Shvets Valeriy
Now my seeing of the problem of the Holodomor.
The first and main reason for the Holodomor was the competition between the two ethnoses — the Ukrainian-Rusyn and Muscovite — which claimed to the same land.
For Ukrainians-Rusyns it was natural, since they have lived on this land for thousands of years.
For Muscovites, it was also natural because they have long been accustomed to take away from other peoples what they liked and what they could reach.
The Ukrainian-Rusyn ethnos, genetically related to the land since the times of Trypillian culture, had one of the highest birth rates in Europe, significantly higher than the birth rate of Muscovites in their native lands. Had that rate of population's growth continued, already in the 20th century in the Soviet Union there would have been more Ukrainians-Rusyns than Muscovites. But they are now about two and a half times fewer than the Muscovites! This is the consequence of the Holodomor, which was laid in the Soviet Union's internal policy in the 1930s.
Here's how it was formulated by one of the actual perpetrators of the crime who belonged to the middle ranking of the state apparatus: “The result of the current trouble in Ukraine will be its colonization by Russia, that will change its ethnographic character. In the future, and perhaps in the very near future, no one will talk about Ukraine and the Ukrainian people, nor about the Ukrainian problem because Ukraine will become de facto a territory with predominantly Russian population”.
The second reason provoking terror against the Ukrainian-Rusyns, was the military defeat of the Ukrainian liberation struggle 1918-1922 in the context of the first Ukrainian-Russian war. It happened because of those Ukrainians who believed that the war of national liberation was none of their business, and they did not care what kind of government was in the country. The weak is always killed before he comes to himself.
The third reason was the emergence in the 1930s of the unprecedented in human history totalitarian state, about the inevitability of the appearance of which did warn one famous ideologues of anarchism Mikhail Bakunin. He stated as follows. The Marxist concept of the proletarian dictatorship is unrealizable, because the whole working class at the same time cannot be in the role of the dictator. The dictatorship of the proletariat will gradually find itself in the hands of the governing minority, which will be defending not the people's but its own interests, and its own privileged position. With the establishment of state ownership, the economic foundation of the rule of the “red bureaucracy” will get stronger. That is what happened in the 1930s. The internal struggle of the newly formed Bolshevik elite of the 1920s was over. The thirties were a time of internal consolidation of the elite already on the basis of the Muscovite ethnos. The confiscation of land from the peasants was needed for the concentration of all without exception, country's wealth in the hands of the “red bureaucracy”. The industrialization was needed for total militarization of the country based on the latest military technologies. The elite needed the militarization to make the world revolution. In accordance with the new vocabulary, the term “world revolution” meant what in the times of the Horde sounded as “to reach the last sea and to subjugate all the lands occurring on the way.”
The fourth reason was barely literate non-Ukrainians who were leading Ukraine. The brutality and unscrupulousness correlate well with low levels of education. Such people are ideal performers of the dirty work. The first person — it's always a general or first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Ukraine.
1921-1923 — Manuilsky Dmytro Zakharovych, secondary education, a Ukrainian. The Russian-Ukrainian war continues, so a Ukrainian is needed.
1923-1925 — Kviring Emmanuil Yonovych, education — five classes. The process of Ukrainization of Ukraine is on and needs care, but not too burden-some for the Ukrainian-Rusyns.
1925-1928 — Kahanovych Lazar Moiseyovych, according to an official paper — self-taught (did not study at school). According to other sources — primary education, a Ukrainian Jew. National revival in Ukraine began to disturb Stalin, the time had come to slow it down, and for that Stalin needed a personally loyal to him person.
1928-1938 — Kosior Stanislav Vikentiyovych, education — three classes, a Pole. The time had come to break the backbone of the Ukrainian nation. The ideal candidate in terms of inciting the Ukrainians against the Poles.
1933-1937 — Postyshev Pavlo Petrovych, did not study at school, a Muscovite. The Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Ukraine. The main function — control over the First Secretary, and timely reporting about everything to Stalin.
