“A man made famine that convulsed the Soviet republic of Ukraine from 1932-1933…It was part of a broader Soviet famine (1931-1934) that also caused mass starvation in the grain growing regions of Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan…Holodomor, a term derived from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor).”
“The origins of the famine lay in the decision by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to collectivize agriculture in 1929. Teams of Communist Party agitators forced peasants to relinquish their land, personal property and sometimes housing to collective farms, and they deported so called Kulaks (wealthier peasants), as well as peasants who resisted collectivization altogether. Collectivization led to a drop in production, the disorganization of the rural economy and food shortages. It also sparked a series of peasant rebellions, including armed uprisings, in some parts of Ukraine.”-britannica.com
The massive famine in the Ukraine…caused an estimated 5 million deaths. “It is believed that the purges, forced famines, state terrorism, labor camps and forced migrations,” Stalin, “under the pretext of constructing “socialism in one country…was responsible for the death of as many as 40 million people within the borders of the Soviet Union.”-Jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
“The famine was accompanied by a broader assault on Ukrainian identity. While peasants were dying by the millions, agents of the Soviet secret police were targeting the Ukrainian political establishment and intelligentsia. The famine provided cover for a campaign of repression and persecution that was carried out against Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian religious leaders…knowing that this Russification program would inevitably reach him, Mykola Skrypnyk, one of the best known leaders of the Ukrainian Communist Party, committed suicide rather than submit to one of Stalin’s show trials.”
“Monuments commemorating the Holodomor have been erected by the Ukrainian government as well as by the Ukrainian diaspora, and Holodomor Remembrance Day” is observed in November each year. The Holodomor was officially recognized as a genocide by the Vatican, U.S. Congress and 16 other countries by 2019.-britannica.com.
Conclusion: Stalin, Hitler, Mao are considered the biggest mass murderers in modern history. Stalin’s goal was to have one unified country operating under socialism. If you need to kill 40 million people in order to implement your socialist country, then obviously (understatement) there is an incredible amount of mental insanity.
Money, power and control will always be the 3 main driving forces of man. The need for power and control were obvious, but the money? Stalin is considered the fifth richest man of all time. Professor George Liber, Professor of History, University of Alabama stated: “He controlled one sixth of the land surface of the planet without any checks or balances…if you want to stretch the definition of wealth, it was not his wealth, but he controlled the wealth of the country.”-money.com. 7/30/15.
I think it’s rational to conclude there will always be a Stalin, Hitler, Mao, who looks to control their country, or a number of countries, or an alliance of people, like we are seeing today, who look to control the whole world. / Done
Excellent commentary and research. Yes, there will always be moronic, narcissistic and ruthless tyrants who will do whatever they have to for control over others. Is this what Darwin meant when he coined the phrase, “survival of the fittest?” I don’t believe so!