Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a feat of research and writing about Ukraine in the 1930s, and
how Stalin's policies intentionally targeted Ukrainians, resulting in
widespread famine and what many consider genocide. From collectivization
to dekulakization, the author shows how Ukraine was stripped of its
resources and culture and then punished further for not being able to
provide more. I was shocked this time period is still highly
debated/contested - largely by the Russian government - well shocked
might be too strong of a word, after all Putin borrows from Stalin in
categorizing Ukrainians as Nazis in order to justify his decisions.
For
my tastes, there are so many names and so many details that the reading
was sometimes a slog. However I don't know how the author could have
written it without those details since she has done so well pulling them
all together. I just don't read a lot of history.
This is one
of the books I selected for the non-fiction quarter of Reading Envy
Russia (#readingenvyrussia) - April was month 1 so you can still join in
with 2 more months of non-fiction reading to go.
View all my reviews
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