This was written for The Free Market: http://mises.org/periodical.aspx?Id=1
For example, some point out that the social structure was more corporate than communist. Others say that the increased crop yield was due simply to improved farming methods while blaming infighting on cultural differences and not work ethic. Others still claim that there were no famines. Overall, I think this quote near the end of the article makes an important observation: > “Across the political spectrum, there’s a tendency to grab a hold of some historical incident and yoke it to a current agenda,” he said. “It doesn’t always mean there’s no connection, but often things are presented as historical first, rather than as part of the agenda first.” And indeed, many can play this game. It's hard to tell where the honest truth lies between all of the political nitpicking, so we may never know for sure what happened.