This excellent documentary is available on Netflix. I was shocked to see it was produced in 2011 because guess what?  Americans aren't portrayed as assholes.

Here is an excellent review of this piece, by someone who was not taught about this in history class.

My advice?

Watch it.

This is 1921. My grandfather, Henry's era. 

This was a MAN-MADE famine.

"Grain requisition and export - not drought and poor harvest - were the real causes of the first great famine in Soviet Ukraine which occurred in 1921-1923. This is borne out by Western and Soviet documents alike..."

http://www.ukrweekly.com/old/archive/1988/458814.shtml

In other words, the government came and took the food.

Wow.... I remember quite a lot of things were taught about the Soviet Union back in my high school days (early 80's) , but I don't recall this as one of them. The basics of how Communism worked there , and how Capitalism was different.

Kinda makes me wonder how long this was taught in our schools.

They called the food they got "America".  Corn, sweetened condensed milk...the whole of it was called "America" and they have survivors on the program who can tell you about this in their own words.

Read more - Standford University

We learned this at High School History Lesson. Kind of "what would have happened if Lenin wouldn't have thought the local Reds could orchestrate a successful revolution of their own"  footnote of the history book. Kudos to my history teacher for highlighting it.

This wasn't the only occasion famine was used to literally starve any resistance in The Soviet Union. Stalin did this again in the early 1930's, even before what's now known as the terror era.

What's encouraging to me is this is a new documentary. I know the tide will turn and I'm hoping this is a sign of that.