Has anyone heard anything about this?
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Showing posts with label Ukrainian history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ukrainian history. Show all posts
Monday, January 26, 2009
Horbach vs. Gorbachev
I have recently heard that Gorbachev's original family name was Horbach and that they are Ukrainian. Apprently, the -ov was added during Stalin's big name-change operation, when all Muslim lastnames in the Soviet Union and many Ukrainian lastnames were changed in such a fashion on Stalin's orders. A Ukrainian member of the British Parliament, Stefan Terlezki, has also claimed in his book "From War to Westminster" that Gorbachev spoke with him in perfect Ukrainian when he visited Britain.
Has anyone heard anything about this?
Has anyone heard anything about this?
Friday, November 21, 2008
Ukraine Genocide Analysis by Yevhen Zakharov
In regards to the legal classification of Holodomor as genocide, I would strongly recommend the legal analysis by Yevhen Zakharov of the Khakiv Human Rights Protection group:
Opinion: Legal classification of Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine and in Kuban as a crime against humanity and genocide
http://www.khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1221299499
The basic fact is that due to the rolling back of free-maket NEP policies of the 1920s and forced mass-collectivization, shortages and famines broke out all over the territory of the former Soviet Union in the 1930s. However, only in Ukraine did it take on the nature of a crime, because every shred of food was requisitioned from every village house, and Ukraine's border was cordoned off to prevent Ukrainians from leaving Ukraine's territory in search of food.
As far as targeting of ethnic Ukrainians is concerned, it's very simple. While there were many ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine (who largely came there in late 19th, early 20th century because of the rapid industrialization of the region), they were overwhelmingly workers (not peasants) and lived overwhelmingly in the cities, which were not targeted by Stalin's policies. Hence, Ukrainians were targeted almost exclusively by definition.
Opinion: Legal classification of Holodomor 1932-1933 in Ukraine and in Kuban as a crime against humanity and genocide
http://www.khpg.org.ua/en/index.php?id=1221299499
The basic fact is that due to the rolling back of free-maket NEP policies of the 1920s and forced mass-collectivization, shortages and famines broke out all over the territory of the former Soviet Union in the 1930s. However, only in Ukraine did it take on the nature of a crime, because every shred of food was requisitioned from every village house, and Ukraine's border was cordoned off to prevent Ukrainians from leaving Ukraine's territory in search of food.
As far as targeting of ethnic Ukrainians is concerned, it's very simple. While there were many ethnic Russians in Eastern Ukraine (who largely came there in late 19th, early 20th century because of the rapid industrialization of the region), they were overwhelmingly workers (not peasants) and lived overwhelmingly in the cities, which were not targeted by Stalin's policies. Hence, Ukrainians were targeted almost exclusively by definition.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Ukraine: undiscovered Europe
"Ukraine is the geographic centre of Europe, a bridge between East and West, and a country of history, culture and beauty.
This video, created by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine, provides an insight into this fascinating country."
This video, created by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Ukraine, provides an insight into this fascinating country."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
HOLODOMOR MEMORIAL SITE APPROVED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
HOLODOMOR MEMORIAL SITE APPROVED IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
On Thursday, October 2, 2008, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved and awarded a parcel of federally owned land to the Ukrainian Government as the site for the Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33.
Initiated under the auspices of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in cooperation with Rep. Levin's office, the process has been widely supported by the Ukrainian American community. The National Committee to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-1933 has taken upon itself financing of the Environmental Assessment for the project.
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America website: http://www.ucca.org/
On Thursday, October 2, 2008, the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) approved and awarded a parcel of federally owned land to the Ukrainian Government as the site for the Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33.
Initiated under the auspices of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America in cooperation with Rep. Levin's office, the process has been widely supported by the Ukrainian American community. The National Committee to Commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-1933 has taken upon itself financing of the Environmental Assessment for the project.
Ukrainian Congress Committee of America website: http://www.ucca.org/
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
More on Ethnic Russians in Ukraine Re-identifying as Ukrainians
The Russian identity is actually quite weak without strong state power, which is what the authors rightly noted. It is in a sense an artificial identity maintained by a strong authoritarian state, which actively promotes nationalism and promotes the propaganda of this identity.
