Comments on: Genocide Debated, Yet Again

By: ComingAnarchy.com » Taras Bulba and Euphorias of Hatred

ComingAnarchy.com » Taras Bulba and Euphorias of Hatred — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 02:03:27 +0000

[...] Kaplan’s warnings about the “emotional wellsprings” have turned out to be like much of what he writes—prophetic. Five years later, Russia and Ukraine are vigorously fighting over which country has claim to the heritage of the violent tale. Russia has financed a $20 million dollar epic film of the story, produced over the course of three years, in a Lord of the Rings-esque epic, and is the latest salvo in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine culture war (the previous chapter of which was covered here). [...]

By: von Kaufman-Turkestansky

von Kaufman-Turkestansky — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 22:28:41 +0000

Curzon – basically agree with you, but have to point out that during the Holodomor, Crimea was not part of the Ukrainian SSR, but part of the RSFSR. Under Khrushchev, in 1954, it was transferred to Ukraine. Some say that he did it just to show everyone that he could, in other words that he was in control. Another complication in the history of the peninsula is the fact that Crimea was a Tatar Khanate before Catherine the Great conquered it; and while after her the place became a kind of Russian Florida the indigenous people were still there until Stalin (with the help of Beria) deported them en masse (along with the ‘indigenous’ Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians) to Central Asia.

There seems to be a huge difference in the way history is perceived in the Old World vs the New World. But in a way the New World gets off easy – in North America the indigenous population was so totally crushed either wittingly (by wars and treaties) or unwittingly (by Old World diseases) that there was not much fight left in them in the 20th century, which is the era when we all began tallying genocides.

By: Aceface

Aceface — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 05:26:26 +0000

“It wasn’t an anti-Ukraine policy,just an anti-everybody policy”

Actually,it was.
Moscow worried about various separatist movement in Ukraine,such as the nationalists and anarchists like Nestor Makhno and thought the Ukrainian peasants were the basis of such movements.

By: Just An Australian

Just An Australian — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:43:27 +0000

When does history become something not relevant? Is the past treatment of african negroes in USA “history” in that sense? I think not. I’m sure that everyone would like it to be, but you’ve actually get to do something to get there. Same here in Australia for the woeful position of the Aborgines. Genocide can hardly be easier to consign to the dustbin of history.

But I think that Russia has a point. While there’s no question that the Kremlin launched the policy intentionally, and that Ukraine suffered in extra measure, it wasn’t an anti-ukraine policy, just an anti-everybody policy. Is that Genocide? I’m not exactly sure it is (though it’s clearly mass-murder).

In a happy society, Russia would apologise abjectly, while noting that Ukraine was not unique or the particular target, and Ukraine would say, “well, that’s alright then”. But we don’t live in a world like that. Which is exactly why history is never really history in your sense

By: dda

dda — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 03:33:10 +0000

Genoice?