Review: Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

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.

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