Ukraine : An Example Of Great Courage, Endurance And Spirituality

When extremists attempt to intensify divisions between groups, the government usually begins attacks, violent actions, and takes drastic measures. In the situation of Holodomor, a large amount of Ukraine’s religious, political, and intellectual leaders were arrested, tortured, and often murdered in order to remove any dangerous opposition. By taking these actions, Stalin polarized the Ukrainian population, separating the Ukrainian working class from the peasants. Stalin also began removing a large amount of the population out of Ukraine, and into harsh survivable lands such as Siberia and labor camps, these settings were referred to as a “Dump site” where the main purpose was to eliminate the farmers and keep rotting bodies out of

The Ukraine and the U.S. Governments are similar and different in a lot of ways. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the two governments. The essay will begin with a breakdown of the countries’ governments. Then it will talk about each country’s history and culture. The essay will end with a summary of a current issue in each country.

By June 1933, 28,000 men, women and children were starving to death each and every day. As the Ukrainians were dying, the Soviet Union was exporting their grain to other countries. This famine was initiated to dehumanize the Ukrainians and counterattack any movement for independence. Anyone caught stealing grain was killed immediately, this lead to people eating dogs, birds, mice and withal resulted into cannibalism . Seven to ten million Ukrainians had perished in the course of one year. Despite having a substantial amount of knowledge of the crisis in Ukraine, the west turned a blind eye

The famine too was an assault on Ukraine’s rising nationalism, which threatened to remove the country from Soviet influence and thus undermine the Party as Stalin saw it. Thus, in those few months during which millions died, not only was the traditional Ukrainian village effectively destroyed, but much of Ukraine’s political and cultural elite were purged. Moreover, Russian settlers were brought in to repopulate the *devastated countryside, altering the country’s ethnic makeup. Take together, these factors severely retarded the country’s nation-building and nationalist ambitions, and it would not be until 1991 with the fall of the Soviet Union that the country would achieve independence. In this paper I will describe the events which led up to the famine, the famine itself, the subsequent Russification of Ukraine, the extent of Stalin’s knowledge and intentions toward Ukraine, explanations for the famine including the role of ideology and the importance of individual personalities, outside reactions from foreign nations and journalists, and the famine’s lasting impact.

It started in 1920 when Ukraine tried to break away from the Soviet Union, but it was unsuccessful because Stalin wouldn’t let them. Stalin then at the end of the 1920s, wanted to shut down Ukraine’s autonomy. He does so by having individuals arrested, sent to prison, and even executed (Sebag, 2008). Ukraine used to be the bread basket of Russia. That was until Stalin and his crew took over and held over ¾ of Ukraine hostage. While he was having people imprisoned and executed, he also ordered the collectivization of agriculture. Most of Ukraine were peasants and farmers. The majority of these people owned a good amount of land, and some even owned livestock. There were people who were against collectivization. These people were called Kulaks, which are rich peasants. Thousands of people were thrown out of their homes and even deported. (Bohdan, 2013)

Holodomor occurred during 1932-1933, but corrupt events and poor leadership led up to the famine and starvation. Vladimir Lenin, who ruled the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924, declared Ukraine as an independent nation. Sadly, the new country’s government was very unstable and could not withstand. So, the country became a part of the Soviet Union once again. As a result of getting a taste of independence, a new pride and patriotism rose among the Ukrainians along with a political elite group. Joseph Stalin, who rose to power in 1924, saw that this wave of nationalism in Ukraine as a threat. So Stalin set up a new form of economic production called collectivism. Collectivism is where individual farmers were

Ukraine’s hope and will was in the hands of the dictator Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin instilled a totalitarian government into Ukraine’s society. Moreover, Stalin tried to cut any threats that would affect his plan in making Russia a communist utopia, by using the secret police. But according to document 1, the Ukrainian’s were independent, rebellious people who believed strongly in their culture and traditional ways consequently, this caused much controversy with Joseph Stalin and the Ukrainian’s, such as Ukrainian’s not being able to speak up about the collectivization and not being able to practice different religions because of Russification. Likewise, Stalin used propaganda for in an effort of gaining support for collectivization, this

