STARVING people sell human body parts including severed heads in a desperate bid to feed their families.

These disturbing pictures show the horrors of the Russian famine in the 1920s which hit around 25million people in the Volga and Ural River region of the vast country.

22 A couple sell body parts, including a human head and the corpse of a child, during the Russian famine Credit: Getty Images

22 Three naked children pictured swelled stomachs Credit: Getty Images

22 A family in the Volga region pose beside human remains Credit: Getty Images

22 A starving woman fed her dead daughter to her surviving children to keep them alive in the Chelyabinsk province Credit: Alamy

22 A malnourished nine-year-old girl pictured during the famine Credit: Alamy

22 A woman watches her partner slowly starving to death Credit: Getty Images

22 A family suffering from severe hunger poses for the camera Credit: Getty Images

22 Women walk past people dying of starvation during the great Ukrainian famine of early 1930s. Credit: Getty Images

22 An emaciated boy pictured in 1933 during the Ukrainian famine Credit: Getty Images

From 1921 until the end of 1922, an estimated five to ten million people lost their lives.

After the end of the First World War, Russia was blighted by a civil war, drought and inept government resulting in food shortages.

The harrowing images of children screaming in hunger and people dying on the street give a glimpse into the terrifying period in Russian history.

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People were forced to eat grass, dirt, dogs, cats and leather horse harnesses.

There were reports of parents killing and eating their own children with rampant starvation making people take unimaginable measures to survive.

Despite reports of cannibalism, the police took no action as it was deemed a legitimate method of survival.

One picture shows a couple selling human remains, including the corpse of a young boy, in a degrading bid to feed themselves.

As news of the famine spread around the world, the United States and some western European countries stepped in to provide food and relief workers which saved million of lives.

In the early 1930s, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin inflicted a man-made famine on Ukraine which claimed the lives of up to 7.5 million people.

Considered a genocide by historians, Stalin inflicted the famine in a savage bid to wipe out the Ukrainian independence movement.

22 A starving little girl stands naked against a wall in 1921 at the height of the famine Credit: Getty Images

22 A child dying of hunger in the Volga region Credit: Getty Images

22 A starving Chuvash family near their tent in Samara Credit: Getty Images

22 Children from famine stricken Chuvashia being given shoes upon arrival in Moscow during the Russian Civil War in 1921 Credit: Getty Images

22 Two small coffins being carried on stretchers to a cemetery in the Volga famine district of Bolshevist Russia Credit: Getty Images

22 Ragged and barefoot, starving Russian families in the Volga region Credit: Getty Images

22 A victim of the famine pictured lying dead on the ground Credit: Getty Images

22 A child looks almost skeletal during the famine which claimed millions of lives Credit: Rex Features

22 A family try to huddle together for warmth as starvation takes hold Credit: Rex Features

22 Dead bodies are carried by cart through the city of Samara Credit: Rex Features

22 A family including two children lie dying in the street in 1922 Credit: Getty Images

22 A child in a hospital bed screaming for food Credit: Rex Features

22 Three small children pictured cold and hungry during the devastating famine Credit: Getty Images

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