A series of essays.....
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HOLODOMOR: STALIN’S UKRAINIAN GENOCIDE, 1932-1933 |
.....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E Hughes
"Those damn Bolsheviks!" is the quote from my Ukrainian Grandfather, Antone Moshak, that has lived deep inside my soul ever since I was a little girl. He was so adamant and repetitious that it became my grandfather's 'battle cry' and was guaranteed to set the stage for many evening conversations. He could be stubborn as a mule and, as I grew older, with several history lessons later, I began to understand why.
“The only lesson you can learn from history is that it repeats itself,” is a quote by the author of the book The Great Pearl of Wisdom, Bangambiki Habyarimana. This quote, in time, may serve to gauge and determine the future of our world as we know it. Will we continue to allow history to repeat itself as if on a looped playback continuously showing us pictures of inhumane atrocities such as the Irish Potato Famine in the nineteenth century, the Jewish Holocaust from the period of 1933 to 1945, and the recent starvation tactics of the Syrian civil war with all of the innocent victims and refugees it has created?
How does the world perceive Vladimir Putin and his current atrocities against the people of Ukraine? Is it strictly a land grab or will history proclaim his actions as the genocide of the Ukrainian people with the direct intention of totally destroying them, their history, their culture, their identity?
"Miscellaneous thoughts and insights on life come to me when I am alone gazing at the starry sky at night, walking by the sea, through the wood, watching people at a party, going to the market, by a chance encounter, or when my sleep fails me." An author of nineteen distinct works, Bangambiki Habyarimana is a community worker who assists young adults in the fight against HIV AIDS through education and counseling in Mozambique. He is a young man who is wise way beyond his years.
Reading Bangambiki's quote, I can recall the remote look in my grandfather's eyes. How much loss and sorrow can people take before breaking down completely? The war in Ukraine has served to reintroduce Holodomor and its relationship to what is taking place in this beautiful country currently.
If you've never heard of the term Holodomor before, you are not alone. It may even sound like a character straight out of a J. R. R. Tolkien novel. Sadly, it is not. Learning about Holodomor, pronounced 'huh-luh-duh-more,' I can identify with the distant look in grandpa's eyes that filled with unequivocal hatred with each cry of "Those damn Bolsheviks!"
The literal Ukrainian definition of the word Holodomor is: "Death by forced starvation."
My recent inquisitiveness was sparked by a gentleman by the name of Bobby Leigh. I met Bobby online and his vibrant and colorful personality enriched my imagination right from the beginning! Bobby is a twelve-time, Award Winning Filmmaker and has over twenty-five years in the Music and Entertainment Business where he has produced and/or toured with such Rock-n-Roll legends as Aerosmith, Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Quiet Riot, to name a few. As an author, film director, producer, actor, and visionary, Bobby is a very busy person.
On November 17, 2015, Bobby shared a press release on his Facebook Page that immediately caught my attention:
"PRESS RELEASE: My Film "HOLODOMOR: Ukraine's Genocide" will be screening in SAN FRANCISCO this Weekend on Saturday 21 November 2015 at the Main San Francisco Public Library at 2:00-4:00 PM. Koret Auditorium, lower level. FREE. Please come and show support for our movie. Q & A following screening with writer/director/producer: Bobby Leigh & producer: Marta Tomkiw."
Logline: “The biggest lie, the best kept secret.”
Considering my family's roots and knowing that many of my relatives live in the Ukraine today and, God willing, are surviving Putin’s regime, I needed to view this film for myself back then. I was hoping it could shed even more light on the hatred my grandfather held in his heart for Russia. Short of flying out to California, I wrote to Bobby and asked where and when it might be showing near me or if I could purchase a copy of "Holodomor" for myself. Up to this point in my life, I had yet to see pictures, film or any footage of this horrific event that would help me understand this deep, dark, and sad history of the Ukrainian people. Bobby's longline seemed to be holding true: “The biggest lie, the best kept secret.”
I presumed that his great passion for exposing this dark secret in history was connected with his own heritage and asked him if this were the case. In true Bobby fashion, he replied, "I'm not Ukrainian. I made this movie because, once I found out about this subject, I was pissed off that I was not taught this at University. I felt that this story needed to be told." He proceeded to send me a copy of his film for my perusal.
I must ask how many of you are familiar with this historical event yourselves? If you are, when and where were you exposed to it? Did you learn about it in any level of your formal education? Do you have family or friends who talked about it? Considering the Holodomor is a major blot on the history of the world, equal to the Holocaust, (which means "sacrifice by fire"), brought about by the Nazis who came to power in Germany in 1933, why isn't it as prominent within our fundamental education?
I know that Bobby must have asked himself this last question a million times.
