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Party like it's 1922 20th Century History (media.piefed.social)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/historymemes@piefed.social
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[–] 2 points 8 months ago (5 children)

The minute Lenin took power there was a food crisis in Russia and arranged for every scrap of grain taken from Ukraine. A series events unfolded over the coming years that would ultimately lead to the Holodomor under Stalin much later. It’s a long and complex tale that I’m sure some believe is fake news.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    The Holodomor is only related to Lenin insofar as the system Lenin established with 'war communism' was not agriculturally robust, and the backpedaling of the NEP didn't outlast him.

    All the major factors of it - the mass collectivization, the export of food from starving regions, the export of food from the Soviet Union itself, the deportation of 'kulaks' to Siberia, etc etc etc, were all Stalinist initiatives. Maybe you could argue that if Lenin had legitimately improved Soviet agriculture it wouldn't have happened, but other than that, I don't know that there's a strong argument for putting Lenin - shithead though he was - in with the causes of the Holodomor.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

    Lenin sent Stalin to Ukraine to do what was necessary to get the grain. Unless I’m misremembering.

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  • [–] [S] 4 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I think your timeline is a little mixed up. To my memory Stalin wasn't involved with Ukraine at all (except passing through when he had his taste of military service against the Poles) during Lenin's lifetime. That was like, 1921 or so. Stalin was a bit-player at the time. Lenin died in 1924.

    The Holodomor happened around 1932.

    Lenin did cause food shortages by grain seizures, but, again, to my memory, Stalin was not a key part of that. And Lenin's grain seizures weren't focused on Ukraine, nor as idiotic and arbitrary as Stalin's. Just callous, feeding the Red Army during the Russian Civil War at the expense of the starvation of workers and peasants.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    It’s possible, it’s been a good few years since I read up on it all.

    I’ve got a copy of Red Famine on my nightstand so might give it a go again.

    What my intention was to say though was that Lenin’s hands certainly weren’t clean in Ukraine and that the famines started early and lead up to Holodomor, started with Lenin as a result of his choices for the fledging Soviet and continued with Stalin with his hatred of Ukraine.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    The Russian famine of 1921 was largely due to a drought combined with the aftermath of WW1 and the Russian revolution. You could argue that Lenin's policies didn't effectively combat the famine, but I think it would be hard to argue that he instigated it. Also, I think you are misremembering the timeline of the soviet's impact on Ukraine.

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