Fraud, Famine and Fascism

by Douglas Tottle (1987)

7/10

This was quite convincing for what it was: a takedown of the foundational “factual” reports of the Holodomor. Tottle does a good job showing how these texts were always rooted in anti-communism if not Nazism, and how fast and loose they habitually played with the facts.

What gives me misgivings about taking this as 100% confirmation that the Holodomor never happened are two things, one of them out of Tottle’s control and the other within it.

First, it was written 35 years ago, so I have no idea how its arguments would fare in the last few decades of literature on the events. It’s possible that all the scholarship in the last few decades has used these texts as their basis, in which case Tottle’s argument would still be solid. It’s also possible that new information has arisen that could objectively confirm many of the details of the Holodomor. That makes merely reading this book not enough to make a determination for one’s self.

Secondly, while Tottle thoroughly dismantles the texts he mentions, he does not do enough to convince me that those are the only texts/accounts supporting the Holodomor. If he had catalogued all of the texts supporting the Holodomor, or even stated that “These are literally the only texts supporting the Holodomor,” it would have gone a long way to reassure me. Along these lines the omission of any discussion of British journalist Gareth Jones strikes me as conspicuous and leaves me wondering a) why and b) what else might he be omitting. I’m not saying Jones is an unimpeachable sources, but in the name of completion I think Tottle should have mentioned him.

None of that was enough to negate the merits of the book, which are considerable. At the very least Tottle shows without a doubt that a significant portion of the Holodomor discussion is based on openly Nazi or at least irrationally anti-communist sources, all of whom argued with little to no scruples. Until adherents to the Holodomor history genuinely grapple with those facts, their assertions on the severity of the event will be seriously compromised.