But from what I've read of the Ukranian starvation of the early 30s;

1) the USSR was exporting plenty of 'collected' food to Europe while the Ukranians starved

2) In at least one particular case, the Ukranian farmers went to turn their harvest in to the collective by depositing it in grain silos and they found locked in the grain silos was the grain from the prior year's collection, while the townspeople had spent the year starving.

http://www.infoukes.com/history/famine/gregorovich/

I was thinking perhaps the desire to paint as markedly extreme the 'holocaust' of WWII has almost entirely overshadowed such a famine and that's whyI didn't learn of it in U.S. public school? Someone I know suggested leftist educators and historians didn't want to stain communism with accusations about this tragedy. what do i know.

I've also heard that another better known famine (Irish potato) was more or less produced by the British. Yes the potato crop went to rot, but there was food in the UK; under British rule, Irish Catholics were prohibited from entering the professions or even purchasing land. During the famine's worst years, many Anglo-Irish estates continued to export grain and livestock to England.

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/irish_potato_famine.cfm