Ukraine Holodomor 80th Anniversary

Nov. 22, 2013 - PRLog -- UK Novelist Commemorates 80^th Anniversary of a Forgotten Genocide

November twenty-third 2013 marks the 80^th International anniversary of the Holodomor, Stalin's political terror famine, which claimed six million Ukrainian lives between 1932-33

On the fourth Saturday in November each year, Ukrainian communities across the globe commemorate this national tragedy which wiped out twenty percent of their population in a single year, yet is still largely unknown in western society.

UK Author and Copywriter William Spencer is married to the daughter of a Holodomor survivor, and his recent historical novel The Way of Vengeance, is an aide-memoire to one of history's most prolific, yet little know genocides.

The fertile black earth of the Ukraine was once the breadbasket of Europe, with a proud and industrious rural work force spread across millions of independently owned farmsteads. Yet when Stalin's collectivization programme gathered pace, it was met with robust resistance from the patriotic Ukrainian farmers. In addition, there was a growing cultural resistance to Soviet rule through a Renaissance in Ukraininan arts. A combination of these two factors, and also a need for the Soviet regime to sell grain abroad in order to raise funds for capital equipment for its industrialization programmes, triggered a brutal genocide against the Ukrainian people which was of Holocaust proportions.

Meanwhile, thousands of artists, writers and intellectuals were banished to the Gulag labour camps to work on vast civil projects building canals and railways.

When execution quotas and purges failed to make an impact on the vast army of millions of Ukrainian farmers, the Soviet regime confiscated all food and seed grain from every farmstead in the nation, even half baked loaves where taken from the ovens. All fuel and livestock were also confiscated, and a system of internal passports was established to prevent any attempts to flee the nation, or even move around in search of food.

"I wanted to bring the terrible reality of the Holodomor to life through the plight of a typical patriot farmer and his family. Though the Komysa family is fictional, the historical backdrop to the novel is an accurate representation of events affecting everyday life during the Holodomor," said Spencer.

His eBook novel The Way of Vengeance, which represents thousands of hours of research and writing, follows the plight of patriot farmer Danya Komysa and his family, as they fight for survival in a famine scarred land filled with Chekist Secret Police and Red Army troops, before being recruited by a powerful resistance group and taking on a deadly challenge.

"One of the most horrific aspects of the Holodomor was the plight of the children: parents preferred their children with any final remnants of food they could find, leaving them to watch their parents die a slow and agonizing death by starvation. As a consequence, millions of orphans roamed the countryside on an impossible journey to the cities in search of food. If they survived the Chekist check points and Red Army troops en-route, they then faced the unbelievable horrors awaiting them in the cities.

In Kharkiv, the then Capital city of the Ukraine, the streets were policed by Soviet troops, and feeding starving migrant peasants was punishable by death. One of the most heartbreaking and poignant images of the Holodomor is the children's death camp in the vast hangars of the Kholodnaya Gora buildings in Kharkiv City.

Here 10,000 starving orphans were ushered off the streets by the Soviets. As the mounting numbers bacame overwhelming, the weekly death trains took them to the city limits, where they were abandoned at the track side to die. The children of Kholodnaya Gora are remembered in great detail in my book, by way of featured characters and events which re-live those horrific scenes which must not be forgotten," said Spencer.

Below is an extract from his eBook, THE WAY OF VENGEANCE.This can be purchased and downloaded from Waterstones.com

Extract below, from THE WAY OF VENGEANCE, by William Spencer

Suddenly, Danya became aware of a powerful human presence. To his right, down a long narrow passageway, the soulful eyes of a starving child were fixed in his direction. The lone, emaciated figure reached out to him with a gentle, yet piercing gaze.

Whilst Victor reassured Taras, Danya became increasingly engaged by the distant image. He stepped off the cart, overcome with curiosity and intrigued by the manner in which the enigmatic child had gained his attention. As he set off slowly down the passageway, the gaunt motionless figure held his gaze as he approached.

She was desperately frail, twelve, perhaps thirteen years old, yet little more than a bedraggled skeleton. Her tiny white knuckles clutched the wire of a huge compound. She remained still and silent, yet her dark eyes communicated so much. They were the eyes of one sharpened by tribulation and suffering, yet strangely tainted with a joy that belied the sober reality of her circumstances. Danya tore his eyes away from her and glanced over her shoulder. The vast hangars of the Kholodnaya Gora compound extended as far as the eye could see.

Outside, thousands of listless, filthy children wandered around the camp, enjoying a few moments of early morning sunshine. It was a desperate, grey sea of orphans.

Bemused infants wandered aimlessly around the camp, some embraced and comforted by older peers, others affectionately led around by surrogate teenage parents. It was a staggering, unforgettable scene.

Extract from The Way of Vengeance, eBook © William David Spencer 2012, all rights reserved. Available to download now (£2.23) on Waterstones.com

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/willia...

Reviews and more info. at http://www.williamspencerwriter.co.uk

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