Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine by Anne Applebaum

7 reviews

kir1072's review against another edition

challenging dark informative sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Eating disorder, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Deportation

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cursing, Suicide, Antisemitism, and War

yvespiders's review against another edition

Well researched and educational, but my heart couldn't take it when they talked about the effects of famine on children. Very disturbing and heartwrenching 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Cannibalism, and War

dominicangirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Cannibalism

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Deportation

jennifer_vars's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

5.0

"The archival record backs up the testimony of the survivors. Neither crop failure nor bad weather caused the famine in Ukraine. Although the chaos of collectivization helped create the conditions that led to famine, the high numbers of deaths in Ukraine between 1932 and 1934, and especially the spike in the spring of 1933, were not caused directly by collectivization either. Starvation was the result, rather, of the forcible removal of food from people’s homes; the roadblocks that prevented peasants from seeking work or food; the harsh rules of the blacklists imposed on farms and villages; the restrictions on barter and trade; and the vicious propaganda campaign designed to persuade Ukrainians to watch, unmoved, as their neighbours died of hunger."

This is an intense book that took some time to get through. People always say they can't imagine how people sat by while atrocities occurred. This book shows exactly how such things can happen through propaganda, isolationism and fear. The book also illustrates that there are deep wounds still left open in the collective memory of Ukrainians, this knowledge helped me better understand the current crisis. 

It also shows just how complicated history is. Applebaum writes that when the Germans first entered the country, Ukrainians were naive and hopeful. Girls even presented troops with flowers. Can you imagine? So eager they were to escape Stalin's terror and then found themselves in the midst of another.

Estimates range that anywhere between 3-10 million people died during Stalin's famine known as "Holodomor". Ukrainian culture and language was meticulously eviscerated as well during this time and even before all of this, the land has a long history of occupation and conflict. And yet amazingly, Ukraine still exists on the map and continues its fight for independence. Ще не вмерла України і слава, і воля  (The glory and freedom of Ukraine has not yet perished)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

xhelat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Cannibalism, Murder, War, and Classism

srm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Racial slurs, and Antisemitism

annikalula's review against another edition

4.5

I usually don't go for books like this but read it for my Abitur (German high school diploma) as I did a project on the Holodomor and its presentation in media. And BOY this was a tough read!!!! I can say quite confidently that I did not enjoy reading this book. Firstly it is a brick of a book filled with information to its last page which makes it quite hard and exhausting to read and secondly deals with awful contents. However Anne Applebaum did her research so well and actually managed to portray the complex historic events in a relatively accessible way. I've also read a variety of other books on the Holodomor and have to say that it was my favorite- also because it was only published quite recently and contents more accurate information than other books.
However this book is SO important!!! Before reading it I've never heard of the Holodomor let alone its brutality. While working in my project and telling people about it I did not come across a single person who knew what the Holodomor was, I even had to explain it to my history teacher. 
So I hope this book gets even more attention that it already got as the Holodomor probably one of the biggest crimes of the 20th century and the education about it is beyond problematic. Please read it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail