The Holodome and Russian invasion of Ukraine - discuss
Feb 25, 2022 2:51:34 GMT
michellegb, leftturnonly, and 8 more like this
Post by quiltz on Feb 25, 2022 2:51:34 GMT
I am bringing this bit of history to peas to provide a bit of background between Russia and Ukraine. This is simply to provide a bit of education and background about the Ukraine and the struggles to become their own country, separate from Russia.
Many people don't know about the Holodomar. the man-made starvation that was in Ukraine in the early 1930's.
It was a genocide that was known as “The Holodomor,” a word that in the Ukrainian language means “death inflicted by starvation”.
My own family background is Ukrainian and they suffered greatly during the Holodomar. Fortunately, they survived and were able to come to Canada, after WW2.
Millions of men, women and children were slowly starved to death in the early 1930s through the implementation of a policy to take away the food from the largest segment of the Ukrainian nation, the farmers. The term “Holodomor” is often used to encompass the starvation of the farmers as well as a broader assault on the Ukrainian nation, which included an attack on the cultural, religious and political leadership of Ukraine, most of which was at that time under Soviet rule. Thus, the largest non-Russian ethnic group within the Soviet Union, the Ukrainians, were decimated, putting an end to their aspirations for autonomy and independence for decades.
The Soviet regime that conducted this genocide denied its existence and terrorized its own population into silence for generations. Thus, this huge crime nearly disappeared from world awareness. After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, archives in Russia and Ukraine were made accessible that for decades had been closed to scholars. Researchers are now able to study documents and materials that confirm the motivations of the Soviet leadership in the 1930s regarding Ukraine and the conduct of its regional leaders during the Holodomor. This has led to a greater understanding of this tragedy, including its far-reaching consequences for present-day Ukraine.
CBC Radio · Posted: Feb 21, 2022 9:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 10 hours ago
The Holodomor is an important backdrop to the current upheaval in Ukraine today
The tension we're seeing right now between Ukraine and Russia, which erupted in an invasion of Ukraine by Russia early Thursday, isn't recent. Its roots go back to the defining event of Ukraine's modern history: the Holodomor, or "hunger-extermination" of the 1930s.
Ukraine in 1932 was a satellite of the Soviet Union, one that had long been struggling to find its place as an independent republic in the U.S.S.R. In that year and the one following, Joseph Stalin closed the borders and seized the harvest — almost five million tonnes.
What happened next became known as the Holodomor — "death by starvation" — a man-made famine leading to the deaths of as many as eight million people.
In 2008, IDEAS producer Philip Coulter travelled to Ukraine looking for the traces and legacy of the Holodomor and to find out what happens to a society after such a disaster.
Coulter met a few survivors, all with vivid memories of bodies in the streets and Soviet soldiers searching for hidden food.
Katerina Shlionchyk was seven years old during this dreadful time in history. She came from a big family. They owned land, had four horses, two ploughs, several cows and a flock of 50 sheep — they were able to fend for themselves.
But after they were forced off the land, all of her family died from having nothing to eat.
"First, my grandparents, then the smallest children — the one-year old, the two- and three- and five-year-old — they all died, one by one over three days," she told Coulter in his IDEAS documentary, The Great Hunger.
"I remember we lived not far from the cemetery. We often saw the carts with the dead going by. It was horrible."
"After the Holodomor, it was only seven years and then the war began. And after the war, another famine, just about as horrible."
Things didn't get easier for Ukraine.
After the Holodomor that left millions dead in the 1930s, the opposition to Moscow was crushed, but the tension with Russia — and how Ukraine should orient itself between East and West — would remain until today.
In 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared its independence. By the 2004 Presidential Elections, the old tensions with Russia had returned. The Russia-leaning candidate Viktor Yanukovych, the eventual winner, faced off against the more Western-oriented Viktor Yuschenko, leading to street riots in Kiev.
The seesaw of political upheaval — should Ukraine be more oriented to Russia or to the West — persisted all the way to 2014, and the so-called Orange Revolution, in which Yanukovych was removed from power.