But when ethnic Russians are placed in a democratic foreign environment, even where they speak Russian and are fully connected to the Russian culture, such as in Ukraine, the gravitating force of Russian central government precipitously declines.
They prefer to identify as Ukrainians even if they still regard their native language to be Russian. Since their children are mostly being educated in Ukrainian language, the next generation will identify with Ukraine even more.
Ukrainians are capable of maintaining their identity and even their language for 3-4 generations in a foreign environment like the US or even Russia. Russians dissolve much quicker without a strong state to support their identity. It's much harder to identify with an empire when you live outside of it. Ethnic roots are much easier to identify with. But Russian identity is more than ethnic, it's imperial.
The interesting thing is that many Ukrainian villages in Siberia still speak Ukrainian. It's also interesting that many Russians who still believe Russian is their native language, are nevertheless re-identifying themselves as Ukrainians.
Ukrainians have contributed a lot of manpower to the growth of the Russian empire. Many of the cities in Siberia were started by Ukrainian Kozaks, many of whom still identify as Kozaks. Interestingly enough, their ethnicity was recorded in their passports by the Russin imperial government as a "kozak" ethnicity. Obviously, such an ethnicity doesn't exist. It's simply a replacement for "Ukrainian". Mostly Ukrainian fought in the Russo-Japanese War, The Crimean War, The Finnish War, and so on. Many Ukrainians have been sacrificed in these imperial projects. Although obviously Ukrainians must be good warriors, if they weren't they would not have been used in this way.
Some of the people changing their identification may be ethnically mixed Russian-Ukrainians, who were recorded as Russian in the Soviet times and are now justifiably changing their identification to Ukrainian.
Some other people who have "changed" their identification are people who were recorded as Russians during Soviet times and even had their lasnames changed to look Russian in the 1930s, but are in fact ethnically Ukrainian.
A good example is Gen. Morozov, who knew that his mother was Ukrainian, but had assumed that his father was Russian until he discovered after his father's death that both his parents were Ukrainian.
My own grandfather's lastname was Turkulov, so I thought he was Russian. But I found out that his father's lastname was actually Turkul'. (I have a copy of his Soviet file documenting his arrest and murder by the government.) The -ov was simply added by the Soviet government on Stalin's orders. This was especially the case with all the Muslim people groups - practically all of them had the -ov added to their names.
It is also a known fact that some Ukrainian cosmonauts had their lastnames adjusted to look Russian to an international audience.
But when ethnic Russians are placed in a democratic foreign environment, even where they speak Russian and are fully connected to the Russian culture, such as in Ukraine, the gravitating force of Russian central government precipitously declines.
They prefer to identify as Ukrainians even if they still regard their native language to be Russian. Since their children are mostly being educated in Ukrainian language, the next generation will identify with Ukraine even more.
Ukrainians are capable of maintaining their identity and even their language for 3-4 generations in a foreign environment like the US or even Russia. Russians dissolve much quicker without a strong state to support their identity. It's much harder to identify with an empire when you live outside of it. Ethnic roots are much easier to identify with. But Russian identity is more than ethnic, it's imperial.
The interesting thing is that many Ukrainian villages in Siberia still speak Ukrainian. It's also interesting that many Russians who still believe Russian is their native language, are nevertheless re-identifying themselves as Ukrainians.
Ukrainians have contributed a lot of manpower to the growth of the Russian empire. Many of the cities in Siberia were started by Ukrainian Kozaks, many of whom still identify as Kozaks. Interestingly enough, their ethnicity was recorded in their passports by the Russin imperial government as a "kozak" ethnicity. Obviously, such an ethnicity doesn't exist. It's simply a replacement for "Ukrainian". Mostly Ukrainian fought in the Russo-Japanese War, The Crimean War, The Finnish War, and so on. Many Ukrainians have been sacrificed in these imperial projects. Although obviously Ukrainians must be good warriors, if they weren't they would not have been used in this way.
Some of the people changing their identification may be ethnically mixed Russian-Ukrainians, who were recorded as Russian in the Soviet times and are now justifiably changing their identification to Ukrainian.
