Just a few days ago, the famine in Ukraine, which was deliberately caused some 90 years ago, was commemorated. The so-called Holodomor (starvation) of the Soviet leadership under dictator Josef Stalin has now also been officially recognized as genocide by the German parliament. The Ukrainian ambassador in Vienna, Vasyl Khymynets, is urging the Austrian National Council to take a similar decision.
German MPs on Wednesday evening approved a joint motion by the traffic light coalition and the trade union group by a large majority, which spoke of an “inhuman crime”. In Ukraine alone, up to four million people fell victim to the Holodomor in 1932 and 1933. The Soviet leadership’s efforts to control the peasantry went hand in hand with the repression of the Ukrainian way of life, language and culture, according to the Bundestag’s printed newspaper. “From today’s perspective, a historical-political classification as genocide is obvious. The German Bundestag shares such a classification.”
AfD and the Left abstained
In the Bundestag debate, all factions condemned the Holodomor, but the right-wing AfD and the left abstained from voting on the motion. AfD MP Marc Jongen spoke of an “instrumentalization of history” and opposed a “historical comparison” with the current war in Ukraine. Gregor Gysi from the left also warned against a possible comparison of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin: “Stalin was bad, very bad, but not Hitler.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressly welcomed the decision of the German Bundestag. “This is a decision for justice, for truth,” Zelenskyj said in his daily video address on Wednesday night. “And this is a very important signal to many other countries in the world that Russian revanchism will fail to rewrite history.”
Similar resolution soon in Austria?
Last week, the Ukrainian ambassador in Vienna, Wassyl Chymynez and NEOS in Austria called for the Holodomor to be condemned as genocide in the National Council. Scholars still disagree whether it was a targeted genocide of Ukrainians or whether it was the brutal actions of those in power against the rural population. In the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, mainly ethnic Ukrainians fell victim to the Soviet-induced catastrophe of 1932/1933. At the same time, however, there were also famines for political reasons in some regions of the Russian and even more so the Kazakh part of the Soviet Union.
Source: Krone
I am Wallace Jones, an experienced journalist. I specialize in writing for the world section of Today Times Live. With over a decade of experience, I have developed an eye for detail when it comes to reporting on local and global stories. My passion lies in uncovering the truth through my investigative skills and creating thought-provoking content that resonates with readers worldwide.
