I too am a product of the fifties in Scotland. I was fortunate to grow up in a loving family with a father who was a decent honest tradesman who led by example. This instilled in me a sense of right and wrong and taking responsibility for my own decisions. While my parents were not great readers I was encouraged to read and would visit the local library on a regular basis reading widely and often above my age bracket. From this i developed a great love of books and have to this day a large collection of books you could no get me to part with. I now live in Australia and know so many people who have never read a book except what they were made to at school .I find this pretty sad. I totally agree with your preferring the printed word over the internet. In the current time With the politicisation of almost everything one cannot rely on the veracity of anything read online. Apologies for the length of this post.
As a child I never read at all if I could help it, but I always loved history. I went to highschool school during the New Labour era so history was mostly about oppressed women and minorities to be honest, it's just the way it was taught. However I still loved the geniuses behind the industrial revolution and the courage of the great explorers. When I started reading as an adult I never really stopped, I get headache with kindle so I only read physical books and I read a book a week normally.
@@thehound9638 - I grew up in Glasgow under Thatcher & all the history I was taught was about English history, in fact very little about my own country's history.
@@alba9507 Yes, I'm from the west midlands and we have a lot of Welsh people around so I've heard the same from them. The problem today is Britain and England in particular is held up as the villain of history. We need to teach history properly and I quite agree that means the history of the Celtic countries in our United Kingdom as well! However there is a limit to how much can be taught of our history in school. We are an ancient people after all there's a lot of history on these islands.
@@thehound9638 - Each country should have its own country history as a priority over all others. Thankfully Scotland will return to being an independent country soon . 🏴🇪🇺
Interesting topic this week. The reasons for the Holodomor are more complex than that, there was a level of genocide going on here, but then Stalin did wipe out large swathes of humanity. One gruesome detail from the Holodomor is photos of market stalls selling human flesh, well gruesome for us in our safe cosy lives. As for the Ukrainian SS volunteers, they were treated brutally by their German officers. And later in the war when based in France they mutinied and joined the Frend Resistance, some level of just surviving I think going on there. And as for the UK and US supporting Ukraine, they do not give a shit about their history, they don’t give a shit about the Ukrainian people, this is a proxy war. They are just using Ukraine to deplete their enemy, just part of the global game.
I think your analogy is somewhat crude and simplistic. Yes, the west are looking after their own interests but to say they don’t care about Ukrainians is simply untrue.
Indeed. To think the West gives a crap about Ukraine is absurd. For Washington and London this is the perfect chance to fight a proxy war against Russia, something they have wanted to do for a long time.
@@Trevor_Austin It is not airbrushed out of Russian history. - Stalin had been trying to secure British support against the Germans and was told that they could commit one division right away and another one later. Stalins answer was: Two divisions? Do you know how many divisions the Germans have?
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Britain and France declaring war on Germany led to the fall of France and Britain on the edge of a precipice. Declaring war on both Germany and the USSR would've been suicidal. Plus Britain's socialist and trade union movements regarded the USSR as a friend. In all seriousness, declaring war on the USSR in 1939 or 1940 might have caused a general strike.
I agree with Simon printed books are more durable than electronic media.With a delete here and altered word there an electronic communication or record can be altered . The original is lost. With printed books any alterations can be spotted by comparison to earlier editions. The rewriting of classic books for children is an example. As are histories which contain uncomfortable truths or do not suit somebody’s agenda
I agree with you Simon. Books are fast becoming a more reliable source of truth than the Internet. I recommend everyone keep a set of pre-web encyclopaedia.
The Russian state broadcaster is at least as bad as our state broadcaster when it comes to suppressing what they don't want to be true and presenting what they would like to be true as fact.
Simon says that *for various reasons*, the cities were fed, while the countryside starved, without specifying that whole areas were placed on blacklists by the Soviets, so that they could not receive food, and that the police raided farms in such areas removing crops and, indeed, anything edible. This was a policy aimed at stifling Ukrainian opposition to collectivisation and was meant to starve the Ukrainians into compliance. That some Ukrainians, a decade later collaborated with, and even joined the Nazis fighting against the Soviets is scarcely surprising.
oddly enough the holomodor was done by the russian communists, so the collaboration with anti-communists (germans) was more than understandable. commies were in fact worse than nazis, so it's one of those lesser of two evils type of situations.
Now I understand why my father relished the taste of a digestive biscuit, butter and other foods.. He was born in 1925 Ukraine,. A farmers son and joined the polish free army. Shoes only worn on Sundays for church. He spoke very little of the war and taught me much of self maintenance. I wish he were alive today . I have many things to ask him about. But I’m British to the core , with Simon my best tutor!
My Aunty Married a Pole from Lviv in 1946, in what is now Ukraine. The town he was born in was approx 25% of each group. Poles, Ukrainians, Germans and Jews. They all disliked each other, but 3 of them hated one significant group more then the other. He had some unpleasant things to say about them still to our family in the 1960s and 70s. He hated them?
Your father was the kind of immigrant who should be made welcome in the UK. His child(ren) have perfectly assimilated and identify 100% with the country they live in. That unfortunately contrasts with a lot of other immigrants who seem to want to turn their adopted home into a copy of where they or their parents came from.
An excellent video, Simon. Thank you very much. How I agree with your winding up comments regarding the superior integrity of books, especially older books, over digital resources. My son is a teacher; he frequently mentions the push to remove textbooks from schools.
So, WHO decided WHAT went into those golden symbols of truth and honesty? You are deceiving yourselves if you think because it was in a book it was truthful... Read winnie's history of the english people...hailed as a masterpiece...it is extremely biased...as wereost histories printed in the days of empire etc... Remember...the winners get to write the story...usually.
@@howler6490 I think the message actually was that the old books couldn't be retrospectively amended, as records were in 1984. You are correct as to the need for critique whatever one is reading but wrong in believing you are the only person able to practise it.
The Nazis are solidly vilified today, but before the horrors of the camps were known there were reasons why many nations across the world could identify with Nazis. In South Africa my own family along with many other Afrikaners saw this not as a chance to become Nazis but to fight the British due to the previous Boer war. The same happened in Ireland and in the Ukraine joining the Nazi side was seen as an opportunity to fight the Soviets. In all three cases it had little to do with Nazi ideology but everything to do with settling old scores against a common enemy. However the Nazi stick is very convenient with which to beat nationalists.
Hello Casper from Eastern Europe. Nazi, national socialist, ideology is based on the concept the the state should be ruled by those of a particular racial/national identity. In the case of German national socialism, this meant removing non-Germanic/Aryan (largely Jewish) people from position of power and influence and replacing them with a united Germanic racial group. In Ukraine, the national socialism is the same; removing those of non-Ukrainian ethnicity (largely Russians, but they also target other ethnic groups, such as Roma) and 'cleansing' their society of non-Ukrainian influence, be that linguistic, cultural or societal. One of the founders of the Ukrainian national-socialist movement, Biletsky, stated the aim was to "make Ukraine a white nation free of subhumans" - they've also destroyed non-Ukrainian villages, tortured and burnt non-Ukrainian ethnicities, banned schooling in other languages, and other heinous things. So I think the attempt to rationalise or excuse Nazism in Ukraine is poorly founded in historical fact and is most likely an emotional response to a realisation that supporting Ukrainians (politically - everyone can sympathise with those displaced by war, of whatever ethnicity) is fraught with complication and nuance that don't fit a nice fluffy victim narrative and so therefore look to 'reverse engineer' a justification for their beliefs.
