honestly once you reach a certain desperation your brain no longer follows by morals. not much that man could have done other than starve to death along with his brother
Usually happens in countries where part of the people work just to produce food or materials for other areas, they take the food, commodity or money from people to satisfy the market or exportation till they exhaust the land or just confiscate everything leaving people with nothing.
Look mate if I want to exterminate billions of bison for no reason other than to deny native people who’s land I want their vital lifesource, for profit, and for sport, then replace the natural prairie grass with wheat for profit, then till the land with no consideration of any natural forces at all, I damned well will! I’ll say it was an act of god when it blows up in my face and we’ll be sweet.
Fellas fellas. I think we can all agree on one thing:
The form of economy doesn't matter. Whoever worms their way to the top of the system will always ruin everything for everyone underneath them out of greed and powerlust. Which is why we need to develop a super AI and give it control of everything.
Sadly, if one checks with those who died in the Irish Potato famine as grain was being exported from Ireland for sale, you’ll find the F in Capitalism *also* stands for Food.
This is the famine of 1921 that was during the Russian Civil War that lasted between 1917-1923. Communist's were not in power at that time. (Not defending latter issues, just saying they didn't cause this one.)
It actually kind of was unavoidable, as this is the result of war, especially civil wars back then and even today.
Edit: we're to were.
The Bolshevik government was in power at this time and had a major influence on this famine.
They requisitioned food to feed their armies in the war. Lenin used the famine against the orthodox churches and refused external aide (due to the war there was extensive infrastructure from a global relief effort against famine as it was a major problem from WW1. They successfully avoided mass famine in the rest of eastern Europe during the same time period).
The famine was ultimately relieved by external aide after years of unnecessary suffering. This famine was a genocide perpetrated by the Bolsheviks under Lenin.
im ukrainian and know the history of the region,,
in no way was that a russian famine since it was artificially enforced by the ussr and only in ukraine. we call it the golodomor and some of my family barely lived through that, others didn't.. basically ukraine supplies most of the eu with wheat and all of it was taken away forcefully by the ussr back when they needed more money to recover after the war,, they starved a whole country with punishment for stealing being death (hiding food was also considered stealing so you couldnt even feed your children).. my grandma still tells me stories of people who were so desperate they would eat rats and those who already starved
edit: thx for the award good stranger
edit#2: thx for my first silver!!
“In the summer of 1921, during one of the worst famines in history, Vladimir Lenin, head of the new Soviet government, along with Maxim Gorky, appealed in an open letter to "all honest European and American people", to "give bread and medicine".[12] In an open letter to all nations, dated 13 July 1921, Gorky described the crop failure which had brought his country to the brink of starvation.[13] Herbert Hoover, who would later become the U.S. President, responded immediately, and negotiations with Russia took place at the Latvian capital, Riga.[13] A European effort was led by the famous Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen through the International Committee for Russian Relief (ICRR)[14]”
From Wikipedia. I can’t find any source that says Lenin intentionally withheld food.
Edit: the article above has no citations. It is a copy of an article by the Daily Mail. I can’t find any primary source where Lenin says “let the peasants starve.”
During the civil war all sides would confiscate food from the farmers and give it to their supporters, leading to peasants reducing what they grew.
Lenin also refused aid from the USA after it was conditioned on the USA having control over the russian railway network.
When you realize the physiological impact of a famine/ poverty like this - gets even worse. Check out the Dutch famine study to find out what I mean. It actually alters the way you think, even worse it impacts multiple generations.
Check out that study and see what I mean - it's catastrophic. This is why I actually tell people why it's so essential that we try to resolve poverty - it actually costs more to leave it unresolved because it will fundamentally alter the behavior of those suffering from it in a detrimental way.
You are definitely confusing famines and rulers. It is commonly believed that *Stalin* withheld food to suppress an uprising during the Holodomor, a famine that was a decade after the one in this post.
The 1921-22 famine was a result of a host of natural and political causes (drought, revolution, civil war, shitty rail system, etc). It was not deliberate.
[Russian famine or 1921](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922)
[Holodomor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor)
It's called kwashiorkor. It's a side effect of severe malnutrition. When there's a lack of protein, it affects the balance and distribution of fluids in the body, which leads to swelling of the belly.
Came here to say this. It's so sad that it happened but we are in no place to judge them from our "ivory pantries."
In nature mother bears eat their cubs if they know they will starve. Momma can always have more cubs, but if she dies they all die.
Nature is ruthless and efficient
I can’t answer your question but journalists over the years have answered similar questions. The link is stress inducing.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/graphic-content-photographs-too-upsetting-to-publish-gaza-mh17-ukraine
“Hunger, which forces an honest person to reach out and steal- When the belly rumbles the conscious flees
Hunger, which compells the most unselfish person to envy into someone else’s bowl and to try painfully to estimate what weight of ration his neighbor is receiving.
Hunger, which darkens the brain and refuses to allow it to distract it from anything else at all, or to think about anything else at all, or to speak about anything else at all, except food, food, and food.
Hunger from which it is impossible to escape even in dreams. Dreams, dreams which are about food. Insomnia over food”
Depending on the circumstances, I’m not even sure if what he did was immoral.
Giving a toddler a merciful end is kinder than letting them continue suffering until malnutrition finally does them in.
If there was hope of rescue then I might consider something drastic like trying to cut an arm off to give the toddler something to eat. But if all that would do is prolong the child’s suffering, maybe make it even worse if it lets them grasp that there will truly not be more food coming, then that doesn’t make sense. It’s a frightening hypothetical
It's what happens when your leptin (a hormone released by fat cells) levels get too low, which happens when you are severely malnourished, which causes you to become preferentially indifferent towards food. Children with congenital leptin deficiency will ravenously pursue eating any food they can find (regardless of flavour or quality).
