Bloodlands

by Timothy Snyder

  12 On the 113,637 people forcibly transported, see Viola, War, 289; see also Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 158. For details on some of the arrivals, see Kotkin, “Peopling,” 70-72.

  13 For the lament, see Kovalenko, Holod, 259. On Solovki, see Applebaum, Gulag, 18-20, 49. On the special settlements, see Viola, Unknown Gulag (the numbers of Ukrainian peasants deported are given at 195 and 32).

  14 Quotation: Applebaum, Gulag, 48. For the death estimates, see Viola, Unknown Gulag, 3; and Applebaum, Gulag, 583. For the characterization of the Gulag, see Khlevniuk, Gulag, 1-10; Applebaum, Gulag, xvi-xvii; and Viola, Unknown Gulag, 2-7.

  15 Quotations: Siegelbaum, Stalinism, 45 (first two); Viola, Unknown Gulag, 53. On Belomor, see Khlevniuk, Gulag, 24-35; and Applebaum, Gulag, 62-65.

  16 Applebaum, Gulag, 64-65.

  17 Quotation: Viola, Unknown Gulag, 35. See also, generally, Viola, Best Sons. On the pace of collectivization, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 39.

  18 On the percentage of arable land, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 40.

  19 Quotation: Snyder, Sketches, 93. For background on the struggle of peasants in Ukraine for land, see Beauvois, Bataille; Edelman, Proletarian Peasants; Hildermeier, Sozialrevolutionäre Partei; Kingston-Mann, Lenin; and Lih, Bread and Authority.

  20 Quotation: Dzwońkowski, Głód, 84. For the Stalinist “First Commandment,” see Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 170. See also Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 70.

  21 On livestock and on feminine rebellions, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 66, 72; and Conquest, Harvest, 158.

  22 Graziosi, War, 53-57; Viola, War, 320; Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 131; Snyder, Sketches, 92-94.

  23 Quotation: Morris, “The Polish Terror,” 753. On the Soviet concern about Poland’s new policy to Ukrainian minorities, see Report of 13 July 1926, AVPRF, 122/10/34. See also, generally, Snyder, Sketches, 83-114.

  24 Kuromiya, “Spionage,” 20-32.

  25 Cameron, “Hungry Steppe,” chap. 6. On Xinjiang, see Millward, Eurasian Crossroads , 191-210.

  26 Snyder, Sketches, 101-102.

  27 Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 74; Snyder, Sketches, 103-104.

  28 Davies, Years, 8-11, 24-37; Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 86-90.

  29 Quotations: Viola, Unknown Gulag, 75; Kravchenko, I Chose Freedom, 106. On the 32,127 households deported from Soviet Ukraine, see Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 158. On the percentage of collectivized farmland, see Kuśnierz, Ukraine, 86.

  30 Davies, Years, 48-56.

  31 On the harvest, see Davies, Years, 57-69, 110-111; Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 1-5; and Dronin, Climate Dependence, 118. On Kosior and Kaganovich, see Davies, Years, 72, 82, 89, 95.

  32 Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 102-103; Davies, Years, 112-114.

  33 On the Red Cross, see Davies, Years, 112-113. Quotations: Kul’chyts’kyi, Kolektyvizatsiia , 434; Kul’chyts’kyi, “Trahichna,” 151.

  34 On the reports of death by starvation, see Kuśnierz, 104-105. On Stalin, see Davies, Kaganovich Correspondence, 138. On the request for food aid, see Lih, Letters to Molotov, 230. On Kaganovich (23 June 1932), see Hunchak, Famine, 121.

  35 Cameron, “Hungry Steppe,” chap. 2; Pianciola, “Collectivization Famine,” 103-112; Mark, “Hungersnot,” 119.

  36 Quotation: Davies, Kaganovich Correspondence, 138. On Stalin’s predisposition to personalized politics, see Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 180; and Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 152.

  37 On Stalin, see Marochko, Holodomor, 21. On the objective problems recounted by local party officials, see Davies, Years, 105-111, 117-122.

  38 Cited in Kovalenko, Holod, 110.

  39 Quotation: Davies, Years, 146. See also Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 107; and Werth, Terreur , 119.

