Words cannot even describe the moment that we're living through. Russia invaded Ukraine, impacting millions. Day by day, the situation continues to get worse, because there are no winners in war. Please do your part for the Ukrainian people and donate to ANY / ALL of the following SupportUkraineNow.org // novaukraine.org // razomforukraine.org // wck.org (World Central Kitchen) // globalgiving.org other podcasts Raman's talking about the CURRENT situation: https://www.modmypod.com/episodes/ep-135-we-are-all-ukrainians https://pgalums.com/podcast This week we're talking about The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks: Life and Death Under Soviet Rule — written and illustrated by Igort, the award-winning Italian graphic novelist in 2014, and recently translated in English. The Ukrainian and Russian Notebooks is a collection of two harrowing works of graphic nonfiction about life under Russian foreign rule. After spending two years in Ukraine and Russia, collecting the stories of the survivors and witnesses to Soviet rule, Igort was compelled to bring those stories to new life with in-depth reporting and deep compassion. In The Russian Notebooks, Igort investigates the murder of award-winning journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkoyskaya, who spoke out against the Second Chechen War, criticizing Vladimir Putin. Igort follows in her tracks, detailing Anna’s assassination and the stories of abuse, murder, abduction, and torture that Russia was so desperate to censor. In The Ukrainian Notebooks, Igort reaches further back in history and illustrates the events of the 1932 Holodomor. Little known outside of the Ukraine, the Holodomor was a government-sanctioned famine, a peacetime atrocity during Stalin’s rule that killed anywhere from 1.8 to twelve million ethnic Ukrainians. Told through interviews with the people who lived through it, Igort paints a harrowing picture of hunger and cruelty under Soviet rule. With elegant brush strokes and a stark color palette, Igort has transcribed the words and emotions of his subjects, revealing their intelligence, humanity, and honesty—and exposing the secret world of the former USSR.