IN Ukraine, Vladimir Putin is walking in the bloody shoes of Joseph Stalin. The Big Lie is abroad again in the golden fields of death.
Eighty years ago, the farmlands where the Malaysian airliner, its innocent passengers and crew fell saw the genocide of a generation, a holocaust before the holocaust.
Ukrainians call it the Holodomor, “extermination by hunger”. In nine months in 1932-33, upwards of seven million men, women and children were killed off in a Moscow-engineered famine. That was after half a million farmers, the Kurkuls (in Russian, Kulaks), had been shipped off to Siberia.
The Lie was that the famine was a natural event following a drought the previous year; that the deaths were due to malnutrition and disease, not starvation.
The truth was that Moscow had demanded a 44 per cent increase in production while forcibly collectivising agriculture; resistance was seized upon as a pretext to crush Ukrainian culture.
At the height of the terror in the winter of 1933, 25,000 were dying every day; one-quarter of the rural population perished.
Stalin’s chief lieutenants, Molotov and Kaganovich, were ordered to the Ukraine to supervise the expulsion of the Kulaks and organise the 25,000 young communists sent in to enforce collectivisation. The borders were sealed to prevent migration, and the “Thousanders” as they were known, imposed martial law.
All food was confiscated, especially grain. Peasants were reduced to eating sparrows and baking weeds as an ersatz bread. They could be shot for gathering straw in the fields. Cannibalism became common. At the same time Russia exported 1.8 million tonnes of grain to fund imports of machinery. Production from the collectives fell dramatically.
Many countries, and the NSW parliament, have condemned the Holodomor as genocide, but the great shame of that era was the acceptance by Western diplomats and the Western press of the Big Lie. The US ambassador to the Soviet Union, Joseph Davies, minimised the deaths and excused them as due simply to crop failure in his book Mission to Moscow.
Walter Duranty, the New York Times correspondent and Soviet apologist, won a Pulitzer prize for his whitewash of the tragedy. He wrote: “Any report of a famine in Russia is today an exaggeration or malignant propaganda. There is no actual starvation or deaths from starvation but there is widespread mortality from diseases due to malnutrition.”
Welsh journalist Gareth Jones made a secret trek through the starving areas and exposed the famine in his reports for British newspapers. This led to an extraordinary meeting in Moscow between the foreign correspondents and the Soviet Union’s chief censor, Konstantin Umansky.
What emerged was an agreement to discredit Jones as a liar, and endorse Moscow’s propaganda version of events. The story is told shame-facedly in Assignment in Utopia, by Eugene Lyons, the United Press International correspondent, who was part of the conspiracy.
It was proof of George Orwell’s charge, in the Spanish Civil War, that: “History is being written not in terms of what happened but of what ought to have happened according to various party lines.”
Not until Robert Conquest’s The Great Terror in 1986, his detailed exposition of the deliberate starvation genocide, did the world learn the truth.
The destruction of MH17 came as an unwanted distraction from Vladimir Putin’s incitement of rebellion in eastern Ukraine, supported by supplies of heavy weaponry, including the notorious Buk ground-to-air missiles.
The problem for the Russian President is that no matter who gave the order to fire, the missile that brought down MH17 was supplied and sponsored by Russia.
This time, however, the Western media are hot on the case. While the plane came down in disputed territory, it was not then a conflict zone.
Observers and reporters were quickly on the scene. Perhaps because of diplomatic pressure on their Russian sponsors, the rebel forces offered no real resistance to media crews or OCSE teams. They recovered most bodies, organised a refrigerated train and handed over the data recorders.
Nevertheless, Moscow continues to push the line that the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces. That is essential to its case, just as was Stalin’s lie eight decades ago that its Ukrainian policy was not one of famine and extermination.
Today’s crisis, in which so many lives of Australian citizens and residents have been lost, confronts the evil of a regime and tests our resistance to the creed of moral equivalence, the manipulation of facts for political ends.
We would do well to remember that Moscow’s denial of responsibility for the fate of MH17 and its human cargo tumbling to earth are just like those disavowals of the millions of peasant deaths in 1933.
Ukraine’s memorial to the genocide of the 1930s stands in a Kiev square: the statue of a little girl, frightened yet defiant, clutching a few ears of wheat to her heart. It could serve also for those of MH17 who fell in her fields.
