Due to the calamitous consequences of Leon Trotsky’s “War Communism” policy, compounded with the Bolshevik’s Russification approach, the socio-economic realities of the infant Soviet Union were so horrendous that Vladimir Lenin had to reverse course and introduced the New Economic Policy that restored a level of private enterprise and promoted an “indigenization” program that recognized the value of fostering native languages, cultures and traditions of non-Russian peoples. A renaissance of Ukrainian literature and culture emerged with national communists and Ukrainian Bolsheviks finding a foothold in the halls of power.  These gains, however, did not go unnoticed by Joseph Stalin and the General Secretariat of the Communist Party who felt that a revived Ukraine was not beneficial to his vision and took drastic steps to destroy Ukraine and exterminate her people.  

Date: Wednesday, May 21
Instructor: Roman Dubenko, MA
Time: 6:30 – 8:30 pm