1938-1948 — Khrushchov Mykyta Serhiyovych, did not study at school, a Ukrainian. The main thing was done, there was a great war ahead and joining new territories inhabited by Ukrainians-Rusyns, it was necessary to somehow loosen the reins.
| Manuilsky Dmytro Zakharovych | Kviring Emmanuil Yonovych | Kahanovych Lazar Moiseyovych |
| Kosior Stanislav Vikentiyovych | Postyshev Pavlo Petrovych | Khrushchov Mykyta Serhiyovych |
The fifth reason for the Holodomor was the beneficial for Moscow situation in the world arena. The world knew everything, but at the official level, it pretended that nothing was happening. The only state which condemned the Holodomor was National Socialist Germany. Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels repeatedly spoke about the Holodomor, and that caused strong protests of the official Moscow. For example, in 1935, at the Congress of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, the Minister of Education and Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels delivered the famous speech “Communism without a Mask.” Having read it (it is available on the Internet), one can see that even then Germany recognized the Bolshevik regime's terrible crime against the Ukrainian people. Adolf Hitler ordered the government to provide support to public organizations, collecting funds to provide assistance to compatriots, and personally donated 1,000 marks into the fund to help the Germans starving in Ukraine. This assistance fell also to the Ukrainians, who lived next to Germans.
The only church that condemned the Holodomor was the Catholic one.
Ukrainians outside the USSR addressed protests to the League of Nations, to governments of different countries. September 27, 1933 a representative of the Government of the UNR in exile Oleksandr Shulhin addressed the 14th Assembly of the League of Nations with a letter, trying to attract the world's attention to the famine in Ukraine. September 29, 1933 in Geneva, there was a secret meeting of the League of Nations with participation of 14 countries. The President of the League of Nations four times made a speech in order to persuade the representatives of the participating countries that it was necessary to help Ukraine. But they were interested in cooperation with the Soviet Union and refused to help the starving Ukrainians, pointing out that the Soviet Union was not a member of the League of Nations, and thus, the famine was the internal problem of the Soviet Union. Only three states (the National Socialist Germany, fascist Italy and Ireland) spoke “for”, “against” were 11 countries, including most of the leading “democratic” countries of Europe. In the same 1933, the United States recognized the Soviet Union, and in 1934, Muscovia joined the League of Nations. Then the Great game began, and the lives of millions of Ukrainians-Rusyns meant nothing in that game. This once again is confirmed by the historical lesson — do not hope for justice from strangers, but try to be strong and be able to stand up for yourself.
Sovietophilia of the significant part of the Western intelligentsia can be considered the sixth reason. Those were well-known writers B. Shaw, R. Rolland, H. Barbusse, and the like who “out of the principle” did not want to notice any drawback in the cherished in their dreams “the most free” country in the world.
| James Mace | “Your Dead Have Chosen Me” |
But the world is changing. In 1985, the US Congress created a special Commission to study the facts of the famine in Ukraine, the Executive Director of which was James Mace. Already in 1982, at the Conference “The Holocaust and Genocide” in Tel Aviv, he stated: “To concentrate the full power in Stalin's hands, it was necessary to exterminate the Ukrainian peasantry, Ukrainian intelligentsia, Ukrainian language, Ukrainian history in the understanding of the people, to destroy Ukraine as such. The calculation is very simple and extremely primitive: there is no people, therefore, there is no separate country, and as a result — there is no problem”.
“Your Dead Have Chosen Me” — such is the title of James Mace's famous book. In 1993, he moved from the United States to Kyiv, where he got married, was teaching at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy and editing the newspaper “Day”. He died on 3 May 2004, was buried in Kyiv on Baykovoye cemetery. Thanks to James Mace and another researcher of the Holodomor — Robert Conquest, the author of the famous book “The Harvest of Sorrow”, the truth about the Holodomor in Ukraine has become known throughout the world.
| Robert Conquest | “The Harvest of Sorrow” |
All the above-written, would not have taken place without the fantastic activities of our US and Canadian diaspora. Many thanks to it from all true Ukrainians of the Great Ukraine — the mother of all Ukrainians-Rusyns from all over the world.