@@mlteyt Foreigners should speak the local language as much as possible. I see no reason to have a school in a foreign language. Why do you call a ban on such a thing heinous? It doesn't mesh with the other behavior you describe that actuslly is an unprovoked attack on peaceful people
It was worldwide , all harvests were down and we knew it was coming . It was weather related . Stalin used Ukrainian produce for foreign trade as the Rouble wasn't a currency anybody would accept . But he did starve the Ukrainian peasantry to death and shot them if they saved food for themselves , he was also responsible for the other nationalities that were brought into Ukraine creating all that came after it , like this war now . His Russian musical chairs was also responsible for Georgia's little spat a few years ago with Russia .
Not to forget the parts of Ukraine that were under Polish rule at the time. Famines had been occurring regularly in these regions. A contributing factor to the "holodomor" was a severe draught. - This is a complicated story.
It is not correct in sheeting it all solely to Stalin, it was also very much driven by the bolshevicks in the politburo, 90% of them were jewish so they had no problem with millions of orthodox Christians peasants dieing. This perhaps could explain some of the eagerness to join the n@si to get revenge. How many died, 16 million?
If it wasn't for my parents(both of whom went thru ww2) telling me about Stalin starving to death millions of Ukrainians, I wouldn't have known. I have been telling as many people as I can about this. It gives a different perspective.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” -George Orwell 1984
When I saw all those Ukrainian flags a flying, kind of reminded me of the flags of BLM, now forgotten, gay pride, changing all of the time, hand clapping of the NHS, now forgotten, pandemic now forgotten, Jubilee flags will be forgotten and decolonised. The only thing that is consistent, is each time a flag is waved, we lose a little bit of our freedom. Wonder what will come next?
'200 Years Together' covers this very well. And I think it's the oligarchs, who are often not Russian, people hate, rather like 90% of the Bolshevik leaders weren't.
85% of the Leadership of the first Communist Soviet after the " Russian Revolution" of 1917 were of a certain tribe. Rest was all different Nationalities all with an axe to grind on Mother Russia.
My friends father was a member of the Ukrainian SS during WW2, he was quite happy to live his life out here rather than return home after his release from POW.
They daren't return for fear of retribution by the Soviets. They didn't even contact their families for the same reason with many of them not knowing the fate of those close to them.
My friend's father was also Ukrainian SS, ethnic German though, a Panzergrenadier in a self propelled artillery unit. He went to live in Canada after the war. There were actually a lot of Nazis in Canada, often ethnic Germans who were not German nationals. All living very quiet lives, low profile. Far away from retribution.
Antony Beevors 'Stalingrad' discusses this. The numerous Soviet soldiers who once surrendered assisted the Germans. A lot of these 'Hiwi's' as they were called consisted of Ukrainians and although some assisted to avoid starvation it appears a lot felt that removing Stalin was the lesser of two evils. He also touches on the Ukrainian camp guards being more brutal to other Russian prisoners than the German guards were. As you say it stemmed from the famine created by the collective farms
I have also read that the brutal treatment of Ukrainians and the native populations of other Soviet areas turned what might have been supportive anti Stalin populations into hostile ones, whose Partisans did tremendous damage to German supply lines. I think this all came from German/Nazi racial ideology who saw slavs, etc as untermenschen.
Southern Austria 1945, my father[British Army] and his unit came across a large unit of the Ukraine SS, yes SS. The SS surrendered. My father`s unit never encountered SS in North Africa,[ nb SS never served] or Italy and knew very little about them. Very soon representatives from Tito arrived and demanded their return to Yugoslavia, as war criminals. A week went by, guarding the SS. The UK refused to hand them over and moved them to a POW camp well away from the Russians who were in parts of Austria. When researching my family history there is mention of this incident in my father regimental war diaries at the National Archives at Kew UK, but only a mention., not expanded as my father told me.
The Galician Division you mention was then sent to Italy as tension escalated between the West and The USSR, and some of them were sent to Hallmuir. (a POW camp built to hold captured Italians just outside Lockerbie). where there is to this day a chapel built by the Ukrainian POWs. It's worth a visit.
My father fought throughout WW2 in the fourth or sixth Indian Div I think. I remember him saying they came across Ukranians serving in the German Army. I'm sure he said after the war when he was in Greece fighting the Greek communists the British had them as well...
To add to what other have said, Ukraine:s past goes to show the West moral hypocrisy. No matter what horrors were committed by the Nazis, the communists did a lot worse in terms of torture and murders but somehow we didn't hear about a lot of it in schools. Like the over one million women who were raped and sometimes murdered by the red army on their way to Germany. In Ukraine more specifically, when the German troops closed in, the Communists rounded up prisoners in some prisons , mostly political ones, ie Ukrainian nationalists, and slaughtered them with hand grenade and machine guns, so yes anyone with an IQ over that of a fruit fly could understand why the Nazis were seen by a lot of Ukrainians as liberators.
as Solzhenitsyn is claimed to have said "the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators" that's why you don't get told about it at school. they're too busy teaching kids how cool it is to be gay and the horrors of the gassing and ovens
Simon, you’re wrong about the Baltic States being part of the USSR when Stalin took control. They were not. They had torn themselves loose in 1917 and remained so until invaded in 1939 by the Red Army at the same time as the latter invaded Poland (remember the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact?). Then, in 1941 when the Germans attacked the USSR, they quickly overran those Baltic States and substantial numbers of people joined either the SS or the Wehrmacht to fight the Red Army. Whatever you think of that, there are two things to bear in mind: 1) Those Baltic States had always been heavily German oriented. They had, after all, been founded by Teutonic Knights. 2) People had an understandable desire to be rid of Russian/communist rule and operated on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend. Now, if you fail to mention it, I shall return to this post to point out that Finland was an ally of Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1944, for similar reasons. From time to time twists and turns of history makes for strange bedfellows.
@Ron P , on October 15th 1930 Winston Churchill was NOT the Prime Minister of the UK! Any treaty he would have signed would have been null and void and maybe even treasonous! In October 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union were allies!
Simon is an historian but he lacks of knowledge about core documents, documented facts, hes knowledge comes from "education programs" in UK at time + obviously books which were often written according to certain "propaganda" narration or agenda of certain book authors, for example he repeats word by word all accusations toward III Reich Germany and more, I heard lots of such things in his other videos. He has very wrong idea about major events from WW2 time, but I do not blame him, he simply relay on not fully reliable (objective) sources while doing his research and it is a very common mistake of people from his generation which were exposed on education according to narration which supports political goals/position of his country general narration toward certain events. After all for the soviets as well for the countries in the west it had to look like a bunch of "good guys" are fighting a "devil" who wants to "conquer the world" enslaving or destroying all other nations in process... So obviously III Reich Germany had to be demonized in eyes of the world and researching certain events from history had to be forbidden and criminalized by law because some people could reveal new light on what actually did happen and why..
I am definitely with you regarding the choice of books rather than the internet. I have several dictionaries which I use when needed precisely because, like you said, some ideologue or political opportunist cannot edit them at will 1984 style.
I only read the Venerable Bede's history in the original as it is 100% correct and the subsequent revisions and other so - called history books are all revisionist rubbish.
I had a huge argument with a friend who gets his news from the MSM.and religiously follows Boris's narrative about Ukraine. When I tried to explain to him why Russia is paranoid about invasions from the West, he told me to stop referring to history: it always made things worse. Events these days, it seems, can only be understood through an idealogical lens.
