Holdomor
It's only fitting that we note a very sad anniversary before this year slips away. 2008 marks 75 years since Stalin deliberately starved Ukraine's "kulaks" in order to force rural collectivization and destroy Ukrainian nationalism.
The world gets tied up in wads about “The Holocaust” – and it should. The Holocaust is the archetypal genocide and one of the most hideous acts of deliberate evil in history, but we should pause occasionally to remember how horrific much of the 20th century was and that Europe’s Jews were not the only victims of genocide. (Just ask the Armenians, Ukrainians, Cambodians, Tutsi, and so many millions of Russians and Chinese…)
Perhaps six million died in the Holocaust. The Holodomor killed about seven million Ukrainians and over 14 million died all across Russia during forced collectivization. Learn more here and here. (Other links in updates as I find them.)
This begs the question, of course, of why events like the Holodomor are not remembered when the Holocaust is. Perhaps – just perhaps – it has something to do with the fact that socialism is coming back into vogue (if it ever went out) among the left that controls the West’s media. Perhaps it is inconvenient to show the real human cost of trying to implement socialism in the real world (as communism – yeah, I know, I know: “not the same thing!” Bullshit. Same religion, just different denominations). Deprecating Hitler costs the left nothing (nor should it); pointing out that former heroes of the left like Stalin and Mao were savage, ravening, mass-murdering monsters creates more problems.
So… few around will honor those who died in the Holodomor. Count me among those few.
Monk
The world gets tied up in wads about “The Holocaust” – and it should. The Holocaust is the archetypal genocide and one of the most hideous acts of deliberate evil in history, but we should pause occasionally to remember how horrific much of the 20th century was and that Europe’s Jews were not the only victims of genocide. (Just ask the Armenians, Ukrainians, Cambodians, Tutsi, and so many millions of Russians and Chinese…)
Perhaps six million died in the Holocaust. The Holodomor killed about seven million Ukrainians and over 14 million died all across Russia during forced collectivization. Learn more here and here. (Other links in updates as I find them.)
This begs the question, of course, of why events like the Holodomor are not remembered when the Holocaust is. Perhaps – just perhaps – it has something to do with the fact that socialism is coming back into vogue (if it ever went out) among the left that controls the West’s media. Perhaps it is inconvenient to show the real human cost of trying to implement socialism in the real world (as communism – yeah, I know, I know: “not the same thing!” Bullshit. Same religion, just different denominations). Deprecating Hitler costs the left nothing (nor should it); pointing out that former heroes of the left like Stalin and Mao were savage, ravening, mass-murdering monsters creates more problems.
So… few around will honor those who died in the Holodomor. Count me among those few.
Monk
posted by Monk | 14:58
