Between 1921 and 1922, due to the famine in southern Russia, men dragged the bodies of their family members who had starved to death and carried them for burial or cremation. The survivors buried the dead, but sometimes they were forced to eat them. Due to the famine and infectious diseases in southern Russia caused by the chaos of the Russian Civil War, millions of people died of starvation between 1921 and 1922. This famine was the first major man-made disaster caused by the Lenin-Stalin regime. After that, millions of people were killed and lost their lives due to the collectivization and famine from 1929 to 1933, and the Great Purge from 1936 to 1939. This was the greatest series of tragedies caused by state policy in the history of any country in the 20th century.
The Russian Famine of 1921-1922 was a severe famine in Russia that began in the early spring of 1921 and continued until 1922. An estimated 5 million people died during this famine, and the Volga and Ural River regions were the worst affected. Cannibalism, in which starving people ate the flesh and organs of other people, occurred. In addition, infectious diseases such as cholera and typhus were the cause of death due to the famine. During the Russian Civil War from 1918 to 1921, food was taken from growers and given to the military and supporters.
As with other major famines, there is considerable variation in estimates. Soviet official publications in the early 1920s concluded that about 5 million people died of famine and related diseases in 1921. The figure is also cited in textbooks. It is suggested that tens of millions of people died in the 20th century due to war, famine and terrorism.
