nlike other forms of disaster—such as earthquake, flood or hurricane—famine is a distinctly political occurrence. Most often they are the product of political action that deprives people of food, either through neglect or targeted victimization. Such was the case for the nation-wide famine inflicted upon the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic—now the modern-day Central Asian state of Kazakhstan—from 1930-33.
The famine in Kazakhastan has received less attention from Western scholars than the Ukraine famine, despite their similarities in scale and devastation. This is partly a result of the active advocacy of the global Ukrainian diaspora, and the nature of each country's ongoing relationship with Russia. However, in The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan author Sarah Cameron attempts to restore our memory of the Kazakh famine—while addressing its causes and its implications for our understanding of Soviet nation-building. While others have researched this topic before, Cameron's work is one of the first to make use of both Kazakh and Russian language sources, including sources uncovered through her extensive field research in Kazakhstan and Russia.
Read Full Article »