HolodomorHoax:JosephStalin'sCrimeThatNeverTookPlace Sputnik/ RIA NovostiPOLITICS17:45 09.08.2015(updated 17:46 09.08.2015) Ekaterina Blinova

Playing into the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, a monument to the so-called Ukrainian "Holodomor," one the 20th century's most famous myths and vitriolic pieces of anti-Soviet Propaganda, has been erected in the US capital.

RIA NOVOSTI. ANDREY STENINHistory Shows 'Yanukovych Was Right to Oppose EU Association Deal'Remarkably, the roots ofthe "Holodomor" ("deliberate starvation") myth lie inthe longstanding Cold War standoff betweenSoviet Russia and the West. After the defeat ofNazi Germany in1945, infamous Nazi collaborators members ofthe Organization ofUkrainian Nationalists (OUN) and their paramilitary UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army) units fled intoWestern Europe and the United States, escaping punishment fortheir hideous crimes, including ruthless terror againstpeaceful Jewish, Ukrainian and Russian civilians.In 1949 the CIA and the US State Department sponsored the OUN-UPA leaders' immigration tothe United States, planning touse them assubversion groups and intelligence agents inthe Cold War againstthe Soviet Russia.One ofthem, Mykola Lebed was characterized as "a well-known sadist and collaborator ofthe Germans" bythe CIA, according toSwedish-American historian Dr. Per Anders Rudling inhis book "The OUN, the UPA and the Holocaust: A Study inthe Manufacturing ofHistorical Myths." However, this fact did not prevented the CIA fromrecruiting the former Nazi collaborator."Mykola Lebed [who was responsible forthe murder ofPoles inVolhynia and Eastern Galicia] lived inQueens, New York, untilthe 1990s, totally supported bythe CIA or State Department," the US expert inSoviet history Professor Grover Carr Furr ofMontclair State University, narrated inan interview withSputnik inMay, 2015.

SPUTNIK/ ALEXANDER MAZURKEVICHHistory, Repeated: Ukraine Neo-Nazis Turn to Old Ally US for 'Help'The CIA believed that Ukrainian nationalism could be used asan efficient cold war weapon.While the Ukrainian nationalists provided Washington withvaluable information aboutits Cold War rivals, the CIA inreturn was placing the nationalist veterans intopositions ofinfluence and authority, helping them tocreate semi-academic institutions or academic positions inexisting universities.By using these formal and informal academic networks, the Ukrainian nationalists had been disseminating anti-Russian propaganda, creating myths and re-writing history atthe same time whitewashing the wartime crimes ofOUN-UPA.

PHOTO: EMBASSY OF UKRAINE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAThe sculpture of the Holodomor Memorial in Washington, DCOne ofthese myths was "Holodomor" that claimed that the USSR and its leader Joseph Stalin deliberately starved todeath fromthree toseven million Ukrainians."In 1987 the film "Harvest ofDespair" was made. It was the beginning ofthe 'Holodomor' movement. The film was entirely funded byUkrainian nationalists, mainly inCanada. A Canadian scholar, Douglas Tottle, exposed the fact that the film took photographs fromthe 1921-22 'Volga famine' and used them toillustrate the 1932-33 famine. Tottle later wrote a book, 'Fraud, Famine, and Fascism: The Ukrainian Genocide Myth fromHitler toHarvard,' aboutthe phony 'Holodomor' issue," Professor Furr elaborated.

