I'm not a historian, but if 10-20% of the population in my state died of famine and persecution like it happened in Ukraine, then I would not be surprised if anyone taking over the reins would be welcome.
Ukraine was mostly created by early USSR. Many of regions with famine were "assigned" to Ukrainian SSR after revolution. They were not officially considered Ukraine before the revolution.
Core Russian regions (Volga river basin, for example) also had famines just as bad.
