The author has collected a database of several thousand of Holodomor oral history sources during preparation of GIS-Atlas of the Holodomor. It was this base that made possible comparison of similar or identical testimonies of the same or various respondents, published in numerous collection of Holodomor oral sources. The goal of the article: to figure out how a narrative of one person published in various editions is correlated, from the point of view of recalling of events during the Holodomor. Methodology: historical method, analysis and synthesis, methods of source analysis (comparative, textological). Scientific novelty. The author focuses not on verification of oral history sources by the documents or other oral sources, but on credibility of given data from the point of view of specificity of recalling and process of collection and preparation of oral history for publication. Conclusions. The research indicates that on the one hand, there is a certain percentage of republication of testimonies by various editors that, it seems, decrease source potential of an edition; on the other – such duplication of testimonies is often a valuable material for understanding of the fact how narratives have been changing with times, time frames of narratives; what events were the first to come to mind and were important for a person, how a person was recalling. The author argues that there is a certain core of an informant’s narrative that can be supplemented with the details significant for a respondent. It is revealed that information field does not influence core of narrative that contains vital for a certain informant memories, mostly tied with the struggle for life (searches, survival strategies) and defeat of this struggle (mortality). The article suggests differences in recalling of events by respondents during various years. The revealed problem of falsifying of testimonies is tied first of all with a figure of interviewer and is not a mass phenomenon.

Notion of Holodomor as an invention of “Ukrainian nationalists” and “Nazis” circulated in world information sphere since the end of WWII. Gradually, with more oral history written, with more documents being declassified and more researches done, Holodomor reconstituted its place in Ukrainian historiography, collective memory and state commemorative traditions. The goal of the article is to reveal five vectors, and at the same time – means of Soviet/Russian propaganda, applied toward theme of the famine in the frames of the genocide denial instrument called «manipulation». These are: direct accusations of involvement into Nazism; deepening of mental abyss between free and Communist worlds; exploitation of a thesis “conquerors are not judged” as the result of the victory in WWII; legal proceedings; Sovietology studies. Weigh of each component varies and is of more or less power. The first proposed instrument had the most long-lasting and powerful effect. It basically tied the whole national Ukrainian movement and ideology to Nazism. Its consequences and echo were still visible till the beginning of full-scale war in 2022. The next three instruments were connected to WWII and thus their influence gradually weakened. Chairs of Sovietology, like the first vector, also remained strongholds of anti-Ukrainians and pro-Soviet/Russian imperial narrative till 2022, when many historians faced the necessity to rethink their previous assessments of Ukrainian history, including the Holodomor. Therefore, proposed by the author vectors and instruments used in propagandist campaign against the Holodomor both show their long-lasting influence and deconstruct the Soviet-Russian imperial myth.

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Research aim: The article has a goal to figure out a connection between questionnaires about the famine of 1932–1933 in Ukraine and the state of development of the Holodomor studies. Research methodology: historical-comparative method is used. Scientific novelty: for the first time correlation of five full-text questionnaires about the famine on every of three stages of formation of massive of the Holodomor oral history sources (1933, 1980s and after 1991). The author for the first time makes a reconstruction of research perceptions about the reasons, course and scale of the famine, as well as analyzes their evolution. Conclusions: the article analyzes questionanries created during three periods (from 1933 till mid of 2000s) that allows researching of evolution of the famine studies. The first questionnarie has become a reaction of the people of a free of communist ideology world. Because of the objective reasons (and escape to the West was made under a threat of shooting) they tries to put starvation into a Procrustean bed of collectivization, to find a logical explanation of the famine reasons, particularly in illnesses. The article demonstrates non-comprehension by them realities of everyday life of a Ukrainian countryside. Questionnaires elaborated in Canada and USA in 1980s, demonstrates much more higher level of understanding of the problem. Their authors actively involved theory of oral history, included question about personal data of a respondent, his family, education, social and property condition; a question about a peasant resistance appeared. One can see an attempt to figure out time frames of starvation. Comprehension of such events appeared as searches and confiscation of bread. Questionnaires prepared on a third period cover maximum wide spectrum of starving village problems. Appearance of a set of new questions indicates about development of knowledge about the Holоdomor. These questions fully reflect contemporary approaches to the processes, the whole set of which comprises the Holodomor of 1932–1933. To the contrary, questionnaire by a Russian historian V. Kondrashyn indicates different from Ukrainian famine essence of the Russian famine of 1930s.

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