Take a photo of a barcode or cover
guybrarian133 's review for:
Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, 1921-1933
by Anne Applebaum
(Note: I received an advanced electronic copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
With a masterful combination of thoroughness, clarity, and employment of interview upon interview upon interview to try and capture the historical moment, Applebaum has created yet another grand work that puts a much-needed spotlight onto almost victims of harsh Soviet policy.
It is of this reader’s opinion that if anything, it’s very arguable that she actually does an even greater service through “Red Famine” than she did with her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Gulag.” While the vast gulag system was no less horrific, it does not suffer from the same combination of an unfortunately effective cover-up that makes it a comparatively little-known tragedy, nor an overly-strong skeptical movement, nor a politically-expedient denialism that is currently far too useful for many at present due to ongoing strife in Eastern Europe. To put it much more succinctly, the Holodomor still doesn’t have the widespread recognition that it deserves. Such is why Applebaum’s latest work is such an invaluable and powerful new means of spreading a vastly-needed awareness of the horrifically-avoidable famine that so ravaged Ukraine in the early 1930’s and needlessly took so many lives.
With a masterful combination of thoroughness, clarity, and employment of interview upon interview upon interview to try and capture the historical moment, Applebaum has created yet another grand work that puts a much-needed spotlight onto almost victims of harsh Soviet policy.
It is of this reader’s opinion that if anything, it’s very arguable that she actually does an even greater service through “Red Famine” than she did with her Pulitzer Prize-winning “Gulag.” While the vast gulag system was no less horrific, it does not suffer from the same combination of an unfortunately effective cover-up that makes it a comparatively little-known tragedy, nor an overly-strong skeptical movement, nor a politically-expedient denialism that is currently far too useful for many at present due to ongoing strife in Eastern Europe. To put it much more succinctly, the Holodomor still doesn’t have the widespread recognition that it deserves. Such is why Applebaum’s latest work is such an invaluable and powerful new means of spreading a vastly-needed awareness of the horrifically-avoidable famine that so ravaged Ukraine in the early 1930’s and needlessly took so many lives.