Red Famine

"There was a Soviet famine...but within that broader story there is something specific about what happens in Ukraine and it seems to be because of Stalin's particular phobia of what's going on there."

In this episode, Alexandra Vacroux interviews Anne Applebaum about her latest book, Red Famine. In it, Applebaum argues that the 1932-1933 famine in the Soviet Union was part of a deliberate operation by Stalin to rid the USSR of Ukrainians who resisted the Bolsheviks and their policy of agricutural collectivization.

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Referenced in this Episode

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine

More books by Anne Applebaum

Alexandra Vacroux

Executive Director, Davis Center (On Leave 2024-2025); Vice President for Strategic Engagement, Kyiv School of Economics

Alexandra Vacroux is the Davis Center's executive director, on leave for the 2024-2025 academic year. She is also vice president for strategic engagement at the Kyiv School of Economics.

Anne Applebaum

Staff Writer, The Atlantic