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Applebaum does good job of describing the Stalinist famine but does not give a complete history of Ukraine. During the Middle Ages there was no Russia and Ukraine but only one country now called Kievan Rus (aka Kyivan Rus) but then only known as Rus. This kingdom was essentially an expanded Ukraine which stretched from today's eastern Poland through Ukraine to western Russia. Kiev was the capital and Moscow was a remote outpost on the eastern edge. This kingdom lasted from about 900 AD to 1240 AD when it was destroyed by a Mongol invasion. The resulting history is extremely complicated with constantly changing borders but the short summary is that Poland absorbed western Ukraine while Moscow absorbed eastern Ukraine. It was in 1480 AD that the Grand Duchy of Moscow overthrew Mongol rule and slowly expanded westward taking Ukrainian areas from Poland. By the time of the Soviet famine in 1932-1933 Russia controlled central and eastern Ukraine. By this time Russia and Ukraine had developed into similar but separate nationalities like Austria and Germany. Their languages were different but similar like Spain and Portugal. In 1939 Russia finally absorbed western Ukraine under the Hitler-Stalin pact. The short story of the famine is that around 1930 Stalin decided to complete the Sovietization of the USSR by enforcing collectivization of the peasantry. When the Ukrainian peasantry resisted he sent armed teams to the countryside which confiscated the peasants' food supplies and left them to starve. The choice was collectivization or starvation. The famine peaked in 1933 after about four million peasants had died and Stalin decided it was enough to teach them a lesson. The details of the Soviet famine are increasingly well known with books such as this one but what is not emphasized is that many of the themes used to justify the famine are being repeated by the left right here in America today. One of the first themes was that the poor farmers (poor producers) were Soviet heroes while the rich farmers (better producers) were class enemies. Today we constantly hear about the poor as being victims and the producers as being exploiters. The Soviet famine was above all a war on peasants who as a group were the most resistant to Communism. Today we have a war on the middle class which resists the open borders and free trade which support Globalism. Any criticism of Soviet policy meant imprisonment, deportation, or execution. Today any criticism of open borders is labeled as racism and people can lose their jobs for this. One of the first things the Soviets did was ban Christmas which the peasants always celebrated. Today corporate America has basically banned Christmas and court decisions constantly restrict Christian practices. The Soviets encouraged students to denounce their parents who could then be arrested or executed. Today schools encourage students to harangue their parents about global warming and now the Green New Deal. The Soviets engaged in hysterical propaganda which accused the peasants of being class enemies by sabotaging grain production to resist collectivization. Claiming that the inefficiencies of collectivization caused the decline in production would mean the Gulag or worse. Today any attempt to enforce immigration laws is met with similar hysteria. Since the Ukrainian peasants were nationalistic the Soviets attempted to wipe out all vestiges of nationalism. The Ukrainian language was banned. Thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals were executed. Today we see a war on nationalism all over the West as an impediment to Globalism. Meanwhile China is becoming more powerful as it asserts its nationality. While the artificial famine raged on word leaked out to the West. It should come as no surprise that the New York Times led the way in the denial and cover up of the famine. Today the New York Times has been one of the major players in the coup against an elected president who supports nationalism. The Soviets tried to create a new Soviet Man and killed millions of people who resisted the creation of this artificially created type. Today the Globalists are trying to create a new American by bringing in as many people as possible through open borders and thus globalize America as a fait accompli. Above all the famine was the culmination of an attempt to use government power to completely remake society. Today we hear about the Green New Deal as necessary to remake society. Communism was justified as being the result of scientific socialism. Today the Green New Deal is similarly said to be based on science. Not much has changed except for the genocidal measures taken by the Soviets.