Some other people who have "changed" their identification are people who were recorded as Russians during Soviet times and even had their lasnames changed to look Russian in the 1930s, but are in fact ethnically Ukrainian.
A good example is Gen. Morozov, who knew that his mother was Ukrainian, but had assumed that his father was Russian until he discovered after his father's death that both his parents were Ukrainian.
My own grandfather's lastname was Turkulov, so I thought he was Russian. But I found out that his father's lastname was actually Turkul'. (I have a copy of his Soviet file documenting his arrest and murder by the government.) The -ov was simply added by the Soviet government on Stalin's orders. This was especially the case with all the Muslim people groups - practically all of them had the -ov added to their names.
It is also a known fact that some Ukrainian cosmonauts had their lastnames adjusted to look Russian to an international audience.
Ukrainians in the Russian Navy
Pretty interesting article on the history of the Ukrainian NAVY: http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aUNRnavy.html
75% of the Russian Imperial Black Sea Fleet was made up of Ukrainians! And consequently, most of the 60,000 "Russians" who died in Russian Empire's Crimean War, were actually Ukrainian conscripts.
Most of the other Fleets of the Russian Empire - Caspian Sea Fleet, North Sea Fleet, etc., were also dominated by Ukrainians, and many of those ships put up Ukrainians flags shortly after the Ukrainian National Republic declared its independence on March 17, 1917, and declared their allegiance to the Ukranian state.
More here:
http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aUNRnavy.html
75% of the Russian Imperial Black Sea Fleet was made up of Ukrainians! And consequently, most of the 60,000 "Russians" who died in Russian Empire's Crimean War, were actually Ukrainian conscripts.
Most of the other Fleets of the Russian Empire - Caspian Sea Fleet, North Sea Fleet, etc., were also dominated by Ukrainians, and many of those ships put up Ukrainians flags shortly after the Ukrainian National Republic declared its independence on March 17, 1917, and declared their allegiance to the Ukranian state.
More here:
http://www.geocities.com/unavy/aUNRnavy.html
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
New Documentary: The Soviet Story
There's a new European Union-sponsored documentary out about Soviet history. I just saw it and highly recommend it.
This is the official film site: http://www.sovietstory.com/
This is a trailer for the film:
You can see it for free here.
Part 1:
Part 2:
The film features newly discovered evidence from the archives on the close Soviet-Nazi cooperation before the German attack on the Soviet Union. Molotov even made a major speech in the Kremlin in 1939 or in 1940 which he said it would be "a crime for the Western nations to fight against Hitler"! The page with the speech was then removed from newspapers in all the Soviet libraries, after the Soviet Union started portraying itself as an eternal enemy of fascism.
The German naval attack on Norway was also made from the Soviet port of Murmansk! In addition to that, the SS actually visited the Soviet concentration camps to learn how to build them, because the Soviets already had 20 years of experience. And Soviet engineers went to Germany to help them build it. They even have footage in there of Soviet officers greeting the German officers with a Nazi salute! They have also found documented evidence that Stalin had transferred a number of Soviet Jews to the Germans, who promptly put them into concentration camps, where most of them perished.
No wonder this movie was prohibited and castigated in today's Russia...
Russian imperial ambitions predate the Soviet period by hundreds of years (and Russia's military might is largely a function of the price of oil, which seems to constantly increase). Ukraine spent over 300 years under Russian domination, and there was plenty of ideological basis for Moscow to justify its domination and control well before Lenin's revolution, along with the brutal suppression of Ukrainian language and culture within the Russian Empire. The Soviet Union was actually in a way kinder to Ukrainian culture than the Russian Empire was, because at least the Communists preserved and supported the languages of the Soviet minorities, despite the general Russification of education and government.
The post-Soviet nostalgia in the post-Soviet Republics is largely an ethnic Russian phenomenon, and is actually a post-imperial nostalgia. Many Russians want to be part of a great and dominant Russian nation again and think that the partial disassembly of the Russian empire in 1990 was the biggest accident of 20th century history, a sentiment voiced by Putin early in his presidential career. (I was surprised to learn a while back that despite the fact that over 80% of Belarusians want Belarus to remain independent, it is part of the Russia-Belarus Union. In Ukraine, only 2/3rds actually want Ukraine to remain independent, but it is much more independent politically. I think part of the reason for the numbers is that Ukraine has a much larger Russian minority. But the reason for Ukraine's independence vis-a-vis Belarus is a function of the democratic nature of its politics.)
