Malcolm Muggeridge’s 1933 Reports Reveal the Devastating Effects of Stalin’s Policies on Ukrainian Peasants
In the spring of 1933, Malcolm Muggeridge, a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian in Moscow, uncovered the horrifying extent of the man-made famine that gripped Ukraine. Traveling covertly through the region and the North Caucasus, once known as the USSR’s breadbasket, Muggeridge witnessed mass starvation and piles of dead bodies, a result of Stalin’s brutal policies aimed at collectivizing agriculture.
His shocking reports, smuggled out to avoid Soviet censorship, were published anonymously in late March 1933. These articles, alongside reports by fellow journalist Gareth Jones, brought to light the horrors of the Holodomor – a famine engineered by the Soviet regime that led to millions of deaths.
In one report from 27 March, Muggeridge described his experiences in Rostov-on-Don, where he encountered peasants fleeing their villages in search of food or work. He observed men and women, ragged and half-starved, being lined up in military formation by armed guards as they waited for transportation. One man, desperate for sustenance, told Muggeridge he wanted to join the army, where he believed he would at least be fed. The scene was a grotesque reflection of the widespread suffering caused by Stalin’s policies, which sought to forcibly collectivize farming while stripping Ukraine of its resources.