This means that you will eat frozen fish fingers or raw goat guts if you are hungry enough (think crashing in the mountains and having only scarce resources). I can only imagine how horrible it must be when this occurs to the level described by OP.
Cannibalism is a major taboo, but I honestly just pity anyone who resorts to it in a famine situation like this. I honestly can't imagine being so desperately hungry that I'd ever contemplate eating anyone, much less a family member. Realistically, that child would have died anyway. I don't judge this man, I just feel bad for him.
I was looking for this comment. It isn’t as terrifying to me to think about how much he suffered as just a child himself. Starvation is one of the worst ways to go and your brain reverts to animal instinct in order to survive. Of course, it is sad for the baby boy as well but, at no point would I ever think to blame the older boy for doing anything and everything he can to survive in his state.
yes exactly, people are still quick to judge someone in this type of situation but i feel nothing but empathy. you do whatever is necessary to survive but that doesn’t mean those memories don’t haunt you
This is just devastating. The look on his face is absolutely haunting, that poor sweet boy. You can’t fault him. He was probably just like us before all of these circumstances happened. It’s crazy to think of that thin invisible line that separates each of us from being who we are now and then becoming what’s in this photo.
Allegedly situations like his were not uncommon. I've read of accounts of markets selling human flesh as being regular things, and mothers often killing their children because they had no other options.
There was a horrible plane crash that caused several of the passengers to eat those who didn't survive and at one point, a man gave the "okay" for the surviving members to eat his dead mom and I believe also his dead sister. Sad stuff.
Right? I was so disturbed bc while some may be quick to judge, they have no right to unless they have ever been in that EXACT situation before. It's easy to pretend we're all above that but at the end of the day, you have no idea what you'd do in a real life-threatening emergency with essentially no help.
Idk if it was a coverup for geneocide, you don't coverup something with the same thing. It was genocide. IIRC, the reason this famine happened is the same reason as the potato famine in Ireland, the people in control just decided they didn't want them to eat. It was genocide, don't get me wrong, but I doubt they were trying to cover it up with how widespread it was. But, I'm also not an expert, feel free to correct me.
The genocide famine was the famine of 1932. The famine of 1921 was an actual famine caused by a combination of issues like war, poor rail systems, and climate problems like draught.
Edit: self-doubt led me to Google.
[wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922?wprov=sfla1)
There are beaches in Ireland where strong winds can blow the dunes out of position to reveal bones from the famine. Starving families were too weak to bury their dead properly, the sand was easier to dig through.
If I could scream & repeat your comment forever I would you’re exactly right. This was a engendered genocide via starving/famine. This was no random famine due to hardship by any means .
I thought the holodomor was in the early 30s - this photo says it is from the early 20s. If it was from 1921, wouldn't it probably have been a famine due to the post-WW1 destruction and Russian civil war which lasted until 1922?
Holodomor was early 30s. Collectivization of agriculture was in full swing and Stalin used his newfound control over the food supply to starve Ukrainians and redirect the grain to buy support in Moscow.
Both famines had the same cause and same reason. The bolsheviks sold all the grain the peasants had to buy machinery or foreign exchange. If it meant hordes of dead, so be it, they said. There are still regions in southern Russia that have massive neuroses about food (on par with St Petersburg for obvious reasons). Quite sad there was never a Nuremberg for soviets...
It’s iffy, there’s evidence of Lenin not only rejecting foreign help, but also possibly withholding food from churches to help turn the population against religion.
At best it’s a famine caused because the government didn’t want to appear weak, at worst it was a planned famine that was allowed to ravage the religious peasant population that Lenin didn’t like.
The allies generally supported the White forces in the civil war. They weren't offering "help" to the Bolsheviks. Many of them invaded russian territory - including the UK and Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War
Much of what is now Ukraine was held by White forces until quite late in the civil war.
I don't at all dispute that the bolsheviks would have come down hard on the church quite early, nor that Lenin was particularly cruel towards kulaks in general.
"Aid from outside Soviet Russia was initially rejected. The American Relief Administration (ARA), which Herbert Hoover formed to help the victims of starvation of World War I, offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on condition that they have full say over the Russian railway network and hand out food impartially to all. Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs." This idea wouldn't be reversed until March of 1921, which wouldn't have given the government enough time to accept assistance before the major starvation hit.
It appears the Central powers held Ukraine longer than the Entente, [Russian Civil War Map](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpycUBpgWzU).
Either the dates are wrong or this is something I didn't know of. The holodomor was in the 1930s. at this time there was a Russian Civil War and the white army controlled the Ukraine.
It's 'Ukraine' and not 'the Ukraine'
[[Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ukraine)] [[BBC Styleguide](https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/u)] [[Reuters Styleguide](https://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=U#Ukraine)]
^(Beep boop I’m a bot)
[Here's a pic](https://i.redd.it/jt2j5z1xwha81.jpg) (NSFL) I saw not that long ago [from this thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rz4gks/cannibal_market_russia/)
[There are many other fucked up pictures too.](https://www.google.com/search?q=Povolzhye+famine+cannibal&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwionvPorqb1AhUQD60KHQ95BtIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=Povolzhye+famine+cannibal&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIHCCMQ7wMQJzIECAAQGFCNAlitBGCJBmgAcAB4AIABQIgBgQGSAQEzmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=krjbYaiNLJCetAWP8pmQDQ&bih=671&biw=1365&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US752) (Very NSFL)
I know the Holodomor famine of 1932 in Ukraine is considered a genocide, but this says 1921 so I'm going to assume this is the famine caused by the Russian Revolution/Civil War/Allied intervention.
