---
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title: "Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine"
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# Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

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Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine [Applebaum, Anne] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

Review: Detailed history of the brutal communist imposed artificial famine which decimated Ukraine - Detailed history of the brutal communist imposed artificial famine which decimated Ukraine This is an excellent book which analyzes how the 1932 – 1933 drought in Ukraine was the result of Soviet policies. It offers detailed records and moving oral histories of life in the Ukraine from 1918 to 1935. The first third of the book is a little dry as it is dealing with places, names and events that I wasn’t familiar with. However, by the time the book starts to describe the campaign against the “kulaks” (small landowners who employed 2 or 3 farmhands) to the brutal collectivization of the early 30s to the forced confiscation of all peasant food stuffs in the winter of 32-33, the story is stunning in its brutality. The Ukraine famine is rarely mentioned in the retelling of brutal 20th century genocides (20th century should probably be known as the “death century”) as the retelling of it would go against the prevailing leftist cultural stranglehold which propagates the idea that socialist/communist societies are magical wonderlands where humanity flourishes. As AOC and Bernie Sanders and a generation of university educated morons assure us that this time the promise of socialism (now rebranded as “democratic “) will magically meet the needs of mankind, this book is a brutal reminder of what power in the hands of ideologically inspired, class conscious, “do gooders” actually looks like. The demonization campaign against the Kulaks reminded me so much of the current cultural currents surrounding straight white CIS men that it was eerie. (From chapter 4 ) "public shaming played an important role in the campaign ……. to who knew them. Silence and terrify everyone. In the atmosphere of hysteria and hatred any criticism of the Communist Party (prevailing liberal ethos) could be used as evidence that the critic was a nationalist, a fascist (or the catch all racist)” Ever wonder why comedians aren’t so funny anymore? “The official dislike of the kobzar and he bandura was no surprise, like court jesters in Shakespeare’s day, they had always expressed impolitic (politically incorrect) thoughts and ideas, sometimes singing of things that could not be spoken. In the heated atmosphere of collectivization, when everyone was in search of enemies, this form of humor—along with the nostalgia was intolerable” After 5 million dead in just over a year, the Soviets yielded and stopped the confiscation of grains. By this time any resistance to the Soviet way was long evaporated. The only thing that remained was to insure the genocide was lost to history. Aided and abetted by such liberal luminaries of our “free” press such as NY Times journalist Walter Duranty, the real facts of this genocide lay hidden for 40 years. The history of the Ukrainian people is tragic and reverberates today. I have a co worker in his mid-20s at work whose family emigrated from Ukraine in the 90s. The other day he happened to ask me if I had read any good books lately. I said I’m reading “Red Famine”. He asked what that was about and I told him it was about the collectivization of the farms in Ukraine and subsequent famine. He said “Oh the famine of 32-33.” For a young kid, born in America to know the dates of that famine, when the typical millennial couldn’t tell you the date of Pearl Harbor, I thought was remarkable. It shows the psychic effect of Socialism 3 generations later. Read this book for the knowledge you will game, your humanity it will touch and use it to inspire you to resist the false promises of state run economies which a segment of our naïve, woefully mis-educated electorate is pushing.
Review: Very Important and Informative Read - I became interested in the book for a number of reasons. One, I studied Stalin many times, two I saw the film “Bitter Harvest” (which I didn’t really like), and three I have heard about this famine reading about Stalin and the Stalinist regime. I was even more curious, especially after this book came out and it was written by the same person who wrote the book on the Gulag. It not only talks about the famine and whether or not the label of “genocide” should go onto it, it explains how complex the history of Ukraine is at the beginning of the book. This was an eye-opener; Ukraine has a history of sharing territory with the Russians, Polish, Germans and Jews. Then everything went to hell during the civil war where the fight between the anarchists, nationalists, Mensheviks, and Bolsheviks fought out. There were bodies piled up on all sides, numerous atrocities and antisemitism was strong in Ukraine. I never knew about this vicious civil war before I read this book. Then Poland gets involved somewhere along the lines, and Western Ukraine became a part of Poland until 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Then they talk briefly about the famine under Lenin. Stalin refused aid for everyone, there were also issues with Ukrainian nationalism and states that there were fears that Ukraine wanted to somehow be another nation, within a nation, or break away from the Soviet Union. This did not suit the Soviet Union well at all. The worse part of the man-made famine lasted from 1932 to 1933. It was devastating to read about and it’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s informative and talks about the consequences of defying the Soviet government, even though none of these people deserved to die. This famine was no accident, the weather had very little to do with it, and it was an atrocity. Anne Applebaum has done some amazing research on this famine, she talks about the current situation in Ukraine and how messy it actually is. It not only talks about more Russians moving to Ukraine after the famine, but also after the death of Stalin! They just kept coming and coming and settling. So now we have a good portion of Ukraine that prefers to speak Ukrainian, and another good portion of Ukraine that prefers to speak Russian. It’s technically a bi-lingual nation, but many would prefer it not to be that way. Besides Ukraine struggling with what language to speak as a main language, it struggles with whether they should adopt Judeo-Christian values (our culture of the West) or keep the Eastern culture. I highly recommend this book for people looking to read about Soviet atrocities.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #39,528 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #14 in Russian History (Books) #166 in European History (Books) #299 in World History (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (2,146) |
| Dimensions  | 5.13 x 1.23 x 7.9 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 0804170886 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-0804170888 |
| Item Weight  | 1.23 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 608 pages |
| Publication date  | September 4, 2018 |
| Publisher  | Vintage |

