Famine devastated Ukraine in the 1930s not merely as the result of terrible policy, but out of political malice. Anne Applebaum explores the history in Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. She examines the years leading up to the famine, the Bolsheviks’ disdain for peasants and Ukrainians in particular, the efforts to destroy Ukraine’s intellectual class, agricultural collectivization’s failures, the dehumanizing use of the term “kulak,” the pitting of neighbors against each other, activists’ efforts to keep starving families from obtaining food, the soul-crushing effects of starvation, the political cover-up of the famine, and even some more recent Ukrainian history (before the current war, though, as the book was published in 2017).
Thank you for bringing light to this horrible crime against Ukrainians. It points out the very long historical struggle Ukraine has wages against larger powers trying to control them. Ukrainians resisting Russian domination and Russia denying the existence of Ukrainians is nothing new.
Stalin routinely would starve peasants to feed factory workers.
Of course I suppose the main culprit of the famine was the forced collectivization of farms. The thing is every time communist countries have done this they failed to produce more food because they ignored the mechanisms that got food from the agricultural regions into the industrial ones.
Stalin wanted to industrialize the USSR and to do this the nation needed to produce way more food. One of the main reasons why the collectivization failed was the adoption of the total crank science of Trofim Lysenko who has to be right up there with Stalin himself as one of the greatest villains of Soviet history.
This guy rejected and dismantled long proven genetic science and applied Marxism onto PLANTS. Not only did he contribute to famines in the Soviet Union but the Chinese adopted his theories in their own collectivization project and this led to something like 15 million deaths.
I liked his article focusing on how horrible the starvation was and how calus Stalin was downplaying it to essentially save face(which happens frequently in autocracies.)
I just always want to mention one of history's most enraging idiots in Lysinko. It would actually be funny he was so incompetent if he did not actually indirectly kill millions of people. Marxism is already dumb in practice trying to apply that practice to plants is so insane or really highlights just how dumb Stalin was for believing this.
Stalin sometimes gets begrudging credit for industrializing the USSR at a very fast pace. He shouldn't get credit because he did it so incredibly poorly and many people would have rather stayed with the old system which is saying something because the old system in Russia and much of the USSR was also horrible.
Thank you for bringing light to this horrible crime against Ukrainians. It points out the very long historical struggle Ukraine has wages against larger powers trying to control them. Ukrainians resisting Russian domination and Russia denying the existence of Ukrainians is nothing new.
Stalin routinely would starve peasants to feed factory workers.
Of course I suppose the main culprit of the famine was the forced collectivization of farms. The thing is every time communist countries have done this they failed to produce more food because they ignored the mechanisms that got food from the agricultural regions into the industrial ones.
Stalin wanted to industrialize the USSR and to do this the nation needed to produce way more food. One of the main reasons why the collectivization failed was the adoption of the total crank science of Trofim Lysenko who has to be right up there with Stalin himself as one of the greatest villains of Soviet history.
This guy rejected and dismantled long proven genetic science and applied Marxism onto PLANTS. Not only did he contribute to famines in the Soviet Union but the Chinese adopted his theories in their own collectivization project and this led to something like 15 million deaths.
Appreciations for your comment, Kenny! Daniel's history book posts are so valuable and I really appreciate his contributions tremendously!
I liked his article focusing on how horrible the starvation was and how calus Stalin was downplaying it to essentially save face(which happens frequently in autocracies.)
I just always want to mention one of history's most enraging idiots in Lysinko. It would actually be funny he was so incompetent if he did not actually indirectly kill millions of people. Marxism is already dumb in practice trying to apply that practice to plants is so insane or really highlights just how dumb Stalin was for believing this.
Stalin sometimes gets begrudging credit for industrializing the USSR at a very fast pace. He shouldn't get credit because he did it so incredibly poorly and many people would have rather stayed with the old system which is saying something because the old system in Russia and much of the USSR was also horrible.
Thanks, Kenneth! And your comment reminds me that I need to read more about Chinese history as well.