This article makes no mention of the role the Wilson administration likely played in creating the famine to begin with. Following 1917, anglo-american support of fascist paramilitary groups in Russia led to the bloodiest civil war in history.
2. Fascism did not exist in 1917. The whites were extremely diverse, ranging from royalists to outright socialists.
3. The United States role in starting the Russian Civil war was minimal at beast. The main catalyst was the Bolshevik party seizing power a few months after losing the Russian Constituent Assembly election.
4. The Russian civil war likely had less deaths than the Chinese Civil War, and unquestionably less deaths than the Taiping Rebellion.
The Wilson Administration played no role in making Lenin and the nascent Communist system seize control of farm land, intentionally starve millions of people to death by stealing their food, and seize control of most food production and distribution.
The point being made that this has something to do with Lenin and communism "directly" is ignoring the context. The context is that this famine, as well as the revolution were caused by the extreme failures of the Tsarist rule, compounded with the pawn role Russian Empire was given in the World War I. Russian Empire was used a supplier of the Entente in both grain, and ground forces.
You can perhaps blame Lenin for the famine, but Lenin has steered the country out of the World War, in which Russia would have been the loser, regardless of which side won.
Major difference.
And why you think that Russia would have been the loser in WW1, is beyond me.
So is the idea that forces opposing the communist plague were any less legitimate than bolsheviks. Of all the participants in the civil war, bolsheviks were the least legitimate, anbd the most blood-thirsty.
Maybe that civil war should've been bloodier, if only the other side could have won... it would have spared the rest of the world at least (hint: Eastern Europe) from the hideous ideology and politics that spread from Rusia and infested them and dragged them down for decades after decades.
>You realize that communism didn't drag Russia down but actually improved their quality of life from the reign of the Czars right?
Did it improve faster than it would have under democratic rule?
And then there is the whole business with making half of Europe a 'starving shithole'.
That wasn't an option for Russia at any point, as it isn't even today.
Unindustrialized? Sure. Starving? You could add up the death counts of all known famines in Russia's pre-Bolshevik history and you end up with no more than half the amount dead in just the famine referenced in OP. And that's largely due to the policies implemented by Lenin[1] to ensure that food went primarily to supporters of the Bolsheviks.
How about the famine of 1932-1933[2][3] in which ~10 million (the number is disputed, but when it varies by millions, the point is made) died due to dekulakization[4], in which those farmers that had proved to be competent enough to gather some wealth after having been liberated by the Tsars a half-century earlier were brutally raped and murdered. Guess what happens when you kill all the competent farmers?
You've said that it was a "step forward at least up until the mid 1950's", meaning during Lenin and Stalin's reign? Do some damned reading[5] before you make claims like this.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prodrazvyorstka [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor [3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4076244/Distressing-... [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dekulakization [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gulag_Archipelago
Imagine all the good that might have been done by these millions if their human dignity were upheld and they were allowed to live. Perhaps one of them would have developed a great medical breakthrough. Imagine the inumerable works of art and music, theater that might have been made. Imagine the things they could have built and done to make the world a better place. If they had children and grand-children what of their potential contributions? Russia might actually have become the greatest world power.
Tens of millions? Intentionally starved? Citations needed, to say the least.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_...
For tens of millions of Soviet citizens their life had improved straight into the afterlife.
It is also not a given that Russia would not have industrialized even by more reasonable means.