Ukraine is granted a market economy status by the EU and USA. The sharp economic decline in the 90s resulted in deteriorating living standards for most citizens and widespread poverty. However, during the 21st century, there has been some positive economic growth in Ukraine, as well as Eastern Europe as a whole. Ukraine’s currency, the Hryvnia, was introduced in September 1996 and has remained relatively stable. The unstable political situation in Ukraine hardly influences its economic development. GDP has been growing steadily since 2005 at an average growth rate of 7% and industrial production has been expanding by 12%. The Ukrainian economy was hit by the harsh effects of the global financial crisis but managed to attain a 4.2%

The two countries, Russia and Ukraine, had different reactions towards the armed violence and impeachment of the Ukrainian president. Although the majority of the Ukrainians opposed Viktor’s decision to procrastinate the signing the EU-Ukraine integration agreement, all the ex-presidents accused for its interference with the affairs of Crimean. The former presidents of Ukraine, including Leonid Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma described the present crisis as Russia’s political interventions designed to interfere with the internal affairs of Ukraine and its relationship with the European Union (Hanschke 1). The people of Crimea have not been seeking for secession from Ukraine, but their interest is to have extended autonomy and rights to govern the Crimean affairs with minimum involvement of the government of Ukraine. Russia, on the other hand, have dismissed the accusation and stated that it is pursuing the interest of the people of Crimea to join the Federation of Russia. Russia holds that the people of Crimea have the power to decide the future of their territory and Russia will be ready to respect their decision. Study shows that about 90

This passage clearly exemplified the mindset of many, as the hope they had had for a more optimistic future was once again crushed under another regime. This was continuously a problem under occupations of Kiev, government power made promises that were no longer able to withhold and as a result of this, the would then be forced to endure horrible acts played out against them and face poor treatment.

In early 2014, Russia made the decision to conduct an illegal military intervention into Ukraine. It all began when there was a dispute over whether Ukraine should accept financial help from Russia or Europe, which then ascended into the ousting of the Ukrainian president and then invasion of Ukraine. More specifically, Russia began to taking over the Ukraine territory of the Crimean Peninsula through illegal use of force (Global Security, 2016). During that time, the Russian government voted to place Crimean’s into the Russian Federation, which had been rapidly accepted by the President of Russia himself, Vladimir Putin. Most of the Crimean population is ethnic Russians, although there are also the pro-Ukraine Tatar minorities that make

The political relations between Ukraine and Russia as the two independent subjects of international relations were established in 1991 after the eighth December of the same year signed the Belavezha agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, which marked the end of the existence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics as " subject of international law and geopolitical reality "and the establishment of the Commonwealth of Independent States. From that moment we can talk about the beginning of the existence of full political relations between Russia and Ukraine.

“Battlefield” – an etude. Inspired by the recent events of February 2014 in Kiev, Ukraine.

The preconditions of the crisis were laid by Yulia Tymoshenko who signed “efficient” gas deal with Russia and Victor Yanukovych who made more tied relations with Russia.

Unlike the rest of Ukraine, Eastern Ukrainians have received more of a cultural and linguistic influence from Russia. The Ukrainian people are descended from the nomadic, free Cossacks. The Cossacks “neither loved the tsar not the [Polish] lord” and were a people totally separate from the Russians and Polish (Magosci 19). The roots of Russia and Ukraine reveal that the name Russia is derived from the word Kievian Rus. The Kievian Rus were Ukrainian people who had established Kiev, “the capital of the ancient Russian state” (ExpatRu). The name “Russia” was eventually adopted by Peter the Great many years later. The Russian-speaking Ukrainians have been influenced a lot by Russian culture; they have adopted the language due to the constant transfer of power between Russia (including the USSR) and other countries. Due to the lack of this knowledge, the rebels have successfully manipulated the minds of the Russian-speaking citizens into thinking they are ethnic Russians. The support the rebels show toward Russia has given them protection; Russia already seeks to expand its territory, so they completely support anything the rebels do. Historically, Ukrainians and many western Russians are Ukrainian; the arrogance the rebels have