## Images

![Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71KKGTJ0uIL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Detailed history of the brutal communist imposed artificial famine which decimated Ukraine
*by T***0 on September 5, 2018*

Detailed history of the brutal communist imposed artificial famine which decimated Ukraine This is an excellent book which analyzes how the 1932 – 1933 drought in Ukraine was the result of Soviet policies. It offers detailed records and moving oral histories of life in the Ukraine from 1918 to 1935. The first third of the book is a little dry as it is dealing with places, names and events that I wasn’t familiar with. However, by the time the book starts to describe the campaign against the “kulaks” (small landowners who employed 2 or 3 farmhands) to the brutal collectivization of the early 30s to the forced confiscation of all peasant food stuffs in the winter of 32-33, the story is stunning in its brutality. The Ukraine famine is rarely mentioned in the retelling of brutal 20th century genocides (20th century should probably be known as the “death century”) as the retelling of it would go against the prevailing leftist cultural stranglehold which propagates the idea that socialist/communist societies are magical wonderlands where humanity flourishes. As AOC and Bernie Sanders and a generation of university educated morons assure us that this time the promise of socialism (now rebranded as “democratic “) will magically meet the needs of mankind, this book is a brutal reminder of what power in the hands of ideologically inspired, class conscious, “do gooders” actually looks like. The demonization campaign against the Kulaks reminded me so much of the current cultural currents surrounding straight white CIS men that it was eerie. (From chapter 4 ) "public shaming played an important role in the campaign ……. to who knew them. Silence and terrify everyone. In the atmosphere of hysteria and hatred any criticism of the Communist Party (prevailing liberal ethos) could be used as evidence that the critic was a nationalist, a fascist (or the catch all racist)” Ever wonder why comedians aren’t so funny anymore? “The official dislike of the kobzar and he bandura was no surprise, like court jesters in Shakespeare’s day, they had always expressed impolitic (politically incorrect) thoughts and ideas, sometimes singing of things that could not be spoken. In the heated atmosphere of collectivization, when everyone was in search of enemies, this form of humor—along with the nostalgia was intolerable” After 5 million dead in just over a year, the Soviets yielded and stopped the confiscation of grains. By this time any resistance to the Soviet way was long evaporated. The only thing that remained was to insure the genocide was lost to history. Aided and abetted by such liberal luminaries of our “free” press such as NY Times journalist Walter Duranty, the real facts of this genocide lay hidden for 40 years. The history of the Ukrainian people is tragic and reverberates today. I have a co worker in his mid-20s at work whose family emigrated from Ukraine in the 90s. The other day he happened to ask me if I had read any good books lately. I said I’m reading “Red Famine”. He asked what that was about and I told him it was about the collectivization of the farms in Ukraine and subsequent famine. He said “Oh the famine of 32-33.” For a young kid, born in America to know the dates of that famine, when the typical millennial couldn’t tell you the date of Pearl Harbor, I thought was remarkable. It shows the psychic effect of Socialism 3 generations later. Read this book for the knowledge you will game, your humanity it will touch and use it to inspire you to resist the false promises of state run economies which a segment of our naïve, woefully mis-educated electorate is pushing.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very Important and Informative Read
*by M***6 on May 4, 2018*