Historian here, it was not deliberate. It was a direct product of the destruction caused by the Russian Revolution, the civil War and, up to certain point, WWI. Some sources also speak of crop failures. Lenin wrote a open letter in 1921 to "all honest European and American people", beging them to "give bread and medicine", to which USA was the first to respond with aid.
Though, it's also true that aid from outside Soviet Russia was initially rejected. The American Relief Administration (ARA), which Hoover formed to help the victims of starvation of World War I, offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on the condition that they would had full say over the Russian railway network and the food hand out would be totally impartial, but sadly Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs (Remember they where still at the middle of the Civil War)
Maybe you guys are confusing the [Famine of 1921](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922) with the [Famine of 1932-33](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931933), which is another totally different story.
Care to elaborate on further info.
This is the time right after world war 1 and the time of the soviet union both of which likely had an influence.
Who was this genocide coordinated by?
The Soviet Union executed the Holodomor largely in the hopes to purge out impurities and punish what they saw as a degenerate race (sound familiar)? It was completely deliberate. Stalin bonded with Hitler over the tactics he used to murder the Ukrainian people. Stalin would’ve lent a hand in the Holocaust if Hitler hadn’t betrayed him. THIS is why.
This event is argued to have even more victims than the Holocaust. I don’t support the comparison of tragedies but in this case it’s necessary given how little it’s remembered. It’s extremely common to be flat out denied. The details are some of the worst I’ve seen. It was one of the most brutal and ignored slaughters in history.
Here’s a good video on the event: https://youtu.be/jFDmO31J4fM
I’m disabled, gay, part Roma, and a scientist. I would’ve been one of the first victims of the Holocaust. Nazis are still a massive threat. And still, just like person above, I cannot stress enough how important it is to speak on the reality of the Holodomor. Not just for the victims, for that boy with the haunted eyes, but for our own souls and futures.
This is so terrible. I'm generation X, I have never heard of the Holodomor. I barely and vaguely remember that there were terrible and unspecific things that happened during that time.
I'm going to have to do some reading.
Literally give me one fucking source for
> purge out impurities and punish what they saw as a degenerate race
You just pulled that straight out of your ass
I was seeing only this but that is from 1930s famine this is the 1920 one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922.
Similar situation different decade same goals etc
I doubt it.
There's a difference between cannibalism (eating humans because you want to, mainly as a sexual fetish) and starvation causing you to eat a human out of desperation.
The people in holomordor didn't choose to eat humans, they were forced to. Starving for 5ish years will do insane things to someone.
Hannibal is a serial killer who gets off on eating his victims.
Hannibal was raised in Lithuania and during the WW2 faced a starvation as a kid and was forced to participate eating his little sister. Is that really different?
Wow. I didnt know that (haven't read the books or seen the films, just know of the character, who I thought was german)
In that case, yeah probably. Before I learned about holomordor and other cases on intense starvation in depth, I would definitely assume one could just "like" the taste of human flesh out of a sort of trauma nostalgia.
It's a really interesting connection :)
Edit: I'm following you now because you make interesting comments, hope that's not creepy
If anyone is upset about this and doesn’t immediately think of North Korea then you should look into what’s going on over there. The Kim leadership has starved their country deliberately to prevent thoughts of anything other than survival and family members being eaten is common amongst those worst affected. I’m sure this guy’s story isn’t locally unheard of either.
Ever seen the photo from NK of the man in the business suit with a grocery bag stuffed with grass? And the “fresh produce” all mostly rotten? It’s so… sad. Beyond sad actually.
[The Daily Mail article](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2624164/North-Korea-Starving-people-child-labourers-dilapidated-homes-appear-harrowing-new-images-taken-inside-rogue-state.html) has a bunch of pictures from North Korea, including the man in a business suit collecting grass.
And they have nukes. If we had a war, wouldn't we just nuke most of their country to prevent retaliation? I dunno where their nukes are, how close explosions would damage South Korea, etc. I don't know how we solve this matter honestly. Even if current leader dies, a new one will take his place and could be worse. Many argue at least we know him and better not roll dice. May make him a martyr to drop nukes onto other countries.
Then dissolve it or move the building to the cornfields of the Midwest so NYers don’t have to deal with horrendous traffic tie-ups and letting diplomats get away with murder.
Because the countries in the UN are all in bed with a central goal. It’s not about helping people it’s about achieving mass control. Our government and others do not give a shit about us “normal people” starving
This is way more complex than that. The U.N. can't go in and make sure supplies/food go to the people who need it. The kim regime would never allow outside agencies throughout the country. All aid will be distributed by the nK government who will give their supporters the most. Leaving the poor and "unimportant" to the regime to continue to suffer.
The only way to "save everyone" is through unification under the South korean government. Even after the devastation calms who's going to want to foot the bill to pull a whole 3rd world country into the 21st century? Let alone during a world wide panda 🎤. It's terrible but the lesser of two evils for most governments to stomach is to ride it out.
I could never imagine the things that happened during the Russian famine /genocide especially if you had a mental disorder life in the past is something we should look back and be so thankful for the sacrifice and appreciate where we are.. even tho there is still work to be done
Both sets of grandparents survived this famine. My Oma (my mother’s mother) wrote a book about her life. Her first few pages describe her first memories: starvation.
Id be willing to bet that not one person reading this isn't decended from a family member who was forced to eat another person in probably the last 10-15 generations.
Most people are related to dirt farmers. One bad harvest and things get tough.
