Accepting Nominations for the Conquest Prize for Contribution to Holodomor Studies

The Holodomor Research and Education Consortium (HREC), a project of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, is accepting nominations for the Conquest Prize for Contribution to Holodomor Studies. The $2,500 CAD prize is awarded on a biennial basis to the author of an outstanding article that contributes to a fuller understanding of the Famine in Ukraine of 1932-33. The prize honours historian Robert Conquest, author of the groundbreaking work The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine, which marked a watershed in the study of the Holodomor at the time of its publication in 1986.

Eligibility: 

– Nominated articles must have been published in English, in print or in an online publication, between September 1, 2020, and the submission deadline, which is December 15, 2022. 

– Nominations may be submitted by the author, editor, publisher, or colleagues. 

– Articles published in English translation are eligible.

Indicating in the subject line Conquest Prize submission, please send the following items as attachments to hrec@ualberta.ca :

1) Completed APPLICATION FORM

2) PDF of the article

3) CV of the author

4) Abstract of the article (in English, max. one page)

ABOUT ROBERT CONQUEST

The Conquest Prize for Contribution to Holodomor Studies honours historian Robert Conquest, author of the groundbreaking work The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. Published in 1986, Harvest of Sorrow was the first major scholarly study of the Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33. Dr. Conquest’s treatment addressed the role of Communist ideology and its relationship to the peasantry, the collectivization of agriculture and its implementation, the expropriation and deportation of kulaks, links to nationality policy and religion in the Soviet Union, and the role of Stalin in the Famine. Dr. Conquest described the failure of the West to respond to reports of the Famine and assigned culpability to Stalin and his regime for setting impossibly high grain requisitions, seizing foodstuffs, preventing the starving from seeking food elsewhere, and covering up the crime. Based on eyewitness testimonies and published sources, his analysis and conclusions were corroborated by Soviet archival materials that became accessible with the collapse of the USSR.