The Orikhiv Case: What Happened During the Holodomor Genocide in Zaporizhzhia Region

On 22 November, Inna Shuhaliova, senior researcher at the Department for Research on the Holodomor and Mass Man-Made Famines, told readers of the Trudova Slava newspaper about the situation during the Holodomor in the Orikhiv district. She noted that the Zaporizhzhia region had always demonstrated its resilience, defiance and steadfastness, and Orikhiv had been no exception. Many events unfolded in the Orikhiv region during the Holodomor genocide. One of the first to be studied by Ukrainian researchers was the ‘Orikhiv case.’

In October 1932, Viacheslav Molotov was sent to Ukraine on an extraordinary mission. He was to personally supervise the purges within the party and oversee the creation of collective farms.

The so-called ‘Orikhiv case’ was hastily fabricated. Sixteen former officials of the Orikhiv district administration were brought to justice. The authorities decided that simply dismissing them from their jobs was not enough. They arrested them and brought them to justice.

After completing the interrogations in the Dnipropetrovsk region, an open court session was held in Orikhiv. From December 25 to 28, 1932, a public trial took place at the central cinema where the public gathered. The defendants faced charges under the article titled “Counter-Revolutionary Sabotage of Grain Procurement.”

During the hearing, none of the defendants pleaded guilty, and no evidence of their guilt was found. When the defendants began to deliver their final statements, almost everyone in the courtroom was crying, as the defendants recounted how they had fought to ensure that the harvest was gathered and that they had truly cared about their work. The court’s sentences were very harsh. For instance, agronomist Anistrat was sentenced to death by shot. Later, this sentence was changed to 10 years of exile. The rest were sentenced to 10 years in special-purpose camps in remote parts of the Soviet Union.

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