Ukraine

This story is based off the Ukraine Famine of the 1930s.

A little historical context for anyone that doesn't know about the Ukraine Famine: Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union. After WWI, Josef Stalin claimed the Soviet Union was ten years behind the rest of the world (namely Europe and America) and wanted to industrialize the Soviet Union (namely Russia). In order to mass industrialize Russia, Stalin needed to feed the gigantic population. All farmers (kulaks) were required to hand their farmland over to the Russian government for public use. Many farmers became angry and resisted, so Stalin ordered mass killings of the farmers who refused, known later as the "liquidation of the kulaks." With no farmers, there was no food, and soon the Soviet Union fell to famine. The famine was especially bad in Ukraine, which (as the anime suggests) was mainly a farming community. It didn't help Ukraine that Stalin shut down it's borders. People were unable to get jobs to support their families and 6-7 million people died as a result before Ukraine finally recovered a little more than a year later.

TRIGGER WARNING: this fic has attempted suicide. Please do not read if this is not your interest.

I don't own anything. All rights to Hetalia's webcomic, Manga publishing, and anime's respective creators and owners.
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Ukraine sat in the middle of the room, numb and mute. Everything around her wilted away like flowers and no matter what she did, her people were dying. Tears pricked her eyes and slid down her crusty cheeks, which were dry from crying so many times. Her stomach hurt. Her arms, which represented her border strength, were broken. Her legs refused to move as she wanted them to. Her throat and neck were hurting, and her hands were cold despite the warm day. Even her toes were stiff and lifeless.

She stayed on the floor until she felt another small pang in her heart. Someone had died. Ukraine drew her hand forwards and crawled to the wall, where she used a nail to scratch marks into the wall. Her tally had reached half a million in less than a month.

What was the point of trying to live? If she meant nothing to anyone else, why did she try to stay alive? She envied her Stan sisters and brothers, who were tightly knit with one another and could easily have helped her. She envied her brothers the Balkens, who, despite their wars in the past, were three best friends. She envied Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Malta, who had more success in their country's survival than she did. Ukraine envied Belarus, who seemed to be the strongest of them all except for Russia. Everyone was doing fine except her.

What was the point of living on?

With slow, weary movements, Ukraine stood up and hobbled around her small house. She tripped multiple times with only her feet getting in her way. Not a crumb existed in her house. Her hunger was reaching its peak. Her country was falling apart. Slowly, she dug through her belongings, searching for anything she could tie together.

Her hands found some rope. Fresh, clean, strong rope. She let out the breath she was holding and a new wave of strength flowed through her veins. With some difficulty, Ukraine dragged a chair she had not eaten yet to the middle of the room and stood on it to reach the ceiling. She wrapped the rope around the beam supports of the house. When that was secure, she tied another loop around her neck.

She looked down at the ground. It seemed so far away, and for a moment, she was afraid to jump. Her mind leapt back to all the good times she had with her siblings. Would they miss her? What about the world? Her life began to flash before her eyes. She thought back to when she first met Canada and how he told her all about the amazing West. She remembered chatting with England and France and listening to their 'petty' arguments, as England called them. America was insane, but a good kind of insane. The two swapped recipes for a few days. China and Japan were interesting, especially when they agreed to disagree. And Australia and New Zealand were comedians.