A month later, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, and an insurgency in the Donbas region, involving Russian troops, led to loss of control in the East and the instability we face today.
The Kremlin denied the deadly famine had happened for more than half a century, a great disaster that still plays a vital role in the public memory for the people of Ukraine.
Many people don't know about the Holodomar. the man-made starvation that was in Ukraine in the early 1930's.
It was a genocide that was known as “The Holodomor,” a word that in the Ukrainian language means “death inflicted by starvation”.
My own family background is Ukrainian and they suffered greatly during the Holodomar. Fortunately, they survived and were able to come to Canada, after WW2.
Millions of men, women and children were slowly starved to death in the early 1930s through the implementation of a policy to take away the food from the largest segment of the Ukrainian nation, the farmers. The term “Holodomor” is often used to encompass the starvation of the farmers as well as a broader assault on the Ukrainian nation, which included an attack on the cultural, religious and political leadership of Ukraine, most of which was at that time under Soviet rule. Thus, the largest non-Russian ethnic group within the Soviet Union, the Ukrainians, were decimated, putting an end to their aspirations for autonomy and independence for decades.
The Soviet regime that conducted this genocide denied its existence and terrorized its own population into silence for generations. Thus, this huge crime nearly disappeared from world awareness. After the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991, archives in Russia and Ukraine were made accessible that for decades had been closed to scholars. Researchers are now able to study documents and materials that confirm the motivations of the Soviet leadership in the 1930s regarding Ukraine and the conduct of its regional leaders during the Holodomor. This has led to a greater understanding of this tragedy, including its far-reaching consequences for present-day Ukraine.
CBC Radio · Posted: Feb 21, 2022 9:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 10 hours ago
The Holodomor is an important backdrop to the current upheaval in Ukraine today
The tension we're seeing right now between Ukraine and Russia, which erupted in an invasion of Ukraine by Russia early Thursday, isn't recent. Its roots go back to the defining event of Ukraine's modern history: the Holodomor, or "hunger-extermination" of the 1930s.
Ukraine in 1932 was a satellite of the Soviet Union, one that had long been struggling to find its place as an independent republic in the U.S.S.R. In that year and the one following, Joseph Stalin closed the borders and seized the harvest — almost five million tonnes.
What happened next became known as the Holodomor — "death by starvation" — a man-made famine leading to the deaths of as many as eight million people.
In 2008, IDEAS producer Philip Coulter travelled to Ukraine looking for the traces and legacy of the Holodomor and to find out what happens to a society after such a disaster.
Coulter met a few survivors, all with vivid memories of bodies in the streets and Soviet soldiers searching for hidden food.
Katerina Shlionchyk was seven years old during this dreadful time in history. She came from a big family. They owned land, had four horses, two ploughs, several cows and a flock of 50 sheep — they were able to fend for themselves.
But after they were forced off the land, all of her family died from having nothing to eat.
"First, my grandparents, then the smallest children — the one-year old, the two- and three- and five-year-old — they all died, one by one over three days," she told Coulter in his IDEAS documentary, The Great Hunger.
"I remember we lived not far from the cemetery. We often saw the carts with the dead going by. It was horrible."
"After the Holodomor, it was only seven years and then the war began. And after the war, another famine, just about as horrible."
Things didn't get easier for Ukraine.
After the Holodomor that left millions dead in the 1930s, the opposition to Moscow was crushed, but the tension with Russia — and how Ukraine should orient itself between East and West — would remain until today.
In 1991, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declared its independence. By the 2004 Presidential Elections, the old tensions with Russia had returned. The Russia-leaning candidate Viktor Yanukovych, the eventual winner, faced off against the more Western-oriented Viktor Yuschenko, leading to street riots in Kiev.
The seesaw of political upheaval — should Ukraine be more oriented to Russia or to the West — persisted all the way to 2014, and the so-called Orange Revolution, in which Yanukovych was removed from power.
A month later, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula, and an insurgency in the Donbas region, involving Russian troops, led to loss of control in the East and the instability we face today.
The Kremlin denied the deadly famine had happened for more than half a century, a great disaster that still plays a vital role in the public memory for the people of Ukraine.
