From DW:
“Germany declares Ukraine's
Holodomor famine a genocide”
German lawmakers on Wednesday
passed a resolution declaring the starvation of millions of Ukrainians under
Soviet leader Josef Stalin a genocide. The Soviet leadership oppressed the
Ukrainian way of life, language and culture in its efforts to control local
farmers, according to a press release by the German parliament. "From
today's perspective, this suggests the historical-political classification as
genocide. The German Bundestag shares such a classification." The three
parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition, the Social Democrats,
Greens and the Free Democrats as well as the main opposition Christian
Democrats (CDU) and allied conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) all voted
in favor of the resolution in the Bundestag. Green Party lawmaker Robin Wagener
told parliament, "the killing by hunger also had as its aim the political
repression of Ukrainian national identity, Ukrainian culture and
language." He said that "the parallels with today are unmissable,'' a
point echoed by other speakers nine months into Russia's war in Ukraine. "Russia's
current war of aggression against Ukraine stands in this historical
tradition,'' said conservative lawmaker Volker Ullrich.
What was the Holodomor? Ukraine's
description of the deaths of an estimated 4 million people in the famine of
1932-33 as the Holodomor roughly translates to death by starvation. In
2006, the Ukrainian parliament classified Holodomor as a genocide against the
country's people. In November 1932, Soviet leader Stalin dispatched
police to seize all grain and livestock from newly collectivized Ukrainian
farms, including the seed needed to plant the next crop, and millions died. Russia
has categorically rejected the charge of genocide, saying it was not only
Ukrainians but also Russians, Kazakhs, Volga Germans and others who were
victims of great hunger in the Soviet Union in the early 1930s.
'We cannot be broken':
Zelenskyy Over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy charged
that Russia was using similar tactics in its war in Ukraine today. "Once
they wanted to destroy us with hunger, now, with darkness and cold,"
Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. "We cannot be broken." Russia has
targeted critical infrastructure across Ukraine in recent weeks through waves
of airstrikes that have killed civilians and sparked widespread power outages.
Among other things, Wednesday's resolution calls on the German government
to work against "any attempts to spread a one-sided Russian historical
narrative'' and to keep supporting Ukraine as a victim of the current war. According
to the Holodomor Museum in Kyiv, 16 states in addition to Ukraine so far have
recognized the famine as genocide: Australia, Ecuador, Estonia, Canada,
Colombia, Georgia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Poland,
Portugal, the United States and the Vatican.
^ This is a step in the right
direction that every country, including Russia, needs to follow. ^
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-declares-stalin-era-holodomor-famine-in-ukraine-a-genocide/a-63944665
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