Topic Refinement: Week 5, Christine Hawryluk

Hi everyone! I did find the pitch exercise very helpful. It really allowed me to sit down and think about my topic. I knew which topic I wanted to do, but it allowed me to make my research question more specific. My research question now is: How did Stalin's removal of grain affected Soviet Ukraine during the Holodomor? By doing this pitch exercise, it allowed me to realize which aspect of this large event would be most interesting to the audience to entice them to keep listening to the podcast. I realized that the emotional element of this event would keep the audience engaged and they would want to be interested in hearing what brutal and non-humane things the Ukrainians had to live through. Through this pitch exercise, I realized that the elements that I want to focus on in my 15 minute podcast is:
1) Stalin's goals
2) how these goals were accomplished
3) the effect these goals had on the population of Ukraine
4) The final result- the final impact

I think the pitch would be helpful in some projects, but on the other hand, doing an outline and brainstorming would do the same thing, in my opinion.

This is my podcast transcript:

Hi my name is Christine Hawryluk and I am here to pitch an idea for a podcast about an emotional and inhumane historical event to the podcast show Stuff You Missed in History Class. Before I begin, I have a question for you to simply think about: Have you ever thought if it is possible for people in a country to be killed very slowly at the rate of 30,000 people a day and nearly a third of them being children?  Not many of you may have heard of this event, but this is why I am here today, to inform you about the Holodomor. This was a brutal, man-made famine caused by Joseph Stalin from 1932 to 1933 on Soviet Ukraine. What makes this event most devastating is that Stalin took away something that people here in Canada take for granted—grain, which was Ukraine’s primary food source. My goal is to examine how Stalin’s removal of grain affected the people of Ukraine. To be informed about how millions of Ukrainians died in the most cruel and brutal way possible, by starvation, is something that would be an eye-opener for many. Food is something that millions of people around the world take for granted, but these Ukrainians had nothing to live off of. This is why it is important! This is why people should know about it. This event is not like WWI or 9/11 where people were killed instantly by some military machine. This event is different from others because Stalin’s motives were inhumane by choosing a method that takes much, much longer to kill a person, rather than shooting them and dying instantly. To see images of people deteriorating slowly after having no food or nothing to drink for weeks and weeks, and seeing them barely crawling on the ground is an image that will never leave someone’s mind.  The most interesting aspect of this large event is to see how Stalin’s removal of grain affected the Ukrainians: to see Stalin’s goals, how exactly these goals were accomplished, the effect these goals had on the population of Ukraine and the final result. To see this timeline of events would make those two years seem much shorter. This issue of how Ukrainians were treated very poorly by the Russians can still be seen today with what is happening in Ukraine this very moment—showing that the Russians never give up, that all they want is power over Ukraine! The mercilessness of the Russians can be seen in Stalin’s implementation of his goals on the Ukrainians where he doesn’t care who gets hurt. In my eyes, the Holodomor is considered “the lost famine,” since not many people know about it, but I am going to change that!