[Sherman Logan]

Over the last century, we have become used to referring the nation of Ukraine as “the Ukraine.” This writer has been guilty of the mistake, even in recent writings.

Problem is that "the Ukraine" in English goes back to at least the 1700s. It's not an invention of the Soviets.

Stalin’s point man in charge of the murder of over 8 million Ukrainians was the “Great Reformer” and Stalin’s successor, Nikita Khrushchev.

It should be noted that Khrushchev was himself Ukrainian. And that he spent the years of the Holodomor in Moscow working in the city government. He didn't arrive in Ukraine till 1937.

This article tries to portray "the Soviets" as distinct from "Ukrainians," as if Ukrainians were conquered victims of an invasion, much as Poland was conquered by the Nazis.

The truth, of course, is much more complicated. Many Ukrainians were strong supporters of the Soviet system and rose high in its ranks, as can be seen by Khrushchev himself.

[griswold3]

I cannot get worked up over a situation involving two corrupt sides.
The time for intervention has long passed. We proved to be too ignorant on the history, demographics and political economics to have any moral authority to assist. It all depends on whose debt slave the citizens want to be. Whoever promises the least pain will win.

[Always A Marine]

Well stated, Sherman Logan. The nation of Ukraine is a modern, artificial construct that didn’t matter when all SSRs were under Moscow’s rule. Now the longstanding status quo is being restored. Those of us who defend and espouse the Monroe Doctrine in our own hemisphere should recognize that Russia is pursuing its self interests along its strategic southern border, and that this is none of our business.

[Bill Russell]

Thanks Sherman. The use of “the” in referring to Ukraine does go back a long way - to the 1700’s and at least as far as the days of Catherine and the patrician of Poland (a large portion of which is now called Ukraine). While the Russian language does not have articles like “a” or “the” many of the Russian broadcasts and discussions do make a point of using the “the” article in English messaging.

In reference to Khrushchev going back to the Ukraine in 1937,you are correct. I wrote this from memory and my time line was off. Khrushchev was a senior party member in the Ukraine in the late 1920s. In 1929 he followed Kaganovich to Moscow where he was very active in helping Stalin purge the Moscow party leadership beginning around 1934, and returned to the Ukraine as party chief in 1937. I should have gone back and checked before publishing. Going back to the Black Book of Communism, the Great Terror occurred from 1936-1938 and Khrushchev was the point man in the purge of the local communist party leaders in the Ukraine — in essence ensuring the executions of the executioners from the Holodomor, a very Soviet means of erasing evidence of atrocities. The Holodomor was part of the collectivization of farms (1932-33).

With reference to the Ukrainians committing the atrocities during the Holodomor — that is partly true. But more on that later.

But I digress. Between my timeline gaffe, and the other arguments in this post over the semantics in the use of “the” before the name of a country or region, this is turning out to be the worst work I have ever published. While I am embarrassed and humbled, my real regret is the message of what the Ukrainians have to fear from post- Soviet/ Russian domination has been lost in the discussion it created.

[dfwgator]

It should be noted that Khrushchev was himself Ukrainian.

He was ethnically Russian, but grew up near the border with Ukraine. Stalin appointed him as Party Boss in Ukraine in 1937, so it stands to reason that over time he developed an affinity for the region.

[Kozak]

Khrushchev was not an ethnic Ukrainian, he was one of those ethnic Russians settled on Ukrainian territory. In his memoirs he mentions this and how his internal passport was stamped “Russian”.

It was called the Ukraine, because the the Ukraina transplates as “ borderland”, the article incorporated in the word ending.

The Ukraine was in fact conquered, by the Soviets. There was an independent Ukrainian state during the Civil war. Of course there were Ukrainians on both sides as there were of every ethnic group in the Soviet Union. Nevertheless the Red Army under Trotsky made conquest of Ukraine a top priority.

Evidence of how much resistance there was to Soviet domination was plain when German troops invaded in 1941 and were largely greeted as liberators. Initially. Considering how terribly Ukraine suffered under Soviet domination, it’s not surprising.