  40 On “our father,” see Sebag Montefiore, Court, 69. On talk of starvation as an excuse for laziness, see Šapoval, “Lügen,” 136. For a sense of the relationships among Molotov, Kaganovich, and Stalin, consult Lih, Letters to Molotov; and Davies, Kaganovich Correspondence.

  41 Quotations: Davies, Kaganovich Correspondence, 175, 183.

  42 Snyder, Sketches, 83-95; Kuromiya, “Great Terror,” 2-4.

  43 Snyder, Sketches, 102-104; Haslam, East, 31.

  44 Quotation: Report of 6 June 1933, CAW I/303/4/1928. On the Polish consulate, see Marochko, Holodomor, 36. On Poland’s caution, see Snyder, Sketches, 102-108; and Papuha, Zakhidna Ukraïna, 80.

  45 Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 108; Maksudov, “Victory,” 204.

  46 On the Soviet judges, see Solomon, Soviet Criminal Justice, 115-116. Quotation: Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 116.

  47 Quotations: Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 139; Kovalenko, Holod, 168. On the watchtowers and their number, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 115; see also Maksudov, “Victory,” 213; and Conquest, Harvest, 223-225.

  48 On the limited gains from such methods of requisition, see Maksudov, “Victory,” 192. On the party activists’ abuses, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 144-145, 118-119; and Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 170-171.

  49 As against fifty-seven percent for the USSR as a whole; see Davies, Years, 183. On Molotov, see Davies, Years, 171-172.

  50 On Stalin, see Sebag Montefiore, Court, 21, 107.

  51 Quotation: Kovalenko, Holod, 44. On the two politburo telegrams, see Marochko, Holodomor, 152; and Davies, Years, 174. On the 1,623 arrested kolkhoz officials, see Davies, Years, 174. On the 30,400 resumed deportations, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 59.

  52 For the “fairy tale” reference, see Šapoval, “Lügen,” 159; and Davies, Years, 199.

  53 Quotations: Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 124. See also Vasiliev, “Tsina,” 60; and Kuromiya, Stalin, 110.

  54 Quotation: Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 174. On the family interpretation (Stanisław Kosior), see Davies, Years, 206.

  55 For similar judgments, see, for example, Jahn, Holodomor, 25; Davies, Tauger, and Wheatcroft, “Grain Stocks,” 657; Kulczycki, Hołodomor, 237; and Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 11.

  56 Sen, Poverty and Famines, quotation at 7; see also 154-155. A convincing national interpretation of the famine is Martin, “Ukrainian Terror,” at 109 and passim. See also Simon, “Waffe,” 45-47; and Conquest, Harvest, 219. On Kaganovich in November 1932, see Kulczyski, Hołodomor, 236.

  57 Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 8; Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 143; Maksudov, “Victory,” 188, 190; Davies, Years, 175 and, on seed grain, 151.

  58 On the meat penalty, see Shapoval, “Proloh trahedii holodu,” 162; and Maksudov, “Victory,” 188. Quotation: Dzwonkowski, Głód, 71. For the example described, Dzwonkowski, Głód, 160; see also 219. On the general decline of livestock, see Hunczak, Famine, 59.

  59 Shapoval, “Proloh trahedii holodu,” 162; Maksudov, “Victory,” 188; Marochko, Holodomor, 171; Werth, Terreur, 123.

  60 Shapoval, “Holodomor.”

  61 Davies, Years, 190; Marochko, Holodomor, 171.

  62 Snyder, Sketches, 107-114.

  63 Quotation: Davies, Years, 187. Regarding 20 December, see Vasiliev, “Tsina,” 55; Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 9; and Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 135.

  64 Davies, Years, 190-192.

  65 On the interpretation of starving people as spies, see Shapoval, “Holodomor.” On the 190,000 peasants caught and sent back, see Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 7. On the events of 22 January, see Marochko, Holodomor, 189; and Graziosi, “New Interpretation,” 9.

