In 1932-33 a man-made famine killed millions of people in Soviet Ukraine, an event known as the Holodomor, meaning death by hunger. Stalin's regime forced farmland into collectives, seized grain and food, and in early 1933 imposed a blockade that stopped starving peasants from leaving the countryside. Foreign journalists were banned from Ukraine, so evidence was scarce. Photographs taken by an Austrian engineer, including one of a mass grave, were smuggled out in the embassy's diplomatic pouch. Soviet authorities and sympathetic press then denied the famine. Many countries and historians now describe it as a genocide, while others treat it as a famine caused by deliberate policy. Memorials have recently been destroyed in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.