There is no general paranoia amongst Russians about invasions from the West. The imperialists in Russia object to Western influence in the former territories of the Russian Empire which they wish to re-establish.
And there has been Western influence and activity in Ukraine for some time, as Julian Assange revealed via Wikileaks. Where is he now, oh he definitely p!ssed some powerful people off didn’t he.
My Ukrainian father in law ( a youngster from a farming community 50 miles from Kiev in the 40’s) hated both Russia and Germany. The Russians took over his village, killed his elderly relatives, raped the woman and took him to work in a farming work camp. The Germans after overrunning the territory, then took him to work in an industrial work camp making German boots. While being transferred to another camp he escaped the walking column by jumping in a ditch and hiding for 5 hours. He then surfaced to find a handful had done the same. Not knowing where they were they travelled at night, to where they did not know. The last night of ‘freedom’ he was amazed to see lots of fire flies in the sky.. Get down! his friends said- they’re tracer bullets. They found themselves between opposing fighting and crawled on the ground to try to get away. Luckily for them, the Americans found them. At the end of the war, the authorities asked him where he wanted to go? - England, Scotland, Australia, or Canada- He told me he said England- this was the only place from the list he had heard of. Hi bore the scar of the camp tattoo on his arm until his recent death, and only just before did he voice the horrors of what he had seen and experienced in WW11. That is just one story of this period. Man’s inhumanity to man. The horrors continue. Mankind will never learn it seems. (edited for typo's and just to say this is a very brief synopsis of what he told me at length before his death....) As a footnote, he weren’t in to be a valued member of British society, trained as a plumber and finally worked as a radial driller at the International Harvester factory in Bradford. He raised a family with his (also displaced) Austrian wife. Learned English, fitted into the British way of life, but retained his culturural links through the Ukrainian Club there. Never once did he think his culture etc should override the British way, complain about discrimination, or saw the Union flag as a right wing emblem- he simply got on with life and let others get on with theirs. He celebrated British culture, respected British law, and respected his local community.
The Allies and Communists fought together NOT for freedom but because they were both owned and controlled by these Mafias being exposed in this video here and Germany under AH escaped from this scam system and the Allies and Communists fought together to take them out and everything about WW2 and Germany etc from back then has been lies to hide all of this and every war, "terrorism" etc since WW2 has been part of these Mafias agenda also exposed in this video and AH and his party were warning the world about all of this back then and everything that they were saying is EXACTLY what is still going on today ruclips.net/video/98qv9ztkW_U/видео.html
One has to remember the millions who died under Stalns deleiberate policy of creating an artificial famine in the Ukraine . It is estimated 21 milllion died . Of course it was nearly covered up but for a brave and corageous Welsh journalist who exposed this dreadful catastrophe . So when the Germans arrived in 1941 driving out the Russian commisars they were popular untill the SS arrived. Of course I don't only read British sources !
Good morning Simon. Question: do you think that, in the 50's, 60's and 70's the general populous were any better informed about communism? (Especially in the US where peoples kids were being drafted to Vietnam)
If the American public had listened to Norman Dodd who headed the Reece commission for American Congress then yes they were better informed. For anyone interested look up Norman Dodd : Tax Exempt Foundations. VERY interesting and his findings directly show why America and the West is in its current state.
@@HistoryDebunkedsimonwebb Simon, all I can see is Joe, Boris and Justin doing their best to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian soldier. Also, doing their best to get Poland and Romania to get involved in the war. Any thoughts on that?
You seem to forget that education in schools and universities encouraged debates by having 'debating clubs' where critical thinking was the norm. Nowadays, half caste professors with dreadlocks and jesus sandals are only fully versed in political correctness and appropriate respect.
One book that you should definitely read is THE NAMELESS WAR by Captain Achibald.H.Maule Ramsay. Simon wouldn’t like it. "There is no limit to the depths of human depravity, Captain Maule Ramsay ... seems to have made a very determined attempt to plumb those depths." The Jewish Chronicle
Totally agree with you Mr Webb. The drive to digitise books via such things as the Internet Archive and the World Digital Library is the way they will rewrite the history books by the click of a button. I hope people think on next time they buy a digital downloaded book from Amazon this is where the digital book burning has started. The clue is in the name. It's called Kindle for a reason.
You need to get yourself a better class of " fact ". Victoria Nudelman's grandfather was Meyer Nudelman and during the 1920s and 30s he lived in The Bronx. He had nothing to do with the Holodomor but was Russian born if that's any help.
Lazar Kagnovich "the wolf of the kremlin" and Stalins brother-in-law who uncle said do whatever is good for the Jew instigated it to destroy Ukraine independence from the soviet Union. Khruschev removed him from the party but didn't send him down, accusing him of killing millions of Russians. He lived his remaining years in Moscow, until he died in 1989.
@@jonbon8598 Robert Kagan's grandfather was Shmuel Kagan who died in Lithuania in 1934. Lazar Kaganovich died in Moscow in 1991. Wrong guy. Time to quit the urban myths.
One of the things I still regret is trading in my first semester history book in collage in 1981. It seemed quite factual. The second semester book was very shy on correct facts and filled with left leaning philosophy. Even at a young age I knew enough live and learned history to spot bull shit.
My grandfather was brought up in an orphanage in a town near Kharkov in the 1930s. During the great famine, he became blind from malnutrition, fortunately his eyesight returned later. Since childhood, I have repeatedly heard my grandmother talk about his memories of those years. He said that in the river there were barges loaded with grain and flooded. And that he, along with other boys, dived into the water to these barges lying at the bottom, took a handful of grain into their mouths, and then rubbed the soaked grain with stones on the shore, and ate the resulting gruel, and then dived again. In those years, I did not hear the word "Holodomor" and heard little about that famine from official sources. But later I began to wonder how the barges loaded with grain ended up at the bottom of the river, in the midst of famine, why the authorities did not try to lift them and their cargo. Grandpa and other people believed that the barges were clearly sunk on purpose. I have no doubt that the famine that killed millions of lives not only in Ukraine was caused artificially. Grandfather later went to the front, as he said, because at least they were fed in the army. Now one thought haunts me, the fact that he fought on the side of the regime that killed millions of his compatriots. Just like millions of soldiers from other republics of the USSR served for that regime. This is a word about the Ukrainians who collaborated with the Germans. After all, no one calls "collaborators" people who collaborated with the russians.
And in the comments, people cited the situation in Finland as an example and why this country had to cooperate with Germany after the aggression of the USSR. Some may be wondering why no one blames the Western allies for collaborating with the Stalinist regime in those years. No one thinks about the fact that the USSR paid for lend-lease with gold, platinum, precious woods, and that all these resources were obtained by the slave labor of labor camp prisoners. Speaking of collaborators, they rarely remember the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov, a large formation that fought on the side of Germany and consisted mainly of Russians. Russia's hatred of Ukrainians goes much deeper into the past, it's not just about the events of World War II. And speaking of the fact that the Russians use the term "Nazis" so often, this is the same strategy by which in the West the media and "woke" clowns constantly shout "Rayyycism!! Sexiiism!! Homophobiaaaa!".)
