What are the causes of the famine? The main reason for the catastrophe in Russian agriculture is the Soviet policy of collectivisation. The prophecy of Paul Scheffer in 1920–30 that collectivisation of agriculture would be the nemesis of Communism has come absolutely true.
— Gareth Jones, Financial Times, 13 April 1933
This new film is available for purchase on Amazon. It tells the story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones and his heroic reporting on the man made famines in the Soviet Union, centered on the traditional bread basket of the Ukraine, by which the Communist regime deliberately murdered millions of its own subjects by starvation. He was doing this while other Western journalists, like The New York Times Walter Duranty, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize, were disseminating Soviet propaganda that there were no famines, although most of them knew this was lies.
The day before his 30th birthday, Jones was murdered by kidnappers in China on August 12, 1935, likely at the instigation of the Soviet NKVD. In 2008 he and the late journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, in the thirties a leftist and atheist but a man who could never abide lies, were posthumously awarded the Ukrainian Order of Merit for their fearless assault on the web of deceit masking the Golgotha of the Ukrainian people. Truth will ever have its champions, whatever the cost to them, even in times of near universal mendacity.
Full review to follow in the coming week.
Truth telling is a dangerous business, then and now. Someday the story of Pope Benedict’s “resignation” will come to light possibly with Communist implications. Our Lady of Fatima was right. Too bad the Church didn’t listen to her.
“while other Western journalists, like The New York Times Walter Duranty, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize, were disseminating Soviet propaganda that there were no famines, although most of them knew this was lies.”
Today we call it “Fake News”.
Long ago I met some people who lived through that. The little bit they told me of the Holodomor was horrible. Stalin killed more Ukrainians in one year (estimated 7-10 million) than Jews that were killed by Hitler in over 5 years.
May God grant mercy and rest to their souls.
Then, as in now, the NYT has no interest in the truth. And retells history. Just like all the other alphabet networks. MSNBCNN, etc.
Thank you, Don, for letting us know about this film. It looks good from the trailer. Looking forward to your full review.
Many think that media bias is a new phenomenon, but I think that we are starting to becoming aware of a strong bias of most journalists for radical socialism. This increases the tragedy of Mr Jones murder.
Sympathy to despots by the US media and cultural elites was not limited to Stalin. The eugenics movement had many powerful and wealth supporters who embraced the ideas of Hitler’s National Socialists as documented in Edwin Black’s “ war on the weak”.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?178617-1/war-weak-eugenics
Another very good but disturbing book about Stalins mass starvation campaigns is Timothy Snyder’s “Bloodlands”
https://www.c-span.org/video/?297543-1/bloodlands-europe-hitler-stalin.