James Mace and Robert Conquest's studies prove that the Holodomor meets the generally accepted definition of genocide. 24 countries have officially recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people (Australia (2003, 2008), Andorra (2009), Argentina (2007), Brazil (2007), Vatican (2001, 2003), Georgia (2005), Ecuador (2007), Estonia (1993), Spain (2007) Italy (2004, 2007), Canada (2003, 2008), Colombia (2007), Latvia (2008), Lithuania (2005), Mexico (2008), Paraguay (2007), Peru (2007), Poland (2006), Slovakia (2007), the USA (2003, 2006, 2008), Hungary (2003), Czech Republic (2007), Chile (2007).
Unfortunately, Germany is not on that list. Well, the National Socialist Germany acted more humanely towards Ukraine than the democratic Germany. It's a pity!
The list does not include France and Great Britain, which in 1933 in the League of Nations were against the aid to the starving Ukraine.
Perhaps the Great game is still not over? Then is it possible to count on the wholehearted support of these countries in the current Russian-Ukrainian war?
None of the Ukrainian Presidents ignored in his activity the theme of the Holodomor, but only one of them — Viktor Yushchenko — raised this tragedy to the level of the fundamental principle of the state policy of Ukraine. It was he who did not let the theme of the Holodomor to quietly and forever evaporate from the memory of the Ukrainian-Rusyn people with the last of its witnesses.
In November 2003, the 58th Session of the UN General Assembly adopted the “Joint Statement on the Occasion of the 70th Anniversary of the Great Famine of 1932-1933”, where it was recognized as the national tragedy of the Ukrainian people. October 23, 2008 the European Parliament recognized the Holodomor in Ukraine as a crime against humanity and expressed condolences to the Ukrainian people.
April 28, 2010 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a Resolution to mark the memory of those killed as a result of the 1932-1933 famine in Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, and paying tribute to the victims of the famine, condemned the brutal policy of the Stalinist regime.
The Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people is recognized by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Kyiv Patriarchate), Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) and the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
In 2003, the Ukrainian Parliament has called, and in 2006 officially recognized the Holodomor as genocide of the Ukrainian people. In 2010, the trial on establishing a crime of genocide ended in the court.
The court found guilty seven top leaders of the USSR and the Ukrainian SSR, namely: the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Joseph Stalin, the Secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) Lazar Kahanovych and Pavlo Postyshev, Chairman of the USSR Sovnarkom Vyacheslav Molotov, General Secretary of the Communist (Bolshevik) Party of Ukraine Stanislav Kosior, the Second Secretary of the CC CP (B) of Ukraine Mendel Khatayevych, Chairman of the Sovnarkom of the Ukrainian SSR Vlas Chubar, and stated that, according to scientific-demographic expert review, the total number of human losses from the Holodomor is 3.941 million people. According to the investigation, it was also established that the Ukrainians' losses in the context of the unborn made up to 6.122 million people. Besides, it is necessary to take into account the unreported number of deaths from related diseases.
The truth about the Holodomor, its reasons and consequences, despite our willingness or unwillingness, is a fundamental principle of the existence of the modern Ukrainian state. It has all the hallmarks of genocide against the Ukrainian people, and is not limited by the years 1932-1933.
The next wave of genocide against the Ukrainian people was disguised as casualties of WWII. During the retreat of the Soviet Army, the NKVD blew up the dam of DniproGES without warning the local people in advance. From floods resulting from an explosion, at least 100 thousand civilians were killed.
And how to take the words of the “glorious Marshal of our victories,” Zhukov: “The more Ukrainians we send to the bottom of the Dnieper, the fewer of them after the war we'll have to deport to Siberia”. And they did sink in the Dnieper about a million of Ukrainians who unprepared, almost unarmed, with no boats, in civilian clothes were driven to cross the River in 1943.
What about the Order to deport all Ukrainians, who were on the German-occupied territories, signed by the same Zhukov and even Beria the following year?
Another wave of genocide was disguised as a poor harvest of 1946-1947. And again, like in 1933, trains with Ukrainian grain were heading to the well-fed Europe.
And so the genocide lasted for all without exception years of the Soviet (Muscovite) power in Ukraine, sometimes taking a subtle latent shape, and sometimes acquiring a threatening force of the perfect storm.
Great God! For what did you send such inhuman tests to my people? How many more of them are ahead? Maybe we will finally gather all your strength and in the final battle with the age-old evil will destroy it? It seems we have no choice.
