Holodomor: Ukrainian Genocide by Famine. A Reminder Before History Repeats Itself.

Throughout the history of the Soviet Union (1917–1991), there were periods when Soviet authorities brutally suppressed and persecuted various forms of Christianity to different extents depending on State interests. Soviet Marxist-Leninist policy consistently advocated the control, suppression, and ultimately, the elimination of religious beliefs, and it actively encouraged the propagation of Marxist-Leninist atheism in the Soviet Union. However, most religions were never officially outlawed.

After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Bolsheviks undertook a massive program to remove the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church from the government, outlawed antisemitism in society, and promoted atheism. Tens of thousands of churches were destroyed or converted to other uses, and many members of the clergy were murdered, publicly executed and imprisoned for what the government termed “anti-government activities”. An extensive educational and propaganda campaign was launched in order to convince people, especially children and youths, to abandon their religious beliefs. This persecution resulted in the intentional murder of 500,000 Orthodox followers by the government of the Soviet Union during the 20th century. In the first five years after the Bolshevik revolution, 28 bishops and 1,200 priests were executed.

The state advocated the destruction of religion, and to achieve this goal, it officially denounced religious beliefs as superstitious and backward. The Communist Party destroyed churches, synagogues, and mosques, ridiculed, harassed, incarcerated and executed religious leaders, flooded the schools and media with anti-religious teachings, and it introduced a belief system called “scientific atheism,” with its own rituals, promises and proselytizers. According to some sources, the total number of Christian victims under the Soviet regime has been estimated to range around 12 to 20 million. At least 106,300 Russian clergymen were executed between 1937 and 1941. Religious beliefs and practices persisted among the majority of the population, not only in the domestic and private spheres but also in the scattered public spaces which were allowed to exist by a state that recognized its failure to eradicate religion and the political dangers of an unrelenting culture war.

Gab CEO Andrew Torba pointed out that the American education system does not teach students of this genocide in just about any tier of education. Which is problematic when you take into account the motives of those in support of the suppression of such historical evidence.

According to the official transcription of Putin’s speech at the Moscow jewish museum on 19 June 2013, he went on to say that the politicians on the predominantly Jewish Soviet government “were guided by false ideological considerations and supported the arrest and repression of Jews, Russian Orthodox Christians, Muslims and members of other faiths. They grouped everyone into the same category.

Focusing on the soviet era leadership’s culpability in continuing to prioritize collectivization and industrialization over preventing mass death, due to their Leninist stance of regarding starvation as a necessary cost of the progressive policies of industrialization and the building of socialism. This sounds vaguely familiar in light of political tension in the United States. It is imperative that we know history so that humanity can act accordingly amid growing concern for the well being of people of faith.

What better excuse to persecute men and women of faith than by convincing the public to believe that they’re a threat to public health in light of MRNA vaccination rejection? A perfect storm is brewing and I don’t think that Christians in our nation have a loud enough voice to stop what’s coming. But rejoice, because this is not our end destination. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matthew 5:5). Stay inquisitive in the word of God, and the world around you.

Holodomor Fact List

What:  The term “Holodomor” –  which means inflicted death by starvation – refers to the man-made famine caused by Soviet policies that resulted in death by starvation of millions of Ukrainians in 1932-1933.

When: 1932-1933. At the time of the Holodomor, Ukraine was a republic or province of the USSR. After Ukraine’s briefly achieved independence in 1918-1920, Ukraine was conquered by the Red Army and was incorporated into the Soviet Union in 1922.

Who was affected:  the population of Ukraine, mostly farmers and their families.

Who were the perpetrators: The Communist Party of the USSR led by Joseph Stalin.

Where: Ukraine, specifically the territory of central, southern and eastern Ukraine and the Kuban, a territory in southern Russia, adjacent to Ukraine that was heavily populated by Ukrainians.

How:   Through Soviet government decrees:

• The elimination of kulaks/kurkuls (successful peasants) – the leaders of the villages.
• Policy of dekulakization – stripped farmers of all possessions (land equipment, produce, livestock), whole families were arrested and deported (some executed).
• Collectivization – individual peasant farms (5,000,000) were forcibly combined into collective state farms known as kolhosps (25,000).
• First Five-Year Plan (1928-1933) set high quotas for the amount of grain to be collected by the Soviet state.
• Kolhosps that were unable to meet quotas were punished by the seizing of all food and the blockading of the village, leaving its resident to starve.
• This blockading and starvation as punishment happened to over one third of the villages in Ukraine.
• Rebellions by Ukrainian farmers were ruthlessly put down by army and secret police.

Why:

“The Terror-Famine of 1932-33 was a dual- purpose by-product of collectivization, designed to suppress Ukrainian nationalism and the most important concentration of prosperous peasants at one throw.”

Sources: HREC