Ukraine Seeks to Honor Anti-Soviet Troops

AP ^ | July 19. 2006 | NATASHA LISOVA

[Tailgunner Joe]

KIEV, Ukraine | Ukraine's government said Wednesday it had drafted a bill offering anti-Soviet guerrillas the same privileges currently provided to World War II veterans - a measure likely to meet a strong opposition in parliament.

Deputy Prime Minister Vyacheslav Kyrylenko said the measure, which is subject to approval by parliament, would apply to members of militant groups that fought against the Soviets in 1939-1956. The bill would require additional spending of about $9.9 million, he said in a statement.

Since Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko came to power last year, his government has been striving to win recognition for the 100,000 partisans who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets as Ukrainian patriots who struggled to create an independent homeland.

Communists and war veterans say such a move would be a mockery of the Soviet Red Army dead.

About 10,000 partisans are believed to still be alive, while there are 3.8 million World War II veterans still living.

Hostility toward the partisans runs deep in Ukraine because in the war's early years, the anti-Soviet partisans aligned themselves with the Nazis who overran the country before the Red Army drove them out in 1944.

During Soviet times, Ukrainian schoolchildren were taught that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and its guerrilla force, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, were enemies of the people who committed horrific atrocities alongside Nazi troops.

An estimated 7 million Ukrainians died in the fighting against the Nazis, and 2.4 million people were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Yushchenko's father was a Soviet Red Army soldier who spent four years in a Nazi camp.

Yushchenko has repeatedly urged Red Army veterans and anti-Soviet guerrillas to forgive each other for the sake of the national unity, but his attempts have caused several protests by Communists and other pro-Russian parties.

The new bill is likely to meet strong resistance from the majority coalition in the Ukrainian parliament consisting of the pro-Russian Party of Regions, Communists and Socialists.

Communist lawmaker Petro Tsybenko strongly criticized the government's move. "These people supported the Nazis. It is immoral and criminal to give them the same status and benefits the Red Army veterans have," he told The Associated Press.

[Romanov]

"I trust you do know that Stalin built Stalingrad on the fatr side of Ukraine and AWAY from Moscow so that his dacha would not suffer."

That's right Mazepa - in chapter 2 of the "Spanalot Guide to World History", Joseph Stalin somehow traveled back in time and founded Tsaritsyno far away from Moscow so he could have a dacha.

Tell me, Getman Mazepa, what do you think of a "Ukrainian-American" in the US who supported the Soviet Union with hard currency tourism while real Ukrainians suffered under the Communist Yoke? Or one that idolizes Ukrainians who fought on the side of Nazi Germany, and supports the UNA/UNSO leader who recently called for the killing of American soldiers in Iraq? (to see who I am talking about do a search of spanalot's posts).

[GarySpFc]

I trust you do know that Stalin built Stalingrad on the fatr side of Ukraine and AWAY from Moscow so that his dacha would not suffer.

ROFLOL! You need to study georgraphy. Stalingrad is not in the Ukraine, nor has it ever been a part.

[spanalot]

And isn't David Duke from the US? ......whatever that means!?

[spanalot]

So what does that mean?

We all know that Russia has killed more Jews than Hitler.
They invented the term "Beyond the Pale".

[spanalot]

I'd rather talk about the time that you and jb6 posted a curious rumor that the Russian Synagogue slasher belonged to Putins opposition party.

This rumor was subsequently shown to have been "Temnycky" or the "official" spin that the Kremlin wanted out in the media.

Thank You Tovarich Romanov and whatever happened to jb6?

[spanalot]

"Ukrainians to kill American troops"

Nobody's biting Romie.

We all know that the coutries you love to bash - Ukraine and Poland - are the ones fighting with the US in the middle east.

[tvguru]

It means that folks in Ukraine embrace his ideas, that's what it means.

