The Meaning of the Holodomor of 1932–33: From Collective Reproduction to Individual Reconstruction of Mental Trauma

This article focuses on the meaning of the Holodomor for the collective memory and identity of survivors. Using interviews, it explores the tragedy as a mental trauma at the individual, family and community-society levels. Twenty-five survivors were recruited for semi-structured interviews. Research at the community-society level employed the methodology of Grounded Theory, while the individual and family levels were explored through LIWC (Linguistic Inventory Word Count) and represented by psychological meaningful categories in traumatic narratives. The results of the research indicate that traumatic memory recollection at the individual and family levels is represented by family (mostly female family members), women’s suffering, fear of death, and high mortality. Holodomor survivors avoid expressing emotions, which might be a marker of continuous post-traumatic stress disorder. At the community-society level it is associated with factual (cognitive) information consistent with the main evidence in archival collections.