Stalin believed that Ukrainian peasants were just lazy,
and the starving millions were whining just to spite him.

Kaganovich reassured Stalin that talk of Ukrainians as
"innocent victims" was just a "rotten cover-up."

Stalin had worked out, at least to his own satisfaction, 
a connection between starvation and Ukrainian disloyalty.

In his mind, it was the Ukrainian farmers and their families,
not him, who were using starvation as a weapon.

The truth:
lack of seed grain, which had been exported to fill quota, 
meaning no future crop, late sowing, poor weather, 
machinery insufficient to replace animal
labor, weakened citizenry, zero food

cc: Chagall, Viacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich,
bcc: Eva, Mikhail
1931

citations and footnotes available upon request