The population of Melnyky village of Chyhyryn district of Cherkassy region suffered from the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933 – about 300 people died. Surnames and names of 185 died of hunger were established. In the village there are three places of mass burial of victims of the Holodomor-genocide of 1932-1933. One of them is located on an old cemetery.
The majority of Melnyky inhabitants did not support the collectivization. In spite of the resistance of the community, in 1929 the commune “Testimony of Lenin” (“Zapovit Lenina”) was created. Later, in March of 1930 two Associations for Joint Cultivation of Land were organized. One of them was called “Destiny of Poor Peasant” (“Dolia Bidniaka”), then it was renamed for “New Life” (“Nove Zhyttia”). The other was called “Spark” (“Iskra”). In 1932, they were united into artel “Udarnik.”
At the end of January of 1933, dekulakization of wealthy peasants began. Incipience of kolkhoz and sovkhoz system was accompanied with forced land, cattle and agricultural tools expropriation.
Olena Petrivna Shpyliova (born in 1919), who lived at Berkotivka hamlet with her parents, recalls the dekulakization of her family: “We were dekulakized in November of 1932. One day people came, inventoried our property, even the hemp. Parents knew that there would be dekulakization… But we hoped that this would not happen to us, Because we were not kulaks, we were middle-rich peasants. Also, the father paid the money (2000 karbovanetses) for us to be written as middle-rich peasants in the documents. But the next day people arrived and took everything away from our yard. The case for clothes, which they also carried off, they put it in the village council and sold the clothes from it. People, who were buying them, were from our village, which entered the collective farm. When all the clothes were sold, we were allowed to take the case back. In winter we were left with the empty case and the sack of potatoes.
The highest mortality rate in Melnyky village was in the winter of 1933. More than 180 people died.