Key Takeaway
| ● | Products of Ukrainian agriculture, mining, and industry were diverted from Ukraine to Russia. |
| ● | Lenin opted for allowing Ukraine a certain amount of cultural and linguistic freedom. |
| ● | Stalin reversed Lenin’s policy by violently suppressing any sign of Ukrainian nationalism, going as far as to starve millions of Ukrainians to death. |
| ● | Stalin continued Russia’s program of replacing Ukrainians with Russians in Ukraine. |
| ● | Industrialization in Ukraine was under the control of Russia. |
| ● | During the Second World War, Ukraine was a continuous battlefield for Nazi Germany and Russia. |
| ● | Many Ukrainians fought in the armies of the USSR. |
It is easy to paint yourself as a “liberator” if you can help to establish a half-way credible internal party that calls for your “help.” But ruling the “reluctantly liberated” is not easy.
Russia discovered (to the cost of Ukrainians) that fancy theory about farming does not make for efficient agriculture.The yearning for independence is not an insignificant aspect of national culture. Nations who do not have their own national integrity cannot be fobbed off with flattery, threats, or gifts. People will die for independence. Oppressed people do not easily forget or forgive inhumane treatment, no matter how closely you control the media and the history books.
Oppression, starvation, torture, and death had poisoned the soil, but still the wheat sprouted, and still the powerful Ukrainian peasants shouldered their burdens and scraped a living off the land. The history of Ukraine is the history of suffering and endurance.