As horrific as famine can be there was something even more horrible: cannibalism. I quote from the book Khrushchev Remembers: Kirichenko...told me he had gone to a collective farm to check on how the people were surviving the winter. He was told to go see a woman who worked there:

Kirichenko...told me he had gone to a collective farm to check on how the people were surviving the winter. He was told to go see a woman who worked there:

"I found a scene of horror. The woman had the corpse of her own child on the table and was cutting it up. She was chattering away as she worked, 'We've already eaten Manechka [Little Maria]. Now we'll salt down Vanechka [Little Ivan]. This will keep us for some time.' Can you imagine? This woman had gone crazy with hunger and butchered her own children!"