February 12, 2005

Ukrainians and all decent people world wide need to respond with outrage to the proposed placement of a statue of Stalin at Yalta. The authorities in Crimea need to be reminded that they are living in Ukraine, not Russia, and that their President is Yushchenko, not Putin.

Commemorating the butcher of Ukraine, who ordered the slaughter of 18 million Ukrainians, half the population, is equivalent to placing a statue of Hitler at Auschwitz.

The argument that the statue includes Churchill and Roosevelt and commemorates the 60th year of the Yalta Agreement is specious sucker bait for the terminally naive. The Yalta agreement sealed the fate of over 100 million people in Ukraine and Eastern Europe to live another half century under sadistic dictatorship. Would anyone in his right mind accept a statue of Chamberlain, Dadalier and Hitler to commemorate the infamous Munich Pact of 1938?

The sculptor, Zurab Tsereteli - who is also President of the Russian Academy of Arts - and St. Leningrad's Monument Sculptura factory recently got approval from Crimean authorities to place this blatant insult to Ukraine's 18 million victims of Stalinist sadism. We must demand to know who commissioned the work and who paid for it. Together with Tsereteli, these people, especially any Ukrainians involved, need to be outed and need to apologize to Stalin's victims, their survivors and all Ukrainians.

Moscow authorities have recently announced they are also putting up a statue of Stalin. Perhaps Tsereteli and Co. can melt down their Yalta Insult and instead cast a lovely statue of a kindly Uncle Joe with a young Putin on his knee, looking up lovingly into his hero's eyes.

We can not stop Russia's path back to its old dictatorial ways. But, we must stop Russia's efforts to re-write History by portraying Stalin as anything less than the sadistic genocidal bastard that he was. To do so on Ukrainian soil, so soaked with the blood of his innocent victims, is Infamy.

Stalin needs to stay in Hell, right next to his soul mate Hitler, and not be brought back to the streets of Ukraine.

Peter Borisow
President
Hollywood Trident Foundation
Los Angeles, California (USA)