X-Captive Nations Brigade – 3 Swords – is Step in Right Direction

With Russian saber-rattling intensifying daily, I have opined on numerous occasions about the necessity for the former captive nations of Moscow’s brutal prison of nations to form multilateral alliances to defend against Russian aggression.

Scroll through my blogposts and you’ll see my commentaries about strong political, cultural and economic blocs that would build the former captive nations’ stature in the global community as well as raise a barricade against Russian encroachment.

I have even suggested that these now independent nations should form coalitions regarding the 17 Sustainable Development Goals inside the hallowed halls of the United Nations.

Any occasion that would allow the x-captive nations to advocate their independence and sovereignty while pointing out the ongoing danger presented by Russia should be encouraged.

Such a pact existed among the captive nations during World War II in order to fight Soviet Russian aggression.

The Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Nations (ABN) was a coordinating center for anti-Communist émigré political organizations from Soviet and other socialist countries. The ABN attributes its existence and its ideological foundations to an underground conference of representatives of non-Russian peoples that took place on November 21-22, 1943, near Zhytomyr, Ukraine, on the initiative of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The attendees adopted a platform of joint revolutionary struggle against Russian communism. The goal of the ABN was the dissolution of the Soviet Union into national states. Given an organizational structure in Munich in 1946, the ABN extended its scope of activity to include the Eastern European emigration.

The following organizations were members of the ABN from its inception or for varying periods of time: “Free Armenia” Committee, Bulgarian National Front, Belorussian Central Council, Cossack National Liberation Movement, Croatian National Liberation Movement, Czech Movement for Freedom (Za Svobodu), Czech National Committee, Estonian Liberation Movement, Union of the Estonian Fighters for Freedom, Georgian National Organization, Hungarian Liberation Movement, Hungarian Mindszenty Movement, Latvian Association for the Struggle against Communism, Lithuanian Rebirth Movement, Slovak Liberation Committee, National Turkestanian Unity Committee, United Hetman Organization, and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (Bandera faction).

In recent years, government officials from Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and others have regularly warned against Russian revanchism and called for increased military preparedness on the part of the x-captive nations. They used the example of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as justification for their concerns. They have also urged the United States and other free world leaders not to give in to Russian propaganda but rather to increase sanctions against Moscow for its global crimes.

Now it seems that at least three x-captive nations, Ukraine, Lithuania and Poland, have transformed an idea into practice with the mobilization of the “Hetman Konstantyn Ostrohskiy” Lithuanian-Polish-Ukrainian Brigade (LITPOLUKR) – https://litpolukrbrig.wp.mil.pl/en/

According to military media and the brigade’s website, this unit represents a new era of multilateral security cooperation in Europe. Lithuanian, Polish, and Ukrainian efforts to bolster European stability in the wake of Russia’s destabilizing invasion of Ukraine led to the creation of the unit in 2015.

The brigade’s website notes that each participating country contributes an infantry battalion, staff for the headquarters in Lublin, and specialized smaller units, to create a brigade between 3.5-4,000 soldiers. Leadership switches on a rotational basis. Officers and NCOs in the brigade primarily use English to communicate, though Ukrainian and Lithuanian participants also develop some proficiency in Polish given the headquarters’ location. Units in the brigade are maintained by and use equipment provided by their respective armed forces, though units in the brigade have recently started to train using Polish equipment. The brigade’s costs are shared among all three states, though the host nation Poland provides the largest contribution.

The brigade’s main task is to serve as a peacekeeping force to be deployed with the unanimous consent of all participating states. However, the brigade is also intended to bolster regional military cooperation. The brigade has focused heavily on improving joint operational capacity and standardizing procedures and practices through joint training. It is also engaged in a public relations campaign to build close relations between Lithuania, Ukraine and Poland.

The work of this joint military unit should reinforce in the minds of global leaders the comprehensive concept of what was a captive nation in Russia’s dungeon and what is a former captive nation, now independent state. It is important for military leaders to know that they have a trusted, well trained and battle-hardened

ally in this brigade as the free world seeks to stem Russia’s aggression. They should also take note that if for any reason the free world fails to support the x-captive nations, they will then do so on their own.

Indeed, as Poland, Ukraine and Lithuania take concrete actions to defend their nations, sovereignty and independence, they are also “United for Peace” as the brigade's motto states.

Include Holodomor in the Dictionary

While many people around the world have heard of the famine deaths in Ukraine, the word Holodomor, Russia’s premeditated murder by hunger of at least 7 million Ukrainian men, women and children in 1932-33, they may not be as familiar. Yes, 7 million killed. That number has been sanctified in the minds of generations of Ukrainians.

H-O-L-O-D-O-M-O-R

Planned, deliberate death by hunger. Moscow sought to deprive Ukrainian peasants or farmers of food to eliminate this excess population so it decided to seize wheat and other foodstuffs from them. Simple starve every one of them. It was the first time that food was used as a weapon. It was a genocide according to the United Nations. In the past eight decades many national parliaments as well as America states and municipalities have adopted resolutions denouncing the Holodomor as genocide.

