Op/Ed: The Forgotten Soviet Famine

We remember what Stalin did to Ukraine but not Kazakhstan.

By Sarah Cameron | The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. Senate passed a resolution in October commemorating the 85th anniversary of the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33. This year also marks the 85th anniversary of the Kazakh famine, a little-known Stalinist crime of horrifying proportions that the world has largely overlooked.

By some measures the Kazakh famine was an even greater atrocity than the Ukrainian one. Kazakhs also were forcibly collectivized, and the starving subjected to brutal repression, including the closure of borders so that they could not flee. 

Read the complete analysis by Sarah Cameron, assistant professor of history, in the Wall Street Journal.

Photo: A group of turbaned women and children, with sheep and a tent in the background. Royal Society for Asian Affairs / Bridgeman Images, via the Wall Street Journal.