The Cover-Up: Denials, Dismissals and Silences Nicole Loroff, Jordan Vincent and Valentina Kuryliw There are numerous reasons that help explain the lack of awareness by the public of the Holodomor and why this genocidal famine remained relatively unknown and unacknowledged until the late 1980s. Soviet Cover-up during and after Stalinist times Outright denial: the Soviet government refused offers of international aid from the Red Cross and other groups on the grounds that there was no Famine. Soviet foreign minister, Maxim Litvinov, publicly denied the existence of Famine in the USSR in 1933. Discussion of Famine, or its causes were forbidden in the Soviet press, and once the Famine was over no references were made to it in Soviet historical accounts. Moreover, citizens of the USSR were forced into silence on this issue for over half a century. Disinformation: by camouflaging the extent of the Ukrainian Famine as just “food difficulties, ” Soviet authorities mixed small amounts of truth into their denial, thus making it more difficult to figure out what was actually happening. The Soviet media would vigorously attack any reporter or foreign dignitary who spoke out on this issue, drowning their voices in a sea of criticism. The Soviet … Continue reading Holodomor – Denial and Silences