Terror, past and present

90 years have passed since the Holodomor (death by hunger, in Ukrainian) in Soviet Ukraine, which, for those who don't know, was part of the wider 'man-made' famine of 1930 - 1933 in the grain-producing areas of the Soviet Union. Ukraine was particularly hard hit, as it was one of the largest grain producers and was subject to impossibly high grain quotas. When these quotas weren't met, Soviet authorities seized farmers' food, confiscated seeds and levied fines. When starving people attempted to leave their villages a decree was issued, forbidding them to leave. There were other factors involved, including the collectivisation of agriculture and persecution of Ukrainians, trying to erase their cultural identity, which sounds all too familiar.
Figures vary on the number of deaths by starvation in Ukraine, but it seems to be generally accepted that there were around 4 million.

I attended a talk (in Spanish) yesterday evening by Dr Serge Cipko, a history professor at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies, University of Alberta, Canada. He has written books on Canada's response to the Holodomor and on the Ukrainian community in Argentina.

The talk was held in the small library of the Ukrainian Cultural Association, "Prosvita," in Buenos Aires. The Ukrainian ambassador to Argentina gave a brief talk, in Ukrainian...

Dr Cipko's presentation focused on the Argentinan response to the Holodomor, in 1932 and 1933. The detail was too advanced for my current level of Spanish, but I gathered that Argentina recognised what was happening and tried to help Ukrainians, including a rescue attempt across the frozen Dnipro river. 
The painting shown on the screen in the photo below, called "Rik 1933" ("The year 1933"), is a really powerful visual representation/symbol of the Holodomor. It's now in the Ukrainian Academy of Arts and Sciences, New York...

And, in the present day, the terror continues, 24/7, for Ukraine. Nine people were killed in Russian shelling of Kherson on Friday, during which one of the UNICEF coordinators reported:
"Our entire area was heavily shelled. many people were injured. I personally counted 27 rockets from grad, and God only knows how many there were.
However, today we held a film show for children and showed them the cartoon, 'Elemental...'

"...So Kherson lives, terrorists cannot break us :)..."

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