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Bipolar Holodomor
// Moscow and Kiev wrangling over the interpretation of the Holodomor
Today Ukraine begins commemorating the victims of the 1932-1933 starvation. The campaign will last the entire week, with President Victor Yushchenko likely to take part in it. Among others, Kiev invited Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, but he demonstratively rejected the invitation and in his letter to Mr Yushchenko urged him not to manipulate the thesis on the “centrally planned genocidal famine of Ukrainians.” The diplomatic war of Russia and Ukraine concerning the Holodomor may become as tough as the row over Kiev’s desire to join NATO.
No joking
The Holodomor, which has always been a bone of contention in the relations between Russia and Ukraine, along with the language matter and problems over Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, has prompted a real diplomatic war. Kiev wants the United Nations General Assembly to consider the Holodomor of 1932-1933. Late October the Ukrainian delegation distributed among UN members a draft resolution of the General Assembly, where it suggested commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Holodomor in Ukraine.
Russia has opposed this initiative. Late last week the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Moscow of preventing “the international community from recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine as an act of genocide.” The accusations were prompted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s letter, which he ostensibly sent to his UN counterparts, asking them “to rebuff the Ukrainian initiative in the General Assembly because not only Ukrainians, but also Russians, Belarusians and Kazakhs starved to death in 1932-1933.” Last week Ukraine’s media cited the letter reading that “advancing the question of so-called Holodomor, the Ukrainian Government tries to use the United Nations to their own political ends, involving the organization in an extremely politized discussion.” “It distracts the United Nations from performing its functions and undermines trust in the organization,” Ukrainian media allegedly quoted Sergei Lavrov.
On Saturday spokesperson with the Ukrainian Foreign Office Vasily Kirilich commented on “Lavrov’s letter.” “Having read it, I understood that it is one of the best arguments and proofs of Russia’s position at all levels - using every possible diplomatic means to prevent the global community from recognizing the Holodomor of 1932-1933,” Mr Kirilich stated.
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs neither confirmed nor denied the existence of “Lavrov’s letter.” However, a high-ranking diplomat confessed to Kommersant that “we have committed a diplomatic demarche to impede introducing the issue of the Holodomor to the UN General Assembly.” “We opposed it because we do not agree that it was the genocide of the Ukrainian people only. Many people suffered from starvation,” the interlocutor of Kommersant said. At the same time he admitted that the Russian-Ukrainian confrontation over the Holodomor is connected with another sensitive issue, “Recognition of genocide can easily result in Ukrainians’ demanding compensation from Russia.”
Starvation and NATO
Commemoration of the Holodomor starts today and will last the entire week. The government plans to conduct a national memory lesson, with President Victor Yushchenko participating, broadcast documentaries about the Holodomor, and open monuments to victims of starvation. The Saturday international forum “My people will live for ever!”, which President Yushchenko and heads of state, invited to Ukraine to take part in the commemoration week, are going to attend. A number of Ukrainian media reported the leaders of the Baltic states, Georgia, Poland, and Southeastern Europe’s countries coming.
Kiev invited Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. But on Friday a message to Victor Yushchenko was released at the Kremlin and MFA web-sites, where the Russian leader stated that he does not “consider it possible to participate in the activities surrounding the 75th anniversary of the «Holodomor» in Ukraine.”
In his long letter, Mr Medvedev outlined his claims to Kiev concerning the Holodomor. From first lines of the message, it became clear that Ukraine’s attempts to seek international recognition of the Holodomor as an act of genocide of the Ukrainian people no less irritate Moscow than the incumbent Ukrainian authorities’ aspiration to join NATO.
We clearly see that in recent years this topic combined with persistent attempts to receive a NATO “membership action plan”, have become a central element of Ukrainian foreign policy. We also note the intention of the political elite and leadership of Ukraine to use this issue as a “test for patriotism and loyalty,” Mr Medvedev point out. He expresses his indignation over the fact that “the tragic events of the early 1930s in Ukraine are being used to achieve immediate short-term political goals.” According to the Russian President, “The thesis on the “centrally planned genocidal famine of Ukrainians” is being gravely manipulated. As to referring to “qualitative differences” between the famine in Ukraine and that in Russia and other regions of the USSR, it is, in our view, merely cynical and immoral.”
In his letter, Dmitry Medvedev reminds Victor Yushchenko about the law of 2006, whose first article reds that “the famine of 1932-1933 in Ukraine was a genocide against the Ukrainian people”, and the initiative of the Ukrainian President to criminalize the denial of the events of the period as they are outlined in the law. “Therefore without waiting for the results of a comprehensive study of the issue by competent experts, you imposed a single interpretation on this history. And dissenters are threatened with prosecution – just as they were in the totalitarian past. To put it mildly, according to this «one-sided logic» any citizen of Ukraine that claims that in addition to Ukrainians, Russians, Kazakhs and Belarusians died of starvation in the same period is, in your opinion, a criminal,” the Russian President concludes.
In the letter, the Ukrainian government is accused of “going against the facts and trying to give a nationalist subtext to a common tragedy.” “It is unlikely that such steps can be explained by the desire to restore historical justice or to honor the memory of the victims. These efforts rather seek to divide our peoples as much as possible, peoples united by many centuries of historical, cultural and spiritual ties, by special feelings of friendship and mutual trust,” notes Dmitry Medvedev.
However, the Russian President ends his letter saying, “We are open for discussion and don’t want academics to take on political «attitudes». In our country the theme of the famine of 1932-1933 - as well as other difficult historical questions - can be discussed freely, without fear of becoming an “enemy of the nation.” Russia has long ago destroyed the “Iron Curtain of silence” about which you write. We should focus on correcting a dangerous disparity which has arisen, whereby the slogan “condemnation of the genocide of Ukrainians” belittles the tragedy of other affected peoples of the former Soviet Union. I propose to begin work on a joint approach to these events. In doing so, it would be useful to involve experts from Kazakhstan, Belarus and other interested CIS countries.”
Victor Yushchenko didn’t reply to his Russian counterpart’s letter. But Victor Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions was quick to respond. According to deputy head of the Party in the Rada, Anna Herman, Mr Medvedev’s offer “doesn’t lack common sense.” However, experts do not expect fast reconciliation of Moscow and Kiev as far as the Holodomor is concerned. “The Ukrainian government uses the Holodomor as a means of discarding the Soviet legacy. Ukraine, thus, gets rid of the Soviet anchor and forms its identity. And Russia, on the contrary, can’t abandon the Soviet history following its guidelines. Remember Putin regretting the demise of the Soviet Union,” Vadim Karasev, the head of the Kiev-based Institute of Global Strategies, told Kommersant. “Dmitry Medvedev equals the NATO threat and the recognition of the Holodomor as genocide of Ukrainians.”
Vladimir Solovyov
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 17, 2008
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