The Ukrainian famine (1932–1933), or Holodomor (Ukrainian: Голодомор), was one of the largest national catastrophes in the modern history of the Ukrainian nation. Modern scholarly estimates of the direct loss of human life due to the famine range between 2.6 million and 3-3.5 millionalthough much higher numbers are sometimes published in the media and cited in political debates.The term Holodomor is applied only to the famine that took place in the territories of the Ukrainian SSR during the wider famine that affected other regions of the USSR. The term Holodomor is sometimes applied to the famine that occurred at the same time in other areas of the Soviet Union populated by ethnic Ukrainians outside of the Ukrainian SSR. 
The reasons of the famine are the subject of intense scholarly and political debate. Some historians claim the famine was purposely engineered by the Soviet authorities to attack Ukrainian nationalism, while others view it as an unintended consequence of the economic problems associated with radical economic changes implemented during the period of Soviet industrialization. It is sometimes argued that natural causes may have been the primary reason for the disaster.
There is no international consensus among scholars or politicians on whether the Soviet policies that caused the famine fall under the legal definition of genocide. However, as of March 2008, the parliament of Ukraine and the governments of several countries have recognized the Holodomor as an act of genocide