That was very interesting. You bring up a lot of good points regarding co-operating with evil regimes. It seems that few nations are innocent in that regard. The past is mired in an infinite web of allegiances and enemies. What matters to me is that one country has invaded its neighbour, committed countless war crimes, targeted civilians mercilessly, and threatened multiple western democracies with nuclear annihilation. I don’t find it the slightest bit difficult to stand with Ukraine today, regardless of what they did or didn’t do in the 1940’s. I would also point out that the USA cooperated with Nazis, Werner Von Braun and Operation Paperclip come to mind. The USA also let the Japanese Unit 731 skate on their crimes in exchange for information.
Your last sentence hits the bullseye and pretty much sums up Russian politics that are equally hypocritical as are US and the mentality of people who support Russia in this madness that they've imposed on Ukraine.
@@displaychicken " What matters to me is that one country has invaded its neighbour, committed countless war crimes, targeted civilians mercilessly, and threatened multiple western democracies with nuclear annihilation. "- many people, both in the west and in the east, are sure that everything that happens is happening in close cooperation between Russia and the United States and Europe. Ukraine has been turned into a blood-drenched chessboard, behind which big players do their business. And unfortunately, but I believe that the West will betray Ukraine again in the future .. Nuclear threats towards Western countries are especially interesting if you remember that all the corrupt leadership of Russia, officials, oligarchs, keep their billions in Western banks and own property in the West. And their children live in the west, study there in universities and colleges. During the Cold War, the USSR and the USA also threatened each other with a nuclear weapons, but the children of Stalin and Khrushchev live in the USA.
Thank you. As a history buff myself I was aware of the context, but as you say our leaders should pick up the odd history book now and then. One of my favourite historians once said that the first lesson of history is that we don't learn from the lessons of history and the second lesson is that freedom is not a universal value witness those who assumed that democracy would be a natural consequence of Afghanistan, Iraq and the so called 'Arab spring' that never was in Libya, step forward Messrs Blair and Cameron.
I'm 61 years old and live across the pond . When I attended High School , history class never mentioned the Holodomor . Also when I was a teenager , it was common to watch war documentaries on tv , typically on Saturday mornings . This is where I learned about the Holodomor although I don't think it was referred too as the Holodomor but rather a human caused famine .
I'm in my 30s and I was regularly told how horrible the Nazis were. This included seeing black and white video on the History Channel in my living room. The Nazis were mentioned everywhere, school, movies, TV. It wasn't until maybe 5 years ago that I learned how much more horrible the Communists were. I learned about the Holodomor by reading books and watching videos such as Simon's.
@@thomasacreman6007 I was told and saw how bad the nasties were and that the Soviets were worse , the j aps too , what went on after the war was a disgrace as the war was over , my dad was in ww2 and I grew up listening to a lot and seeing war films every Sunday afternoon and they did tend to focus on the nasties
When I was a lad in the British school system, (early 1960s), we studied the Holodomor in some detail. We also studied WWI and II in considerable detail. The reasons for and the outcomes thereof. I remember that all of us lads were quite stunned and distressed that leaders of so called civilised societies could, and did act in such a manner as to harm so many for such foolish reasons. I remember that among ourselves we discussed what we would have done were we in such a position of power. Of course we were probably completely sideways about our intentions and ways of achieving said intentions.
Perhaps one reason for the current lack of interest in history and foreign affairs is that they have enough worries about the state of affairs at home. The destruction of their history and culture due to woke garbage and the sheer scale of immigration almost to the point where native people are a minority in their own land and the lack of will in "so called" leaders to tackle the situation which could ,perhaps uncharitably, be seen as being complicit in the replacement of the native population.
@@vercingetorixwulf9298 I know hes good, best man for info about camps is professor Robert Faurisson, they couldnt shut him up, he's dead now, the old lad 😭
Spot on Simon I read years ago The Gulag and a day in the Life etc. Awesome writing . Life was Ruthless then . Problem is it still is and some choose to throw petrol back on it. There has been funny enough no attempt to de escalate this war? . Maybe it needs to come to a head . The sooner the better . The notion that Ukraine can defeat Russia is crazy. It is only promoting the loss of young honest guys lives.
Three cheers for Simon! Right on target. Dead right about digital media being vulnerable to revisionist ideologies too. As I understand it, there were two holodomor famines engineered by Stalin's administration. One explanation says that the food was exported for trade purposes. We have to remember that famine seems to be part of the communist play book... Spain, China, Cambodia, etc. all fledgling communist regimes thought that starvation was part of the worker's utopia.
@@BillSikes. Don't buy the incompetence theory of world history... If you act randomly, you are bound to get it right occasionally. The consistency across time and place makes it clearly deliberate. Starving people are easy to manage. They will do anything for a bite. Solidarity is non existent.
Enjoyed this immensely. Knew most of this. I remember the Demyanuk(s) trial fir being a SS camp Guard. I realize that this is unusual for an America who proudly like to show our ignorance of even our history. I enjoy your site as it tries to keep English history alive as so many in Britain are actively engaged in "de-colonization" but in fact are colonizing Britain. Destroying our collective history seems to be their aim.
Mostly the people I worked with couldn't get past the plot of coronation street. Mention anything like this to them would send them twitching nervously, scurrying to the coffee room
Annoys me that some claim the famine they call holodomor was uniquely ukranian - when it was across the whole USSR, every rural area. Exacerbated by farmers losing motivation and trying to hoard. It was a stupid policy to trash all farms.
I suggest that the root of this is our schools. In the 1970's out teachers encouraged us to THINK, we had indeed to pass exams, but were expected to be able to form a view and gather evidence to support our own view or challenge an alternative perspective. From looking at grandchildrens secondary school work, our children seem to be given facts which lead to a given conclusion, hence the homgeneity of opinion and the lack of ability to think for themselves. I did know about the Holomodor etc, perhaps because I know the pleasure of learning something new, thank you 1970's teachers.
Not all Kulaks. Bronstein's grandfather got granted some land by the Czar in an effort to make Jews farmers. BTW, every farmer with a cow was deemed Kulak.
Not just Ukraine. My Great-great grandfather was a kulak, he starved to death(he lived in the Urals). The bolsheviks stole all his property, he migrated into a town to become a worker, this did not save him. As far as I know there was some armed resistance to collectivisation in parts of the USSR.
Interesting thing, loosing our history. This morning, june 2nd, French television news was reporting that the 70 year reign of Queen Elizabeth is unpresidented yet their own Louis the 14th reigned for 72 years and 110 days. It says a lot about French education.
excellent again Simon, when the new phase of the "war" began this year after a month I decided to look for a bit of context, I found a series called Roses have Thorns by Watchdog media, it does change your mind when you see information, also after 2014 , the Ukrainians decided to have a memorial day for Stepan Bandera and declare him a hero of the Ukraine, this is the same Bandera who was a collaborator with Germany in WW2
The UK and the US have a very clear view of right and wrong in WW2. Not so clear if you're a Ukrainian, who rightly blames the USSR for murdering possibly 10,000,000 of your own people. Germany invades, kicks the Russians out and claims to be your friend and liberator. The SS puts a gun in your hand and offers you the chance for vengeance. Hard to say no.
The English put up a statue to Winston Churchill who condoned the use of chemicals on civilians in WW1 & played a significant part in the deaths of millions of Indians.
I get the impression that the younger generations, that I am also a part of, are getting negatively impacted by being bombarded with way too much information and stimuli. I remember growing up without a computer, we couldn't afford it, and reading tons of books all the time on various topics. But after having to start using a computer since high school, I'm just exhausted of every little thing and find it close to impossible, to actually read much. I really miss it, something definitively changed. I'm going to have to minimise computer use as much as possible, currently I pretty much only use it to pay bills and listening to music.
