Jimmy Carter Will Wonder What This Is About

The Ukraine wants the world to know about the Soviet Terror famine. Some would even dare call it "genocide".

• Ukraine Commemorates Victims Of Stalin-Era Famine

  On 25 November, Yushchenko called on the international community to recognize as genocide the famine that Soviet dictator Josef Stalin provoked in the winter of 1932-33 when he imposed grain requisitioning as part of his campaign to force Ukrainian peasants to join collective farms.
  
  Much of the Ukrainian grain was sold to make money for the Soviet industrialization campaign as Ukrainians starved.

• Ukraine Demands 'Genocide' Marked

  "The world must know about this tragedy," he said, at the opening of an exhibition dedicated to famine victims.
  
  Millions of Ukrainians starved to death in 1932-33 as USSR leader Joseph Stalin stripped them of their produce in a forced farm collectivisation(sic) campaign.
  
  A small number of nations have already recognized the famine as genocide.
  
  Ukraine has designated 26 November as an official day of remembrance for victims of "Holodomor" - meaning murder by hunger - and other political crackdowns.

• Ukrainian President Calls on World to Recognize Soviet-Era Famine as Genocide

  Yushchenko demanded that Ukrainian diplomats strengthen their efforts to receive recognition from all countries. Already, some countries such as Canada, the United States, Austria, Hungary and Lithuania have recognized the famine as genocide.
  
  Ukraine plans to mark the anniversary Saturday by lighting 33,000 candles - representing the number of people who died every day at the famine's height.

So, what is the problem here?

Roman Serbyn, professor of history and a Ukrainian expert at the University of Quebec in Montreal, says: "Ukraine did not make a technically clear case."

Farmers' produce was forcefully collected by the state

He believes the "genocide" designation has proved elusive because the famine is often considered to have been aimed at a social group (peasants) rather than a national or ethnic group.

However, a strong case can be put showing that by closing the borders so Ukrainians could not escape to Russia, Stalin was targeting Ukrainian nationals, he says.

That line of reasoning, with all its nuance, reinforces my desire to never be subject to the International Court of Justice.

Jimmy Carter will need to read again the Walter Durante articles in the New York Times to confirm that this never happened. He was quite sure there had been absolutely no socially unacceptable behavior on the part of the peace-loving progressive patrons of the People's Proletarian Revolution prior to their misguided and unfortunate invasion of Afghanistan during his tenure. He did experience a brief moment of cognitive dissonance at that point in time.