Posted on Jan 31, 2022
From Stalin to Putin, Ukraine is still trying to break free from Moscow
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https://www.npr.org/2022/01/31/ [login to see] /from-stalin-to-putin-ukraine-is-still-trying-to-break-free-from-moscow
Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union when dictator Josef Stalin seized the rich, fertile land from the local farmers in the early 1930s and forced them into a collectivized, state-run agricultural system.
The result: one of the worst famines of the 20th century. The death toll is still debated, but mainstream historians put the figure at 3 million to 5 million deaths in Ukraine alone, and a few million more in other parts of the Soviet Union.
"These farmers had something that the Soviet Union considered to be too much. Oftentimes this was something like they had a cow, or a little bit of land. It didn't mean that they were rich," said John Vsetecka, a Fulbright scholar who's been in Ukraine researching the famine for his doctorate in history at Michigan State.
Ukraine was the breadbasket of the Soviet Union when dictator Josef Stalin seized the rich, fertile land from the local farmers in the early 1930s and forced them into a collectivized, state-run agricultural system.
The result: one of the worst famines of the 20th century. The death toll is still debated, but mainstream historians put the figure at 3 million to 5 million deaths in Ukraine alone, and a few million more in other parts of the Soviet Union.
"These farmers had something that the Soviet Union considered to be too much. Oftentimes this was something like they had a cow, or a little bit of land. It didn't mean that they were rich," said John Vsetecka, a Fulbright scholar who's been in Ukraine researching the famine for his doctorate in history at Michigan State.
From Stalin to Putin, Ukraine is still trying to break free from Moscow
Posted from npr.org
Ukraine
Russia
World History
Food/Chow
Farming
Posted >1 y ago
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Unfortunately the Ukraine is in the middle of a big power game. The current situation goes back to 1989 and Baker/Gorbachev where Baker promised Gorbachev, in exchange for German unification, that there would be no NATO eastern expansion. Putin has always complained about NATO's eastward growth and he is no Gorbachev. He may be very willing to go to war over this.
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Stalin specialized in death all we can do about Putin is hope he becomes a tad more pragmatic and doesn't punch through the envelope he keeps stretching to the threshold of rupture.
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