A computer cost maybe $1m in today's money when I was a child. We couldn't afford one either! The last book I read was when my internet was down for the weekend over a year ago. I got about half way through it, then the internet came back on. Guess what...? lol
@@gilessteve how old are you for that level of inflation 😂🤔. Just be glad it wasn't a guide to computer networks, how annoying would that be to get half way through and then find not needing to finish
Quit being a fragile weakling! Sheesh! I have a PC and I read books no problem. The younger generation are so friggen weak and fragile and every tiny thing just breaks them-YOU!
No, you are just lazy and don't want to use your critical thinking abilities along with searching and cross-referencing information. Look into who is saying what as well as their past history to see if they have lied. There are always two sides to a story.
I am one of the one in a thousand who is aware, so it's just like Covid, where my years of study of things scientific, medical and cultural meant that the accepted narrative was not truly based on science, ethics and morality. I know only two people I can discuss it with and get reasoned responses rather than rolling eyes. I am just getting on with my own projects now until I leave this mortal coil. I watch the descent of the world into hell with the detachment with which I read the Gulag Archipelago. I am done raging about it. The young can make their beds and lie in them.
I had only heard of the Holodomor because it is mentioned in the 2015 film Child 44, a story of post WW2 USSR. Mr Webb makes a valid point about books and I frequently visit the second hand bookshops these days.
Based on the book of the same name, by British author Tom Rob Smith. I have the whole Leo (I forget his surname off the top of my head) trilogy: Child 44, The Secret Speech, Agent 6.
Quite agree simon, everything on the Internet has been vetted to make sure it fits in with blm, gay pride,and political correctness you can't upset the new modern way of thinking. Whatever you do don't upset people with the truth.
I have been watching your channel for the past couple of years. The videos you make are so informative, particularly this one being so poignant at a time where some people are so quick to jump on the bandwagon of wokeness. Thank you for your hard work good sir.
The Bolshevik revolution head shed were small hatters round 85 percent. So was the red army over represented by the same group . The cultural Marxism which is destroying western society today is the very same used in the Bolshevik revolution. And I’m sure people can guess what group of people carl Marx was from and what group created the Frankfurt school . Will you talk about that Simon
You've really only touched on this Simon maybe for obvious reasons but people need to understand that the Soviet leadership in the revolution and the 20's and early 30's (until Stalin removed them) was almost entirely Jewish. Jewish Bolshevism was the architect of the Holodomor that saw up to 10M Ukrainians dead through the collectivisation policies you mention. The soviet revolution was also funded by the Wall Bankers who just happen to share the same ethno-religious background as the soviet leadership. So it was a marriage between Jewish Wall Street Banks and the Jewish soviet leadership that over threw the Czars and led to the famine and starvation of Ukrainians and others. That is the real source of hatred of Jews and the reason that the Hitler and the NSP decided to remove them from Europe initially supporting the move to Palestine and rejecting the Wall Street / City of London money system that is run by these same groups - think Warburg, Rothschild etc. So when the Nazis invaded Ukraine to the Ukranians who had suffered so badly they were seen as 'liberators'. That is the reason they so enthusiastically joined the Germans and why the Germans were so determined to force Jews out of Europe because the Wall Street Banks in league with Balfour and the British govt signed a 'pact' that America would join the WW1 effort in exchange for guaranteeing the state of Israel. That caused the defeat of Germany in WW1 and the treaty of Versailles to be imposed which punished Germany unfairly and led to the revolution and destruction of Weimar in the 20's.
Yes Simon,. the re-writing of history to fit modern narratives and ideologies has been under way for some time now. In NZ, a series of leftist Labour governments (starting in 1984) re-wrote NZ history to sanitise it, making the Maori people look as pure as the driven snow. All references to their barbarism, genocide against the Moriori who were here before them, their lack of a written language or music, their lust for war and revenge, their treatment of women as no more than cattle, and their cannibalism, gone. To cap it off, the Treaty of Waitangi was "reinterpreted" so as to cede all power and land to the Maoris, giving them full ownership of the country, something the ACTUAL treaty never allowed for. It just goes to show, wickedness, in all its forms, raises its ugly head when enough self-interested, nepotistic fools get together to push forward something that otherwise would defy logic and common sense, alerting the average sheeple to the wool being pulled over their eyes. The whole business of the Ukraine situation is a variation on the theme, where the "they" running the show have some agenda to lionize and sanctify the Ukrainians, simplify the narrative so it can be spoon-fed to the masses of dullards who lack the brain power to ask questions, and reshape the collective understanding of truth and even reality, after a fashion. As you say, one can't trust the Internet at all - it's far, far too easy to edit and manipulate "documents", photos and videos, even audio recordings, whereas "antique" books, DVDs and even cassettes/records and video tapes - analog media - can't be touched. Well, can't be touched until the powers that be start holding book burnings and similar purges. One might smile and roll one's eyes condescendingly at such "tin foil hat" notions, but then, two years ago one wouldn't have expected the entire planet to fall for the biggest scam in human history (the scamdemic), either. Just because one can't conceive of "big lies" and sweeping, Orwellian-level authoritarianism, that doesn't prevent such things from happening...
You are absolutely right about revisionism and also that the majority in the UK have zero knowledge and understanding of Eastern European conflicts. For a start, everyone who remains within the conflict zone is regarded and treated as an enemy combatant, there are no civilian casualties. Infrastructure and resources are more important than human life. So the Ukraine will be ground to dust if necessary for Russia to obtain the victory it needs. You only need to look back to the records of previous conflicts to see that humanitarian issues are not of any concern to either side in the conflict. The supply of western armaments to Ukraine will be used by Russia to justify each and every escalation of violence until victory is achieved, by Russia. Things aren’t going so well in the economic war between east and west either judging by supply issues and massively hiked prices in the west.
As you say, there is a lot of truth bending on digital media and books from the past can't be altered. BUT give it time and I'm sure BOOK burning will make a comeback.
I'd still like a catalogue of your books one day Simon so we can also start building a similar library. I have a lot. But I constantly hear new ones from you which are excellent, and I've never heard of anywhere else.
Kuznetsov's Babi Yar is still very much available through Amazon, and I presume still available via most bookshops. It is definitely a must-read book. I have visited Babi Yar, now a badly maintained park in the suburbs of Kiev, the original ravine having been filled in after WWII. But for the three monuments you would never know what a place of horror it was.
I read an account that the German Einsatzgruppen got so exhausted pulling the trigger, they got the German army to help. 33,000 mainly old men, women and children. Do they matter... YES THEY DO.
I once worked with a former Spetsnaz soldier and Afghanistan veteran who was astonished to discover that Russian POWs in WE 2 volunteered to work with the Germans. That as much as 20% of German divisions fighting in Stalingrad were composed of Russian Hiwiis. Even more surprised to discover that the singles largest foreign contingent of volunteers in the Waffen SS were Russian by the end of the war, forming two full divisions. Something Putin and his supporters would very much to wipe from the history books.
Some of the most loyal fighters for the German cause in WW2 were foreign legions, one of the most famous was the Freikorps who fought to the last man in Berlin.
Like you i read those back in the 70s. generally speaking if you mention a book written before 1980 that I DON'T remember I try to acquire a copy asap, before they all get pulped. Libraries have been flogging off anything more than a decade old, even reference books, and most charity shops now seem to throw out any that aren't recent.