If over six million Jews could be obliterated by a regime led by Hitler under the auspices of racial superiority, blind power, and pure hatred, then how could over 30,000 men, women, and children in Ukraine die each day in the height of this famine-genocide in 1933 and the world not be aware of it?
To get the answer to this question, one must look briefly into the history of Russia.
In 1917, the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, take power in Russia. The Soviet Union is formed in 1922 with Ukraine becoming one of the republics. Soon afterwards, Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin ascends to power and introduces a program of agricultural collectivization in 1928 that forces farmers to give up everything they own to factory-like collective farms......and then were told to work on these farms in order to exist with no compensation whatsoever.
Proud and successful Ukrainian farmers, labeled Kurkuls, refuse to return to earlier serfdom and in 1929 Stalin introduces a policy of 'class warfare' in order to breakdown resistance. The following year, nearly a half a million people are dragged from their homes, packed into freight trains and shipped to remote areas such as Siberia where they are left to perish from starvation and inclement weather.
Between 1932 and 1933, the entire population of Ukrainian villages are wiped-out due to the blockades erected around them preventing the transport of food from the outside into them and locking the hungry inside. Joseph Stalin of Russia is determined to 'teach a lesson through famine' and, ultimately, deals a crushing blow to the backbone of Ukraine, it's rural population.
By 1934, approximately ten million deaths, including three million children, and nearly twenty-five percent of the Ukrainian population, are attributed to starvation within the borders of Soviet Ukraine, not including deportation, executions, or natural deaths. Stalin denies forced famine in the Ukraine and continues to export millions of tons of grain to the outside world.
Denial, denial, denial was generated on all sides of this horrific situation which included Western governments who adopted a passive attitude toward the famine, even though they had become aware of the suffering in Ukraine via confidential diplomatic channels. Franklin Roosevelt, newly elected in 1933, recognized Stalin's government and turned a 'blind eye' to the famine due to a lucrative trade agreement with the Soviet Union. Shame on all of us who see monetary gain and power as the holy grail rather than the bane of our existence. Definitely, another prime example of history repeating itself.
Early on, my grandparents lived through and recognized the inevitable results of the Bolshevik uprising. To pull-up stakes, forsake family ties, and emigrate to an unknown place, put them at risk every step of the way. Survival itself takes on its own risks and would it not be better to hope for a future and do something about it than to perish with no hope left at all? Literally, standing here today, I am most grateful to my proud and heroic grandparents for choosing to be safe and free, no matter what the cost.
It is because of good people like Bobby Leigh and others associated with Moksha Films who recognized injustice and chose to expose it rather than keep it under wraps like a skeleton pushed into the depths of a dark closet filled with secrets and blatant denials. Bobby's documentary, "HOLODOMOR: Ukraine's Genocide," should be adapted to all languages, viewed, discussed, analyzed, and included in every school curriculum throughout the world until this tragic famine-genocide of the Ukrainian people is recognized and catalogued for what it was, an atrocity against millions of innocent people for political and personal gains.
Thank you, Bobby Leigh.....!
On November 28, 2006, according to The Connecticut HolodomorCommittee, the Parliament of Ukraine passed a decree defining the Holodomor as a deliberate 'Act of Genocide.' Although the Russian government continues to call Ukraine's depiction of the famine a "one-sided falsification of history," it is now recognized as genocide by over two dozen nations.
Many Ukrainians survived to give eyewitness accounts of this abomination. Bobby has featured several survivors and their brief testimonies in his documentary. Their personal recollections sent chills down my spine as I watched their tears flow freely when speaking about personal experiences during this execution by hunger.
The Spanish philosopher and poet, George Santayana, once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Are we doomed to repeat the past by being so disingenuous as many of our politicians and leaders are today? My hope is that the solemn words of Bangambiki Habyarimana are incorrect when he says, "The only lesson you can learn from history is that it repeats itself."
Only by understanding the genocide of the past can we hope to prevent others from occurring in our lifetime. Yet, armed with all of this information, we may already be too late as the unprovoked war rages in Ukraine claiming thousands of innocent civilian lives. We must aid the Ukrainian military in every way possible before statistics prove that all hope is fleeting. The world owes Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the beautiful people of Ukraine the dignity of life they so deserve; along with the worldwide recognition of war crimes being committed by Russia every day.
Now that I understand my grandfather better, I realize that the stoic look emanating from his ancient eyes culminated from deep within him as he constantly remembered what was, and was saddened by never being able to know what could have been.
Lovingly, I dedicate this essay to my Ukrainian Grandmother and Grandfather, Alexandria and Antone Moshak and to the fortitude displayed by the people of Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine!
You can visit Bobby online at:
www.facebook.com/BobbyLeighAuthor
Copyright © 2022 by Jacqueline E Hughes
All rights reserved
