I used the search bar and the FAQ and the questions on this topic aren't addressing what I'm trying to figure out.
I recently heard a take on the Holodomor, admittedly from people that would be considered more or less Soviet apologists (aka Tankies) that the famine was mostly a result of Western propaganda. They claim that the primary sources from the time are deeply flawed, that photos from other events were used as evidence, that accounts from people that weren't in Ukraine at the time were overly relied upon and that one of the main accounts cited by historians was admitted to be embellished by its author.
They make further claims are that the reported number of victims doesn't add up, that the estimates used to gauge the number of deaths are not derived from any scientific methods and that WWI, the Civil War and Soviet reclassification of ethnic groups accounts for the dip in the number of "Ukrainians."
Most damningly, they claim that William Randolph Hearst (who was sympathetic to fascism and well known for "Yellow Journalism" in the run up to the Spanish-American War) was deliberately sensationalist in his coverage of the USSR and largely responsible for pushing the narrative of the Famine in the Western press. And, finally, that the story of the Holodomor was generally accepted as embellished or fabricated until the beginning of the Cold War when it was resurrected as a way to tarnish the USSR and placate a number of far-right Ukrainian nationalists that had received asylum in the West.
Help me out /r/AskHistorians. Some of this reminds me of the ridiculous conspiracy theories that surround Holocaust denialism. But, I also know that Western countries were not above pushing narratives that might be less than truthful as part of Cold War propaganda.
So what gives? What really happened in Ukraine and how do we know? What sources are reliable? Which are somewhat biased and which can we right off completely?
I know that Andrei Chikatilo, the infamous Ukrainian murderer from the latter half of the 20th century, recounted that he was told repeatedly at a young age that his older brother was kidnapped and eaten by neighbors during said famine, but that the account (from his mother) is highly suspect and hasn’t been confirmed. However, such implications cannot be ignored, as Chikatilo also cited that his family often ate grass and leaves to survive, with his also stating that he never ate bread until the age of twelve, having been born in 1936.
Am I saying that this is evidence of the aforementioned famine? Absolutely not. I use this as an example to show that the region certainly fell on hard times, and that Tankies can’t deny that the populace was indeed starving and struggling to survive. Hopefully somebody else has more than me, I merely offer what I can in whatever format.
Side note: read up on Chikatilo, fascinating character.