Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine

 

Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum

This is quite possibly the most depressing book that I have ever read.  It was a very good, well researched book, but oh was it depressing. 

Most are at least vaguely aware of many of the terrors inflicted by Joseph Stalin and/or Adolph Hitler during the 1930s. Most are familiar with the fact that several million innocent people were killed by the hands of these megalomaniac brutal dictators.  What many don’t know, probably because they can’t stomach it, is just how detailed the suffering of the innocents actually was.  Often when I don’t enjoy a particular book, I find myself skimming through some of the more boring sections.  I had to skim my way through parts of this book, but for an entirely different reason.  The reason in this case was that I simply couldn’t stomach the detail that the author went through when describing many aspects of the particular calamity including the barbaric human suffering.

When Lenin and his lunatic-fringe Bolsheviks took over Russia near the tail end of World War I, it wasn’t long before the citizenry realized that they had been duped. All the promises of the glorious reign of the proletariat under communism was indeed a farce.  The problem is, when the masses are weak, hungry, disorganized, and ill-informed, they’re not in any position to put up much of a fight.  Many areas of what would soon be known as the U.S.S.R. were affected, some worse than others.  Probably none worse than a colony of the U.S.S.R. known back then as “The” Ukraine.

The Ukraine was mostly a rural area of farming communities in the unsophisticated part of Eastern Europe. Once the Bolsheviks came into power, they essentially ramroded the subjugated colony and forcibly imposed collectivization of the agricultural area. Without going into detail, this never worked, but those in charge never like to admit that they’re wrong. So rather than take a step back and reevaluate, those in power dig their heels in and blame everyone but themselves.  This causes starvation amongst many other problems.  As the decade of the 1920’s progresses, reforms are slowly made.  Then, Joseph Stalin succeeds Lenin as the Communist ruler of the U.S.S.R. and things go from very very bad, to somehow even worse.  All reforms in place or in the works for The Ukraine are essentially halted.

So the 1930s, which is where the bulk of this book takes place, ends up being one of the worst places in history for Ukrainians who want nothing more than to live in peace and enjoy the fruits (and vegetables) of their labors. Life in The Ukraine becomes a living hell.  There is no food for anyone.  All food that is produced is basically confiscated. Things are so bad that when authorities DO find people who aren’t starving, they assume they must be stealing the food meant for mother Russia, so they’re either arrested and sent to Siberia or the Gulag, or simply executed on sight.  This disastrous even would soon be known as “The Holodomor”.  Look it up.

The author then spends two brutal, but necessary chapters, describing in immaculate detail the suffering of the peasants.  This is the part of the book that I literally couldn’t stomach and had to skim through.  We read about how a starved human body deteriorates slowly into death, as well as the most atrocious things imagined that these poor people must eat in order to survive.  All because of a deranged psychopathic leader with a highly misguided ideology.  Today’s populace could benefit from reading of such travails when they moan about the fact that their local grocery store runs out of eggs for a week during a winter storm.

Obviously, the U.S.S.R. is trying to cover up all of these maladies.  They have no problem starving the people to death. They WANT them to starve to death. That’ll teach them to submit.  So no outside help (unlike post World War I) is accepted, nor really offered.  There are a few brave journalists who try very hard to leak the stories to the Western world, but this isn’t easy.  When the selected stories do safely make it out of the country, the vast majority of the world simply refuses to believe most of it.  In fact, the most famous journalists who end up being the most believed falsely claim that “Yes, the people are hungry, but they’re NOT starving”.

Once World War II enters the picture, the emaciated populace embraces their German invaders. Well, based on what we know about Germany in World War II, let’s just say that nothing got better. In fact, if it’s possible for things to get worse, they did in fact manage just that.  Finally after Stalin’s death in 1953, things do somewhat slowly return to normal, but there’s now a “cover up” in place.  The U.S.S.R. is still too proud to admit they’re wrong about anything, so most of the world knows nothing of the travesty that recently occurred.

The author then sadly brings us up to the current time period (around the first decade of the 21^st century) and reveals to us that it has only been very recently that the truth is now coming to light about the millions who were mercilessly starved or slaughtered. She then tells us that there’s still quite a handful of Russians who continue to deny the whole event.

So, yes, if you really want to read about just how horrible the U.S.S.R. was during the 1930s under Joseph Stalin, this book would be a good place to start. There were many aspects of human suffering during this time period, but this particular account was one of the worst.  It’s a brutal read though.  History can be ugly.