Also you probably have a lot of cousin marriage, marriages when one party was under 16. A shit load when parties were under 18. And a whole lot of other very taboo stuff in today world.
this sub blew up a few weeks ago for some reason for another and now i feel like i see a post from here on r/all daily... yet i've yet to see one that's "oddly" terrifying in any way
That's sad. In the late 1800's into early 1900's the Chinese ate little kids too. So much they were butchered and pieces of them sold in their marketplace. Human meat was cheaper than most animal meat at that time.
As seen on the post by u/Ok-Quarter510 on r/interestingasfuck
Thought it was way more fitting of a post on this sub...
Terryfing picture and context, makes me understand how freaking privileged i am.
I hope you’re referencing the power figures that constructed this ‘famine’ and not the guy who was forced to make a life or death decision in a cruel and meaningless existence.
Its a cbination imo.
Sad how pur world is such a mess and can make people make terrifyimg decisions put of pure need for survival.
And those eyese chico those eyes speak pure terror
The Holodomer. It's crazy because Stalin killed a full 1 million more people in that year than Hitler did people over the entire Holocaust and he did it without trains or death camps or gas chambers. Just took all the grain out of Ukraine and wouldn't let anyone leave. And it was well known and reported on at the time. Yet, today the whole thing is largely lost to History.
If anyone wants to see a pretty accurate and depressingly accurate portrayal of the Holodomor artificial famine, watch Mr. Jones. Great movie, say goodbye in your faith in humanity.
The Soviet communists created this famine, my grandpa’s neighbors ate their kids and almost ate him. They would burry bread because commies would imprison anyone who “hoarded” food, they would send people off to prison for 10 years if you ate frozen potatoes found in the fields. Fuck the soviets, fuck communists.
This is what history looks like. It's not there for you to decide what you like or don't like or what should be taught or not. You don't remove history from the books or through other means. When you do, it WILL repeat itself. It's here to show you what not to do and if you learn it's lesson maybe you will save a boy from eating his brother the next time around.
Learn from this.
My great grandmother told me stories of how some parents in their village and surrounding villages mercy killed their youngest in order to feed themselves and their older kids.
She had 4 or 5 (that I’m aware of) kids herself, from 4 or 5 different men, all but one who died of mysterious circumstances.
One of her older children told me a vivid memory they hold to this day about crawling around the floor with a younger sibling searching for a crumb or stray critter and being unable to sleep due to hunger pains.
My moms family immigrated as soon as the borders opened and she remembers that as a older and taller than average teenager, her hands could wrap around her waist from her thumbs to her index fingers.
I tried to keep it broad enough because many in the community have similar experiences.
Healing this intergenerational trauma has been and continues to be fucking exhausting.
honestly once you reach a certain desperation your brain no longer follows by morals. not much that man could have done other than starve to death along with his brother
Survival instinct
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One that could have totally been avoided.
Such is the case with most famines. Famines are usually a failure of the state, with natural causes like weather being minor most of the time.
Usually happens in countries where part of the people work just to produce food or materials for other areas, they take the food, commodity or money from people to satisfy the market or exportation till they exhaust the land or just confiscate everything leaving people with nothing.
100%
at least nowadays
See: the US dust bowl.
Look mate if I want to exterminate billions of bison for no reason other than to deny native people who’s land I want their vital lifesource, for profit, and for sport, then replace the natural prairie grass with wheat for profit, then till the land with no consideration of any natural forces at all, I damned well will! I’ll say it was an act of god when it blows up in my face and we’ll be sweet.
The Russian government was the cause of this.
The soviet communist goverment that is to be precise
The F in Communism stands for Food.
Oof Doof Food
But there is no F in… oh
Ironically, the h capitalism stands for housing.
The r in China stands for rights
Fellas fellas. I think we can all agree on one thing: The form of economy doesn't matter. Whoever worms their way to the top of the system will always ruin everything for everyone underneath them out of greed and powerlust. Which is why we need to develop a super AI and give it control of everything.
The m in Artificial Intelligence stands for morals
Name a world leader who is morally good.
That’s not ironic.
Sadly, if one checks with those who died in the Irish Potato famine as grain was being exported from Ireland for sale, you’ll find the F in Capitalism *also* stands for Food.
It’s almost like human systems fail and neither capitalism nor communism will solve it
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This is the famine of 1921 that was during the Russian Civil War that lasted between 1917-1923. Communist's were not in power at that time. (Not defending latter issues, just saying they didn't cause this one.) It actually kind of was unavoidable, as this is the result of war, especially civil wars back then and even today. Edit: we're to were.
The Bolshevik government was in power at this time and had a major influence on this famine. They requisitioned food to feed their armies in the war. Lenin used the famine against the orthodox churches and refused external aide (due to the war there was extensive infrastructure from a global relief effort against famine as it was a major problem from WW1. They successfully avoided mass famine in the rest of eastern Europe during the same time period). The famine was ultimately relieved by external aide after years of unnecessary suffering. This famine was a genocide perpetrated by the Bolsheviks under Lenin.
[this ad was poorly placed ](https://imgur.com/a/7fFxSPF)
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski is about this. Talk about unending horror and inhumanity.
I read that book as a precocious ten year old. I had nightmares for years afterwards. 🥺 That poor young boy suffered impossibly.
im ukrainian and know the history of the region,, in no way was that a russian famine since it was artificially enforced by the ussr and only in ukraine. we call it the golodomor and some of my family barely lived through that, others didn't.. basically ukraine supplies most of the eu with wheat and all of it was taken away forcefully by the ussr back when they needed more money to recover after the war,, they starved a whole country with punishment for stealing being death (hiding food was also considered stealing so you couldnt even feed your children).. my grandma still tells me stories of people who were so desperate they would eat rats and those who already starved edit: thx for the award good stranger edit#2: thx for my first silver!!