However, sadly, if you were to open the latest edition of the classic Merriam-Webster dictionary you wouldn’t find any reference to the Holodomor. You wouldn’t learn how to spell it and you wouldn’t find even a cursory reference to what it was and why it should be remembered.

However, it you looked under “H” for Holocaust, you would rightly find a succinct, accurate definition:

Definition of holocaust

1: a sacrifice (see SACRIFICE entry 1 sense 2) consumed by fire

2: a thorough destruction involving extensive loss of life especially through fire a nuclear holocaust

3a usually the Holocaust: the mass slaughter of European civilians and especially Jews by the Nazis during World War II. Several members of her family died in the Holocaust. a Holocaust survivor

b: a mass slaughter of people especially : GENOCIDE a holocaust in Rwanda

Examples of holocaust in a Sentence

 The museum is devoted to the Holocaust. There were fears of a nuclear holocaust.

You would also find a definition of the Hebrew word Shoah:

Sho·​ah | \ ˈshō-ə  , -ˌä \

Definition of Shoah

: HOLOCAUST sense 3a

First Known Use of Shoah

1967, in the meaning defined above

History and Etymology for Shoah

Modern Hebrew shō'āh, literally, catastrophe, from Hebrew

But you wouldn’t find a definition for the world Holodomor. Instead you’d find:

“holodomor” – The word you've entered isn't in the dictionary. Click on a spelling suggestion below or try again using the search bar above.

It’s not that Merriam-Webster doesn’t include foreign words in its dictionary. Here’s what they say about blitzkrieg, Nazi Germany’s lightning fast invasion of Europe:

Definition of blitzkrieg

1: war conducted with great speed and force specifically: a violent surprise offensive by massed air forces and mechanized ground forces in close coordination

2: BLITZ sense 2a

Examples of blitzkrieg in a Sentence

The stunned survivors of the crash were then confronted with a blitzkrieg of in sensitive questions from the media

The war began with a blitzkrieg that was designed to shock the enemy into submission

A global campaign, launched by Bohdan Onyschuk, chair, Canada-Ukraine Foundation, and Chair, Holodomor National Awareness Tour, is currently underway by the Ukrainian World Congress, the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and others to rectify this hopefully mere oversight and not premeditated expurgation of the word Holodomor. They are asking the global community to view a video and then sign a petition in support of this effort.

You can access the petition on the website http://deeptruth.ca, where you can also view the “deep fake” video of Stalin finally telling the truth about the Holodomor, and the posters for the campaign which will be carried out on the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, other social media, and hopefully press stories and morning show interviews.

Using rare color film footage of Stalin, the Soviet dictator’s features have been painstakingly mapped onto the face of a modern-day actor, effectively bringing Stalin back to life. In the video, Stalin lays claim to his right to be credited as the true originator of “Fake News” by denying the Holodomor and successfully concealing from the world how he engineered the famine in Ukraine in 1932-33, killing millions of innocent men, women and children.

The campaign needs support by: (a) adding your name to the petition, which you can find on the deeptruth.ca website, or directly here: https://www.change.org/p/merriam-webster-dictionary-help-us-get-the-word-holodomor-included-in-all-major-english-dictionaries?use_react=false

(b) sharing this information, and the deeptruth.ca website with your organizations and your own personal contacts (including politicians at all levels), and

(c) offering any advice in areas where you could be helpful in expanding the campaign.

History and contemporary references to the Holodomor must be rectified for the sake of the innocent victims.

Why exactly don’t Ukrainians Trust Moscow?

Actually, it’s historical and Moscow has left a centuries-long trail of reasons why it doesn’t deserve to be trusted by Ukrainians – and for that matter anybody else.

It doesn’t matter who occupies the corner office in the Kremlin or the prevailing ideology, Russia will never abandon its steadfast objective to subjugate Ukraine and erase the Ukrainian nation from the face of the earth. Whether tsarist, communist or today’s so-called federative regime, Moscow remains the same. Any illusion of commonality between Ukrainians and Russians spewed by the Kremlin simply favors Russian national achievements and the results of ill-gotten gains of Russia’s bloody aggression and imperialism.

Ukrainians’ justified distrust of Russians is also based on the Kremlin’s belief that Ukrainians are in fact the moronic little brothers of Moscow worthy of being deceived, mislead, betrayed, cheated, hoodwinked, tricked, duped, deluded, invaded, starved, killed and conquered for the sake of Holy Mother Russia.

That’s why today, it matters not if Vladimir Putin or someone else occupies the corner office in the Kremlin. Russia’s aggressive, belligerent and imperialistic mentality will not change regardless of summits, handshakes, accords and sanctions. Furthermore, contemporary polls show that Russians, themselves, are not willing to oust peacefully or otherwise their führer.

I recently came across a dramatic retelling of history of Ukrainian independence 100 years ago that substantiates this observation. As editor of The Ukrainian Quarterly, a 76-year-old journal of Ukrainian and international affairs published by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, I encounter many scholarly articles about Ukraine and Russia. One of them is a poignant case in point.