SPUTNIK/ PYOTR ZADOROZHNYIBy Equating USSR to Nazi Germany West Covers Up Own Shameful HistoryAfter the collapse ofthe USSR, the Ukrainian diaspora played a substantial role inshaping the ideology ofthe new Ukrainian state. "Unlike many other former Soviet republics, the Ukrainian government did not need todevelop new national myths fromscratch, butimported ready concepts developed inthe Ukrainian diaspora," Dr. Rudling underscored.However, it was underUkrainian President Viktor Yushchenko (who gained his power afterthe Western-sponsored Maidan uprising of2004, also known asthe Orange Revolution) when the anti-Russian myth making caught its second wind inUkraine. Under Yushchenko, several institutes of "memory management" and "myth making" were established inthe country.Both Russian and Western historians have questioned the "Holodomor" concept aswell asevidently exaggerated number ofvictims ofthe famine of1932-33 inUkraine.American historian Professor Mark B. Tauger, West Virginia University, carried outthorough research onthe famine of1932-33 inthe USSR, and came tothe conclusion that the disaster was due toenvironmental circumstances and was evidently not related tothe Soviet policy inthe region."Popular media and most historians fordecades have described the great famine that struck most ofthe USSR inthe early 1930s as "man-made," very often a "genocide" that Stalin perpetrated intentionally againstUkrainians and sometimes other national groups todestroy them asnations This perspective, however, is wrong. The famine that took place was not limited toUkraine or even rural areas ofthe USSR, it was not fundamentally or exclusively man-made, and it was far fromthe intention ofStalin and others inthe Soviet leadership tocreate such asdisaster. A small butgrowing literature relying onnew archival documents and a critical approach toother sources has shown the flaws inthe "genocide" or "intentionalist" interpretation ofthe famine and has developed an alternative interpretation," Tauger wrote inhis research work "Review ofR.W. Davies and Stephen G. Wheatcroft,The Years ofHunger: Soviet Agriculture, 1931-1933."Tauger stressed that climatic conditions played the main role inthe famine of1932-33.

REUTERS/ VALENTYN OGIRENKOUkraines Right Sector Plans to Repeat Bloodbath in OdessaParadoxically, supporters ofthe "Holodomor" myth remain silent aboutthe fact that Russia (including the territory ofmodern Ukraine) had suffered fromperiodic devastating famines sincethe end of19th century, long beforeBolsheviks came topower in1917. They also ignore the fact that there were serious famines in1920-21, 1924, 1927 and 1928.Interestingly enough, official Soviet Ukrainian primary sources show that the 1928-29 famine, caused bynatural disaster, mainly draught, was very serious, and Ukraine received more aid fromthe Soviet government, thanit sent toother parts ofthe USSR. This obviously disproves the false theory ofthe Ukrainian nationalists' "malicious" conspiracy againstUkrainian peasants inthe Soviet Union, noted Grover Furr inhis book "Blood Lies: The Evidence that Every Accusation Against Joseph Stalin and the Soviet Union inTimothy Snyder's Bloodlands Is False."

SPUTNIK/ ALEXANDER MAKSIMENKOAzov battalion fighters in KievIn response tohistorians who suggest that the Ukrainian peasants starved and suffered especially because ofCollectivization Stalin's policy ofthe early 1930s aimed atconsolidating individual lands intocollective farms Tauger emphasized:"These studies minimize or ignore the actual harvest data, the environmental factors that caused low harvests, the repeated recovery fromthe famine and crop failures, the large harvests ofthe 1930s, the mechanization ofSoviet farms inthese years, Soviet population growth, and the long-term increases infood production and consumption overthe Soviet period" ("Soviet Peasants and Collectivization, 1930-1939).

SPUTNIK/ EVGENIYA NOVOZHENOVA'Russia Has Done More for Peace' in Post-Soviet States Than Anyone ElseAccording tothe scholar, although the Stalin regime implemented collectivization "coercively," the policy "brought substantial modernization totraditional agriculture inthe Soviet Union, and laid the basis forrelatively high food production and consumption bythe 1970s and 1980s" ("Stalin, Soviet Agriculture and Collectivization, 1930-1939").Remarkably, the famine of1932-33 was the last famine that struck the Soviet Union withthe exception forthe famine of1946-47 the country suffered fromafter the Second World War.Although the "Holodomor" myth was never based uponcredible evidence and there are enough authentic sources toprove that it is a hoax, it is simply taken forgranted. Unsurprisingly, Washingtonsupports the myth asa part ofits recent Cold War-style anti-Russian campaign. Alas, even repeated a thousand times a lie will never become the truth.

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