  66 On the 37,392 people arrested, see Marochko, Holodomor, 192. See also Davies, Years, 161-163.

  67 For the recollections of the activist, see Conquest, Harvest, 233. For quotation and details on the importance of purges, see Šapoval, “Lügen,” 133. On purges of the heights, see Davies, Years, 138.

  68 On the deathly quiet of Soviet Ukraine, see Kovalenko, Holod, 31; and Dzwonkowski, Głód, 104. See also Arendt, Totalitarianism, 320-322.

  69 Quotation: Dalrymple, “Soviet Famine,” 261. On Vel’dii, see Kovalenko, Holod, 132.

  70 Quotations: New York Evening Post, 30 March 1933.

  71 On Łowińska, see Dzwonkowski, Głód, 104. On Panasenko, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 105. Kravchenko recounted this expe
rience in I Chose Freedom, 104-106.

  72 On the fifteen thousand people deported, see Davies, Years, 210. On the sixty thousand people deported from Kuban, see Martin, “Ethnic Cleansing,” 846.

  73 On the 67,297 people who died in the camps, see Khlevniuk, Gulag, 62, 77. On the 241,355 people who died in the special settlements, see Viola, Unknown Gulag, 241.

  74 Quotation: Khlevniuk, Gulag, 79.

  75 Quotations: Dzwonkowski, Głód, 215-219; Kul’chyts’kyi, Kolektyvizatsiia, 365. On life expectancy in Soviet Ukraine, see Vallin, “New Estimate,” 256.

  76 On the schoolgirl and the severed head, see Kovalenko, Holod, 471, 46.

  77 On prostitution for flour, see Kuromiya, Famine and Terror, 173. On Vynnitsia, see Kovalenko, Holod, 95. On fear of cannibals, see Kovalenko, Holod, 284. On the peasants in train stations, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 155. On the city police, see Falk, Sowjetische Städte. On Savhira, see Kovalenko, Holod, 290.

  78 Quotation: Czech, “Wielki Głód,” 23. On the cannibalized son, see Kovalenko, Holod, 132. For the knife-sharpening incident, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 168. On pigs, see Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 172.

  79 On the half a million boys and girls in the watchtowers, see Maksudov, “Victory,” 213. Quotation: Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 119.

  80 On the woman doctor, see Dalrymple, “Soviet Famine,” 262. On the orphans, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 157; and Dzwonkowski, Głód, 142. See also Graziosi, “Italian Archival Documents,” 41.

  81 Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 157.

  82 On the 2,505 people sentenced for cannibalism, see Davies, Years, 173. For details of the chimney example, see Kovalenko, Holod, 31. On the meat quota, see Conquest, Harvest, 227.

  83 On the anti-cannibalism ethic, see Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 173. On Kolya Graniewicz, see Dzwonkowski, Głód, 76. For the mother’s request, see Conquest, Harvest, 258.

  84 Quotation: Bruski, Holodomor, 179. On the agronomist, see Dalrymple, “Soviet Famine,” 261. On the crews and burials, see Kovalenko, Holod, 31, 306, 345.

  85 Quotation: Graziosi, “Italian Archival Documents.” See also Davies, Years, 316.

  86 On the 493,644 hungry people in Kiev oblast, see Marochko, Holodomor, 233.

  87 On the Soviet census, see Schlögel, Terror. For discussion of 5.5 million as a typical estimate, see Dalrymple, “Soviet Famine,” 259.

  88 The demographic retrojection is Vallin, “New Estimate,” which finds 2.6 million “extraordinary deaths” at 252 in Soviet Ukraine for 1928-1937, from which one would have to subtract other mass murders to find a famine total. For a summary of the January 2010 government study, see Dzerkalo Tyzhnia, 15-22 January 2010. The estimate of c. 2.5 million on the basis of recorded deaths only is in Kul’chyts’kyi, “Trahichna,” 73-74. Ellman estimates 9.0-12.3 million total famine deaths in the Soviet Union for 1933 and 1934 (“Note on the Number,” 376). Maksudov estimates losses of 3.9 million Ukrainians between 1926 and 1937 (“Victory,” 229). Graziosi estimates 3.5-3.8 million in Soviet Ukraine (“New Interpretation,” 6).

