SOVIET SUBJUGATION, FAMINE, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF INDEPENDENCE Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. Following the empire's collapse, Ukrainians attempted to form independent states (UNR and ZUNR), but these failed due to internal weakness and external aggr

SOVIET SUBJUGATION, FAMINE, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF INDEPENDENCE Colleague Professor Eugene Finkel. Following the empire's collapse, Ukrainians attempted to form independent states (UNR and ZUNR), but these failed due to internal weakness and external aggression from Bolsheviks and Poles. Finkel describes the subsequent Soviet era, highlighting the Holodomor—a purposeful famine engineered by Stalin in the early 1930s to break Ukrainian resistance and extract grain for industrialization, killing millions. This brutality left Ukraine decimated before World War II, where it became a battleground for Hitler and Stalin. The Soviet victory reinforced the myth that controlling Ukraine was essential for Moscow's security and economy. NUMBER 3
1913 UKRAINE