Was the Holodomor originally fabricated as propaganda by Nazi Germany to justify invasion?(as claimed by Douglas Tottle)

by Semaug
Sergey_Romanov

No, of course not. We know from the demographic studies like this one [pdf] that there were millions of the famine victims in 1932-1933 in Ukraine alone. The question of Stalin's intent aside, the famine itself is indisputable. So whether the Nazis used the famine in their propaganda or not is completely irrelevant. They also used the Katyn massacre - the shooting of thousands of Polish POWs on Stalin's orders in 1940 - in their propaganda with great effect, but it obviously doesn't mean anything as to the historicity of the Katyn massacre, given the extensive evidence, especially from the Soviet archives.

Indeed, the "bad guys used it for propaganda" pseudoargument can be turned against Tottle's book, which was, after all, pure Soviet propaganda. Anne Applebaum informs in Red Famine (ch. 15):

The Institute of Party History in both Moscow and Kyiv contributed to Tottle’s manuscript; unsigned versions were sent back and forth between their offices and those of the two party Central Committees for corrections and commentary. Soviet diplomats followed the book’s publication and progress, and they promoted it where they could.

The claim is based on the archival research by L. Hrynevych, who shows that the draft of the book was available to the Soviets as early as 1985 and moreover the author accepted the advice of the Soviet historians who reviewed the draft by omitting "Ukrainian fascism" from the title.

Finally, the act of the invasion itself was justified as a "preventive war". Though of course, the real famine, among other things, was used in the Nazi anti-Communist propaganda to show that the Nazi rule was a "liberation" compared to the Communist rule (we've just been there above), so if that is meant by a post facto justification, it can be said to be a part of it. But this has zero to do with the famine historicity.

Douglas Tottle and other neo-Stalinists are no different from the Holocaust deniers in their "methods". For example, they will point to some misused photos to "disprove" the Holodomor just as the Holocaust deniers point to some Holocaust-related sources misusing photos to "disprove" the Holocaust. Both Holocaust and Holodomor deniers will point to exaggerated death tolls in some publications to cast doubt on any death tolls. They will dismiss all inconvenient witness testimony as tainted, documents as fakes etc. etc.