  89 Quotation: Serbyn, “Lemkin.” See also, generally, Martin, Affirmative Action Empire; and Snyder, Sketches.

  90 Quotations: Koestler, God That Failed, 68; Weissberg-Cybulski, Wielka Czystka, 266; Koestler, God That Failed, 77.

  91 On the arch, see Kuśnierz, Ukraina, 178. On the wealth transfers, see Falk, Sowjetische Städte, 288; Davies, Years, 158; and Conquest, Harvest, 237. On the “sausage makers,” see Kuromiya, Freedom and Terror, 172.

  92 Quotation: Conquest, Harvest, 256. See also, generally, Slezkine, Jewish Century; and Fitzpatrick, Education.

  93 Quotations: Subtelny, “German Diplomatic Reports,” 17; Polish Consul-General, 4 February 1933, CAW I/303/4/1867; Border Defense Corps, 15 November 1933, CAW I/303/4/6906. On the hopes for war, see Snyder, Sketches, 110. For letters of Soviet Germans to Germany, see Hungersnot. See also Berkhoff, “Great Famine.”

  94 A relevant speech from Hitler can be found in Deutschösterreichische Tageszeitung, 3 March 1933. On the cardinals, see Dalrymple, “Soviet Famine,” 254. for Innitzer’s interventions, see Reichspost, 20 August 1933 and 12 October 1933; and Die Neue Zeitung, 14 October 1933.

  95 For Duranty, see New York Times, 31 March 1933. On Muggeridge, see Taylor, “Blanket of Silence,” 82. For Orwell, see Orwell and Politics, 33-34. See also Engerman, Modernization, 211. In fairness to the New York Times: two anonymous articles of 1 and 11 January 1933 used the concepts of “man-made” hunger and “war with the peasantry.”

  96 Papuha, Zakhidna Ukraïna, 33, 46, 57.

  97 On Soviet counterpropaganda, see Papuha, Zakhidna Ukraïna, 56. On Herriot’s weight, see Time, 31 October 1932. See also Zlepko, Hunger-Holocaust, 177; and Conquest, Harvest, 314.

  98 Quotations: Kovalenko, Holod, 353; Zlepko, Hunger-Holocaust, 180; see also 175-179. See also Mark, Hungersnot, 26-27; Subtelny, “German Diplomatic Reports,” 21; Marochko, Holodomor, 256-257, 283; Time, 22 January 1934.

  99 Marochko, Holodomor, 257; Zlepko, Hunger-Holocaust, 176-177; Time, 11 September 1933. Final paragraph: Werth, “Un État”; Marochko, Holodomor, 283. In fairness to Herriot: he abstained in the June 1940 parliamentary vote to grant Petain full powers in France and was arrested and sent to Germany at the end of the German occupation.

  CHAPTER 2: CLASS TERROR

  1 Quotations: Siriol Colley, More Than a Grain, 212, 216.

  2 Jones is cited in Siriol Colley, More Than a Grain, 218.

  3 Quotation: Evans, Coming, 330.

  4 On German voters, see King, “Ordinary,” 987-988 and passim. On Dachau, see Goeschel, Concentration Camps, 14. For quotation and analysis of Himmler, see Eiber, “Gewalt in KZ Dachau,” 172.

  5 Evans, Power, 23.

  6 Quotation: Deutschösterreichische Tageszeitung, 3 March 1933.

  7 On “class against class,” see Brown, Rise and Fall, 85. On voting behavior, see King, “Ordinary,” 987-988. See also, generally, Bayerlein, “Abschied.”

  8 Longerich, Politik der Vernichtung, 26-32, quotation at 38; Tooze, Wages of Destruction, 73.

  9 On the 37,000 German Jews, see Evans, Power, 15. See also Longerich, Politik der Vernichtung, 126.

  10 Longerich, Politik der Vernichtung, 35.

  11 Goeschel, Concentration Camps, 7.

  12 See, generally, Krüger, Die Außenpolitik; Turner, Stresemann; Snyder, Sketches.

  13 Roos, Polen, 130-154; Ken, Collective Security, 94, 157; Kornat, Polityka, 32-33; Rossino, Hitler, 2.

  14 Quotation: Davies, Kaganovich Correspondence, 33.

  15 The surest guide is Kołakowski, Main Currents. The most famous anecdotal definition is that provided by the veteran communist to Jorgé Semprun at Buchenwald: “C’est l’art et la manière de toujours retomber sur ces pattes, mon vieux!”