Geoffrey Luck was an ABC reporter and editor for 26 years.
Comments33 comments
28 people listening
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
To comment or reply, please login or create an account.
I am yet to see conclusive proof that MH17 was shot down by Ukrainian rebels. The fact that accusations and further sanctions have occurred so quickly without irrefutable proof being shown more likely indicates a NATO alliance hellbent on starting another Iraq style media vendetta/war. Weapons of mass destruction anyone?
Thank you Geoffrey, for an informative, accurate and honest article,of which most people are unaware, due to the Leftist control over western education systems.
1986? Really? This was an article of historical fact in in my house in the 70's. My mum studied history and there was no doubt in her mind at all that Stalin starved the Ukraine in a hideous and successful attempt to create the "lebensraum" that Hitler sought in Poland and Russia less than 10 years later. Stalin demonstrated that a power could eradicate an entire population and replace it with the favoured ones. The "white russians" lost the civil war and Stalin made sure there would never be such an opposition again.
@Bruce @Myrtle @Christine What the heck has this comment, or Myrtles got to do with the subject?
Were Switzer's and Luck's articles deliberately juxtaposed? Switzer's is a classic QED of Luck's points.
Diane West's 'American Betrayal' is worthy of further reading if you are in doubt of Luck's observations. And indeed it's a good read if you agree with him.
@Michael Solzhenhitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago' is a good read if you really want to know what Stalin was like too.
Most of your article is about Stalin's actions and relies on that shock value to dismantle Putin. Frankly, I'm sick of the Putin-bashing that's going on in this country. If only international affairs and history were as simple, as black and white, as you clearly prefer.
.jpg)
This very important article provides surprising information we all need to know and is also a prominent example of why the public need to find and use reliable sources of information from amongst all the misinformation destroying our futures. The alternative view in this paper today is worth reading but appears to favour appeasement with Russia like appeasement was unsuccessfully tried with Hitler before WW11.
Russia's brutal starving and deportation of huge numbers ( millions ) of Ukranians in the 1930s and beyond will be ignored at our peril. There is no chance all talk and no substance Barack Obama and John Kerry will take military action against Russia and I doubt that strong China would join forces with irresponsible Russia. As always you cannot rely on the ABC or Fairfax.It is interesting how the old Stalinists (at the ABC) support Putin - even though he is hardly the ideal communist. I guess its a totalitarian power thing, not a communist thing after all.
.jpg)
What Putin is up against with this big lie is that the high moral ground is with the free world over the MH17 incident, and the motivation to pursue this issue is extremely highly charged.
Our leaders (except for Abbott who seems to realise) need to be reminded that all evil requires to flourish is for a few good men to do nothing. Now is the time to call out Putin on his big lie, and disassemble the construct of his lie one fundamental at a time until the naked truth stands out in the open.
Like that classic photograph of the young girl fleeing the napalm which is credited with having helped conclude the Vietnam war - Putin can be entirely finished up over this incident if it is pursued with vigor and determination. It will take just one or two world leaders to champion the cause, then the rest of the political sheep leading nations in the western world will be forced to join in and finish the tyrant off.
This explains why the Ukraine wants to break with Russia and join the EU. Freedom versus tyranny.
Good article which briefly summarises the horrors inflicted upon Ukraine by the totalitarians, communists and then the nazis, and now, again, by the emerging totalitarians under Putin. Much as the West should do its utmost to change the direction which Putin is heading, it looks increasingly likely that it won't and consequently we are allowing the rise of a modern equivalent of Stalinism, viz. Putinism. Pity all previous satellites of the USSR.
Geoffrey
You stated "Moscow demanded ..." or "Russia exported ..." Just remember, please, not Russia but the USSR and its communist criminal regime. Stalin was from Georgia and his right hand - Berija as well.