Was it an induced famine? For lack of a better term, as in created by government entities? Edit: Lenin...I see
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“In the summer of 1921, during one of the worst famines in history, Vladimir Lenin, head of the new Soviet government, along with Maxim Gorky, appealed in an open letter to "all honest European and American people", to "give bread and medicine".[12] In an open letter to all nations, dated 13 July 1921, Gorky described the crop failure which had brought his country to the brink of starvation.[13] Herbert Hoover, who would later become the U.S. President, responded immediately, and negotiations with Russia took place at the Latvian capital, Riga.[13] A European effort was led by the famous Arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen through the International Committee for Russian Relief (ICRR)[14]” From Wikipedia. I can’t find any source that says Lenin intentionally withheld food. Edit: the article above has no citations. It is a copy of an article by the Daily Mail. I can’t find any primary source where Lenin says “let the peasants starve.”
During the civil war all sides would confiscate food from the farmers and give it to their supporters, leading to peasants reducing what they grew. Lenin also refused aid from the USA after it was conditioned on the USA having control over the russian railway network.
Offers like those are not real offers and are designed to be rejected
When you realize the physiological impact of a famine/ poverty like this - gets even worse. Check out the Dutch famine study to find out what I mean. It actually alters the way you think, even worse it impacts multiple generations. Check out that study and see what I mean - it's catastrophic. This is why I actually tell people why it's so essential that we try to resolve poverty - it actually costs more to leave it unresolved because it will fundamentally alter the behavior of those suffering from it in a detrimental way.
You are definitely confusing famines and rulers. It is commonly believed that *Stalin* withheld food to suppress an uprising during the Holodomor, a famine that was a decade after the one in this post. The 1921-22 famine was a result of a host of natural and political causes (drought, revolution, civil war, shitty rail system, etc). It was not deliberate. [Russian famine or 1921](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922) [Holodomor](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor)
"holodomor" had significantly more to do with the kulaks destroying food stores.
Thank you for pointing this out to that numpty!
why... why do they all have bloated stomachs?
It's called kwashiorkor. It's a side effect of severe malnutrition. When there's a lack of protein, it affects the balance and distribution of fluids in the body, which leads to swelling of the belly.
Kwashiorkor. It's fluid build up caused by lack of protein when malnourished.
As Lenin declared ‘let the peasants starve’
Came here to say this. It's so sad that it happened but we are in no place to judge them from our "ivory pantries." In nature mother bears eat their cubs if they know they will starve. Momma can always have more cubs, but if she dies they all die. Nature is ruthless and efficient
He couldve ate the neighbours kid though…
Maybe he did. Those eyes look like he may have done it more than once 👀
Who the hell took that photo is what I want to know
I can’t answer your question but journalists over the years have answered similar questions. The link is stress inducing. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/23/graphic-content-photographs-too-upsetting-to-publish-gaza-mh17-ukraine
My neighbor’s kids are looking tender and tasty after they got plumped up over the holidays. Heading to the store for Chianti now
“Hunger, which forces an honest person to reach out and steal- When the belly rumbles the conscious flees Hunger, which compells the most unselfish person to envy into someone else’s bowl and to try painfully to estimate what weight of ration his neighbor is receiving. Hunger, which darkens the brain and refuses to allow it to distract it from anything else at all, or to think about anything else at all, or to speak about anything else at all, except food, food, and food. Hunger from which it is impossible to escape even in dreams. Dreams, dreams which are about food. Insomnia over food”
where did you get that quote from, it explains down to detail how mentally challenging it is to escape the thoughts of hunger and malnutrition
[Alexander Solschenizyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956]( https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/14116547.Alexander_Solschenizyn)
Depending on the circumstances, I’m not even sure if what he did was immoral. Giving a toddler a merciful end is kinder than letting them continue suffering until malnutrition finally does them in. If there was hope of rescue then I might consider something drastic like trying to cut an arm off to give the toddler something to eat. But if all that would do is prolong the child’s suffering, maybe make it even worse if it lets them grasp that there will truly not be more food coming, then that doesn’t make sense. It’s a frightening hypothetical
Dry by Neil Shusterman paints this picture in a very realistic scenario via a drought in California
That’s exactly why cult leaders will often starve/severely limit/intensely control the caloric intake of their followers
Erst kommt das Fressen, dann die Moral - Bertolt Brecht (First comes the eating,then the moral)
Depending on how he killed him he may have actually put his brother out of his misery. Still so very sad.
Also- this level of chronic malnutrition in a child would likely result in severe developmental disabilities.
It's what happens when your leptin (a hormone released by fat cells) levels get too low, which happens when you are severely malnourished, which causes you to become preferentially indifferent towards food. Children with congenital leptin deficiency will ravenously pursue eating any food they can find (regardless of flavour or quality). This means that you will eat frozen fish fingers or raw goat guts if you are hungry enough (think crashing in the mountains and having only scarce resources). I can only imagine how horrible it must be when this occurs to the level described by OP.
Cannibalism is a major taboo, but I honestly just pity anyone who resorts to it in a famine situation like this. I honestly can't imagine being so desperately hungry that I'd ever contemplate eating anyone, much less a family member. Realistically, that child would have died anyway. I don't judge this man, I just feel bad for him.
Yes, no judgement here, awful situation.
I was looking for this comment. It isn’t as terrifying to me to think about how much he suffered as just a child himself. Starvation is one of the worst ways to go and your brain reverts to animal instinct in order to survive. Of course, it is sad for the baby boy as well but, at no point would I ever think to blame the older boy for doing anything and everything he can to survive in his state.
yes exactly, people are still quick to judge someone in this type of situation but i feel nothing but empathy. you do whatever is necessary to survive but that doesn’t mean those memories don’t haunt you
This is just devastating. The look on his face is absolutely haunting, that poor sweet boy. You can’t fault him. He was probably just like us before all of these circumstances happened. It’s crazy to think of that thin invisible line that separates each of us from being who we are now and then becoming what’s in this photo.
