Remember Holodomor?

As I watch the news about the Ukraine invasion by Russia, I am amazed by those holding up Russian flags and pictures of Stalin. Apparently, they are unfamiliar with or have simply forgotten about Holodomor.

For the benefit of those in this country who may not be familiar with the term, it roughly means “Extermination by Hunger”, and refers to the mass extermination of Ukrainians through a fabricated famine crafted by Russian dictator Joseph Stalin. By most counts, some 10 million men, women, and children starved to death in the Ukraine. These deaths were part of a systematic practice of genocide against the Ukrainian peasants ordered by Stalin in 1932 and 1933. There are pictures of people walking past dead bodies in the streets reminiscent of the plague years in Europe.

Granted, there may not be many Ukrainians still around from that era, and those that are probably never heard of Holodomor. I strongly suspect the Soviet school system probably conveniently left that episode out of the history books.

Vlad Putin would like the world to believe he is only protecting the rights of Russian speaking people in another country. Russians are uber-nationalists when it comes to the “Motherland.” Under Soviet rule, however, all of the people in their satellite countries had to learn Russian. It was an absolute requirement. So, does Putin mean to reclaim all of the former Soviet countries?

When Hitler began to gobble up countries, he used the same excuse. Austria spoke German – albeit a strange dialect of the language. There were German-speaking minorities in Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. Denmark, and Holland spoke something that might resemble some sort of German dialect. France, Norway, and England? Well what the heck, there might be someone in those countries that knows a little German. Take the bunch.

By the time he finally set his sights on Russia and the Soviet Union, Hitler was already bogged down in fighting to keep the countries he had “annexed.” Hitler’s appetite for taking other countries was his downfall. Unfortunately, world leaders – particularly England’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain – only fed Hitler’s hunger by not standing up to him at the onset of Hitler’s “annexation” quests.

Is Putin destined to he another Hitler or even Stalin? Only time will tell. History is often a good predictor of the future, and in this instance, Putin must be stopped at his own border. He is playing a dangerous game of chicken with superpowers, the outcome of which cannot be good for any party in the game.

Why Ukrainians would ever want to be part of Russia is a complete mystery to me. Maybe the Russians have successfully managed to eliminate Holodomor from the Ukrainian mind and vocabulary. I am sure Iran and the Turks would love to know how they accomplished that feat.