Gerhard’s bad years kicked off with the worst famine in Russian history, likely up to ten million people perished. I say likely because no one keeps an accurate accounting of what happened or why when it comes to famines. This famine was given a name, Holodomor, which means to inflict death by starvation.[1] The name itself has sparked arguments for generations. Was collectivization forced too quickly? Was it a couple of bad crop years? Were the crop estimates faulty? Administrative bungling? Were the grain quotas too high and were they then forced to give up their seed grain as well? Why were a million of the best farmers and leaders now breaking rocks as kulaks in Siberian exile? Had the “dekulakization” program been too effective? Why hadn’t the government stopped its own grain exports when people were starving in the streets? Why was the famine worst in…
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