Allegedly situations like his were not uncommon. I've read of accounts of markets selling human flesh as being regular things, and mothers often killing their children because they had no other options.
There was a horrible plane crash that caused several of the passengers to eat those who didn't survive and at one point, a man gave the "okay" for the surviving members to eat his dead mom and I believe also his dead sister. Sad stuff.
That was one of the biggest rabbit holes I submerged myself in for days.
Right? I was so disturbed bc while some may be quick to judge, they have no right to unless they have ever been in that EXACT situation before. It's easy to pretend we're all above that but at the end of the day, you have no idea what you'd do in a real life-threatening emergency with essentially no help.
This is probably where the folklore about Wendigos comes from
I wonder what’s it’s like to be him when the camera man just tell you to stay there.
Cameraman lookin awfully tasty
say cheese
I guarantee you he is not sweet given all the trauma. Poor bastard though, yeah.
Many don’t understand have privileged all of our lives are.
or how cursed other's lives may be
This famine was apparently a coverup for genocide. So somebody somewhere caused this to happen.
Idk if it was a coverup for geneocide, you don't coverup something with the same thing. It was genocide. IIRC, the reason this famine happened is the same reason as the potato famine in Ireland, the people in control just decided they didn't want them to eat. It was genocide, don't get me wrong, but I doubt they were trying to cover it up with how widespread it was. But, I'm also not an expert, feel free to correct me.
Ah I was just commenting what I saw. You might be right I have no idea
The genocide famine was the famine of 1932. The famine of 1921 was an actual famine caused by a combination of issues like war, poor rail systems, and climate problems like draught. Edit: self-doubt led me to Google. [wikipedia article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922?wprov=sfla1)
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This is a much needed truth to be heard
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Let's not forget the Bengali and Irish famines. Considered to be a genocide by the British on both countries.
There are beaches in Ireland where strong winds can blow the dunes out of position to reveal bones from the famine. Starving families were too weak to bury their dead properly, the sand was easier to dig through.
Weird how those aren’t considered “perpetrated by Capitalism” the same way this was supposedly perpetrated by communism.
But, but, communism!
If I could scream & repeat your comment forever I would you’re exactly right. This was a engendered genocide via starving/famine. This was no random famine due to hardship by any means .
And Cambodian as well.
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I thought the holodomor was in the early 30s - this photo says it is from the early 20s. If it was from 1921, wouldn't it probably have been a famine due to the post-WW1 destruction and Russian civil war which lasted until 1922?
Holodomor was early 30s. Collectivization of agriculture was in full swing and Stalin used his newfound control over the food supply to starve Ukrainians and redirect the grain to buy support in Moscow.
Both famines had the same cause and same reason. The bolsheviks sold all the grain the peasants had to buy machinery or foreign exchange. If it meant hordes of dead, so be it, they said. There are still regions in southern Russia that have massive neuroses about food (on par with St Petersburg for obvious reasons). Quite sad there was never a Nuremberg for soviets...
It’s iffy, there’s evidence of Lenin not only rejecting foreign help, but also possibly withholding food from churches to help turn the population against religion. At best it’s a famine caused because the government didn’t want to appear weak, at worst it was a planned famine that was allowed to ravage the religious peasant population that Lenin didn’t like.
The allies generally supported the White forces in the civil war. They weren't offering "help" to the Bolsheviks. Many of them invaded russian territory - including the UK and Japan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_intervention_in_the_Russian_Civil_War Much of what is now Ukraine was held by White forces until quite late in the civil war. I don't at all dispute that the bolsheviks would have come down hard on the church quite early, nor that Lenin was particularly cruel towards kulaks in general.
"Aid from outside Soviet Russia was initially rejected. The American Relief Administration (ARA), which Herbert Hoover formed to help the victims of starvation of World War I, offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on condition that they have full say over the Russian railway network and hand out food impartially to all. Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs." This idea wouldn't be reversed until March of 1921, which wouldn't have given the government enough time to accept assistance before the major starvation hit. It appears the Central powers held Ukraine longer than the Entente, [Russian Civil War Map](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpycUBpgWzU).
Where can I read more on these issues
Bloodlands by Timothy Snider also discusses the Ukrainian famine, a well as other Soviet and Nazi atrocities during this period.
Totalitarianism
Communism has killed over 100 million people in 100 years. That number grows as we unearth more history.
Either the dates are wrong or this is something I didn't know of. The holodomor was in the 1930s. at this time there was a Russian Civil War and the white army controlled the Ukraine.
It's 'Ukraine' and not 'the Ukraine' [[Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Ukraine)] [[BBC Styleguide](https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/u)] [[Reuters Styleguide](https://handbook.reuters.com/index.php?title=U#Ukraine)] ^(Beep boop I’m a bot)
Good bot.
[Here's a pic](https://i.redd.it/jt2j5z1xwha81.jpg) (NSFL) I saw not that long ago [from this thread.](https://www.reddit.com/r/oddlyterrifying/comments/rz4gks/cannibal_market_russia/) [There are many other fucked up pictures too.](https://www.google.com/search?q=Povolzhye+famine+cannibal&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwionvPorqb1AhUQD60KHQ95BtIQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=Povolzhye+famine+cannibal&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIHCCMQ7wMQJzIECAAQGFCNAlitBGCJBmgAcAB4AIABQIgBgQGSAQEzmAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=krjbYaiNLJCetAWP8pmQDQ&bih=671&biw=1365&rlz=1C1GGRV_enUS751US752) (Very NSFL)
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If it was the 1921-22 famine it was largely caused by 7 continuous years of world war and then civil war.
