Red Famine

Earlier this year I read The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh. This was a fiction story told from three perspectives about the famine in Ukraine. Fascinated by the tales described in the book, I wanted to know more, so I decided to listen to Red Famine. I had always known that Stalin was often considered more horrible than Hitler, but I never knew to what exact extent. This book opened my eyes to the horrors of Stalin and his five-year plan, as well as the terrible consequences that would last for generations and would affect Ukraine's relationship with Russia up to today.

The best aspect of this book is Applebaum's writing. She is able to deliver to you the horrors that people experienced in such a way that you feel as though you are right there with them, and you understand, through her numerous examples, how people suffered. What surprised me was how she was able to juggle the different stories and examples without getting the reader lost as to what was going on overall. We have people who starved to death, as well as those who were driven to madness, and those who were driven to murder their friends and family for some grain from Soviet officials. All of this is told in such a way that the author gives maximum impact to each small tale, delivering an overall book that will last with you if for no other reason than it describes how things can so quickly spiral out of control, and how a whole country can descend into chaos. This made the book difficult to read in the best way. This book is to be slowly read, as you consider not only the horrifying events themselves but also what lead up to these events.

And Applebaum does include a copious amount of background info. Almost half the book is made up of a description of Ukraine and how it had fought for independence in a failed Revolution, as well as the Russian Revolution in general. This part of the book could have been written better. What annoys me is I cannot explain why. Maybe it was because the connective tissue linking all of these events together is mostly left up to the reader, but for me, this was the part that dragged the most.

Still, I wouldn't let that scare you, as this book is overall very well done. It offers a personal look into the famine of Ukraine as well as expands on the issues linking this event to the current conflict surrounding Russia and Ukraine. I give this book a three out of five.

This is a difficult book to review. Not because it is hard to read, but because of the information given. This book is a history of state sponsored genocide (broadly defined) and famine. It covers some of the reasons for the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

The Holodomor (as it is known) is little known in the West. The reason for this is because of the lack of information at the time (early and mid-1930s) and the cover-up by both the Soviet government as well as Western politicians and media who wanted to side with the Soviets against Hitler, admired the new communist government, or just did not want to be involved.

The scars are so deep that the results are still being shown today. The Ukrainians government is corrupt and the institutions are not trusted. The Russians still re-write history to lessen or negate any blame they might fall under. Many of their institutions are direct descendants of those that carried out the orders and atrocities against the people of Ukraine. Sides are still polarized and might be for generations to come.

The Soviets/Bolsheviks were a minority of the Russian people that came to power through violence and propaganda. They maintained that power through violence and propaganda. Ukraine was one who suffered, probably more than most during this time. To push forward their agenda (the Soviet ideology and their collectivization program) the people were stripped of their belongings (farm equipment, farm animals, seeds), their institutions (government and religious), and later (as the famine spread) their food. All this was done as the Soviet Union exported grain and other food stuff to other parts of the world as their own people starved

This books paints a very vivid picture of death by starvation from adult to young children. It also tells of the disposal of the dead that resulted from the strict ideological beliefs of those in charge. Anyone who voiced displeasure of what was happening was labeled subversive or enemy of the state and was imprisoned or killed. The lucky ones seemed to have been killed quickly. The unlucky ones seemed to have slowly starved.

This is a time of history that should be remembered. Even though it is hard to face. The more we know, hopefully the less likely we are to repeat it.