I did people looked at me blank..I had these people working on a contract once too..apparently I know nothing unlike the bloke off the telly..hmmm..in fact the only one who agreed was my new Romanian neighbour 🙄
They know how dangerous books are, thats why most people have no interest or even the capacity to apply themselves to reading one or even understand what they read.
My investigation into Germans in Ukraine is slightly different Simon. Ukraine had a large population of ethnic Germans that had been targeted by stalin long before ww2. He sent hundreds of thousands to gulags stole their land was a pretty terrible time for them. When the nazis turned up they used these ethnic German people what was left of them anyway. You should do a peice on them maybe then people will understand a little more about German ties to Ukraine👍
There in a nutshell highlights the very complex nature of these “fluid” parts of the world. The British don’t realise how lucky we are to be an Island nation but even we have complexities historically.
@@PeterPete Nope check the companies house website most corporations, Universities etc are not British run and nothing to do with Britain most corporations are run by foreign influence and owned by the Vanguard group they own Britain.
@@cha2117 I was referring to the commenter who stated "The British don’t realise how lucky we are to be an Island nation but even we have complexities historically." The Scots dislike the English, the Welsh dislike the English, the English dislike the Scots and the Welsh. The UK Parliament is based in England, not Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. It's the (Dis)United Kingdom.
One of Wikipedia's cofounders walked away from what he had helped set up years ago due to the changing of truth and facts. His conscience couldn't deal with it. Holding onto decent books is very crucial!
Had a few moments like this too. Understanding the reasons behind the current situation in Ukraine is not the same as supporting Putins invasion. Ignorance is bliss
A late friend of mine here in Glasgow was born in Poland although the area is now Lithuania. He came here during WW2 on the Artic convoy to serve in the British army. He was a Polish soldier captured by the Russians and was interred in a camp in Eastern Ukraine. He told me when it was announced over the tannoy that the Germans had invaded the whole camp cheered including the Ukrainian guards.
Is there any truth about solzhenitsyn's other book "two hundred years together" being about the ethnicity of those in charge of the communists and therefore has never been translated to English?
As a historian i see people being ignorant or even dumb about history on a daily basis. My family had to deal with all of what you've talked about in the past. As Germans living in Ukraine among Jews, Ukranians and Russians they lived through the holodomor. My grandfather had to eat dead dogs to survive. My great-grandmother had to serve a one-year prison sentence, because she had the audacity to steal a handful of grain to feed her one-year old daughter. And the insanity went on after WWII, when all germans were treated as traitors and used a slaves to build up remote parts of Russia (if not killed), just to be treated as third class citizens their whole lives. So glad we had the opportunity to leave the s***hole in the 80s.
The proposed Museum of Communist Terror could make a much-needed valuable contribution to the education of young people in this respect. Always assuming that teachers would take their pupils on trips to see it. It seems to only exist online at the moment, but I believe they are aiming to have one or more actual buildings that people can visit. Here's hoping.
The ex-head of the ADL, Abe Foxman, flew over to Ukraine on the anniversary of the Holodomor to tell the Ukrainians to not compare the Holodomor and the Holocaust so as to not diminish the importance of the Holocaust.
Certain demographic wants the monopoly on suffering, as its very lucrative, and is used to deflect criticisms of them selves when they commit atrocities on theur neighbours in the Middle East.
@@occidentadvocate.9759 And these certain demographics taught others how to be professional victims (grifters). For instance that only Africans were ever enslaved. I came from a country where over half the population were once slaves. Do I have a chip on my shoulder about this history? No.
Might I suggest Simon is betraying some of the same traits he criticizes? He is either ignorant of, or at least not expressing, some important points: 1) Russia has been trying to extinguish any sign of distinct national identities of Ukrainians and Belarusians for centuries. The Tsars' pan-Slavism was part of this. 2) IN 1926, according to the first Soviet census, which is on line, not only was all of the Ukraine overwhelmingly Ukrainian-speaking, but so were several districts inside the Russian SFSR, indicating that, in drawing its internal borders, the USSR made a land grab of Ukrainian-speaking areas in favour of Russia. All trace of these Ukrainian-speakers has since been extinguished by the Russian education system. 3) The 1926 Soviet census shows only 2 million Russian-speakers in Ukraine. By 1991 there were 11 million. The great majority are the result of colonization by Moscow, which brought in millions of Russian-speakers to man massive state industrial projects in the Donbas in particular, but also places like "Transnistria" in Moldova. 4) At the same time the two things Simon does mention - the Hlodomor and German occupation - cut down millions (perhaps over 10 million) Ukrainian-speakers. Bad as the German invasion was for largely unoccupied Russia, it was much worse for occupied Ukraine and Belarus. 5) Putin is exploiting both the Hlodomor and German occupation to grab yet more of Ukraine using the recent Russian-speaking colonists as his excuse and, by using war to drive out Ukrainians from these areas, is intent on completely Russianizing yet more of Ukraine. Putin is part of a centuries old Russian drive to extinguish other Slavic identities before they can assert it fully on the international stage. I like much of Simon's work, but here he is advancing only partial facts.
@@jjr1728 I believe, apart from Bibi who was polish, all "isn't-real" pm have been Ukrainian. The last 5-6 comments I've left have disappeared like smoke in the wind! I expect Susan is shadowbanning again!
@@williamtell6750 The key source I gave you: The 1926 Soviet Census. It is on line, as I said. Please check it out. I note that while you complain that I don't give sources, but you don't dispute a single point I made.
I too am a product of the fifties in Scotland. I was fortunate to grow up in a loving family with a father who was a decent honest tradesman who led by example. This instilled in me a sense of right and wrong and taking responsibility for my own decisions. While my parents were not great readers I was encouraged to read and would visit the local library on a regular basis reading widely and often above my age bracket. From this i developed a great love of books and have to this day a large collection of books you could no get me to part with. I now live in Australia and know so many people who have never read a book except what they were made to at school .I find this pretty sad. I totally agree with your preferring the printed word over the internet. In the current time With the politicisation of almost everything one cannot rely on the veracity of anything read online.
Apologies for the length of this post.
Good post.
As a child I never read at all if I could help it, but I always loved history. I went to highschool school during the New Labour era so history was mostly about oppressed women and minorities to be honest, it's just the way it was taught. However I still loved the geniuses behind the industrial revolution and the courage of the great explorers. When I started reading as an adult I never really stopped, I get headache with kindle so I only read physical books and I read a book a week normally.
@@thehound9638 - I grew up in Glasgow under Thatcher & all the history I was taught was about English history, in fact very little about my own country's history.
@@alba9507 Yes, I'm from the west midlands and we have a lot of Welsh people around so I've heard the same from them. The problem today is Britain and England in particular is held up as the villain of history. We need to teach history properly and I quite agree that means the history of the Celtic countries in our United Kingdom as well! However there is a limit to how much can be taught of our history in school. We are an ancient people after all there's a lot of history on these islands.
@@thehound9638 - Each country should have its own country history as a priority over all others. Thankfully Scotland will return to being an independent country soon . 🏴🇪🇺
Interesting topic this week. The reasons for the Holodomor are more complex than that, there was a level of genocide going on here, but then Stalin did wipe out large swathes of humanity. One gruesome detail from the Holodomor is photos of market stalls selling human flesh, well gruesome for us in our safe cosy lives. As for the Ukrainian SS volunteers, they were treated brutally by their German officers. And later in the war when based in France they mutinied and joined the Frend Resistance, some level of just surviving I think going on there. And as for the UK and US supporting Ukraine, they do not give a shit about their history, they don’t give a shit about the Ukrainian people, this is a proxy war. They are just using Ukraine to deplete their enemy, just part of the global game.
