The word Holodomor literally translated from Ukrainian means "death by hunger", or "to kill by hunger, to starve to death." Sometimes the expression is translated into English as "murder by hunger or starvation." It was a tragic episode in the Ukrainian history when famine killed up to about 10 million Ukrainians in 19321933. And now reading the news from Ukraine I have a strong feeling that the history can repeat itself. Probably, not at that scale, but nevertheless. The Ukrainian currency is losing its value, and the only thing the government does is printing more money. Prices are getting higher and the incomes are getting lower. Plus, the winter is coming, the whole economic situation has been getting worse, and the military expenses have increased significantly. And dont forget that this year harvest has suffered from the war. Ukraine has terrible debts, and theres a great possibility that International Monetary Fund will cut the credit line because they would consider the Ukrainian government a bad debtor. All in all this could lead to the situation when the Ukrainian citizens would have to survive on their own, and the whole world doesnt care about them. Yeah, I sort of know that nobody should care about them, but they are people, and we as a society tend to be humanistic, so What would the world community do about this?
I had Thanksgiving dinner with two Ukranian teachers where I was going to school. A friend and I had been invited and I'm sorry to say we arrived with hangovers. We were served large platters of food and managed to eat all we were served. The women took the platters into the kitchen and returned with them loaded again. Jim and I ate a little but the two women finished their and returned with a third load. They were pretty stout but not humungous and I laughed and asked how they could eat so much. They both stared at me and Mrs. Smolyanski said, "When I was young we were starved. If there was food you ate it because it might be gone when you got hungry." She and Mrs. Ignatovich explained what Stalin had done. Mr. Khabayev explained what Stalin had done to his village in Azerbaijan, too. The liberal apologists for the Russians really need to read some history and meet a few survivors. Come to think of it, the Stalin survivors are mostly dead now, aren't they?
Interesting and totally irrelevant story. Were you going to tie it into the policy of extermination that the current Ukrainian gov has against its own citizens in the East?
agree, Patrick T's post was just right wing propaganda, totally irrelevent - - - Updated - - - Let them sort their own problems out - worry about your own house - - - Updated - - - They only starved because they refused to build Socialism - they should have worked on the collective farms instead of opposing the regime
The problem is we are already involved, you know. And it would be an absolutely rat thing to do, after meddling with Ukrainian inner affairs with all that bunch of people and money - and them leave the people to deal with economic crisis by themselves (for I don't really think their government is capable of anything worthy).
Not sure if it's a colonial approach. =) Though I would also prefer if we cared about our own house, but as far as we're already involved... Just a responsible thing to do - to sort out the mess we got involved, don't you think? =) By 'we' I mean the United States of America. As a country. No intention to make every single American responsible for everything.=)
Why are you so rude? I'm trying to insult you and expect you would treat me the same way... And once again, I am personally against all this meddling, I agree it's not OK. But it's a good thing to clean up if you messed up...
Oh, my god. They refused to build Socialism. I guess in Munter-World they should die and Stalin is a great hero. I do totally understand Munter's position that history is right-wing propaganda. Left-wing propaganda is lies. When the Ukrainians had been killed, Russians were moved to the Ukraine by the Soviets. I wonder if that could have anything to do with today's hostilities? Probably not...in LibWorld.
When you're consider those who are proud of being rats, that would be you. You know, socialists. And we all realize that you and your ilk don't consider yourselves Americans so you wouldn't be included in "we" would you?
Supporting capitalist imperialism (as you are doing) IS insulting. 'cleaning up' - sounds like NGO, aid money , neo-lib colonialism etc.. no thanks- that system is broken
The alternative would have been to have left the SU weak, and exposed to the rising power of Hitler - then things would have been far worse for the Ukraine. So yes, Stalin was a hero. In the present day, the Ukraine should be left free of both Western and Russian meddling. - - - Updated - - - Why would I consider myself American anyhow?
