Pentecostals in the Ukrainian SSR During Collectivization and the Holodomor of 1930–1933: Socio-Adaptive Survival Practices

Authors

• Oleksandr Korotaiev, Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical UniversityFollow

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-4460-0118

Abstract

The article examines the social adaptation and survival practices of Pentecostal communities in the Ukrainian SSR under the conditions of forced collectivization, dekulakization, and the Holodomor of 1930–1933. Drawing on criminal-investigative case files of the GPU, top-secret Soviet security service documents, party and state decrees, and testimonies of contemporaries, the study reconstructs individual, family, and communal strategies employed by believers in response to systematic state violence. Particular attention is devoted to Pentecostal communities in the Odesa okrug, especially the village of Holma in the Balta district, where Soviet repressive policies manifested themselves through a combination of economic pressure, religious persecution, deportations, property confiscations, arrests, and social marginalization.

The article demonstrates that during collectivization Pentecostals adopted various behavioral models, including collective resistance to joining collective farms, forced resettlement, escapes from exile, voluntary adaptation to new conditions, and, in some cases, cooperation with GPU authorities. During the Holodomor, these practices evolved into strategies of physical survival: concealing food supplies, creating “black caches,” seasonal labor migration, intra-communal redistribution of resources, assistance to large families, and the transfer of children to orphanages. The study argues that Soviet repressive policies had not only punitive but also disintegrative consequences, as they destroyed families, undermined traditional mechanisms of mutual assistance, and compelled some believers to distance themselves from persecuted coreligionists. At the same time, under critical conditions Pentecostal communities retained the capacity for self-organization, redistribution of resources, and support for the most vulnerable members of the community.

Recommended Citation

Korotaiev, Oleksandr (2026) "Pentecostals in the Ukrainian SSR During Collectivization and the Holodomor of 1930–1933: Socio-Adaptive Survival Practices," Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe: Vol. 46 : Iss. 7 , Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55221/2693-2229.2851
Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/ree/vol46/iss7/2