Sunday Letters from Ukraine. Strikes back and an iron fist

Hi!

It's Sunday in Kyiv. I start writing to you in the late morning. Victory (still a cat) is looking for adventures and trying to catch generous sun rays. We have power at home. In the last two days, the situation with energy supplies has improved. It is great, as this week was very hard. There were days when we had power for only a few hours.

I bought extra LED lamps running on a power bank and had fibre optic internet installed. It can operate for up to 72 hours without power (in case you missed my tweet).

Winter will be hard.

Okay, enough about it. Let's talk about the latest events here, and I also want to tell you about the Ukrainian kulaks (rich peasants) of the early 20th century. Sometimes, I am afraid my letters might have too much history. Just let me know.

This letter will show you only a few of my recent photos. I found posters from the period of history I will tell you about and want to share them.

THEY ATTACK, WE ANSWER

I will mention some attacks from the last few days. Just to illustrate the situation here.

russia launched another large-scale strike on Ukrainian territory on the night of June 6-7. They targeted critical infrastructure with five cruise missiles and 53 attack drones; all missiles and 48 drones were destroyed.

Ukrainian forces struck a russian S-300/400 air defence battery in Belgorod Oblast, likely with HIMARS, on June 1 or 2.

Ukrainian drones attacked a Mozdok airbase in russia's North Ossetia on June 8. MiG-31 and Tu aircraft used to attack Ukraine often take off from the airbase.

Also, just this morning, I read that yesterday, a cutting-edge russian Su-57 multi-purpose fighter jet was struck at the Akhtubinsk airfield in russia's Astrakhan Oblast, 589 kilometres from the war zone in Ukraine.

Before I take you to the history part, I want to mention this:

French President Emmanuel Macron said on June 6 that France would provide Ukraine with an unspecified number of Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets and equip and train a brigade of 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers.

The US Department of Defense announced a $225 million security assistance package for Ukraine on June 7.

Now, let's move to the early 20th century. The Bolsheviks, after seizing most of Ukraine, declared the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Mass executions of class enemies began. This was called the Red Terror. In Ukraine, more than 1,5 mln people became victims of it. Private property was abolished. The Bolsheviks seized factories in cities and nationalized land and estates in villages.

Peasants were forced to work on state farms and communes, where they worked for free to pay the city a tax called prodrozkladka (food rationing).

The poster of 1919 says, 'With an iron fist, we will drive humanity to happiness'

The peasants reacted to these actions with uprisings. During the summer of 1919, 328 uprisings broke out, and famine started in the cities. Fearing the unpredictable consequences, the Bolshevik regime decided to abandon the Red Terror. In 1921, a new economic policy was announced. Private entrepreneurship was reinstated. Peasants were allowed to lease land and hire workers. Thanks to these changes, the USSR managed to overcome the economic crisis.

Eight years later, a dictator of the USSR, Stalin, decided it was time to achieve the Bolsheviks' main goals: to build socialism in his country and contribute to the victory of the world revolution.

Stalin aimed to transform an agricultural nation rapidly into an industrialized one, showcasing the advantages of socialism to the world. The peasants were expected to contribute by surrendering their grain, which Stalin planned to sell to equip factories and plants.

This poster says, 'Peasants, give the bread to the revolution'.

In 1929-32, Stalin initiated collectivization, eliminating private property and consolidating peasant farms into collective farms.

Collectivization involved forcibly confiscating people's property and money in the name of the revolution. Once their land was taken, wealthy peasants, known as kulaks, were sent to camps along with their entire families.

During the autumn of 1929 and spring of 1930, collectivization faced strong peasant resistance. In 1930, 4,000 peasant uprisings occurred in Ukraine, and more than 1,2 mln people rebelled against Soviet rule.

In response, Stalin accused local authorities of abusing their power and allowed peasants to leave the collective farms. However, this was only a temporary compromise, a strategy to regain his strength.

In 1931, the Soviet government initiated a new offensive against the peasants. This special operation had been carefully planned for several months. The Kremlin aimed to deport 200,000 to 300,000 kulak families from Ukraine to Siberia within six months.

This poster says. 'We destroy the kulaks as a class'.

Previously, wealthy peasants who hired poor people to work were considered kulaks, but now, anyone who showed hostility to the Soviet government was classified as a kulak.

In March 1931, the Chekists (agents of the Soviet russian secret police) began mass arrests. In March alone, 19,000 peasants were arrested. In the summer, the authorities started deportation campaigns. For this purpose, 69 echelons were prepared in advance. The eviction lists were kept secret to prevent anyone from escaping. At night and early in the morning, the Chekists broke into houses and took people out. Those who resisted were shot on the spot, regardless of whether they were men, women or children.

The destruction of the kulaks as a class was finally reported at the 12th Congress of Ukrainian Communists in 1934. They gave a figure: since the beginning of 1928, 200,000 kulak farms had been liquidated. There are other figures. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine claims that between 1930 and 1932, 850,000 peasants were deported from Ukraine, mainly to Gulag forced labour camps (I wrote a tweet about Gulag camps).

Let's have our eyes rest from soviet propaganda posters and look at the modern Kyiv. I am going to finish this letter. Thank you for reading my writings and maybe even supporting them.

With power hugs from Kyiv,
Yaroslava

P.S. Before hitting send the letter, I saw the news that a Ukrainian Air Force mission had struck a russian command node in Belgorod. There is no official comment from the Ukrainian military as of now.