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Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union

Online ISBN:
9780300206784
Print ISBN:
9780300195811
Publisher:
Yale University Press
Book

Famine Politics in Maoist China and the Soviet Union

Felix Wemheuer
Felix Wemheuer
University of Cologne
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Published:
24 June 2014
Online ISBN:
9780300206784
Print ISBN:
9780300195811
Publisher:
Yale University Press

Abstract

During the twentieth century, 80 percent of all famine victims worldwide died in China and the Soviet Union. This book analyzes the historical and political roots of these socialist-era famines, in which overambitious industrial programs endorsed by Stalin and Mao Zedong created greater disasters than those suffered under prerevolutionary regimes. Focusing on famine as a political tool, the book systematically exposes how conflicts about food among peasants, urban populations, and the socialist state resulted in the starvation death of millions. This analysis examines the long-term effects of the great famines on the relationship between the state and its citizens and argues that the lessons governments learned from the catastrophes enabled them to overcome famine in their later decades of rule.

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