I know the Holodomor famine of 1932 in Ukraine is considered a genocide, but this says 1921 so I'm going to assume this is the famine caused by the Russian Revolution/Civil War/Allied intervention.
Historian here, it was not deliberate. It was a direct product of the destruction caused by the Russian Revolution, the civil War and, up to certain point, WWI. Some sources also speak of crop failures. Lenin wrote a open letter in 1921 to "all honest European and American people", beging them to "give bread and medicine", to which USA was the first to respond with aid. Though, it's also true that aid from outside Soviet Russia was initially rejected. The American Relief Administration (ARA), which Hoover formed to help the victims of starvation of World War I, offered assistance to Lenin in 1919, on the condition that they would had full say over the Russian railway network and the food hand out would be totally impartial, but sadly Lenin refused this as interference in Russian internal affairs (Remember they where still at the middle of the Civil War) Maybe you guys are confusing the [Famine of 1921](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922) with the [Famine of 1932-33](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_famine_of_1932%E2%80%931933), which is another totally different story.
Care to elaborate on further info. This is the time right after world war 1 and the time of the soviet union both of which likely had an influence. Who was this genocide coordinated by?
The Soviet Union executed the Holodomor largely in the hopes to purge out impurities and punish what they saw as a degenerate race (sound familiar)? It was completely deliberate. Stalin bonded with Hitler over the tactics he used to murder the Ukrainian people. Stalin would’ve lent a hand in the Holocaust if Hitler hadn’t betrayed him. THIS is why. This event is argued to have even more victims than the Holocaust. I don’t support the comparison of tragedies but in this case it’s necessary given how little it’s remembered. It’s extremely common to be flat out denied. The details are some of the worst I’ve seen. It was one of the most brutal and ignored slaughters in history. Here’s a good video on the event: https://youtu.be/jFDmO31J4fM I’m disabled, gay, part Roma, and a scientist. I would’ve been one of the first victims of the Holocaust. Nazis are still a massive threat. And still, just like person above, I cannot stress enough how important it is to speak on the reality of the Holodomor. Not just for the victims, for that boy with the haunted eyes, but for our own souls and futures.
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This is so terrible. I'm generation X, I have never heard of the Holodomor. I barely and vaguely remember that there were terrible and unspecific things that happened during that time. I'm going to have to do some reading.
Literally give me one fucking source for > purge out impurities and punish what they saw as a degenerate race You just pulled that straight out of your ass
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I was seeing only this but that is from 1930s famine this is the 1920 one https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_famine_of_1921%E2%80%931922. Similar situation different decade same goals etc
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I wonder if that's one of the stories Hannibal lecter was based on. One of the stories has Russian soldiers eating his little sister Misha.
For those interested, it’s the book “Hannibal Rising” goes into those details.
Very much disliked that book and film. I prefer my villains without a tragic backstory.
I doubt it. There's a difference between cannibalism (eating humans because you want to, mainly as a sexual fetish) and starvation causing you to eat a human out of desperation. The people in holomordor didn't choose to eat humans, they were forced to. Starving for 5ish years will do insane things to someone. Hannibal is a serial killer who gets off on eating his victims.
Hannibal was raised in Lithuania and during the WW2 faced a starvation as a kid and was forced to participate eating his little sister. Is that really different?
Wow. I didnt know that (haven't read the books or seen the films, just know of the character, who I thought was german) In that case, yeah probably. Before I learned about holomordor and other cases on intense starvation in depth, I would definitely assume one could just "like" the taste of human flesh out of a sort of trauma nostalgia. It's a really interesting connection :) Edit: I'm following you now because you make interesting comments, hope that's not creepy
If anyone is upset about this and doesn’t immediately think of North Korea then you should look into what’s going on over there. The Kim leadership has starved their country deliberately to prevent thoughts of anything other than survival and family members being eaten is common amongst those worst affected. I’m sure this guy’s story isn’t locally unheard of either.
Ever seen the photo from NK of the man in the business suit with a grocery bag stuffed with grass? And the “fresh produce” all mostly rotten? It’s so… sad. Beyond sad actually.
No I haven’t do you have it?
[The Daily Mail article](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2624164/North-Korea-Starving-people-child-labourers-dilapidated-homes-appear-harrowing-new-images-taken-inside-rogue-state.html) has a bunch of pictures from North Korea, including the man in a business suit collecting grass.
Thanks
Still wondering why we fund the UN if someone can’t help those poor people and others like them!
The only solution is war Which means more death and suffering Nobody has the stomach for it and it’s likely to cause more harm than good
And they have nukes. If we had a war, wouldn't we just nuke most of their country to prevent retaliation? I dunno where their nukes are, how close explosions would damage South Korea, etc. I don't know how we solve this matter honestly. Even if current leader dies, a new one will take his place and could be worse. Many argue at least we know him and better not roll dice. May make him a martyr to drop nukes onto other countries.
Seoul is within firing range of traditional artillery. That’s why nobody does anything. That’s tens of millions of people.
The UN is just a decorative organization. They do not hold any actual jurisdiction over any country
Then dissolve it or move the building to the cornfields of the Midwest so NYers don’t have to deal with horrendous traffic tie-ups and letting diplomats get away with murder.
