=470, 476}} Rations in towns were drastically cut back, and in winter 1932–1933 and spring 1933, people in many urban areas starved.{{sfn|Davies|Wheatcroft|2004|p=xviii}} Urban workers were supplied by a [[rationing]] system and therefore could occasionally assist their starving relatives in the countryside, but rations were gradually cut. By spring 1933, urban residents also faced starvation. It is estimated 70% to 80% of all famine deaths during the Holodomor in eight analyzed Oblasts in the Soviet Union occurred in the first seven months of 1933.{{sfn|Wolowyna|2021}}

The first reports of mass [[malnutrition]] and deaths from starvation emerged from two urban areas of the city of [[Uman]], reported in January 1933 by [[Vinnytsia Oblast|Vinnytsia]] and [[Kyiv Oblast|Kyiv]] [[oblast]]s. By mid-January 1933, there were reports about mass "difficulties" with food in urban areas, which had been undersupplied through the rationing system, and deaths from starvation among people who were refused rations, according to the December 1932 decree of the Central Committee of the Ukrainian Communist Party. By the beginning of February 1933, according to reports from local authorities and Ukrainian [[State Political Directorate|GPU]] (secret police), the most affected area was [[Dnipropetrovsk Oblast]], which also suffered from epidemics of [[typhus]] and [[malaria]]. [[Odesa Oblast|Odesa]] and Kyiv oblasts were second and third respectively. By mid-March, most of the reports of starvation originated from Kyiv Oblast.{{citation needed|date=July 2018}}

By mid-April 1933, [[Kharkiv Oblast]] reached the top of the most affected list, while Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Vinnytsia, and [[Donetsk Oblast|Donetsk]] oblasts, and Moldavian SSR were next on the list. Reports about mass deaths from starvation, dated mid-May through the beginning of June 1933, originated from [[raion]]s in Kyiv and Kharkiv oblasts. The "less affected" list noted [[Chernihiv Oblast]] and northern parts of Kyiv and Vinnytsia oblasts. The Central Committee of the CP(b) of Ukraine Decree of 8 February 1933 said no hunger cases should have remained untreated.{{sfn|Pyrih, 1990; No. 343-403.}} ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'', which was tracking the situation in 1933, reported the difficulties in communications and the appalling situation in Ukraine.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Reisenauer |first1=Troy Philip |title=The Great Famine in Soviet Ukraine: Toward New Avenues of Inquiry into the Holodomor |url=https://library.ndsu.edu/ir/bitstream/handle/10365/27445/The%20Great%20Famine%20in%20Soviet%20Ukraine%20Toward%20New%20Avenues%20of%20Inquiry%20into%20the%20Holodomor.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y |pages=26–28 |publisher=North Dakota State University |access-date=October 9, 2024 |date=2014}}</ref>

Local authorities had to submit reports about the numbers suffering from hunger, the reasons for hunger, number of deaths from hunger, food aid provided from local sources, and centrally provided food aid required. The GPU managed parallel reporting and food assistance in the Ukrainian SSR. Many regional reports and most of the central summary reports are available from present-day central and regional Ukrainian archives.{{sfn|Pyrih, 1990; No. 343-403.}}