S8 Ep817: he Rise and Fall of Early Ukrainian Statehood and the Holodomor Following the 1917 collapse of empires, two short-lived democratic Ukrainian republics emerged but were crushed by larger powers like Poland and the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin later solidifi

he Rise and Fall of Early Ukrainian Statehood and the Holodomor

Following the 1917 collapse of empires, two short-lived democratic Ukrainian republics emerged but were crushed by larger powers like Poland and the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin later solidified control through the Holodomor (1932-1933), a purposeful famine that killed millions of Ukrainians to break their resistance and fund Soviet industrialization. Stalin viewed Ukraine as a vital "breadbasket" and a security buffer against Western invasion. By 1945, though the landscape was devastated and its Jewish population largely annihilated, Moscow achieved its goal of total subordination, creating a myth of unified sacrifice. Guest: Professor Eugene Finkel. (3/8)
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