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Red Famine
- Stalin's War on Ukraine
- Narrated by: Patricia Rodriguez
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
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Red Famine
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Summary
The momentous new book from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gulag and Iron Curtain.
In 1932-33, nearly four million Ukrainians died of starvation, having been deliberately deprived of food. It is one of the most devastating episodes in the history of the 20th century. With unprecedented authority and detail, Red Famine investigates how this happened, who was responsible and what the consequences were. It is the fullest account yet published of these terrible events.
The book draws on a mass of archival material and firsthand testimony available only since the end of the Soviet Union, as well as the work of Ukrainian scholars all over the world. It includes accounts of the famine by those who survived it, describing what human beings can do when driven mad by hunger. It shows how the Soviet state ruthlessly used propaganda to turn neighbours against each other in order to expunge supposedly 'antirevolutionary' elements. It also records the actions of extraordinary individuals who did all they could to relieve the suffering.
The famine was rapidly followed by an attack on Ukraine's cultural and political leadership - and then by a denial that it had ever happened at all. Census reports were falsified and memory suppressed. Some Western journalists shamelessly swallowed the Soviet line; others bravely rejected it and were undermined and harassed. The Soviet authorities were determined not only that Ukraine should abandon its national aspirations but that the country's true history should be buried along with its millions of victims.
Red Famine, a triumph of scholarship and human sympathy, is a milestone in the recovery of those memories and that history. At a moment of crisis between Russia and Ukraine, it also shows how far the present is shaped by the past.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- I. A. Wright
- 09-08-19
Eye-opening and very scary
This book reveals the horrors of the Moscow-planned famines in Ukraine and the other Soviet actions to destroy Ukrainian society.
Something too briefly mentioned is that, because of their treatment by the Communists, some Ukrainians fought for the Nazis against the Soviet forces but, when they realised what the Nazis intended, set up as Partisans, attacking both the Soviets and the Nazis.
Red Famine is really worth reading/listening to. The narrator performs excellently.
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6 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jw Heaton Armstrong
- 15-06-22
Excellent
Devastating but essential coverage of Ukraine’s history. A warning from the past. Long live the fighters.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Micheál Scott
- 27-09-23
Great book
As someone else has already said, if you're unclear for the reasons of the current Russian war being waged in Ukraine, you really should read this book. Applebaum did an amazing job in pulling the information together but unfortunately as regards the narrator, the lady was eloquently clear & perfect - for anything other than this weighty subject. And honestly, if I hear the name of Mos-COW again I will absolutely FFFREAK OUT!!!! Tbh after hearing her pronunciation of Mos-COW a couple a thousand times, it got way past annoying.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Enduro Girl
- 25-05-22
exceptional and heartbreaking
compulsory listening, scholarly and impassioned. resonances with the current Russian War against Ukraine are terrifying.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Spook
- 18-02-23
The Terrible Price of Freedom
Freedom comes at a very high cost. This book, superbly detailed and researched, explains all too clearly why it is so vital for the West to support Ukraine and ensure that the tyranny of Putin fails to take root. The famine in Ukraine in 1923 and the government’s attempts to conceal this tragedy, bear testimony to what can happen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- scott r cook
- 27-08-23
Slava Ukraine 🇺🇦
If people in the west do not understand the war in Ukraine read this book as it will be a real eye opener to what Ukraine has had to go through under Soviet and Russian harm,hurt and sacrifice.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- DA
- 06-12-23
The inhumanity of humanity!
A scary account detailing the insane cruelty people are capable of inflicting on their fellow man.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- John
- 12-08-19
Chilling
This book is a warning from history of the dangers of communism, too few people nowadays know of this history. An important book.
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7 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 15-04-22
Terrifying story told and narrated with precision
I listenened to this as I lay in bed with Covid. Indispensable listening at a time like this. Applebaum's prose is powerfully simple and the narration had a steely lucidity to match
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- DC
- 20-07-19
not easy to engage
I lasted into the preface. The prose was lumpy and repetitive. Key phrases were overused and that was just the preface.
I just know i wouldn't have lasted much longer. What with the combo of that and the Narration it wasn't easy to engage with this important book.
The narration lacked the gravitas required, with little or no cadence to emphasize what was happening. It couldnt have been easy with that script however.
If only we could bring back Laurence Olivier, he could bring historical solemnity and grandeur to reading a shopping list.
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2 people found this helpful