A series of essays.....
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| THE 'MUST SEE' FILM BY: BOBBY LEIGH |
.....as seen through my eyes!
By: Jacqueline E. Hughes
"Those damn Bolsheviks!" is the quote from my dear, long
departed, 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,
as a child, it became my grandfather's 'battle cry' and was guaranteed to set
the stage for his evening conversations. He could be stubborn as a mule and, as
I grew older, with several history lessons later, I began to understand
why.
My title 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 current starvation tactics of the Syrian civil war with all of the innocent
victims and refugees it has created?
An author of nineteen distinct
works, Bangambiki 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 beyond his years. "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."
Reading Bangambiki's quote,
recalling the remote look in my grandfather's eyes, and digesting the word
'Holodomor' several times within the past few weeks, has filled me with
conflicting emotions.
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,' according to The Connecticut HOLODOMOR
Awareness Committee, I can almost 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."
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| BOBBY LEIGH |
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 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, just
to name a few. Author, Film Director, Producer, Actor, and Visionary at Moksha
Films, Bobby keeps busy these days, and rightfully so!
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 still live and thrive in the Ukraine today, I desired to view this
film myself if it would shed even more light on the hatred I recalled in my
grandfather's eyes. 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
'Log Line' seemed to be holding true.
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 just 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 population
of entire Ukrainian villages are wiped-out due to the blockades erected around
them preventing the transport of food into them, locking the hungry inside
.
Stalin is determined to 'teach a lesson through famine' and, ultimately, deal 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.
In my estimation,
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
initial 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.
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| BOBBY LEIGH WITH MOKSHA FILMS |
It is because of good
people like Bobby Leigh and others associated with Moksha Films who recognize
injustice and choose to expose it rather than keep it under wraps like a
skeleton pushed into the depths of a dark, foreboding closet filled with secrets
and denial. Bobby's documentary, "HOLODOMOR: Ukraine's Genocide," should be
viewed, discussed, analyzed, and included in every school curriculum throughout
the world and adapted to all languages 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 Holodomor Committee, 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 genocides 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. I
pray that we are able to aid the people of Syria and harbor the Syrian refugees
before the statistics prove that all hope is fleeting.
Now that I
understand my grandfather better, I realize that the stoic look emanating from
his ancient eyes culminated from deep within himself 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.
You can visit Bobby
online at:
www.facebook.com/BobbyLeighAuthor
www.HOLODOMORthemovie.com
Copyright © 2016 by Jacqueline E.
Hughes
All rights reserved