I agree with article, just remember that under Stalin, the Russians suffered together with other nations in USSR
The same tactic was used (carbon tax) and is being used on the Australian people since the budget. Shorten and his minions, including the media, have engaged in a propaganda war AGAINST the Australian people. He has repeatedly told lies about the PPL, health and education (see ABCs Factcheck), the dole, $7 Levy, lying about cuts to pensions, our Navy, our borders and even lied saying there is no budget emergency. And if you repeat the socialist mantra by repeating the lies over and over again, the people believe it. What shocks me that after 6 years of hard labour with the socialists nearly destroying Australia, dividing it by race, gender and class, intimidating conservative media with threats of shuting it down, a few months in and those that begged the Coalition to do something and save our country, are now wanting to vote Labor back in because they would rather 'die on their knees than stand and fight to save this country from communism'.
People do not realise that there are stages to communism. First there is socialism, which feeds a welfare dependency on the government. Then it will divide the country and set class wars, gender wars and race wars in motion. It will undermine the traditional people of a country and their belief system by opening the borders to water down their beliefs while giving safe haven to those that would kill us in a heartbeat. It targets big business and uses class wars to impose restrictions (carbon and mining tax). It increases dramatically taxation (carbon tax) so that many loose their jobs and become dependant upon government welfare. It reduces dramatically our Defence. It cuts spending, creates a feeling of low morale and targets defence personnel with threats of imprisonment - 3 young soldiers that accidentally killed children in crossfire in Afghanistan were ordered to stand trial for murder. Google the feminist McDade of our Defence force - all aided and abetted by Labor Stephen Smith that also attacked personnel at Duntroon. Socialism will target a country's favourite pastime - Sport. Look at what ASADA did to demoralise our sports people in EVERY sport.
Socialism/Communism has one intention only and that's to control the people. As a democratic country we should be absolutely appalled at the tactics used by Putin. But there has been deafening silence from Shorten and Labor to criticise Putin. Why? Because the unions were part of the attack on our Defence forces in WW2 where they sabotaged equipment being sent to support our fighting finest. They supported Stalin. And you can bet your bottom dollar, they secretly support Putin. Stalin murdered millions of his own people. And there is talk that Putin is worse. With what we have observed in Crimea/Ukraine its hard to deny. What country will be next? Poland? Slovakia?
Australians should be supporting, not aiding an enemy (socialist Labor/Greens) by doing everything to turn back our dependency upon the government. It took Argentina just 10 years to fall to communism. Australians need to wake up to the fact that the end goal of Labor is to have a people dependent upon the government. And the final goal from socialism to communism is that a government big enough to give you all you want, is also big enough to take it all away. Putin cares nothing for those killed on that plane. He is flexing his muscle to the world by controlling the site. He could stop the fighting in a heartbeat so the last bodies could be recovered, but he has no intension of doing so. The same mind set sits in the Labor/Green/Pup benches in our Parliament. They are denying the people their vote. They have no intension of passing the budget and allowing the country to recover. And there are Australians whose family gave their lives to keep communism out. But today it's easier to fall on ones knees and support Labor socialism for a handout, then to fight to restore Australia to the lucky country. How would you like to have Putin himself running Australia. Can't happen? Argentinians said the same thing.
.jpg)
@J.. The arms manufacturers are the winners inall of these conflicts, without the manufacture of arms the economies of all the major countries would collapse and unemployment would most certainly increase, if these countries were to put the money that they spend on arms into farming or primary produce they would possibly be a lot better off.
If only. But while we have despots like North Korea, Putin, Hamas threatening not just other countries, but their own people, defence of ones country becomes a necessity. Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu once said. If Hamas and the surrounding Arab nations laid down their weapons, there would be peace in the Middle East. If Israel laid down her weapons, she would cease to exist". Every citizen has the right to feel safe in their own government. When the people fear their government, dreadful things happen, ie Stalin, kim jong un and what stagger many people, socialist Obama. You cannot buy ammunition in the US because its citizens have been stockpiling it. You only have to read what the Obama administration has done to their Vets in nursing homes to see that the same contempt for the US people is evident in Obama. When a government brings into law full term abortion and withholding medication from its Vets, something is drastically wrong. You can see the heart of a nation in how it treats its most vulnerable, the aged and the very young. The American people are waking up to the fact that the man they call 'President' is nothing but a dictator in waiting.
.jpg)
@J.. It is outrageous to compare the actions of Shorten to those of mass-murderer Stalin. It is ridiculous to assert that Labor is trying to implement socialism. The National Party is more socialist than Labor.
