February 28, 2026

Холодомор ~ Word of the Month


Холодомор ~ Word of the Month
Massive snow drifts cover the ground in Kyiv while apartment buildings stand against an overcast sky following infrastructure attacks Palinchak

This is our new monthly language column that has taken the reins over from our long-running Survival Russian column in the magazine. Each month we focus on a word or phrase trending in Russian culture and society.


Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities began in 2022, as did threats to deprive Ukrainian citizens of heat in freezing temperatures. Now, in 2026,  the coldest winter since Russia began its full-scale invasion, Ukraine is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. Thousands of Ukrainians have been without heat in -20°C (- 4°F) temperatures, and headlines with the word холодомор (kholodomor) have begun to appear in the media.

The portmanteau plays on the similarity between the words голод (hunger) and холод (cold), turning голодомор into холодомор. And if голодомор (hunger + plague) indicates a massive famine (“execution by hunger”), холодомор means “execution through cold.”

Yet, голодомор is not just a word. Historically, it originates in the Ukrainian language, and refers to the man-made tragedy of the early 1930s, when millions of Soviets died when Josef Stalin used famine to suppress private peasant farms and subjugate them to the state. (The Ukranian word is written as the Russian – голодомор – but it is pronounced with a soft g, and thus transcribed as Holodomor.)

Xолодомор took place throughout the USSR, but was particularly acute in Ukraine, because there it also involved the suppression of national resistance to Soviet rule.

In 2006, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada declared the Holodomor of the 1930s to be an “act of genocide against the Ukrainian people.”

Thus, the term холодомор refers not only to mass freezing or starvation, but also implies the deliberate murder of civilians. This, in turn, touches on the collective trauma of the Second World War, which has risen to become the main historical touchstone in Russian reality, now underscored by the fact that this winter the length of Russia’s full-scale war with Ukraine surpassed the duration of the USSR's participation in the Second World War, as reported in the media.

A related story caused a great stir in Russia this month. It was that of a Kyiv woman, pensioner Yevgenia Besfamilnaya, who survived the Holocaust only to become a victim of Russia’s modern холодомор, freezing to death in her Kyiv apartment.

Cold is a constant feature in the history of warfare a la Russe, seemingly absorbed into our consciousness through various classic works of fiction. It dates back at least to Napoleon's ill-fated attack on Russia in 1812 (when “General Winter” decimated his forces), and was more recently reflected in the posts of patriotic bloggers threatening Europe with an “ice age” when it was deprived of Russian gas.

Painting of Napoleon retreating from Moscow.

Napoleon's retreat from Moscow. / Adolph Northen; Public Domain

But the Holodomor also threatens Russia. Not only because, as a result of Ukraine's retaliatory strikes, Russia’s border regions are also increasingly bereft of electricity and heat. In fact, the winter of 2025-2026 has broken all records for the number of utility failures across Russia. For example, residents of Bodaibo in the Irkutsk region spent most of February without heat while temperatures outdoors plummeted to -40°C (-40°F). This was not due to military retaliation strikes, but instead due to insufficient investment in critically worn-out infrastructure, or, to put it simply, economic decline and the state's unwillingness to spend money on anything other than war.

Holodomor Monument in Washington DC
Holodomor Monument in Washington DC,
commemorating the 7 to 10 million victims of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33.
Dedicated on November 7, 2015, it stands at Massachusetts Avenue NW
and North Capitol Street NW. The sculptor was Larysa Kurylas. / NPS Photo

 

You Might Also Like

Gas Wars
  • March 01, 2006

Gas Wars

In December of last year, Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned gas monopoly, said it would no longer supply Ukraine with gas at the subsidized price of $50 per thousand cubic meters.
The General Zima factor
  • March 01, 2006

The General Zima factor

Russians have a love-hate relationship with winter. We look at the ways that the words of winter have invaded the Russian psyche.
Letters from the Front

Letters from the Front

The packet of 11 letters and 12 postcards reached me from Kharkov, through a combination of fate, serendipity and sheer luck. They were written by my father, Alexander Suchovy, from the front during World War II, and were addressed to his first wife, Varvara, and their son Vasily.
Malevich's Ukrainian Square
  • September 01, 2016

Malevich's Ukrainian Square

A century-old work of art by an avant-garde artist has become a symbol for the growing rift between Russia and Ukraine, just as more is being learned about its famous artist.
The West's Holodomor Unmasker
  • August 05, 2020

The West's Holodomor Unmasker

A street in Kyiv is being renamed in honor of a journalist who helped expose Soviet Ukraine’s deathly famine.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

Fish
February 01, 2010

Fish

This mesmerizing novel from one of Russia’s most important modern authors traces the life journey of a selfless Russian everywoman. In the wake of the Soviet breakup, inexorable forces drag Vera across the breadth of the Russian empire. Facing a relentless onslaught of human and social trials, she swims against the current of life, countering adversity and pain with compassion and hope, in many ways personifying Mother Russia’s torment and resilience amid the Soviet disintegration.

Life Stories
September 01, 2009

Life Stories

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.

Woe From Wit (bilingual)
June 20, 2017

Woe From Wit (bilingual)

One of the most famous works of Russian literature, the four-act comedy in verse Woe from Wit skewers staid, nineteenth century Russian society, and it positively teems with “winged phrases” that are essential colloquialisms for students of Russian and Russian culture.

Little Golden Calf
February 01, 2010

Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.

White Magic
June 01, 2021

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.

Faith & Humor
December 01, 2011

Faith & Humor

A book that dares to explore the humanity of priests and pilgrims, saints and sinners, Faith & Humor has been both a runaway bestseller in Russia and the focus of heated controversy – as often happens when a thoughtful writer takes on sacred cows. The stories, aphorisms, anecdotes, dialogues and adventures in this volume comprise an encyclopedia of modern Russian Orthodoxy, and thereby of Russian life.

About Us

Russian Life is the 31-year-old publication of an award-winning publishing house that also creates books, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955