Changes

Soviet President [[Mikhail Kalinin]] responded to Western offers of food by telling of “political cheats who offer to help the starving Ukraine,” and commented that, “only the most decadent classes are capable of producing such cynical elements."<ref name="reflections"/><ref>[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3513136.html How Liberals Funked It]</ref>

Soviet President [[Mikhail Kalinin]] responded to Western offers of food by telling of “political cheats who offer to help the starving Ukraine,” and commented that, “only the most decadent classes are capable of producing such cynical elements."<ref name="reflections"/><ref>[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/3513136.html How Liberals Funked It]</ref>

In an interview with [[Gareth Jones (journalist)|Gareth Jones]] in March 1933, Soviet Foreign Minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] stated, “Well, there is no famine", and went on to say, "You must take a longer view. The present hunger is temporary. In writing books you must have a longer view.  It would be difficult to describe it as hunger.”<ref name="Jones-Litvinov">[[Gareth Jones (journalist)|Gareth Jones]], [http://www.colley.co.uk/garethjones/st_patricks/litvinov_famine_denia_oldl.htm Interview with Maxim Litvinov], March 1933</ref>

In an interview with [[Gareth Jones]] in March 1933, Soviet Foreign Minister [[Maxim Litvinov]] stated, “Well, there is no famine", and went on to say, "You must take a longer view. The present hunger is temporary. In writing books you must have a longer view.  It would be difficult to describe it as hunger.”<ref name="Jones-Litvinov">[[Gareth Jones]], [http://www.colley.co.uk/garethjones/st_patricks/litvinov_famine_denia_oldl.htm Interview with Maxim Litvinov], March 1933</ref>

On instructions from Litvinov, Boris Skvirsky, embassy counselor of the recently opened Soviet Embassy in the [[United States]], published a letter on January 3, 1934, in response to a pamphlet about the Holodomor.<ref name="Carynnyk">Marco Carynnyk, [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1983/398325.shtml "The New York Times and the Great Famine"], ''The Ukrainian Weekly'', September 25, 1983, No. 39, Vol. LI</ref> In his letter, Skvirsky stated that the idea that the Soviet government was "deliberately killing the population of the Ukraine" "wholly grotesque." He claimed that the Ukrainian population was increasing at an annual rate of 2 percent during the preceding five years. He asserted that the death rate in Ukraine "was the lowest of that of any of the constituent republics composing the Soviet Union," concluding that it "was about 35 percent lower than the pre-war death rate of [[Russian Empire|tsarist]] days."<ref name="Mace">James E. Mace, [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/028822.shtml "Collaboration in the suppression of the Ukrainian famine"] (paper delivered at a conference on "Recognition and Denial of Genocide and Mass Killing in the 20th Century", held in [[New York City]] on November 13, 1987), ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'', January 10, 1988, No. 2, Vol. LVI</ref>

On instructions from Litvinov, Boris Skvirsky, embassy counselor of the recently opened Soviet Embassy in the [[United States]], published a letter on January 3, 1934, in response to a pamphlet about the Holodomor.<ref name="Carynnyk">Marco Carynnyk, [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1983/398325.shtml "The New York Times and the Great Famine"], ''The Ukrainian Weekly'', September 25, 1983, No. 39, Vol. LI</ref> In his letter, Skvirsky stated that the idea that the Soviet government was "deliberately killing the population of the Ukraine" "wholly grotesque." He claimed that the Ukrainian population was increasing at an annual rate of 2 percent during the preceding five years. He asserted that the death rate in Ukraine "was the lowest of that of any of the constituent republics composing the Soviet Union," concluding that it "was about 35 percent lower than the pre-war death rate of [[Russian Empire|tsarist]] days."<ref name="Mace">James E. Mace, [http://www.ukrweekly.com/Archive/1988/028822.shtml "Collaboration in the suppression of the Ukrainian famine"] (paper delivered at a conference on "Recognition and Denial of Genocide and Mass Killing in the 20th Century", held in [[New York City]] on November 13, 1987), ''[[The Ukrainian Weekly]]'', January 10, 1988, No. 2, Vol. LVI</ref>

Initially critical of the Soviet grain procurement program because it created food problem, Fischer adopted the official Soviet government view, which blamed the problem on Ukrainian [[counter-revolutionary]] [[Nationalism|nationalist]] "[[Wrecking (Soviet crime)|wreckers]]." It seemed "whole villages" had been "contaminated" by such men, who were deported to "lumbering camps and mining areas in distant agricultural areas which are now just entering upon their pioneering stage." These steps were forced upon the [[Kremlin]], Fischer wrote, but the Soviets were, nevertheless, learning how to rule wisely.

Initially critical of the Soviet grain procurement program because it created food problem, Fischer adopted the official Soviet government view, which blamed the problem on Ukrainian [[counter-revolutionary]] [[Nationalism|nationalist]] "[[Wrecking (Soviet crime)|wreckers]]." It seemed "whole villages" had been "contaminated" by such men, who were deported to "lumbering camps and mining areas in distant agricultural areas which are now just entering upon their pioneering stage." These steps were forced upon the [[Kremlin]], Fischer wrote, but the Soviets were, nevertheless, learning how to rule wisely.

Fischer was on a lecture tour in the United States when [[Gareth Jones (journalist)|Gareth Jones']] famine story broke. Speaking to a college audience in [[Oakland, California]], a week later, Fischer stated emphatically: "There is no starvation in [[Russia]]." He spent the spring of 1933 campaigning for American diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union. As rumors of a famine in the USSR reached American shores, Fischer continued to vociferously deny the reports.

Fischer was on a lecture tour in the United States when [[Gareth Jones]] famine story broke. Speaking to a college audience in [[Oakland, California]], a week later, Fischer stated emphatically: "There is no starvation in [[Russia]]." He spent the spring of 1933 campaigning for American diplomatic recognition of the Soviet Union. As rumors of a famine in the USSR reached American shores, Fischer continued to vociferously deny the reports.

Fischer's article entitled "Russia's Last Hard Year," stated, "The first half of 1933 was very difficult indeed. Many people simply did not have sufficient nourishment." Fischer blamed poor weather and the refusal of peasants to harvest the grain, which then rotted in the fields. Government requisitions drained the countryside of food, he admitted, but military needs (a potential conflict with [[Japan]]) explained the need for such deadly thoroughness in grain collections.<ref name="fischer">[http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/westobservs.htm Louis Fisher], at ArtUkraine.com</ref>

Fischer's article entitled "Russia's Last Hard Year," stated, "The first half of 1933 was very difficult indeed. Many people simply did not have sufficient nourishment." Fischer blamed poor weather and the refusal of peasants to harvest the grain, which then rotted in the fields. Government requisitions drained the countryside of food, he admitted, but military needs (a potential conflict with [[Japan]]) explained the need for such deadly thoroughness in grain collections.<ref name="fischer">[http://www.artukraine.com/famineart/westobservs.htm Louis Fisher], at ArtUkraine.com</ref>