Germany decided to recognize the Ukrainian “holodomor” as genocide: another signal was sent to Russia

German politicians staged dangerous historical games

Germany intends to declare the Holodomor in Ukraine under Stalin a genocide. Without a doubt, the appeal to historical events of almost a century ago is aimed primarily not at the Stalinist USSR, but at present-day Russia.

The German Bundestag plans to pass a resolution declaring the starvation of millions of Ukrainians under Stalin as genocide. German lawmakers hope the move to designate the Holodomor as a “genocide” will serve as a “warning” to Moscow as Ukraine faces a potential famine crisis this winter.

In a resolution to be voted on next week by the three ruling parties (Social Democrats, Free Democrats and the Greens) and leaders of the conservative opposition, the famine of 1932-1933 will be described as part of “a list of the inhumane crimes of totalitarian systems that cost millions of lives.” lives in Europe in the first half of the 20th century.

“The population throughout Ukraine, and not just in the grain regions, suffered from hunger and repression,” the resolution says. “It fits the historical-political definition of genocide from today’s point of view.”

On the last Saturday of November, Ukraine traditionally commemorates the victims of the Holodomor.

Kyiv sees this historic event as part of a deliberate campaign by the Stalinist regime to collectivize agriculture and eradicate the nascent nationalist movement in Ukraine. Historians estimate that between 4 and 7.5 million people died as a result of this disaster, the British publication notes.

Moscow rejects the Kyiv version of the Holodomor story, placing it in the broader context of a famine that devastated not only Ukraine, but also regions of Central Asia and Russia.

Robin Wagener, member of the Bundestag from the German Green Party, who initiated the resolution, calls the current Russian government “part of Stalin’s cruel and criminal tradition”, accusing Moscow of “using violence (…) to deprive Ukraine of its livelihood in order to subjugate the whole country.” This was stated by the German MP to the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Knut Abraham, ombudsman for the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) parliamentary committee on legal affairs and human rights, said the resolution was meant to send a signal to Moscow. And a spokeswoman for German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock is delighted “that there is a lot of support for this in the German parliament.”

To this we can add that it was Germany that accumulated a huge, incomparable with anyone in history, experience in organizing genocides – from present-day Namibia, where the German colonial authorities organized the first genocide of the twentieth century, practically destroying in 1904-1908. two ethnic groups of the local population of South West Africa – before Russia and the same Ukraine during the Second World War. So the Bundestag is embarking on a very slippery path, on which it is easy to fall down.