- Paperback: 411 pages
- Publisher: OUP Australia and New Zealand; Reprint edition (1 Nov 1987)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195051807
- ISBN-13: 978-0195051803
- Product Dimensions: 14.2 x 21.3 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 748,561 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Synopsis
A reconstruction of the causes, circumstances, and consequences of Stalin's forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture details the fate of villages and individuals.
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First Sentence
At the beginning of 1927, the Soviet peasant, whether Russian, Ukrainian, or of other nationality, had good reason to look forward to a tolerable future. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
At the beginning of 1927, the Soviet peasant, whether Russian, Ukrainian, or of other nationality, had good reason to look forward to a tolerable future. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
One of the many names that have justifiably been applied to Joseph Stalin is Hunger Tsar. Nevertheless, it is well to be reminded, and this book does not fail to do so, that famine was far from unknown in Russia and the other countries that became the Soviet Union before the Soviets took over, also that the Holodomor, or Terror-Famine, of 1932-33 was not the first famine of the Soviet period. However, the 1932-33 famine was characterised not only by being 'the big one' but by being a deliberate punitive measure against the peasantry, not simply the unfortunate result of weather and other circumstances. Stalin put in place the policies that brought about the famine, and even though some doubt might remain as to whether he originally intended the death of 20-25 per cent of those living in the affected areas (up to 100 per cent in some villages), it is established as fact that the result of the policies was brought to his attention before it was altogether too late, and that he remained resolute in their application.
Hardest hit were the grain growing areas of Ukraine and the Don and Kuban areas of Russia. Three million is a minimum estimate of those who died, plus a further million associated with collectivisation of the nomadic farmers of Kazakhstan, plus several hundred thousand 'Kulaks' shot or deported (often with their families) to Siberia, dying there. Historians continue to argue about whether the action constituted genocide - Ukrainian nationalism may have been a subsidiary target, and if the action was aimed at the peasantry as a group that too would constitute genocide by the UN definition - but there is no question that it was mass murder.
This 1986 study was a pioneer in the field. It is very thorough and remains relevant and useful. The Soviet archives remained classified at the time, so Robert Conquest did not have access to them. Neither was he able to travel in the affected areas, speaking freely with survivors and those who knew survivors as their parents or grandparents. It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that he seems not to have missed anything of great relevance. At the time there were gaps in the Soviet census data, and some had been deliberately falsified. Today's historians consider Conquest's estimates of deaths excessive (he says five million in Ukraine alone), but that does not invalidate the book as a whole, nor detract from the fact that the death toll - of which we shall never be certain - was horrifically large. The conditions suffered by those who survived as well as those who died were also in themselves a crime against humanity.
This book is for those who want a detailed account and many references. Briefer and more recent coverage of the same subject matter can be found in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin and Andrea Graziosi's The Great Soviet Peasant War: Bolsheviks and Peasants, 1917-33, both of which can be recommended in their own right.
Hardest hit were the grain growing areas of Ukraine and the Don and Kuban areas of Russia. Three million is a minimum estimate of those who died, plus a further million associated with collectivisation of the nomadic farmers of Kazakhstan, plus several hundred thousand 'Kulaks' shot or deported (often with their families) to Siberia, dying there. Historians continue to argue about whether the action constituted genocide - Ukrainian nationalism may have been a subsidiary target, and if the action was aimed at the peasantry as a group that too would constitute genocide by the UN definition - but there is no question that it was mass murder.
This 1986 study was a pioneer in the field. It is very thorough and remains relevant and useful. The Soviet archives remained classified at the time, so Robert Conquest did not have access to them. Neither was he able to travel in the affected areas, speaking freely with survivors and those who knew survivors as their parents or grandparents. It is all the more remarkable, therefore, that he seems not to have missed anything of great relevance. At the time there were gaps in the Soviet census data, and some had been deliberately falsified. Today's historians consider Conquest's estimates of deaths excessive (he says five million in Ukraine alone), but that does not invalidate the book as a whole, nor detract from the fact that the death toll - of which we shall never be certain - was horrifically large. The conditions suffered by those who survived as well as those who died were also in themselves a crime against humanity.
This book is for those who want a detailed account and many references. Briefer and more recent coverage of the same subject matter can be found in Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands: Europe between Hitler and Stalin and Andrea Graziosi's The Great Soviet Peasant War: Bolsheviks and Peasants, 1917-33, both of which can be recommended in their own right.
6 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A riveting portrayal of the man-made genocidal famine in Soviet Ukraine, organized by Stalin and his henchmen, this book marks the epitome of the research and writings of noted historian Robert Conquest. It is a must for any student seriously interested in understanding why the Soviet Empire was so despised by many of the captive nations and why Ukrainians were amongst those who most desperately resisted the imposition of communist rule and the continued existence of the Soviet system. Most shocking is the actual story of this genocidal deed, but the obfuscation and propaganda of Soviet apologists in the West, at that time (1930s) and since, is almost equally appalling. That some of these communists who committed this crime against humanity (and many more war crimes subsequently) still remain unpunished, in our midst here in North America, Israel and western Europe, is nothing less than a sin against humankind and God.
8 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Much is still said about the Nazi houlocaust, and well that it should be. Little seems to be said about the millions that Stalin and his fellow garbage starved and shot to death in the late 1920's, particularly in the Ukraine. This book ought to be on the reading list of every high school student.
Things like this need to be put out in the open and remembered. It wasn't too many years ago that western liberals were excusing the soviets behavior all over the place, and pretending that things like this never happened.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
First History to detail Stalin's Terror-Famine in Ukraine (death toll...
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Based on rumour and hearsay, as the author admits
Far too many writers on the subject have relied not on the archives, but on Robert Conquest's estimates. Read more
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Harvest of Sorrow is an important book for any age. Meticulous, rich with history, but refreshingly unemotional, Conquest knows and writes of the Soviet Union in a way that will... Read more
Published on 23 Aug 1998
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