You can lead a Labor party member to vote, but you can't make him think. I suggest you get a hold of Hal Colebatch's book- Australia's Secret War - and tell me that unions are not socialists/communists. Shorten is a unionist - end of story.
I think this must count as one of the more offensive comments ever made in these forums. By all means be forthright and passionate in your political views, but to compare contemporary Labor Party policy with the deliberate genocide of millions is totally outrageous and without foundation. I could similarly (and erroneously) argue that the actions of the present Abbott Government are the precursor to the establishment of a fascist state in Australia - increasing secrecy and disregard for Australian and international law regarding refugees; demonising and punishing the weak and powerless for all our country's ills (unemployed, single mothers, ethnic minorities); the alignment of corporate interests (above all others) with that of the Government. I'm sure you find that suggestion as nonsensical as I find yours.
I hope Putin gets his comeuppance soon. He is in the same mould as the Russian tyrants of old - lying comes naturally.
@JohnD As an ex KGB officer, Putin remembers the power and comfort that position gave him. It also taught him to lie and bully and the power of fear. Presumably he has blood on his hands from his victims while a practising KGB member. Not a good training for a person you can respect. So can you?.
when Obama provides missiles to his preferred islamic freedom fighters originally in Afghanistan to destroy the Russians and currently his preferred islamic freedom fighters in the middle east, and the islamic governments provide missiles to their preferred islamic freedom fighters attacking Israel and Putin provides missiles to his preferred freedom fighters in the Ukraine, who is NOT telling the biggest lie? One mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist, who is the independent adjudicator that any of us minions can trust?
The difference dear Barry is one was to provide weapons to allow the population to resist an invading army and the other is to give weapons to your supporters to anex someone else's country.
@Barry Pro Russians separatists are no freedom fighters they are remnants of original Stalinist oppressors . They never learned Ukraine language and their loyalty lies with Putin and mother Russia first. The Ukraine is desperately seeking to discard the Russian yoke that oppressed them and murdered millions - they are the freedom fighters here.
@Barry The US may have provided weapons but absolutely not the kind that can kill an aircraft flying at thirty three thousand feet. Also do your research and at least get the president's name correct. Try Reagan.
MORE STORIES
Sony’s ultra-high solution for budding movie-makers
The Australian
Melbourne University students ‘misused’ fee to fund ‘ALP stunt’
Higher Education
Great leaders can read the mob
Opinion
From Around the Web
30 Unbelievable Photographs Of Afghanistan In The 1960s
All That Is Interesting
Obama on Malaysian Flight: These 4 Politicians Won’t Like What He Says
Wall St. Cheat Sheet
FROM THE HOMEPAGE
‘Fix budget, quit the argy-bargy’
ANNABEL HEPWORTH NATIONAL Commission of Audit chairman Tony Shepherd has urged the Coalition and crossbench senators to reach a compromise.
PM to step up budget sales job
DAVID CROWE CABINET ministers will move within days to reboot the government’s budget strategy.
Tough interview rules for unemployed
PATRICIA KARVELAS UNEMPLOYED people who miss an appointment with their job provider without an “extreme” excuse will be docked welfare payments.
Fears surrogacy hiding scams
Natasha Bita SURROGACY is being used as a smokescreen to traffic children to Australia, the Immigration Department has revealed.
Union slapped with $20m claim
ANDREW BURRELL ENERGY giant Chevron is suing the militant Maritime Union of Australia for more than $20 million over an illegal strike.
Wran tragedy exposes killer ice
DAN BOX and sharri markson DRUNKS, and screaming, are not unusual in the McKell housing commission block where Daniel McNulty was murdered.
Islamic State must be crushed
David Kilcullen THE West must help bring order to the menacing arc of instability in the Middle East and Africa.
Crunch time for Apple Isle in doldrums
Rick Morton OTHER states are tired of bailing out the perennial economic failure.
Murder suspect triggered probe
PIA AKERMAN THE Australian Press Council has been accused of acting as “investigator, prosecutor and judge” after it intervened to run a complaint.
Macquarie could be hit for millions
ANDREW WHITE AUSTRALIA’S biggest investment bank could be exposed to millions of dollars in compensation claims.
