Russians struggle to keep alive memory of Stalin’s victims
St Petersburg, Russia Reuters Russians came in dribs and drabs to lay flowers on Monday to the victims of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s purges, on an official day of remembrance largely shunned by an establishment keen to blank out reminders of Russia’s troubled past. Natalia Anafonova came to St Petersburg’s Levashov Cemetery to honour her great-grandfather. […]
UNESCO-listed cathedral among damaged buildings in Odesa
Odesa, Ukraine Reuters More details have emerged about a Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southern port of Odesa early on Sunday in which an Orthodox cathedral in the city centre, a UNESCO world heritage site, was severely damaged. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said one person was killed and 20 injured, including four children aged 11 to […]
Seventy years after death, Stalin’s polarising legacy looms large
Moscow/Gori, Georgia Reuters On the eve of the 70th anniversary of Josef Stalin’s death, attitudes to the Soviet Union’s wartime leader remain mixed in the nations he once ruled with an iron fist. During three decades of dictatorial rule, Stalin oversaw rapid industrialisation and victory over the Nazis but also the deaths of millions in […]
Ukraine remembers Stalin-era famine as Russia war rages
Kyiv, Ukraine Reuters Ukraine accused the Kremlin on Saturday of reviving the “genocidal” tactics of Josef Stalin as Kyiv commemorated a Soviet-era famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the winter of 1932-33. The remembrance day for the “Holodomor” comes as Ukraine is battling to repel invading Russian forces and deal with sweeping blackouts caused […]
Pope links plight of Ukrainians today to Stalin’s “genocide”
Vatican City AP Pope Francis on Wednesday linked the suffering of Ukrainians now to the 1930s “genocide artificially caused by Stalin”, when the Soviet leader was blamed for creating a man-made famine in Ukraine believed to have killed more than three million people. Francis’ linking of the plight of Ukrainian civilians today to those killed […]
Essay: Famines – what 20th century food crises tell us about how to cope with the Ukraine fallout
As the Ukraine conflict sparks concerns over food security in many nations, EOIN MCLAUGHLIN, CHRIS COLVIN and MATTHIAS BLUM, in an article first published on The Conversation, look at what history shows us…