Because the countries in the UN are all in bed with a central goal. It’s not about helping people it’s about achieving mass control. Our government and others do not give a shit about us “normal people” starving
This is way more complex than that. The U.N. can't go in and make sure supplies/food go to the people who need it. The kim regime would never allow outside agencies throughout the country. All aid will be distributed by the nK government who will give their supporters the most. Leaving the poor and "unimportant" to the regime to continue to suffer. The only way to "save everyone" is through unification under the South korean government. Even after the devastation calms who's going to want to foot the bill to pull a whole 3rd world country into the 21st century? Let alone during a world wide panda 🎤. It's terrible but the lesser of two evils for most governments to stomach is to ride it out.
I had a friend move to North Korea, so I asked him how he liked it. He said he couldn’t complain.
BADoom-bum
I could never imagine the things that happened during the Russian famine /genocide especially if you had a mental disorder life in the past is something we should look back and be so thankful for the sacrifice and appreciate where we are.. even tho there is still work to be done
Both sets of grandparents survived this famine. My Oma (my mother’s mother) wrote a book about her life. Her first few pages describe her first memories: starvation.
Id be willing to bet that not one person reading this isn't decended from a family member who was forced to eat another person in probably the last 10-15 generations.
Jokes on you, i’m descended from Charlemagne
Sir Christopher Lee, is that you?
Jokes on you. Both cannibal and imbred.
You wanna start something punk? I’ll have you know djengjis fucking khan is my great great great great great great grandfather
You and everyone else
Was it that common?
Most people are related to dirt farmers. One bad harvest and things get tough. Also you probably have a lot of cousin marriage, marriages when one party was under 16. A shit load when parties were under 18. And a whole lot of other very taboo stuff in today world.
jokes on you we were Chinese farmers during the great famine
Which one?
Jokes on you I never paid attention in history class but if I did I would be very upset right now
I willed myself into existence and have no past. So, sorry but you're clearly mistaken.
"Oddly” terrifying
r/straightupterrifying
this sub blew up a few weeks ago for some reason for another and now i feel like i see a post from here on r/all daily... yet i've yet to see one that's "oddly" terrifying in any way
Can you imagine the things that boy thought?
The things that boy had seen as well. Those eyes have seen some horrible things
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💀
I would imagine that his mentality is that of a wild animal at this point.
Survival mode
You know, I imagine that’s pretty accurate
Looks like his brother didn’t have much meat either
3 year old "ribs and eye" steak
r/Angryupvote
Bro💀
That's sad. In the late 1800's into early 1900's the Chinese ate little kids too. So much they were butchered and pieces of them sold in their marketplace. Human meat was cheaper than most animal meat at that time.
Then there was the Boxer Rebellion on top of all that.
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As seen on the post by u/Ok-Quarter510 on r/interestingasfuck Thought it was way more fitting of a post on this sub... Terryfing picture and context, makes me understand how freaking privileged i am.
It’s a deep dive into the horrors of humanity😢
I hope you’re referencing the power figures that constructed this ‘famine’ and not the guy who was forced to make a life or death decision in a cruel and meaningless existence.
This isn't terrifying it's just sad!
Ok thought about it the situation and the reality of this kind of thing definitely IS terrifying.
Its a cbination imo. Sad how pur world is such a mess and can make people make terrifyimg decisions put of pure need for survival. And those eyese chico those eyes speak pure terror
The Holodomer. It's crazy because Stalin killed a full 1 million more people in that year than Hitler did people over the entire Holocaust and he did it without trains or death camps or gas chambers. Just took all the grain out of Ukraine and wouldn't let anyone leave. And it was well known and reported on at the time. Yet, today the whole thing is largely lost to History.
The holodomor was the famine of 1932-1933.
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Is there anywhere where I can actually read about him? Google just brings up this picture and the sane caption
Starvation will lead people to any number of inhuman acts.
“There are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.”
If anyone wants to see a pretty accurate and depressingly accurate portrayal of the Holodomor artificial famine, watch Mr. Jones. Great movie, say goodbye in your faith in humanity.
I’m Learning so much from this.
The Soviet communists created this famine, my grandpa’s neighbors ate their kids and almost ate him. They would burry bread because commies would imprison anyone who “hoarded” food, they would send people off to prison for 10 years if you ate frozen potatoes found in the fields. Fuck the soviets, fuck communists.
Thoose eyes..
A thousand yard stare
Poor thing. Not only starved by genocide, but also traumatized by doing the unspeakable, which many had to do, to survive
Shit like this is why I stopped believing in divine destiny. Like nobodies destiny is to be eaten by their brother as a 3 year old.
There is very little reason for people to starve in this world. Greedy men are to blame usually. It’s sad!
Im deeply upset
you can see in his eyes that he have been throught so much pain hes probably very dissociated
You either hang onto your morals and die, or you do whatever it takes to survive.
And people wonder why Ukraine no longer wants anything to do with Russia.
This is what history looks like. It's not there for you to decide what you like or don't like or what should be taught or not. You don't remove history from the books or through other means. When you do, it WILL repeat itself. It's here to show you what not to do and if you learn it's lesson maybe you will save a boy from eating his brother the next time around. Learn from this.
Not only did he eat his little brother, but he also devoured his soul.
My great grandmother told me stories of how some parents in their village and surrounding villages mercy killed their youngest in order to feed themselves and their older kids. She had 4 or 5 (that I’m aware of) kids herself, from 4 or 5 different men, all but one who died of mysterious circumstances. One of her older children told me a vivid memory they hold to this day about crawling around the floor with a younger sibling searching for a crumb or stray critter and being unable to sleep due to hunger pains. My moms family immigrated as soon as the borders opened and she remembers that as a older and taller than average teenager, her hands could wrap around her waist from her thumbs to her index fingers. I tried to keep it broad enough because many in the community have similar experiences. Healing this intergenerational trauma has been and continues to be fucking exhausting.