While the Soviets were denying there was a problem, they were also receiving reports from the countryside telling them what was happening: http://www.rusarchives.ru/publication/hunger-ussr/1933_36.shtml It documents famine and cannibalism in some of the Volga German villages. Is there someone who could properly translate this from Russian into English? Of course, we all received letters from our relatives begging us for money so they would not starve. Meanwhile, the USSR propagated the lie there was nothing happening. Edward (Ted) Gerk