Anne Applebaum

I do believe that was intended to kill more people in Ukraine and that it did so and that the Ukrainian Communist Party and the Soviet Communist Party knew that this was happening. Yes, it was an intentional famine.

there were a number of measures taken that specifically affected Ukraine: blacklisting of particular farms and towns and villages, a cordon around the border so that people were unable to leave Ukraine, special measures against Ukrainian cultural institutions and the Ukrainian language.

one of the decrees they passed was an end to [the 1920s-era policy of] ‘Ukrainization’–

Brigades of activists came through Ukrainian villages and they took not only grain but everything else. They took all other kinds of food

the number they have come up with is that 3.9 million -- nearly 4 million people -- died in Ukraine.

I'm very happy to call it a genocide, according to the original definition of the word genocide as it was invented by Raphael Lemkin, who was the lawyer who came up with the term.

I know that legally it can be more difficult to do it, but, yes, of course, I believe in essence it was a genocide.

the UN Convention on Genocide was created with the help of the Soviet Union, which was very anxious not to include Ukrainian famine and other Soviet crimes