I think you're assessment is more realistic. It's good that amateur historians like yourself can correct Simon when he goes off on one!
I think your analogy is somewhat crude and simplistic. Yes, the west are looking after their own interests but to say they don’t care about Ukrainians is simply untrue.
Indeed. To think the West gives a crap about Ukraine is absurd. For Washington and London this is the perfect chance to fight a proxy war against Russia, something they have wanted to do for a long time.
Market stalls selling human flesh sounds satanic to me. Who ever did that must be some kind of Psyco 😖
A proxy war ! get a life
The soviets love to remember who sided with Germany. But forget they did the same when Poland was attacked from both sides.
Finland was attacked only by one side, but the Germans did not help ...
UK did not help either, not even declared war on SU.
Let’s also not forget the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, something that appears to be airbrushed out of Russian history.
@@Trevor_Austin USSR broke it and stood ready, steady, to unite all proletarians up to Bordeaux.
@@Trevor_Austin It is not airbrushed out of Russian history. - Stalin had been trying to secure British support against the Germans and was told that they could commit one division right away and another one later. Stalins answer was: Two divisions? Do you know how many divisions the Germans have?
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 Britain and France declaring war on Germany led to the fall of France and Britain on the edge of a precipice. Declaring war on both Germany and the USSR would've been suicidal. Plus Britain's socialist and trade union movements regarded the USSR as a friend. In all seriousness, declaring war on the USSR in 1939 or 1940 might have caused a general strike.
I agree with Simon printed books are more durable than electronic media.With a delete here and altered word there an electronic communication or record can be altered . The original is lost.
With printed books any alterations can be spotted by comparison to earlier editions. The rewriting of classic books for children is an example. As are histories which contain uncomfortable truths or do not suit somebody’s agenda
I agree with you Simon. Books are fast becoming a more reliable source of truth than the Internet. I recommend everyone keep a set of pre-web encyclopaedia.
Books have always been a better source than the internet.
The Russian state broadcaster is at least as bad as our state broadcaster when it comes to suppressing what they don't want to be true and presenting what they would like to be true as fact.
@@kborak Apart from ones written by a person of African origin.
pre web? try pre 1850s
@@Indigenous51 Fact!!!
This is covered in the documentary, europa: the last battle, on odysee and its horrific, 60 million europeans died
Simon says that *for various reasons*, the cities were fed, while the countryside starved, without specifying that whole areas were placed on blacklists by the Soviets, so that they could not receive food, and that the police raided farms in such areas removing crops and, indeed, anything edible.
This was a policy aimed at stifling Ukrainian opposition to collectivisation and was meant to starve the Ukrainians into compliance. That some Ukrainians, a decade later collaborated with, and even joined the Nazis fighting against the Soviets is scarcely surprising.
Don't expect Simon to tell the truth, he is totally in Putin's pocket.
you have 2 replies neither of which are visible. RUclips is finished.
@@matoko123 Please excuse my ignorance. Are you saying that these replies have been censored?
@@84422112 It IS likely. It started happening a few weeks ago, you click on 'N replies' and
@@84422112 This happens
oddly enough the holomodor was done by the russian communists, so the collaboration with anti-communists (germans) was more than understandable. commies were in fact worse than nazis, so it's one of those lesser of two evils type of situations.
Bolshevists were the Ally of choice. "The Nazis"were deuced.
And it's just become a back and forth of people holding grudges based on those two evils.
@@DIEGhostfish Two evils? You think "the good"won?
@@dittmannrudolfrohr2149 In Ukraine? They've not had anything good there in general
vid on here where Putin says that 80% of the Bshevik govt were Juice
Now I understand why my father relished the taste of a digestive biscuit, butter and other foods.. He was born in 1925 Ukraine,. A farmers son and joined the polish free army. Shoes only worn on Sundays for church. He spoke very little of the war and taught me much of self maintenance. I wish he were alive today . I have many things to ask him about. But I’m British to the core , with Simon my best tutor!
My Aunty Married a Pole from Lviv in 1946, in what is now Ukraine. The town he was born in was approx 25% of each group. Poles, Ukrainians, Germans and Jews. They all disliked each other, but 3 of them hated one significant group more then the other. He had some unpleasant things to say about them still to our family in the 1960s and 70s. He hated them?
Your father was the kind of immigrant who should be made welcome in the UK. His child(ren) have perfectly assimilated and identify 100% with the country they live in. That unfortunately contrasts with a lot of other immigrants who seem to want to turn their adopted home into a copy of where they or their parents came from.
@@lewislee9201 👍🏻🙏 . He and I have never been on the dole. I can’t vouch for the current generation though.
One thinks of Chamberlain too: "a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing".
Precisely so!
And yet the repercussions……………………can be as effective as if it were the neighbours?
An excellent video, Simon. Thank you very much.
How I agree with your winding up comments regarding the superior integrity of books, especially older books, over digital resources.
My son is a teacher; he frequently mentions the push to remove textbooks from schools.
So, WHO decided WHAT went into those golden symbols of truth and honesty?
You are deceiving yourselves if you think because it was in a book it was truthful...
Read winnie's history of the english people...hailed as a masterpiece...it is extremely biased...as wereost histories printed in the days of empire etc...
Remember...the winners get to write the story...usually.
@@howler6490 I think the message actually was that the old books couldn't be retrospectively amended, as records were in 1984.
You are correct as to the need for critique whatever one is reading but wrong in believing you are the only person able to practise it.
The Nazis are solidly vilified today, but before the horrors of the camps were known there were reasons why many nations across the world could identify with Nazis. In South Africa my own family along with many other Afrikaners saw this not as a chance to become Nazis but to fight the British due to the previous Boer war. The same happened in Ireland and in the Ukraine joining the Nazi side was seen as an opportunity to fight the Soviets. In all three cases it had little to do with Nazi ideology but everything to do with settling old scores against a common enemy. However the Nazi stick is very convenient with which to beat nationalists.
Indeed. What’s the old saying, “my enemy’s enemy is my friend”?
Hello Casper from Eastern Europe. Nazi, national socialist, ideology is based on the concept the the state should be ruled by those of a particular racial/national identity. In the case of German national socialism, this meant removing non-Germanic/Aryan (largely Jewish) people from position of power and influence and replacing them with a united Germanic racial group. In Ukraine, the national socialism is the same; removing those of non-Ukrainian ethnicity (largely Russians, but they also target other ethnic groups, such as Roma) and 'cleansing' their society of non-Ukrainian influence, be that linguistic, cultural or societal. One of the founders of the Ukrainian national-socialist movement, Biletsky, stated the aim was to "make Ukraine a white nation free of subhumans" - they've also destroyed non-Ukrainian villages, tortured and burnt non-Ukrainian ethnicities, banned schooling in other languages, and other heinous things. So I think the attempt to rationalise or excuse Nazism in Ukraine is poorly founded in historical fact and is most likely an emotional response to a realisation that supporting Ukrainians (politically - everyone can sympathise with those displaced by war, of whatever ethnicity) is fraught with complication and nuance that don't fit a nice fluffy victim narrative and so therefore look to 'reverse engineer' a justification for their beliefs.
