KOLOS− and KOLOS+: The Holodomor, 1932–1933: The Grain Power Took, the Memory People Kept (First Edition)

Description

In 1932 and 1933 the Soviet state took the grain from Ukraine’s villages and closed the roads out. Through one fictional family’s kitchen, this twelve-week course reads the Holodomor and what people kept: kin, memory, kindness, bread and a candle lit for the truth.

Full description

In 1932 and 1933 the Soviet state took the grain from Ukraine’s villages, then the seed, then the food, and closed the roads. A decree of 7 August 1932, the “law of five ears,” made taking even a few ears of grain from a collective field a crime punishable by execution or at least ten years in prison. Demographers estimate 3.9 million excess deaths in Ukraine in 1932–1934.

Kolos (колос) means “an ear of grain,” and this book reads the Holodomor (Голодомор), “killing by hunger,” through that word read twice. KOLOS− names what power took: the kurkul (куркуль) label, “a prosperous peasant marked as a class enemy,” the grain quotas, the blacklisted villages, the orders and closed roads, and the silence that followed. KOLOS+ names what people kept: kin, oral memory, loving-kindness, an offering of bread, and the truth spoken with a candle. It also reads the famines of 1921–1923 and 1946–1947.

The book is a twelve-week course, one term. Each week follows the Kovals of No. 2 River Street, a fictional family: Halyna, who survived and kept a linen bag of dried bread all her life. Every event behind their story is documented, with sources. Week 6 asks who carried the filter, from the leaders to the young men of the tow brigades, and who refused or helped.

We Remember keeps the three famines, the National Book of Memory and the fourth Saturday of November, with a candle lit at 16:00. For Every Age gives four guides: The Bread Bag, a story for children; six lessons for youth; a one-hour evening for Holodomor Memorial Day; and a guide for teachers and leaders.

For university and college courses in social work, history, human rights, education and Ukrainian studies; for Saturday schools and families; and for readers of Ukrainian descent. Help shape the next edition: write to sasha@drokacademy.ca with corrections and family stories.

This is the first edition. Our goal is to find people with lived experience of what it describes, including Crimean Tatar and Lemko readers, survivors, their families and descendants, and their communities, and to review the book with them for accuracy. If you have lived this history, or you find something that is not accurate or something that is missing, please write to sasha@drokacademy.ca. The second edition will carry every correction, and the author is looking for co-authors who will shape it. The Ukrainian edition, КОЛОС− і КОЛОС+ (Kolos− i Kolos+), is now available.

Inside

• Twelve weeks, one for each class of a course term, in four parts: CARE, POWER, the minus word and the plus word
• River Street: one fictional family and the documented history behind every week
• Every week read on three circles (personal, cultural, structural) and in four times: before, what the empire brought, since 1991, the future we choose
• Three readings a week, discussion questions, a research task and key terms
• We Remember: who the filter took, with dated, sourced counts, and where the names are kept
• For Every Age: four guides, for children, youth, a community evening, and teachers and leaders

The author takes no income from this book. Proceeds after production costs support students. The author supports student caregivers and those who stand with Ukraine.

Teaching it? Instructors can request a free review copy, and every student in a course that adopts the book receives it free. Write to sasha@drokacademy.ca.

Author line

Dr. Oleksandr Kondrashov (Sasha) is the founder of DROKACADEMY, a healing and writing space in Kamloops, British Columbia, and a social work educator who currently teaches at Thompson Rivers University. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, and in Canada since 2004, he has taught over 7,000 students across five Canadian universities. DROKACADEMY’s motto guides this series: Love. Care. Share. On the fourth Saturday of November he lights candles for the Holodomor with the people who stand with Ukraine at Kamloops City Hall, as they did on its 90th anniversary in 2022.