~Olexandra Rafalska
It's Art Thursday! I started out just wanting to share "Overthrow of Autocracy" by Ukrainian artist Petro Martyniuk. It is circa 1930, so, when I couldn't find out more about the artist, I looked up the time period.
There was a famine in Ukraine (and the greater Soviet Union) during the years 1932-33, which was a Soviet-made disaster. "Holodomor" means "Murder by Starvation."
We Americans often don't know very much about world history (or even our own history), which puts us at a disadvantage when we are trying to understand contemporary events. You don't have to know about the Holodomor to understand why Ukraine would not want to lose its sovereignty to Russia, but learning about it casts light on their fierce determination.
Overthrow of Autocracy
by Petro Martyniuk
Holodomor plaque in Los Angeles
Holodomor Remembrance Day
1 comment:
It is so important that we recognize that genocide doesn't only come from mass murder (like Hitler's holocaust), but from government policies that caused millions of deaths from starvation. Stalin and Mao actually caused more deaths than Hitler, which is a valuable history lesson. Knowing that millions died in the Ukraine (and elsewhere in the Soviet Union) should be part of an overall Remembrance Day and worthy of a tear.
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