French kings allying with the ottomans!
@@mlteyt
Foreigners should speak the local language as much as possible. I see no reason to have a school in a foreign language.
Why do you call a ban on such a thing heinous? It doesn't mesh with the other behavior you describe that actuslly is an unprovoked attack on peaceful people
@@mlteyt Judging by the recent news reports regarding diversity of refugees in Ukraine they don’t seem to be doing a great job?
The famine was not solely restricted to Ukraine, areas of Southern Russia and Kazakhstan were also affected.
It was worldwide , all harvests were down and we knew it was coming . It was weather related . Stalin used Ukrainian produce for foreign trade as the Rouble wasn't a currency anybody would accept . But he did starve the Ukrainian peasantry to death and shot them if they saved food for themselves , he was also responsible for the other nationalities that were brought into Ukraine creating all that came after it , like this war now .
His Russian musical chairs was also responsible for Georgia's little spat a few years ago with Russia .
Not to forget the parts of Ukraine that were under Polish rule at the time. Famines had been occurring regularly in these regions. A contributing factor to the "holodomor" was a severe draught. - This is a complicated story.
@@williamtell6750 There was no famine under the Polish rule. Your attempt to whitewash Stalin is in vain.
@@elil.2054 Do you know much about these things?
It is not correct in sheeting it all solely to Stalin, it was also very much driven by the bolshevicks in the politburo, 90% of them were jewish so they had no problem with millions of orthodox Christians peasants dieing. This perhaps could explain some of the eagerness to join the n@si to get revenge. How many died, 16 million?
If it wasn't for my parents(both of whom went thru ww2) telling me about Stalin starving to death millions of Ukrainians, I wouldn't have known. I have been telling as many people as I can about this. It gives a different perspective.
“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” -George Orwell 1984
indeed, this is the kind of world creeps like simon webb want, as he tries to erase history by falsifying it.
When I saw all those Ukrainian flags a flying, kind of reminded me of the flags of BLM, now forgotten, gay pride, changing all of the time, hand clapping of the NHS, now forgotten, pandemic now forgotten, Jubilee flags will be forgotten and decolonised. The only thing that is consistent, is each time a flag is waved, we lose a little bit of our freedom. Wonder what will come next?
The whole thing feels completely phony..
It's let's worship 'the current thing', these people are lost in a sea of MSM sewage.
'200 Years Together' covers this very well. And I think it's the oligarchs, who are often not Russian, people hate, rather like 90% of the Bolshevik leaders weren't.
85% of the Leadership of the first Communist Soviet after the " Russian Revolution" of 1917 were of a certain tribe. Rest was all different Nationalities all with an axe to grind on Mother Russia.
Solzhenitsyn?
@@seanpadraigobrien1260 Yes.
Is this available in English?
and here we see nazis gathering around simon
My friends father was a member of the Ukrainian SS during WW2, he was quite happy to live his life out here rather than return home after his release from POW.
They daren't return for fear of retribution by the Soviets. They didn't even contact their families for the same reason with many of them not knowing the fate of those close to them.
@@peterpaszczak4013 Yeah, but not flavour of the post war nazi hunters...Remind me who really were the bad guys?
Ukraine Army removes N30-N42! Badges/Patches from uniform and replaces them LGBTQ2+ Unicorn Badges/Patches
ruclips.net/video/AW0SxCUiJEA/видео.html
My friend's father was also Ukrainian SS, ethnic German though, a Panzergrenadier in a self propelled artillery unit. He went to live in Canada after the war. There were actually a lot of Nazis in Canada, often ethnic Germans who were not German nationals. All living very quiet lives, low profile. Far away from retribution.
Sad that these monsters escaped justice
"Young people forget history," you said (6:04). Actually, young people have never learned history.
Antony Beevors 'Stalingrad' discusses this. The numerous Soviet soldiers who once surrendered assisted the Germans. A lot of these 'Hiwi's' as they were called consisted of Ukrainians and although some assisted to avoid starvation it appears a lot felt that removing Stalin was the lesser of two evils. He also touches on the Ukrainian camp guards being more brutal to other Russian prisoners than the German guards were. As you say it stemmed from the famine created by the collective farms
Excellent book.
I have also read that the brutal treatment of Ukrainians and the native populations of other Soviet areas turned what might have been supportive anti Stalin populations into hostile ones, whose Partisans did tremendous damage to German supply lines. I think this all came from German/Nazi racial ideology who saw slavs, etc as untermenschen.
Great book. Werent a lot of ukranians ethnic germans as well?
removing Stalin WAS the lesser of two evils.
@@martinkelsen6049 Astonishing when so many place names in Germany have slavic roots.
Southern Austria 1945, my father[British Army] and his unit came across a large unit of the Ukraine SS, yes SS. The SS surrendered. My father`s unit never encountered SS in North Africa,[ nb SS never served] or Italy and knew very little about them. Very soon representatives from Tito arrived and demanded their return to Yugoslavia, as war criminals. A week went by, guarding the SS. The UK refused to hand them over and moved them to a POW camp well away from the Russians who were in parts of Austria. When researching my family history there is mention of this incident in my father regimental war diaries at the National Archives at Kew UK, but only a mention., not expanded as my father told me.
The Wehrmacht did indeed commit atrocities regarding ethnicity in N.Africa.
The Galician Division you mention was then sent to Italy as tension escalated between the West and The USSR, and some of them were sent to Hallmuir. (a POW camp built to hold captured Italians just outside Lockerbie). where there is to this day a chapel built by the Ukrainian POWs. It's worth a visit.
My father fought throughout WW2 in the fourth or sixth Indian Div I think. I remember him saying they came across Ukranians serving in the German Army. I'm sure he said after the war when he was in Greece fighting the Greek communists the British had them as well...
@@xne1592 4th Indian was an elite Division in the British army.
Operation keel haul
To add to what other have said, Ukraine:s past goes to show the West moral hypocrisy. No matter what horrors were committed by the Nazis, the communists did a lot worse in terms of torture and murders but somehow we didn't hear about a lot of it in schools. Like the over one million women who were raped and sometimes murdered by the red army on their way to Germany. In Ukraine more specifically, when the German troops closed in, the Communists rounded up prisoners in some prisons , mostly political ones, ie Ukrainian nationalists, and slaughtered them with hand grenade and machine guns, so yes anyone with an IQ over that of a fruit fly could understand why the Nazis were seen by a lot of Ukrainians as liberators.
as Solzhenitsyn is claimed to have said "the global media is in the hands of the perpetrators"
that's why you don't get told about it at school. they're too busy teaching kids how cool it is to be gay and the horrors of the gassing and ovens
Of course they eventually ended up robbing the country of grain much like the Soviets did before them.
So that’s why the Ukrainians signed up to be holocaust concentration guards.
@Arn Saknussen World population is currently less than 10 billion take your meds
6 replies missing
David Irving knows all about the holocaust and world war two
Simon, you’re wrong about the Baltic States being part of the USSR when Stalin took control. They were not. They had torn themselves loose in 1917 and remained so until invaded in 1939 by the Red Army at the same time as the latter invaded Poland (remember the Molotov- Ribbentrop Pact?). Then, in 1941 when the Germans attacked the USSR, they quickly overran those Baltic States and substantial numbers of people joined either the SS or the Wehrmacht to fight the Red Army. