Russia denounces German Parliament for declaring Ukraine's Holodomor famine a genocide

Russia on Thursday condemned German Parliament's decision to recognise the Holodomor as a genocide, imposed by the Soviet Union. The Holodomor occured from 1932-1933, resulting in the death of millions of people -- 30 percent of whom were children under the age of 10. Holodomor was a result of Josef Stalin's forced collectivisation, which undermined grain production in western Ukraine, a region which was the hotbed of Ukrainian nationalism. 

Russia has said that Germany's decison to recognise the Holodomor as a genocide is anti-Russian and an attempt to whitewash its own Nazi past, as per a report from the TASS. Russia added that Germany is trying to downplay the extraordinary level of crimes commited by Nazi Germany by muddying the memory of people. Russia believes that Germany is accusing Moscow of genocide so that the crimes commited by Germany don't look unprecendented. 

"This is yet another attempt to justify and prop up the Western-sponsored campaign being inculcated in Ukraine to demonize Russia and to pit ethnic Ukrainians against the Russians and other ethnicities in Russia and across the former USSR," the Ministry said in a statement.

Russia says Germany is trying to whitewash its own past

“The Germans are trying to rewrite their history … downplay their own guilt and muddy the memory of the unprecedented nature of the countless crimes committed by Nazi Germany during the second world war,” said a statement released by Russia's foreign ministry. The foreign ministry statement added that Germany is attempting to create racial hatred between Ukrainians and Russians. Moscow has claimed that the Holodomor was not a genocide by pointing out that it is not just Ukrainians who suffered from Stalin's policies. People in Kazakhstan, current day Russia, Moldova and other satellites of the erstwhile Soviet Union suffered from Stalin's forced collectivisation. 

The Holodomor

Although historians generally agree that Holodomor was a man-made famine, there is a fair amount of debate on the question of whether it was a genocide. Holodomor's literal translation is "death by hunger" and that is how millions of people died. The most convervative estimates suggest that 3.5 million people died as a result of the Holodomor. There is documented evidence of many people resorting to cannibalism to avoid hunger. Some even reportedly ate their own children, as a result of which the USSR had to put out posters reading "to eat your own child is an act of barbarism". As many as 2,500 people were convicted of cannibalism.  Holodomor is a relatively obscure chapter of history, unlike the Holocaust. The Russia-Ukraine war has triggered a more widespread interest into the causes and effects of Holodomor.