Podcast: How Stalin Forced Millions Of Ukrainians To Death By Hunger

It is called 'Holodomor'. Borrowing from Holocaust, the term is used to describe the horrific famine that occurred in the Ukraine from 1932 to 1934. It resulted in the deaths of nearly four million people via a series of famines engineered by Joseph Stalin and perpetrated by Soviet officials on the Ukrainian people.

During this tragic and chaotic period (which incidentally occurred in one of the most agriculturally productive areas of Europe), the Ukraine saw not only the destruction of most of its rural and small urban communities but the systemic eradication of much of its culture, which had been in existence for hundreds if not thousands of years. This event therefore became known as the Great Ukraine Famine or the Holodomor, which loosely translates as “to kill by famine”, reflecting a belief among those affected that the Soviet authorities used the destruction and seizure of crops and livestock to eliminate any sense of Ukrainian identity and independence and firmly install communist authority over this fertile and strategic region. (The Irish Times)

The most recent book by the prominent historian Anne Applebaum, titled Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, provides an excellent account of what took place in the acts of genocide sweeping through the Ukraine, linking the brutal past to a very tense present. 

It is a breathtaking account of how the rising Communist utopia under Stalin, who particularly directed his paranoia and brutality at Ukrainians, led to a huge humanitarian catastrophe. We learn also how Stalin falsified documents to keep the famine from being written into history, in a massive attempt at a cover-up.

Applebaum, who has won a Pulitzer Prize, joins FP on a podcast, The ER. Fascinating, but also a chilling conversation.