Anne Applebaum and Erika Fatland write about Ukraine in recent books.
I read Erika Fatland’s book The Border quickly earlier this month, just as Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s interleaved travel memoir and history of each country that borders the former USSR. My high school education was either extremely poor with regards to the impact the Soviet Union had on Eurasia, or I have a lousy memory, or quite possibly, both. I was especially interested in how neighboring countries often had completely different standards of living depending on the type of governance that came in after 1989 or so.
Anne Applebaum’s book Red Famine is much tougher reading because the Holodomor, or the enforced collectivization and ultimately the starvation of farmers in Ukraine, is a 20th century horror that defies belief. I am certain I never learned about this particular part of history, possibly because of the spectacular coverup Stalin pulled off. I understand a little better why Ukraine is fighting so ferociously. There are people still alive that survived Stalin’s manmade famine.
What other books should I check out on these subjects? I have a few on the shelf, but I’m always eager to hear about more!
Jess, don’t feel badly that you’d never heard of the Holomodor - so many of us in the US haven’t until recently. Thanks for your recommendations, and I do have one for you that’s just arrived: the novel Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov.
Haven’t heard of that one! Will look it up.