What do You think about Execution By Hunger: The Hidden Holocaust (1987)?
This book was strangely tragicomic. On the one hand, the descriptions of starvation, abject suffering and the results (suicide, murder and cannibalism all feature within these pages) were physically painful to read. It had a stronger affect on me, in fact, than the books I've read about the Holocaust.On the other hand, there were times when I felt like laughing because the Soviet officials brought in to maximize productivity on the collective farm knew NOTHING about farming and they were so stupid it was funny. For instance, at one point the Soviet commissar called a general meeting and spent the time ranting about how there were not enough foals on the farm and how could the mares reproduce when they were locked up in their stalls all day, and henceforth they must be allowed to roam freely, and then they would have more babies. The people listened in silence, and obeyed, because they knew better than to protest, but they knew it would do no good because there were no stallions on the farm.See what I mean?To borrow a phrase from Sara Nomberg-Przytyk, the Soviet Union in 1933 was a strange and grotesque land.The book is kind of caught between being a memoir of the author Miron Dolot's experiences -- he was a boy during this period, about thirteen or so -- and a general report of what happened. It's neither one thing or the other. I do wish he had included more about his family and his personal life. And I wish it hadn't ended so abruptly: "World War II separated us [that is, Dolot and the rest of his family], and what happened after that I don't know."I looked up Dolot online to see if he had gotten in touch with his family again after the Iron Curtain fell, but I couldn't find out much about him and he's dead now.
—Meaghan
