The 1930s famine was a combination of drought, flooding, and mismanagement. Further, the Kulaks, wealthy bourgeois farmers, magnified matters by killing their own crops in the midst of a famine rather than letting the Red Army collectivize them. The Politburo was also kept in the dark about how bad the famine was getting:

From: Archive of the President of the Russian Federation. Fond 3, Record Series 40, File 80, Page 58.

Excerpt from the protocol number of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist party (Bolsheviks) “Regarding Measures to Prevent Failure to Sow in Ukraine, March 16th, 1932.

The Political Bureau believes that shortage of seed grain in Ukraine is many times worse than what was described in comrade Kosior’s telegram; therefore, the Political Bureau recommends the Central Committee of the Communist party of Ukraine to take all measures within its reach to prevent the threat of failing to sow [field crops] in Ukraine.

Signed: Secretary of the Central Committee – J. STALIN

Letter to Joseph Stalin from Stanislaw Kosior, 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine regarding the course and the perspectives of the sowing campaign in Ukraine, April 26th, 1932.

There are also isolated cases of starvation, and even whole villages [starving]; however, this is only the result of bungling on the local level, deviations [from the party line], especially in regard of kolkhozes. All rumours about “famine” in Ukraine must be unconditionally rejected. The crucial help that was provided for Ukraine will give us the opportunity to eradicate all such outbreaks [of starvation].

Letter from Joseph Stalin to Stanislaw Kosior, 1st secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, April 26th, 1932.

Comrade Kosior!

You must read attached summaries. Judging by this information, it looks like the Soviet authority has ceased to exist in some areas of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Can this be true? Is the situation invillages in Ukraine this bad? Where are the operatives of the OGPU [Joint Main Political Directorate], what are they doing?

Could you verify this information and inform the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist party about taken measures.

Sincerely, J. Stalin

Völkischer Beobachter, a Nazi news outlet, reported on it as intentional, and then spread the story around. All evidence post-opening of the soviet archives points to it not being intentional. Stalin was no “architect” of the 1930s famine, neither was the Politburo in general.

Demystifying Stalin

I know that after my death a pile of rubbish will be heaped on my grave, but the wind of History will sooner or later sweep it away without mercy.

• J. V. Stalin

1. Nia Frome’s “Tankies”

[8 min]

2. W. E. B Dubois’ On Stalin

[6 min]

3. Domenico Losurdo’s Primitive Thinking and Stalin as Scapegoat

[30 min]

4. Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin and Stalinism in History

[16 min]

5. J. V. Stalin interviewed by H. G. Wells

[42 min]

6. J. V. Stalin interviewed by Emil Ludwig

[38 min]

7. J. V. Stalin interviewed by Roy Howard

[9 min]

8. Domenico Losurdo’s Stalin: The History and Critique of a Black Legend

[5 hr 51 min]

9. Ludo Martens’ Another View of Stalin

[5 hr 25 min]

10. Anna Louise Strong’s This Soviet World

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Stalin's Major Theoretical Contributions to Marxism

I have come to communism because of daddy Stalin and nobody must come and tell me that I mustn’t read Stalin. I read him when it was very bad to read him. That was another time. And because I’m not very bright, and a hard-headed person, I keep on reading him. Especially in this new period, now that it is worse to read him. Then, as well as now, I still find a Seri of things that are very good.

• Che Guevara

1. Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR

2. Dialectical and Historical Materialism

3. History of the CPSU (B)

4. The Foundations of Leninism

5. Marxism and the National Question