In this week's MindMatters show, we delve into the surrounding context and facts about Holodomor - and how despite his own shady background, Mr. Jones got the story right, unlike his shameless colleague at the New York Times, Walter Duranty. But like much of how history is presented in art, and elsewhere, the omission of crucial information also threatens to turn a story on its head and make it perfect fodder for contemporary propaganda - even decades after the fact. With that in mind we also discuss the implications of mass collectivization, the realities of a Communist political system, and how the film speaks, perhaps unwittingly, to many detrimental developments that we are now witnessing on the world stage. Historical events are often quite complicated, but with a nuanced examination of how history is told, and the real lessons that may be derived from it, we may better see where we are, and where we're going.
Running Time: 01:24:52
Download: MP3 — 77.7 MB
Sources:
- Gareth Jones: Famine grips Russia Millions Dying. Idle on Rise, Says Briton (March 29, 1933)
- Walter Duranty: Russians Hungry, But Not Starving (March 30, 1933)
- Gareth Jones: Former Secretary of Lloyd George Tells of Observations in Russia (May 13, 1933)
- Wikipedia entry on Walter Duranty's character
- Screenwriter Andrea Chalupa's Russiagate involvement: Beyond DNC leaks: Funding hacks and sedition, the Ukraine connection
- Matthew Ehret: Alberta professor draws wrath of Ukrainian nationalists for challenging 'myth' that Holodomor famine was deliberate Soviet policy
- Grover Furr: The "Holodomor" and the Film "Bitter Harvest" are Fascist Lies
- Oleg Khlevniuk: Stalin: New Biography of a Dictator
- Gordon M. Hahn: Ukraine over the Edge: Russia, the West and the New Cold War