[tvguru]

	Approaching over a causeway across the Tsaritsyno Ponds, one passes beneath the Patterned Bridge (Figurniy Most), which spans a cleft in the hillside. Built of pinkish brick, it bristles with white stone Pinnacles and Gothic arches, Rosicrucian blooms and Maltese Crosses.
	Patterned Bridge

Clockwise from Northwest of the palace courtyard lie a derelict guardhouse called the Third Kavalerskiy Building, the newly restored nineteenth-century Church of St. Nicholas, the Octahedron or servants quarters, and the Palace Administration.
Church of St. Nicholas

	Except for the church – alternatively called the ‘Church of the Mother of God the Source of Life’ – they are all Bazhenov's work, like the Large Bridge across the ravine beyond.
	Large Bridge

	Continuing south from the palace courtyard you'll reach the ornamental Bread Gate (Khlebniy Vorota), between Bazhenovs monolithic Bread House (Khlebniy Dom) or kitchens, and Kazakovs imposing Great Palace (Bolshoy Dvorets).
	Bread Gate

	In the 19th century its roof tiles and beams were purloined by a local factory, leaving a two-storey shell, crumbling and weed-choked.
	Great Palace

Passing its twin wings, which stretch for 130 metres, replete with flustered corner turrets and rows of pointed arches, one may head south, away from the semicircular Small Palace built for Gentlemen-in-Waiting...
Great & Small Palace

	... to the fantastically carved Opera House (Operniy Dom, near the Patterned Gate (Figurniy Vorota), a turreted Gothic arch that forms the entrance to the park.
	Patterned Gate

Continuing southwards into the park one finds a Classical Belvedere overlooking the pond, followed by an artificial Ruin such as was fashionable in the late 18th century.
Artificial Ruin

[spanalot]

Who? Both of them.

David Duke was an elected official in the US. Does that mean the US is KKK?

Noe need to answer - we can see your red face from here.

[spanalot]

Yeah - Russia has built alot of neat stuff after plundering Ukraine for centuries.

I would like to see all that on the auction block to pay reparations to the 100 million victims of Russian Genocide.

[tvguru]

Interesting that a bunch of gas theives would accuse anyone else of theft.

[tvguru]

Is David Duke CURRENTLY and elected official in the US? No. The US has spoken on this matter.

Is David Duke a welcome guest in Ukraine where his ideas are embraced by leaders in Ukraine? Yes. Ukraine has spoken on the matter as well.

[spanalot]

Do these look like gas thieves? And it is a strange justice that is meted out 70 years before the crime.

http://www.lietuvos.net/istorija/communism/

PS - The gas industry is another thing that Russia stole from Ukraine. It started in Ukraine and wound up in Putins pocket.

http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2005/12/30/173336/17

[tvguru]

Would all gas theives please raise their hands:

[Mazepa]

Tell me, Getman Mazepa

It's "Hetman"- Ukrainian "h", not Russian "g" ;)

[Tailgunner Joe]

Would all proud chekists please shake your fist in front of your beloved hammer and sickle:

[tvguru]

Are you Ukrainian too? Seems to be a lot of Ukrainians on this forum.

[Tailgunner Joe]

I'm American. Are you Russian?

"President Yushchenko was the first head of state I called after my inaugural address. I told him that the Orange Revolution was a powerful example -- an example of democracy for people around the world. I was impressed, I know millions of my fellow citizens were impressed by the brave citizens who gathered in Kiev's Independence Square and rightly demanded that their voices be heard. It's an impressive moment, Mr. President, and an important moment. I've oftentimes told our fellow citizens that the world is changing, freedom is spreading -- and I use Ukraine as an example, along with Afghanistan and Iraq, about a changing world. A world, by the way, changing for the better, because we believe free societies will be peaceful societies." - President George W. Bush

[tvguru]

Yushchenko and Tymoshenko are Criminals who stole gas and made millions. I don't get what you're horse is in the race that you seek to defend theives. Further if I recall the people of Ukraine have freely voted a non-orange faction into power recently. Good to see real democracy rooting out crooks.

[Tailgunner Joe]

Putin was a proud chekist who has never condemned the KGB which he was completely loyal to. Putin is a criminal a a traitor to the Russian people who helped keep enslaved under communist tyranny. Now he wants to bring back that terror to all those sovereign nations which broke free of the Soviet "prison of nations."

As for democracy, the people of Ukraine re-elected the Orange coalition with a majority. Putin's toady Yanukovich only has a minority, about 30%. He only has a majority in coalition with communists and leftist Oranges who defected to the soviet/commie/Russia side.

Yanukovich is also a rapist and a gangster who is funded by a muslim oligarch, the richest gangster in Ukraine, Renat Akhmetov. That's who you're rooting for in this horse race.