The mainstream Moldovan interprets the postwar famine of 1946-47 as being ‘organized’ by Stalin as genocide. In this project, I argue however for an interpretation that goes beyond the genocide/anti-genocide dispute that is excessively value ridden and biased. More exactly, I maintain that the Soviet postwar mass famine should be circumscribed into the Soviet model of modernization. The pattern of food distribution in 1946-47 followed the ideological commandments for attaining presumably higher aims as in the early 1930s famine. This is especially true in the Moldavian case, as the region was the only one not yet collectivized to experience mass starvation. This project is based on new archival data disclosed recently in the Chișinău and Moscow archives and contributions both empirical and conceptual made by Western historians in the years following the collapse of the USSR.

A full-length study is available here.