jillianodonohoe 's review for:

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933 by Anne Applebaum

5.0

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This isn’t an easy read, obviously in terms of its subject matter but also the density of the reporting included. But in that, Applebaum creates quite the definitive account of Soviet occupation of Ukraine in the first half of the twentieth century. The link to the war presently launched by Russia in Ukraine is clear. Perhaps the reason why Vladimir Putin is hellbent on controlling Ukraine has been modernized, he has still learned from Stalin’s regime and uses the same tactics for brutal suppression. While I’m not sure the world has completely learned the lessons of the Holodomor (how could do many people be so naïve to a government’s propensity for evil? Or how could politics be considered a legitimate argument deterring interference?), I think the West has largely learned the Soviet playbook, and Putin is obviously butthurt that we all know what a sensitive, small man he is.