  16 Graziosi, “New Interpretation.”

  17 See, generally, Haslam, Collective Security; Furet, Passé; and Brown, Rise and Fall.

  18 These numbers will be elucidated in this and the following chapter.

  19 On the dialectics involved, see Burrin, Fascisme, nazisme, autoritarisme, 202, 209. See also, generally, Weber, Hollow Years. On Blum, see Judt, Burden of Responsibility.

  20 Haslam, Collective Security, 120-121. On the Soviet press, see Schlögel, Terror, 136-137. See also, generally, Beevor, Battle for Spain. On the essential point, I am following Furet, Passé.

  21 Orwell, Homage, 53-64. Quotation: Schlögel, Terror, 148. See also Brown, Rise and Fall, 89.

  22 On 11 May, see Kuromiya, “Anti-Russian,” 1427.

  23 Quotation: Kuromiya, “Notatka,” 133, also 119.

  24 Levine, In Search of Sugihara, 13-89; Kuromiya, Między Warszawą a Tokio, 160-175; Siriol Colley, Incident.

  25 Haslam analyzes China within the Popular Front framework; see East, 64-70. On Xinjiang, see Millward, Eurasian Crossroads, 206-207. On the “Long March,” see Brown, Rise and Fall, 100.

  26 See Kuromiya, Stalin, 136.

  27 Quotation: McLoughlin, “Mass
Operations,” 121.

  28 Khlevniuk, “Objectives”; Kuromiya, Stalin, 118-119.

  29 Quotation: Kuromiya, Stalin, 134, also 101.

  30 On the history of the troika, see Wheatcroft, “Mass Killings,” 126-139. For general introductions to the state police, see Andrew, KGB; and Dziak, Chekisty.

  31 Getty, Yezhov, 140; Kuromiya, Stalin, 116.

  32 On Yezhov’s associates and their methods, see Wheatcroft, “Agency,” 38-40. For Stalin’s solicitude about Yezhov’s health, see Getty, Yezhov, 216.

  33 Quotation: Haslam, Collective Security, 129. For Bukharin’s threat, see Kuromiya, Stalin, 83.

  34 Quotation: Brown, Rise and Fall, 122. There were of course exceptions, such as Antoni Słonimski; see Shore, Caviar and Ashes, 150. On fascism and anti-fascism, see Furet, Passé.

  35 Werth, Terreur, 282. See also Kuromiya, Stalin, 121. The theme of strength in weakness was developed by Furet, Passé.

  36 Orwell, Homage, 145-149, at 149. See also Furet, Passé, 296, 301, 306; and Haslam, Collective Security, 133.

  37 56,209 is the number of executions remaining after the subtraction: of those in the national actions (see next chapter) and the kulak action from the total 681,692 executions carried out in the Great Terror of 1937-1938. I provide a general figure because slightly different totals for the kulak action circulate; see Jansen, Executioner, 75. On the Red Army generals, see Wieczorkiewicz, Łańcuch, 296. This is a fundamental work on the military purges.

  38 Evans, Power, 21-22.

  39 Ibid., 34, 39; Shore, Information, 31, 37.

  40 On Himmler’s rise, see Longerich, Himmler. On the police structures, see Westermann, “Ideological Soldiers,” 45. I am simplifying the situation considerably by not discussing the federal structure of the German state. This, too, was seen by Himmler as a problem to be overcome. The police institutions noted here will be discussed further in Chapters 5, 6, and 7.

  41 Evans, Power, 627; Lee, Dictatorships, 172.

  42 These killing actions by German police are the subjects of Chapters 6 and 7.

  43 Compare Wheatcroft, “Mass Killing,” 139.

  44 Quotations: Baberowski, Feind, 758-759.