The Reporter Who Exposed Stalins Famine

international | history and heritage | other press Tuesday May 02, 2006 16:05 by Pushkin - VLL PIS FI (ICR)

Here is a story about Gareth Jones who exposed a famine in Stalins Soviet Union which killed up to 10 million people. It was a manmade famine caused by Stalins insane purging of the Kulaks and the creation of agricultural "plans" which had set dates for planting and harvesting regardless of local conditions or the state of the crops.

'Unsung hero' reporter remembered

A plaque has been unveiled at Aberystwyth University in memory of a murdered Welsh journalist dubbed an "unsung hero" of Ukraine.
Gareth Jones exposed a famine in the former Soviet Union in 1932 that killed millions, but was later shot by bandits in Inner Mongolia in 1935.

During his brief career, Mr Jones, from Barry in south Wales, also reported on the rise of Germany's Nazi Party. Ukraine's ambassador to the UK attended the unveiling ceremony on Tuesday.

As well as visiting the Soviet Union, he reported on President Roosevelt in the United States, on Mussolini's rise in Italy and the troubles in Ireland. He was also in Leipzig the day Adolf Hitler was made Germany's Chancellor in 1933, and later flew with the dictator to a rally in Frankfurt and interviewed Hitler's head of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels.

But perhaps his greatest achievement as a journalist was his expose of the famine in Ukraine, the Caucasus and Kazakhstan in 1932/3, which is estimated to have killed between seven and 10 million people. The story was reported around the world, but the journalist was later banned from ever returning to the Soviet Union.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/mid/4964784.stm