Gareth Jones: Reports on the Ukranian Famine


Figure 1.-- This is the article published by Gareth Jones about the Ukranian famine. It was the first accurate report to reach the West and not only were there few more, but it was debunked by a press sympthetic to Soviet Communism. Sympathy for Communism grew in juornalistic and academic circles in the West during the Depression. Many not only ignored critisism of Stalin and the Soviet Union, but actively worked to discredit such reports. The preferred image was a worker's paradise untroubled by the Depression along with happy, well fed peasants doing folk dances as they harvested in the fields. Many bought this line. The paper here is the 'London Evening News' Circulated in the home counties as a local newspaper. It was not a national newspaper. We believes tghey were reporing ion the initial report published in the 'Times' of London.

After reporting on Hitler's accession to power, Jones went to the Soviet Union. He was there during the Great Famine of the early 1930s engineered by Stalin. His reporting alerted the British public to the terrible things that were then happening in the Ukraine by starteling reports published in The Times. His reports were the first and the depressinglyv few accurate reoorts appearing in Western newspapers. Some historians report that a British Official at the Embassy in Moscow travelled all over Russia to places that he was not supposed to go to and reported on the Great Famine. The British Government thus apparently knew before Gareth Jones reported in The Times. Jones accurately reoorted on the extent of the disaster and connected the Famine with Stalins Five Year Plan and Collectivation. He did not, however, fully understand the extent to which Stalin enginerred the Famine to destroy the Ukranian peasantry. Still Jones wrote some of the few accurate reports to appear in Western newspapers. He honestly described what he saw, " I walked along through villages and twelve collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, 'There is no bread. We are dying'. This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia, the North Caucasus, and Central Asia. I tramped through the black earth region because that was once the richest farmland in Russia and because the correspondents have been forbidden to go there to see for themselves what is happening. In the train a Communist denied to me that there was a famine. I flung a crust of bread which I had been eating from my own supply into a spittoon. A peasant fellow-passenger fished it out and ravenously ate it. I threw an orange peel into the spittoon and the peasant again grabbed it and devoured it. The Communist subsided. I stayed overnight in a village where there used to be two hundred oxen and where there now are six. The peasants were eating the cattle fodder and had only a month's supply left. They told me that many had already died of hunger. Two soldiers came to arrest a thief. They warned me against travel by night, as there were too many 'starving' desperate men. 'We are waiting for death' was my welcome, but see, we still, have our cattle fodder. Go farther south. There they have nothing. Many houses are empty of people already dead,' they cried." Because of his reoorting, Jones has been called The 'The Hero of the Ukraine' as well as the 'the man who knew too much'. His reporting may have cost him his life.

Travel to the Soviet Union

He had noticed increasing rumors within London circles about afood crisis in the Soviet Union. Jones' reading of Izvestia also suggested someting terrible was giing on. He wrote two newspaper articles in a series entitled "Will there be soup?" to publicize the forthcoming winter crisis (October 1932). He them left America where he had been reporting ion the Deopression for Germany. He reported on Hitler's accession to power. Just 1 one month after Adolf Hitler had been made Chancellor of Germany (and just 3 days before the burning of the Reichstag), Jones was afforded the 'privilege' to become the first foreign journalist to fly with the newly appointed Chancellor to a rally in Frankfurt-am-Main (February 1933). He then etered the Soviet Union. He conducted an 'off-limits' walking tour of the Soviet Ukraine. We are not sure yet hiw he manafed to ebter the Soviet Union and travel so freely.

Jones' Reporting

Jones' reporting alerted the British public to the terrible things that were then happening in the Ukraine by starteling reports published in The Times on the Great Famine. His reports were the first and the depressinglyv few accurate reoorts appearing in Western newspapers. Some historians report that a British Official at the Embassy in Moscow travelled all over Russia to places that he was not supposed to go to and reported on the Great Famine. The British Government thus apparently knew before Gareth Jones reported in The Times. Jones accurately reoorted on the extent of the disaster and connected the Famine with Stalins Five Year Plan and Collectivation. He did not, however, fully understand the extent to which Stalin enginerred the Famine to destroy the Ukranian peasantry. Still Jones wrote some of the few accurate reports to appear in Western newspapers. He honestly described what he saw, "I walked along through villages and twelve collective farms. Everywhere was the cry, 'There is no bread. We are dying'. This cry came from every part of Russia, from the Volga, Siberia, White Russia, the North Caucasus, and Central Asia. I tramped through the black earth region because that was once the richest farmland in Russia and because the correspondents have been forbidden to go there to see for themselves what is happening. In the train a Communist denied to me that there was a famine. I flung a crust of bread which I had been eating from my own supply into a spittoon. A peasant fellow-passenger fished it out and ravenously ate it. I threw an orange peel into the spittoon and the peasant again grabbed it and devoured it. The Communist subsided. I stayed overnight in a village where there used to be two hundred oxen and where there now are six. The peasants were eating the cattle fodder and had only a month's supply left. They told me that many had already died of hunger. Two soldiers came to arrest a thief. They warned me against travel by night, as there were too many 'starving' desperate men. 'We are waiting for death' was my welcome, but see, we still, have our cattle fodder. Go farther south. There they have nothing. Many houses are empty of people already dead,' they cried."

Press Reporting on the Famine

Stalin and the NKVD proived amazingly adroit at preventing Sovie citizens outside iof the famine area and Westerners from learning about the extent and causes of the crop failure and harvests. Control of the Soviet press made this a simple matter in the Soviet Union itself. Less obvious is how this could have been kept from the West. The Soviet Union could limit reports leaking out, but with an attrocity of the dimensions iof the Ukranian Famine, this does not fully explain the siklence in the West. Jones' reporting was one of the few such accurate reports. And many did not like it. Support for Communism grew during the Depression. There was onsiderable sympathy for the Doviet Union in both the journalistic and academic community let alone committed Communuists. Abnd tghey did not like Jones' reporting. Not only did few other sych reoports appear, but Sioviet apoligists did theur best to 'debunk' Jones' reporting. Thus the dimesions of the disaster was largely inklnown at the time. Even to this day it is not filly appreciated. Compare for example the literature in the Holicaust to that on the Ukranian Famine which many Ukranians prefer to call the Ukranian Genocide. Even to this day, the Russians do not like the term Ukranian Famine, and insuist Russians shared in the disaster and that the number of fatalities was only a fraction of what Ukramians claim.

Hero of the Ukraine

Because of his reoorting, Jones has been called The 'The Hero of the Ukraine' as well as the 'the man who knew too much'. His reporting may have cost him his life.







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Created: 2:28 AM 7/14/2013
Last updated: 2:28 AM 7/14/2013