A Scholarly Consensus
An oft-repeated argument by those sympathetic to Stalin and the Soviet Union is that there is a consensus regarding the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 that concludes that starvation and mass death were the result of poor harvests, inclement weather, drought, and/or “kulak resistance” to collectivisation. Implicit in this argument is that the leadership of the Soviet Union was not to blame for deaths resulting from starvation.
Below is a list of texts that counter this view and speak to the pivotal role played by Joseph Stalin and Soviet leadership in causing mass death due to starvation in Ukraine during the years 1932 and 1933.
It must be noted that not all of these works present the famine as an act of genocide—although, a considerable number of them do. Of those that do not claim genocide, some variation of the term “man-made famine” is employed in the majority of cases.
In instances where a text does not use the term “man-made” or its derivatives, the culpability of Joseph Stalin and Soviet leadership is made abundantly clear. An example of such a text is The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933, by R.W Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft. While Davies and Wheatcroft are of the opinion that certain historical and natural forces played a role in the famine, they acknowledge that this does not "absolve Stalin from responsibility for the famine" and that his policies were both “ruthless and brutal”. That The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933 is often cited by Stalinists or those whose sympathies lie with the USSR as evidence that Soviet leadership was free from any responsibility is representative of a dire misreading of the text.
This is in no way an exhaustive list and may be added to over time.
Applebaum, Anne. Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine. Doubleday, 2017.
- - -. Gulag: A History. Anchor Books, 2004.
Ball, Howard. Genocide: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO, 2011.
Bednarek, Jerzy, et al. Holodomor: The Great Famine in Ukraine, 1932-1933. Institute of National Remembrance of Poland and National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2009.
Bloxham, Donald and A. Dirk Moses, editors. The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford University Press, 2010.
Brown, Archie. The Rise and Fall of Communism. Ecco, 2009.
Bullock, Alan. Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. Knopf, 1992.
Carmichael, Cathie. Genocide Before the Holocaust. Yale University Press, 2009.
Carynnyk, Marco, et al. The Foreign Office and the Famine: British Documents on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine. Limestone Press, 1988.
Charny, Israel W., editor. Encyclopedia of Genocide, Volume I, A-H. ABC-CLIO, 1999.
Chorbajian, Levan and George Shirinian, editors. Studies in Comparative Genocide. Macmillan, 1999.
Cipko, Serge. Starving Ukraine, The Holodomor and Canada’s Response. University of Regina Press, 2017.
Curran, Declan, et al. Famines in European Economic History: The Last Great European Famines Reconsidered. Routledge, 2015.
Davies, R.W., and Stephen G. Wheatcroft. The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933. 2004. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
Dolot, Miron. Execution by Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust. W. W. Norton & Company, 1985.
Fitzpatrick, Sheila. Stalin’s Peasants. Oxford University Press, 1994.
Gamache, Ray. Gareth Jones: Eyewitness to the Holodomor. Welsh Academic Press, 2018.
Getty, J. Arch and Oleg V. Naumov. The Road to Terror: Stalin and the Self-Destruction of the Bolsheviks, 1932—1939. Yale University Press, 1999.
Graziosi, Andrea, and Frank Sysyn, editors. Communism and Hunger: The Ukrainian, Chinese, Kazakh and Soviet Famines in Comparative Perspective. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2016.
Jones, Adam. Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge, 2017.
Kiernan, Ben. Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur. Yale University Press, 2007.
Kershaw, Ian. To Hell and Back: Europe, 1914-1949. Viking, 2015.
Klid, Bohdan, and Alexander J. Motyl, editors. The Holodomor Reader: A Sourcebook on the Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2012.
Kotkin, Stephen. Stalin: Waiting for Hitler, 1929–1941. Penguin Press, 2017.
Krawchenko, Bohdan, and Roman Serbyn, editors. Famine in Ukraine 1932-1933. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 1986.
Kulchytsky, Stanislav. The Famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine: An Anatomy of the Holodomor. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, 2018
Leshuk, Leonard, editor. Days of Famine, Nights of Terror: Firsthand Accounts of Soviet Collectivization, 1928-1934. Europa University Press, 2000.
Liber, George O. Total Wars and the Making of Modern Ukraine, 1914-1954. University of Toronto Press, 2016.
- - -. Soviet Nationality Policy, Urban Growth, and Identity Change in the Ukrainian SSR 1923-1934. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Luciuk, Lubomyr, editor. Holodomor: Reflections on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine. Kashtan Press, 2008.
Malko, Victoria A., editor. Women and the Holodomor Genocide: Victims, Survivors, Perpetrators. The Press at State University of California, 2019.
Marchak, Patricia. Reigns of Terror. McGill-Queen's University Press, 2003.
McCauley, Martin. Stalin and Stalinism. 1983. Routledge, 2008.
McVay, Athanasius D., and Lubomyr Y. Luciuk, editors. The Holy See and the Holodomor: Documents from the Vatican Secret Archives on the Great Famine of 1932-1933 in Soviet Ukraine. Kashtan Press, 2001.
Midlarsky, Manus I. The Killing Trap: Genocide in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge University Press, 2005.
Morris, M. Wayne. Stalin’s Famine and Roosevelt’s Recognition of Russia. University Press of America, 1994.
Naimark, Norman M. Stalin’s Genocides. Princeton University Press, 2010.
Noack, Christian, et al. Holodomor and Gorta Mór: Histories, Memories and Representations of Famine in Ukraine and Ireland. Anthem Press, 2014.
Osherowitch, Mendel. How People Live in Soviet Russia: Impressions from a Journey. Translated by Sharon Power, edited by Lubomyr Y. Luciuk. Kashtan Press, 2020.
Paris, Erna. Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History. Bloomsbury, 2001.
Pauley, Bruce F. Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini: Totalitarianism in the Twentieth Century. 1997. Harlan Davidson, 2003.
Plokhy, Serhii. The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine. Basic Books, 2015.
Provost, René and Payam Akhavan, editors. Confronting Genocide. Springer, 2011.
Rees, E.A. The Nature of Stalin’s Dictatorship: The Politburo, 1924–1953. Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
Rees, Laurance. Hitler and Stalin: The Tyrants and the Second World War. Public Affairs, 2021.
Reid, Anna. Borderland: A Journey Through the History of Ukraine. Basic Books. 2015.
Rummel, R.J. Death by Government. Transaction, 1994.
- - -. Lethal Politics: Soviet Genocide and Mass Murder Since 1917. Routledge, 2017.
Sebag-Montefiore, Simon. Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003.
Service, Robert. Comrades: A History of World Communism. Harvard University Press, 2007.
Shelton, Dinah L., editor. Encyclopaedia of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. Thomson Gale, 2005.
Snyder, Timothy. Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin. Basic Books, 2010.
Subtelny, Orest. Ukraine: A History. 1988. University of Toronto Press, 2000.
Springer, Jane. Genocide. Groundwood Books, 2006.
Stone, Dan, editor. The Historiography of Genocide. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
Travis, Hannibal. “The International Arms Trade and the Prevention of Genocide: The Law and Practice of Arming Genocidal Governments.” Impediments to the Prevention and Intervention of Genocide. Transaction, 2013
Valentino, Benjamin A. Final Solutions: Mass Killings and Genocide in the Twnetieth Century. Cornell University Press, 2004.
Van den Berghe, Pierre L., editor. State Violence and Ethnicity. Colorado University Press, 1990.
Waller, James. Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Totten, Samuel and William S. Parsons, editors. Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts. 2004. Routledge, 2013.
- - - and Paul R. Bartrop. Dictionary of Genocide Vol. 1 & 2. Greenwood Press, 2008.