It is titled “National Revolution in Ukraine, 1917-1919” by Nicholas D. Czubatyj (1889-1975), the first editor of The Quarterly. The article from the inaugural edition of 1944, elaborates on the events leading up to the declaration of independence of Ukraine, the establishment of the Ukrainian National Republic and its unification with the Western Ukrainian National Republic on January 22, 1919. Tapping into Ukrainian and Russian sources, Czubatyj demonstrates the high degree of national euphoria among all classes and segments of the Ukrainian nation and its active participation in the processes leading up to independence from what they called the despotic Russian empire. Despite Russian and others’ propaganda to the contrary, he points out that the nation comprehended the servile position of Ukraine in relation to Russia and unwaveringly supported independence. Mass rallies, parades, conventions, congresses and meetings were held in the spirit of the national aspirations that ultimately led to complete independence and sovereignty from the Russian empire.

Czubatyj also wrote about the hatred for Ukraine not only by the Russian tsarist supporters but by their opponents from the Russian Bolshevik and democratic liberal camps. Consequently, it doesn’t matter if Putin or a contemporary Russian liberal democrat is in the Kremlin. Ukraine and the other former captive nations will always be in danger.

Czubatyj wrote of those historical days: “The Ukrainian Legion bore on its flags the slogan, ‘War against Russia for the freedom of the Ukrainian nation.’ The same slogan was accepted by the political organization of an all-Ukrainian character, the League for the Liberation of Ukraine, which was organized in Lviv at the very outset of the World War. Its membership consisted of Western Ukrainians under Austria and of political emigrés from Russia. The Ukrainians under Russia at that time had only a secret organization – the Organization of Ukrainian Progressives.” In the inter-war era, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists similarly adopted as one its mottos “Kyiv against Moscow.”

Under the spiritual helm of Prof. Mykhailo Hrushevsky, the first president of Ukraine, Ukrainians on both sides of the Dnipro began to act on their aspirations and sculpt a truly independent and sovereign mentality. Initially, some Ukrainians were under the misplaced delusion that supporting Russia in its quest would contribute to the demise of the tsarist regime and bring freedom to the people. However, Russia being Russia soon squashed this false belief.

“The first months after the outbreak of the Russian revolution proved the fallacy of this idea and vindicated the minority who insisted upon full independence for the Ukrainians. The Russian democratic parties concealed their imperialistic policies with phrases regarding the community of interests of all Russia democracy, and said that these interests would be imperiled by a confederated Ukraine. The Bolsheviks voiced attractive phrases about the rights of every nation in Russia to self-determination and even separation, but, at the same time, their specialist in nationality affairs, Comrade Stalin, explained that this separation hinged upon whether or not it was harmful to the Communist Party of the proletariat. Naturally the separation of wealthy Ukraine from centralistic Russia would always be harmful to the Communist Party of the proletariat in Russia, and therefore in practice the stand of the Communists did not differ in the slightest from that of the reactionaries,” Czubatyj wrote, highlighting Moscow’s enduring intention of lying to achieve its goal.

The Ukrainian scholar, an eye witness in and participant of the events as well as colleague of Hrushevsky continued: “Thus it was no wonder that after a few months of the Russian revolution, when ‘the holiday of the revolution ended and the weekdays arrived,’ as expressed by Hrushevsky, then president of the Ukrainian Revolutionary Parliament, all the Ukrainian political groups quickly abandoned their former federalistic program for Ukraine and began to advocate the platform of full independence. The fall of Austria at the end of the war enabled the Austrian Ukraine to unite with Eastern Ukraine and to realize not only the ideal of independence, but also the ideal of a United Ukrainian Democratic Republic.”

Czubatyj also pointed out that it was not so easy to carry into effect the resolutions of the All-National Ukrainian Congress. The civil administration and the army control were in the hands of the Russians who after the Revolution feigned being democratic, but who had no intention of obeying the Ukrainian Central Rada – more treachery. They heeded the orders of the Russian Provisional Government in Petrograd. Here and there orders of the Central Rada were executed by Ukrainians in the administration and in the army, but by no means did the Rada have complete control.

The formation of a Ukrainian government was initiated by the previously clandestine political organization, the Organization of Ukrainian Progressives, which had an understanding with the Ukrainian Socialist parties in Kyiv. The revolution in Ukraine became moderate in character because it tried to be not only national but also social in character. The independent nationalists headed by attorney Mykola Mikhnovsky, Dr. Lutsenko and others were forced at the outset to remain in the background. However, thanks again to Russian deceit, they gradually came out into the open. The political and military leadership and people realized that attempts to fulfill Ukrainian national aspirations within the framework of a Russian plan proved hopeless because of the resistance of Russian democracy itself. Then the majority of Ukrainian socialists joined them in their political program of complete independence for Ukraine.

With an ironic nod toward future discussions about the possibility of a righteous Russian leader of Russia, a Russian-language newspaper in Kyiv of the day thus summarized the mood of the nation: “Here and there a Ukrainian volunteer spoke harshly: ‘The Russian democracy is against us; it is against Ukraine.’”

The current generation of Ukrainians in Ukraine and the diaspora must see to it that the nation abides by the lessons learned a century ago.

For information about The Ukrainian Quarterly, contact the UCCA office at 203 Second Ave., New York, NY 10003 or www.ucca.org.