63 Anniversary of Crimean Deportation.

[Andrew Grigorenko]

Andrew Grigorenko.

 

63 Anniversary of Crimean Deportation.

 

A history of any nation is always marked by happy and sad road marks. Alas! The later occurs more often that the first. This is especially true for the nations who had a misfortune to be under iron fist of totalitarianism.

Today, May 18, 2007, is a 63^rd Anniversary of the day when natives of Crimean peninsula were brought on the verge of total annihilation.

I would avoid repeating what I previously wrote about this tragedy in my numerous articles and the book "When We Will Return…" I would rather reflect on the future of Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian statehood.

I was pleasantly surprised by the news that President of Crimean Mejlis (National Council of Crimean Tatars) and President of Ukraine laid together flowers at the foot of the monument commemorating the victims of the deportation. This symbolic gesture gives a hope that the poly-ethnic Ukrainian nation will recognize that tragedy of a single ethnic component of the nation is a common national tragedy, understanding that genocide is tragedy for the entire Humanity. Without such realization we cannot be sure that genocide will not ever reoccurs.

Unfortunately, there is no such nationwide understanding not only in Ukraine but allover the post-Soviet territories. Propaganda of xenophobia, some times masked, some times not, has a free rain in many places and even sometimes became a new pillar for so called "national idea".

Even taking under consideration rather complicated current Ukrainian political situation, one would wander why so little done to restore a historical justice? The repatriation of deportees proceeds with difficulties including unresolved land distribution, employment and monetary compensation. The Ukrainian government does not take necessary steps to recover monetary compensation from Russia for deeds committed by its predecessor. Ukraine also did not try to negotiate reasonable compensation from the Central Asian nation were Crimean made a significant contribution to the economies of those countries. The resources collected from the above-mentioned sources could be used not only for justifiable compensation of former deportees but also for the restoration of the unique Crimean culture.

It is unforgivable that after fifteen years of Ukrainian independence the historical toponymics eradicated from Crimea for the past 63 years are not restored. There is no excuse that the voluntary or involuntary migrants who moved to peninsula after the deportation oppose the restoration. It seems questionable that people who ignorant about native culture and history could have any saying in the matter. If the present situation will persist, the new generation of Ukrainian citizens will lose a chance on restoration of historical justice.

The situation is also intolerable with Ukrainian and Crimean languages in the Autonomous Republic. Those languages are not a part of compulsory curriculum in every Crimean school. Instead, the foreign language enjoys the privilege of de-facto state language and therefore serves as indirect endorsement of the past colonial policies of the Soviet Union and its predecessor - Russian Empire.

The attempt of certain circles of so-called Russian speakers to revise the history of Crimea and glorify foreign conquerors from Russian Empress Kathryn to bloody dictator Stalin is also troublesome.

 May 18 is always be the black day on my calendar. During that day, I prey for all those who suffocated to death in the cattle cars of the deportation trains, for those who perished while cultivate uninhabited deserts of Central Asia and my friends whom I lost in the struggle against totalitarian monster.

Peace to all fallen.

--
Andrew P. Grigorenko
President of General Petro Grigorenko Foundation
www.grigorenko.org

[Andrew Grigorenko]

I am not sure how many people on the territories of former Soviet Union remember or even know two September dates marking the events, which changed the world. I bet not so many. Even now after the spectacular collapse of Communism, the old myths created by Stalin's and his followers propaganda prevail in the post-Soviet population perception of not so distant past. Only that can explain that a great majority of the post-Soviet countries population honestly believes that WWII lasted from June 22, 1941 until May 9, 1945 and they call it "The Great Patriotic War". There is also an unshakable believe that USSR single-handedly defeated the Third Reich. Never mind the allied devastating bombing of Germany, invasion in Italy and, even more important, in Normandy.

The logic does not need to apply. It is absolutely hopeless to ask the question: how it is possible in the worldwide slaughter to have a separate war with one of the major players? Do not attempt to ask why occupation of Czechoslovakia by Nazis is an act of aggression but the occupation by Soviets of Baltic States is a "brotherly help"? There are tons of unanswered questions. And I hope that one day they will be asked.

Let me only on the eve of the sixty-eights anniversary of the official start of the WWII and following on the next day the sixty-second anniversary of its official end to remind those who forgot: the Third Reich and USSR started the WWII as allies by attacking Poland and continued curving Europe, according to the mutual plan signed before September 1, 1939, for first two years of the war. During those two years the USSR lost to combat casualties about a quarter million officers and enlisted men killed and unknown number of wounded.

It also worth to mention that when the original alliance of two aggressors was dissolved due to turn of arms on each other, the Western democracies extended the helping hand to their yesterday enemy – the Stalin's empire. The first shipments of armaments, equipment and food started pouring into the USSR practically from the first days of Soviet-German combat, even preceding the official inclusion of the Soviet Union under provision of Land Lease.

However, after the Germany defeat the USSR was not in any rush to fulfill its promise to declare war on Japan. Only after the atomic bombardment of Hiroshima and realization that further delay might prevent Soviet participation in sharing of the spoils of war in Asia, Stalin unleashed overwhelming force, which was standing idle on Mandjurian borders for months. About thirty thousand Soviet officers and enlisted men died in those last days of WWII. But during these days the Soviets betrayed one of their allies – the legitimate government of China by arming Mao Zedong rebels with the armament captured from Japanese. The result of this betrayal cost the Chinese people of millions of lives and sold them into international-socialist slavery.

And the last but not least. The WWII changed the face of our planet. It brought liberty to many new nations but it also put into red totalitarian night half of the world population. Most of old empires disintegrated after the WWII except the Soviet empire, which enlarged its territory by annexing prewar independent states of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Tannu-Tuva. The USSR also annexed the large chunks of the territories of its neighbors: Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Bessarabia, Bukovina, Eastern Prussia, South Sakhalin, South Kuril Islands, and Southern Finland. It put more than a dozen ethnic minorities on a brink of extinction during the mass deportation of those minorities from their native lands. All Eastern Europe and large part of Asia became Soviet satellites governed by the brutal totalitarian régimes.

Yes, Humanity has a reason to celebrate the end of the Second World War, but, at the same time, we must not forget that its end did not liberated the world from totalitarianism, that the benches of war criminals during the Nierenberg and Tokyo tribunals were too short and benches of prosecutors too long.