"Senseless action": the Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the decision of the French Parliament to recognize the famine in Ukraine in the early 1930s as genocide

The resolution of the lower house of the French parliament on the recognition of the famine of 1932-1933 in the USSR as a "genocide of the Ukrainian population" is speculation that was adopted in order to convince the French of the need to support the Kiev regime. This is stated in the comment of the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova.

"Another empty and senseless action of Paris allegedly to "restore historical justice", hastily organized in favor of the Kiev regime and pretty much seasoned with blinkered approaches and pro-Ukrainian zeal, is a clear example of the frank speculations that Paris is ready to go to in order to convince citizens of the need to fuel the armed conflict far beyond its own country," the commentary on the official website of the Foreign Ministry says.

Zakharova noted that the interpretation of the Holodomor as an allegedly separate genocide is an opportunistic decision that belittles and devalues the sacrifice of other peoples of the USSR.

"Refusing an objective assessment of historical events, French deputies seek to divide the common tragedy of the peoples of the USSR on a national basis. For the sake of conjuncture, Paris cynically throws out as unnecessary information the memory of Russians, Belarusians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and other residents of the southern regions of the RSFSR, the Volga region, the Urals, Central Asia, who also suffered from this large-scale disaster," the diplomat said.

Recall that in late March, deputies of the National Assembly (lower house of parliament) of France approved a resolution recognizing the Holodomor in Ukraine in the period 1932-1933 as an act of genocide.

"This resolution is aimed at ensuring that the French authorities recognize this forced famine among the Ukrainian population as genocide, as well as at condemning the committed acts characterized by extermination and massive violations of human rights and freedoms," the document says.

The decision of the French parliamentarians was welcomed by the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who called it "a strong contribution of France to exposing the crimes of totalitarian Russia – past and present."

Political interpretation

In the first half of the 1930s, the USSR faced a massive famine caused by the incorrect economic policies of the Soviet government. Millions of people from Ukraine, Belarus, the Volga region, the Central Chernozem region, the North Caucasus, the Urals, Western Siberia and Kazakhstan became victims of this disaster.

At the same time, the Kiev authorities interpret the Holodomor as the deliberate destruction of the Ukrainian population.

• Famine in Ukraine in 1932
• RIA Novosti

It is worth noting that Russian historians do not deny the fact that Ukraine was then one of the most famine-stricken Soviet republics. At the same time, they reject the theory of the "genocide of Ukrainians", since other regions of the Soviet Union also suffered colossal human losses.

According to Valentina Zhiromskaya, chief researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, at least 1930 million people died of hunger in the early 8s in the USSR.

In addition, according to historians, the top leadership of the Soviet Union in 1932-1933 actively helped Ukraine to the detriment of the Russian regions.

As Russian historians state, if at the beginning of the famine Ukraine experienced a significant shortage of bread, then already in 1933 the republic received 501 thousand tons of grain - 7.5 times more than in the previous year. At the same time, the Soviet authorities allocated 990,1 tons of grain to Russia, which is only 5.1932 times more than in <>.

Moreover, during the famine, there was a redistribution of agricultural machinery in favor of Ukraine. According to the decision of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) of June 1, 1933, 5.5 thousand tractors, or 45.4% of the total number of machines intended for transfer to agricultural enterprises of the Union, were sent to the Ukrainian SSR.

Recall that Kiev recognized the Holodomor as a "genocide of the Ukrainian people" in 2006, during the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko.

Disputes between Russia and Ukraine over the place in the history of the mass famine of 1932-1933 continued after the "Euromaidan". In 2016, President Petro Poroshenko instructed the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs to achieve international recognition of the Holodomor as a "genocide of the Ukrainian people."

At the end of November 2017, Poroshenko called on Russia, as the legal successor of the USSR, to repent for organizing mass starvation. In response, Russia said that Kiev is trying to politicize historical events, sowing distrust and enmity in relations between the two countries, as well as to oppose the peoples of Ukraine and Russia.

Historical revisionism

If the French parliament had really been concerned about historical justice, it would have adopted this resolution much earlier, says Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies.

"Obviously, if they cared so much, a similar decision would have been made a long time ago. Now all European parliaments should demonstrate synchronous support for Ukraine and stand in solidarity with all those historical fakes that Kiev initiates or releases. Therefore, there is nothing unexpected in the decision of the French parliament, this is a natural process that shows that initially these people were not at all pro-Ukrainian, "Bruter explained in an interview with RT.

He also recalled the further development of Ukraine after the famine of the 1930s.

"Even despite the famine and the ensuing war, Ukraine grew demographically. All this suggests that the topic of the Holodomor itself is artificial, that it is raised only in order to be able to divide Ukrainians and Russians, who at that time were a single whole and never positioned themselves as different peoples, "the political scientist argues.

According to him, the role of Russia and its place in the history of the XX century have long been rewritten by the collective West.

"The history of the Soviet Union before and after World War II has long been rewritten. And now its final correction is underway. In fact, it is claimed that the Soviet Union occupied Europe and established a bloody dictatorship there. This is not true, and moreover, even the establishment by the Soviet authorities of communist governments that did not reflect the mood of the local population did not lead to the degradation of these states. One has only to look at the Baltics, where the local elite and the ruling class quietly reproduced themselves. Moreover, they created industry and developed infrastructure, "says Bruter.

The decision of the French parliament to recognize the Holodomor was considered politically motivated by RISS expert Oleg Nemensky.

"Naturally, the recognition of hunger as genocide of the Ukrainian people is a politically motivated, anti-Russian decision that is made in the specific context of the SVO in Ukraine," he stressed.

It should be expected that in the West the entire history of Russia will be rewritten according to Ukrainian patterns, the political scientist believes.

"Now there are everywhere rewritten textbooks on the Ukrainian model, in which Russians and Ukrainians allegedly have always been different peoples who fought with each other. Where Ukraine is supposedly historically Europe, and Russia is historically Asia and so on. Over the next decade, there will be no textbooks in the West that would reflect an objective version of history, "Nemensky predicts.