The author of the book "The Book of Hunger" Larisa Turea made distressing statements about the famine of 1946–1947, which seriously affected the population of Bessarabia. In IPN’s public debate "Aims, authors and evidence of the organized famine of 1946-1947", Larisa Turea explained that this tragedy was the result of the Soviet authorities’ rigorous plan to confiscate all the food from peasants.

"A the upper level, some exaggerated plans were made to requisition agricultural products and it is not true that it was not known. In Moscow, they knew very well what was happening in Bessarabia, but no one cared. There was also an excess of zeal on the part of the local authorities. It was an exaggerated plan to collect agricultural products. They passed through the village like a bulldozer and seized everything," said Larisa Turea said.

In her book, she included multiple testimonies of survivors, who tell how, at that time, the locals sold their last possessions in exchange for food.

"Both spiritual and material culture was lost. There are numerous cases when people sold their house for a sack of grain. They remained with absolutely nothing. Everything that had value was sold for food. It was terrible. It was a tragedy. The whole of Bessarabia became a concentration camp without gas chambers," said Larisa Turea.

Official figures show that about 200,000 people died as a result of the organized famine. However, Larisa Turea drew attention to the fact that these data are most likely far below the harsh reality of those years.

"The famine made the people to manage the situation themselves. They dug their own graves, buried themselves. Nobody knew about them. Those who had death certificates are very few in number. There are no real statistics. The figure of 200,000 deaths shows only the confirmed cases. In fact, there are many more," pointed out the author of the book.

The public debate entitled "Aims, authors and evidence of the organized famine of 1946-1947" was the 47th installment of the project “Impact of the past on confidence-building and peace-building processes". IPN Agency implements the project with support from the German Hanns Seidel Foundation.