There is a Need to Go All The Way
November 25, 2007 – 2:28 pmLast weekend Ukraine commemorated the millions of Ukrainians who perished in the 1933 artificial famine. President Viktor Yushchenko has led the way in promoting these commemorations and has devoted a lot of his energy in revealing the horrors of Stalinist totalitarianism http://www.president.gov.ua/content/150_1.html
In 1983 the Ukrainian diaspora commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the Ukrainian famine. This was during the era of stagnation when Leonid Brezhnev still ruled the USSR and Volodymyr Shcherbytsky ruled Ukraine. The Ukrainian diaspora’s commemoration was denounced by Soviet propaganda and by pro-Soviet and Russophile academics and journalists in the West. It took another 7 years before the Communist Party in Ukraine admitted that the famine had taken place.
What is the situation today?
Nobody doubts that a famine took place in Ukraine at that time. But, among some Western academics (particularly among some historians and former Sovietologists) there remains the view that the famine was not directed against Ukraine specifically but against peasants throughout the former USSR who all equally suffered. The millions of deaths were a product of poor weather and economic disorganisation arising out of collectivisation.
This view of all Soviet peoples suffering and the famine not being a deliberate Soviet policy is also to be found in contemporary Russia. There is though, an important nuance.
How a country relates to its history is a reflection of what kind of regime is in place. In Ukraine, whether under Leonid Kuchma or Yushchenko, the crimes committed under Stalinism are commemorated and denounced.
In Russia under Vladimir Putin these Stalinist crimes are ignored and marginalised, being replaced by a new cult of Stalin as the “great leader” who transformed the USSR into a superpower. This fits in with Putin’s new emphasis on rebuilding Russia as a “great power”.
What would the outside world have thought of Germany if in 1962, seventeen years after the defeat of Nazism, there was a former Gestapo officer as Chancellor who praised Adolf Hitler as a “great leader” and had successfully placed Wehrmacht, SS and Gestapo officers in high ranking positions throughout his regime? Well, welcome to a Russia in 2007 ruled by a former KGB officer who praises Stalin and has put in place military and intelligence officers as his new ruling elite.
Clearly this radically different Ukrainian-Russian view of Stalinist crimes is a reflection of the contrast between the great power nationalist autocracy in Russia and a young, but nevertheless flowering, democracy in Ukraine. Ukraine’s denunciation of totalitarian crimes is therefore following in the footsteps of the denunciation of Nazi totalitarianism after World War II by the young and revived German, Austrian and Italian democracies.
There is though, one notable exception.
When President Yushchenko demands that those who deny the famine should be prosecuted he should take this rationale to its logical conclusion in two ways.
It makes no logical sense to have such legislation if the Communist Party is permitted to continue to exist as a legally registered party. Just as in Germany, Austria and Italy, where Nazi and fascist parties have been illegal since World War II, the Communist Party of Ukraine should also be banned as a body that is the direct descendent of the criminal political force that unleashed Stalinist crimes against Ukrainians.
A second logical step is to morally denounce the members of the former secret police (NKVD, KGB), some of whom are still alive and receive state pensions. If it is perfectly humane to legally prosecute old men in the West who allegedly committed Nazi crimes than why not prosecute old men who committed Stalinist crimes?
Ukraine, as a country that suffered inordinately from both Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, should lead the way in establishing a moral equivalence between Communist and Nazi crimes against humanity. There should be no place for either Communist or fascist parties in Hitler’s and Stalin’s playground – Ukraine – except that is in the rubbish bin of history.
8 Responses to “There is a Need to Go All The Way”
Just a chronological correction: Shcherbytsky ruled until 1989, but Brezhnev died in late 1982.
Other than that, I agree with you 100 percent. Ukraine’s biggest mistake was zero lustration.
By Taras on Nov 27, 2007
thanks for a clear, insightful article. This’ll help me get through the arguments next time we have Russians and Ukrainians to dinner again!
By mindthegap on Nov 27, 2007
———begin cite——–
Ukraine, as a country that suffered inordinately from both Nazi and Soviet totalitarianism, should lead the way in establishing a moral equivalence between Communist and Nazi crimes against humanity.
———–end cite——-
Nazism lasted only 12 years. But Zionism has been murdering Arabs for 62 years, almost as long as the communist regime in Ukraine. The Palestinians of today are the Ukrainians of yesteryear. Now, THERE is equivalence for you!
http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2005-03/14/article02.shtml
http://www.soundofegypt.com/Palestinian/adult/iman_1.htm
http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2006/08/11/p10004
Even more than Nazi crimes, the taint of moral equivalence must encompass Zionist/Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, whom Zionists have been beating up since 1945.
Criminalizing Holodomor denial is a proposition that deserves no consideration in a free society. One does not criminalize opinion on historical matters.
But OTOH: Communism is a subversive criminal enterprise. Communist parties have no place among civilized people.
An excellent article, and most appreciated!
By Roman on Dec 3, 2007
I would like to congratulate you on a most concise, eloquent and proficient comparison of today’s rule by ex KGB Officer Putin and his henchmen to Hitler’s rule with his Nazi Party members if they happened to be in power with Hitler as Chancellor of Austria and Germany 16 years after WWII. I am sure that the ex KGB members are enjoying social security benefits such as old age pensions and living in relative comfort with no punishment for the crimes they committed during the Soviet Era. Is it that the Ukrainians are scared, do not have financial clout are just don’t care. A pity there are not more people with your eloquent expression of the present political situation in Russia. It was a great pleasure to read your article. I have written a book called “Galicia” where I have expressed similar views to yours.
By Lydia Mamchak on Dec 4, 2007
I’d hope that the finally-formed Orange Coalition wd follow up on this, though I think there’d have to be a way for the Communist party to reinvent itself, as I find it hard to believe that one cd cast a party out of the political system by fiat.
dlw
By dlw on Dec 5, 2007
Re dlw comment, impossibility of casting s political party out of the system by fiat (or by any other method).
Lots of examples of that. The National Socialist Party in Germany, for instance. In the USA, any political party that is not part of the unique and indivisible Demopublican circus.
By Roman on Jan 24, 2008
In much the same way that Ukraine are selectively ignoring the war crimes committed by Stephen Bandera and the Ukrainian nationalists who supported the Nazis during the second world war and carried out programs against Ukrainians in Western Ukraine.
“Hero or War criminals”.
I have bee told first had reports of Ukrainians forced to did mass graves and the line up to be shot by the so call Ukrainian Nationalists. Speak to the Ukrainian Jewish community that was forced to flee Ukraine and ask them if they consider the Nationalists movement heroes or criminals. What is clear is they did not represent the views of Ukraine.
I do not support the reported acts and events of 1933 but from what I have read there is much more to the events then the allegation of genocide against “Ukraine”. In the same way that I do not hold the current German population to account for the actions of past Nazi regimes I do not consider Russia responsible for the acts of the Georgian dictator or the former Soviet Union.
By Nestor on Mar 22, 2008
My dear Nestor. Overlooking your appalling English grammar for the moment, please be explicit on your accusation that
“Ukraine are selectively ignoring the war crimes committed by Stephen Bandera and the Ukrainian nationalists who supported the Nazis during the second world war and carried out programs against Ukrainians in Western Ukraine.”
Really? Please state what and where. No? I didn’t think so.
By Roman on May 7, 2008