Soviet history Archives - Page 2 of 11

Myth: “In Soviet times, there was friendship of the peoples.” Fact: That is absolutely untrue. In the Soviet Union, inter-ethnic hostility and anti-Semitism were widespread, and the official nationality registered in one’s passport often determined one’s life outcomes. In the military, ethnic groups formed up to defend themselves and attack others. This reflected the fact that “Armenians didn’t like Azerbaijanis, people from the Caucasus tried to subordinate Slavs to themselves, and everyone fraternally disliked Muscovites.”

2 minute read

‘Friendship of the peoples’ – one of many Soviet myths waiting to be debunked, Mirovich says

Myths about the Soviet past continue to circulate and even to grow, Maxim Mirovich says; but they are…

1 minute read

Mass grave of UPA soldiers unearthed in Lviv Oblast

On Wednesday, October 6, Sviatoslav Sheremeta, head of the Lviv Regional Council municipal enterprise Dolya Memorial Search Centre…

byChristine Chraibi

12 minute read

History of Ukraine

My family survived Holodomor by eating waste left from sugar production | Voices of witnesses

Mariia Andriivna Tilna was born on 15 August 1922 in the urban settlement of Kostiantynivka, Bohodukhiv Raion, Kharkiv…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

14 minute read

History of Ukraine

My neighbors escaped starvation by eating grain stored by field mice | Voices of Holodomor witnesses

In 2006 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the law that recognized the status of the Holodomor in…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

Yosyf Zissels, a former Soviet political prisoner and co-chairman of the Vaad (Union of Jewish Communities in Ukraine). Image: Apostrophe TV video capture

3 minute read

Moscow seeks to use Babyn Yar against Ukrainians; Ukrainians want a memorial to the victims

There are two competing projects for a memorial at Babyn Yar [also known as Babi Yar], the site…

byPaul A. Goble

12 minute read

History of Ukraine

How my father saved his co-villagers from starvation during the Holodomor | Voices of witnesses

When she was just 5 years old, Pelaheia Tovkach became a witness of the Holodomor, the genocidal famine…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

Stalin supervising the signing of the so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact dividing Poland between Hitler's regime and his own, Aug 23, 1939. From left to right: Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Minister of Foreign Affairs; Vyacheslav Molotov, Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs (sitting); Joseph Stalin, Soviet dictator; Vladimir Pavlov, First Secretary of the Soviet embassy in Germany (Image: TASS)

2 minute read

Black is white, freedom is slavery, and Stalin’s invasion of Poland was ‘a liberation campaign,’ Russian Foreign Ministry says

In Putin’s increasingly Orwellian approach to the world, the Russian Foreign Ministry on the anniversary of the introduction…

byPaul A. Goble

12 minute read

History of Ukraine

Surviving in the “collective farm paradise”: voices of living Holodomor witnesses

Dmytro Vyniarskyi was born in Chumaky village, in Sicheslav region (currently Dnipropetrovsk Oblast), founded in the early 18th…

byEuromaidan Press Contributor

7 minute read

Nine powerful films about Ukraine to add to your watch list

1. Chernobyl (2019) The official trailer is available via the link. Chernobyl is a five-episode historical drama series…

byYuliia Rudenko

Map: Russia (red), Belarus (pink), and Ukraine (yellow)

2 minute read

Baltic-Russian borders today: A reversal of fortune from the First Cold War

Now, once again, barriers are going up between East and West not everywhere but where they are it…

byPaul A. Goble

6 minute read

Dekulakization. How Stalin liquidated the Ukrainian peasant class (Part 2)

In January 2020 (90th commemoration of the total extermination of private property in the USSR), Radio Liberty and…

byRadio Liberty

9 minute read

History of Ukraine

WWII “victory” was Soviet occupation of western Ukraine and half of Europe

If, for Western Europe, the end of the war meant the victory of democracy, for Ukraine, it meant the enforcement of Stalinism. In the words of Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak, Ukraine was “in the heart of darkness” during the Second World War, with Ukrainians mostly fighting for the interests of other states and, along with Poland, suffering the heaviest human losses of the war. Unpunished communist crimes grow, making it appropriate for Russia to start new war in 2014.

byBohdan Ben