Early Life
Born into a Ukrainian family with a non-party, revolutionary father, Kravchenko became an engineer and worked in the Don basin region. He joined the Communist Party in 1929. He witnessed the mass starvation of the Ukrainian peasantry as part of Joseph Stalin's agricultural collectivization. His disgust at the massive human cost of the policy increasingly alienated him from the Soviet regime. During the Second World War he served as a Captain in the Soviet Army before being posted to the Soviet Purchasing Commission in Washington, D.C.
Read more about this topic: Victor Kravchenko (defector)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“With boys you always know where you stand. Right in the path of a hurricane. It’s all there. The fruit flies hovering over their waste can, the hamster trying to escape to cleaner air, the bedrooms decorated in Early Bus Station Restroom.”
—Erma Bombeck (20th century)
“The best thing to do with the best things in life is to give them up.”
—Dorothy Day (1897–1980)