I became interested in the book for a number of reasons. One, I studied Stalin many times, two I saw the film “Bitter Harvest” (which I didn’t really like), and three I have heard about this famine reading about Stalin and the Stalinist regime. I was even more curious, especially after this book came out and it was written by the same person who wrote the book on the Gulag. It not only talks about the famine and whether or not the label of “genocide” should go onto it, it explains how complex the history of Ukraine is at the beginning of the book. This was an eye-opener; Ukraine has a history of sharing territory with the Russians, Polish, Germans and Jews. Then everything went to hell during the civil war where the fight between the anarchists, nationalists, Mensheviks, and Bolsheviks fought out. There were bodies piled up on all sides, numerous atrocities and antisemitism was strong in Ukraine. I never knew about this vicious civil war before I read this book. Then Poland gets involved somewhere along the lines, and Western Ukraine became a part of Poland until 1939 when the Soviet Union invaded Poland. Then they talk briefly about the famine under Lenin. Stalin refused aid for everyone, there were also issues with Ukrainian nationalism and states that there were fears that Ukraine wanted to somehow be another nation, within a nation, or break away from the Soviet Union. This did not suit the Soviet Union well at all. The worse part of the man-made famine lasted from 1932 to 1933. It was devastating to read about and it’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s informative and talks about the consequences of defying the Soviet government, even though none of these people deserved to die. This famine was no accident, the weather had very little to do with it, and it was an atrocity. Anne Applebaum has done some amazing research on this famine, she talks about the current situation in Ukraine and how messy it actually is. It not only talks about more Russians moving to Ukraine after the famine, but also after the death of Stalin! They just kept coming and coming and settling. So now we have a good portion of Ukraine that prefers to speak Ukrainian, and another good portion of Ukraine that prefers to speak Russian. It’s technically a bi-lingual nation, but many would prefer it not to be that way. Besides Ukraine struggling with what language to speak as a main language, it struggles with whether they should adopt Judeo-Christian values (our culture of the West) or keep the Eastern culture. I highly recommend this book for people looking to read about Soviet atrocities.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Powerful, if One-Sided, Account of One of History's Greatest Tragedies
*by /***N on February 20, 2023*

"Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine" is a powerful and well-researched book that sheds light on one of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century. Anne Applebaum does an excellent job of outlining the events that led to the famine, as well as the impact that it had on the people of Ukraine. The book is well-written and engaging, and Applebaum's research is extensive. The descriptions of the events leading up to the famine, as well as the famine itself, are detailed and harrowing. The book is a powerful reminder of the human toll of political ideology and the dangers of government overreach. However, the book is somewhat one-sided in its portrayal of the events leading up to the famine. While Applebaum is critical of Stalin and the Soviet government, she places much of the blame for the famine on their policies, and less on the broader historical and economic context that contributed to the crisis. This can lead to a somewhat simplistic view of the events and the causes behind them. Overall, "Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine" is a powerful and important book that sheds light on a little-known chapter of history. While it is somewhat one-sided in its portrayal of the events, it is nonetheless a valuable contribution to the study of Soviet history and the impact of political ideology on ordinary people.

## Frequently Bought Together

- Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine
- Gulag: A History
- Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956

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