How do you explain the fact that Stalin is seen as the Greatest Russian in History in recent public opinion surveys in Russia? Serious Russian historians have said that this is due to the fact that people in Russia are no longer taught about Soviet crimes, but Stalin is glorified in the textbooks for making Russia a great and respected nation.
Having read "The Rape of Nanking", I agreed with the author that unlike in Germany, there was no national repentance in Japan for the crimes committed by its imperial regime. I woud have to say that the same is true of today's Russia. Soviet crimes are white-washed and presented as necessary by the current government. As a results of this, the history of Japanese atrocities is still largely seen as Chinese and Korean propaganda in Japan, just like this movie is seen as Western provocation in today's Russia and serious criticism of the Soviet Union in general is seen as criticism of Russia. There is no willingless to learn from history. And we all know what happens to those who don't learn from it.
This is the official film site: http://www.sovietstory.com/
This is a trailer for the film:
You can see it for free here.
Part 1:
Part 2:
The film features newly discovered evidence from the archives on the close Soviet-Nazi cooperation before the German attack on the Soviet Union. Molotov even made a major speech in the Kremlin in 1939 or in 1940 which he said it would be "a crime for the Western nations to fight against Hitler"! The page with the speech was then removed from newspapers in all the Soviet libraries, after the Soviet Union started portraying itself as an eternal enemy of fascism.
The German naval attack on Norway was also made from the Soviet port of Murmansk! In addition to that, the SS actually visited the Soviet concentration camps to learn how to build them, because the Soviets already had 20 years of experience. And Soviet engineers went to Germany to help them build it. They even have footage in there of Soviet officers greeting the German officers with a Nazi salute! They have also found documented evidence that Stalin had transferred a number of Soviet Jews to the Germans, who promptly put them into concentration camps, where most of them perished.
No wonder this movie was prohibited and castigated in today's Russia...
Russian imperial ambitions predate the Soviet period by hundreds of years (and Russia's military might is largely a function of the price of oil, which seems to constantly increase). Ukraine spent over 300 years under Russian domination, and there was plenty of ideological basis for Moscow to justify its domination and control well before Lenin's revolution, along with the brutal suppression of Ukrainian language and culture within the Russian Empire. The Soviet Union was actually in a way kinder to Ukrainian culture than the Russian Empire was, because at least the Communists preserved and supported the languages of the Soviet minorities, despite the general Russification of education and government.
The post-Soviet nostalgia in the post-Soviet Republics is largely an ethnic Russian phenomenon, and is actually a post-imperial nostalgia. Many Russians want to be part of a great and dominant Russian nation again and think that the partial disassembly of the Russian empire in 1990 was the biggest accident of 20th century history, a sentiment voiced by Putin early in his presidential career. (I was surprised to learn a while back that despite the fact that over 80% of Belarusians want Belarus to remain independent, it is part of the Russia-Belarus Union. In Ukraine, only 2/3rds actually want Ukraine to remain independent, but it is much more independent politically. I think part of the reason for the numbers is that Ukraine has a much larger Russian minority. But the reason for Ukraine's independence vis-a-vis Belarus is a function of the democratic nature of its politics.)
How do you explain the fact that Stalin is seen as the Greatest Russian in History in recent public opinion surveys in Russia? Serious Russian historians have said that this is due to the fact that people in Russia are no longer taught about Soviet crimes, but Stalin is glorified in the textbooks for making Russia a great and respected nation.
Having read "The Rape of Nanking", I agreed with the author that unlike in Germany, there was no national repentance in Japan for the crimes committed by its imperial regime. I woud have to say that the same is true of today's Russia. Soviet crimes are white-washed and presented as necessary by the current government. As a results of this, the history of Japanese atrocities is still largely seen as Chinese and Korean propaganda in Japan, just like this movie is seen as Western provocation in today's Russia and serious criticism of the Soviet Union in general is seen as criticism of Russia. There is no willingless to learn from history. And we all know what happens to those who don't learn from it.
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