Red Famine

Stalin's War on Ukraine

By: Anne Applebaum

Narrated by: Suzanne Toren

Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gulag and the National Book Award finalist Iron Curtain, a revelatory history of one of Stalin's greatest crimes - the consequences of which still resonate today.

In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem. In Red Famine, Anne Applebaum argues that more than three million of those dead were Ukrainians who perished not because they were accidental victims of a bad policy but because the state deliberately set out to kill them.

Applebaum proves what has long been suspected: After a series of rebellions unsettled the province, Stalin set out to destroy the Ukrainian peasantry. The state sealed the republic's borders and seized all available food. Starvation set in rapidly, and people ate anything: grass, tree bark, dogs, corpses. In some cases they killed one another for food. Devastating and definitive, Red Famine captures the horror of ordinary people struggling to survive extraordinary evil.

Today, Russia, the successor to the Soviet Union, has placed Ukrainian independence in its sights once more. Applebaum's compulsive narrative recalls one of the worst crimes of the 20th century and shows how it may foreshadow a new threat to the political order in the 21st.

©2017 Anne Applebaum (P)2017 Random House Audio

Shocking inhumanity

Well researched and easy to follow. The evils of Stalin and Soviet Russia are detailed in this focused looked at the Stalin-caused Ukraine famine of 1930 to 1931.

The USSR or Russia, it means the same thing: Evil

Whether you call it the USSR or Russia, it means the same thing: Evil. General Patton was correct. We should have armed the German military and turned on the USSR. With our 4 engine long range bombers we could have taken Moscow and destroyed the communists once and for all. If you read this book you'll know why I feel that way. Excellent book.

Essential for Understanding Communism/Marxism

This is a vitally important historical book. It is an in depth look at the ferocity and evil of communism, and particularly Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union and how it specifically and directly affected the Ukraine. It goes into detail the horrors and anguish of what starvation does to the body and mind. It also painstakingly depicts the tactics used by the Communists to turn countryman against countryman and have them do their murderous bidding.

An uncomfortably detailed description of just one chapter in the history of the most evil ideology in the history of mankind and the absolute destruction it left in it's wake.

Overall great

Well being in an AP European studies class where Eastern Europe was barely touched this was very captivating to learn about the affects of communism on another front. Also even though the narrator is monotone the pronunciation of the foreign words and names sounds really spot on. Overall it was very informational and is a good read to both read on and off or on a total binge

Well researched and presented

I have read a lot of holomodor research books and find this one to be excellent thorough and well referenced. I would unhesitatingly recommend it to anyone who want more information on this period in Ukrainian history.

Highly informative

Well written. Quickly caught me up on a part of history I was unfamiliar with. Well narrated. Highly recommended and highly relevant considering the Ukraine War.

A Light on Red Blight

Great coverage of a history I knew so little about. It helped me understand how such a thing could be carried out and the freedoms needed to prevent it.

A thorough view into Stalin's regime in Ukraine

Anne Applebaum’s book Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine gives a thorough view into a very tragic moment in the history of Ukraine and its people. The story of famine in Ukraine is presented in this book in the context of historical events that took place during 1917-1930th. Without understanding of what was happening in Ukraine in the post-revolutionary and during the civil war years in the beginning of the 20 century, the whole account of the man-made famine, deliberately aiming to destroy one nation or one class of a nation (the peasants), would be hard to believe. Applebaum made this story to speak for itself by bringing to the light archive materials, personal stories and pictures that undeniably prove the existence of the state-created and successfully executed by the communist regime famine in Ukraine that still hunts the country down in present time.
Destruction of the national political elite (arrests and killing of the national leaders), removal of the active peasants (“dekulakization" and massive deportations of Ukrainians from their land) created the political vacuum in towns and subdued the rather stubborn national movement in the countryside. Banning the Ukrainian language, literature, music, cultural and spiritual rites and customs (churches, holidays, social structure in villages, council of the elderly) effectively depressed the national identity of Ukrainians. Destruction of the established free market system, collectivization and following confiscation of the land, machinery and livestock, removal of grain (prodrazverstka) and the ultimate removal of all grain and food (preserved as a seed or for the personal consumption) led to the catastrophic events in 1932-1933. All of that can be associated with the humanitarian crisis deliberately created in order to subdue the once proud and free willing people into slavery and obedience to the regime. As a result, people started to distrust the state and the fellow villagers, became indifferent and mostly hostile to the collective farms that in turn caused the diminishing production of grain and other farm products. The deepest human vices were unleashed: impunity of the members of the ruling party started to flourish, killing fellow villagers in order to obtain their possessions or even some food, became new norm. In the once rich and prosperous land, diseases and starvation spread rapidly leading to death of both the weak and strong.
As a child of the soviet time, I was raised on the beliefs about the internal and external enemies of the Soviet motherland that we had to uncover and fight by any means. Total propaganda... My grandparents, who survived to see me grow, were reluctant to tell me anything about that time. But I always sensed some distrust and even fear to the state or to strangers. Either during family gatherings or while listening people talk at a store on a countryside or in a farm (kolkhoz), one would never speak openly about any complains or injustice in the society.
The Red Famine book, though in a highly emotional tone, helped me to place that tragic period of time deep in my heart. It helped me to understand what circumstances shaped the people who were born in the early 20th and late 30th of the 20th century. Now I deeply regret I haven't asked enough questions to the survivors of the holodomor. Once you’ve read about the Stalin created famine in Ukraine, this part of the human history could not be forgotten or ignored.
I hope this book is translated to both Ukrainian and Russian language. It would be a great addition to the already existed score of this events.

A political anecdote from the 1980s:
A grain collection officer: the people of Ukraine are crying that there is no more food left.
Stalin: if they cry, they still have some left to part with. Proceed as I said until they start to laugh.

The Holodomor was Awful

If you have never heard of word Holodomor, stop reading this review right now and browse a couple of articles. It is the worst genocide that most people didn't know happened, for reasons outlined in the book. This book is not a fun read, in fact some of it will probably give me actual nightmares, but it is necessary to understanding the true evil that was the Soviet Union. Pair this with the Gulag Archipelago and you will see why the citchey teens wearing the sickle and hammer are every bit as awful as those who wear swastikas.

a must listen/read for everything

if you want to know more about current events all you have to do is learn about the past. this was very eye opening.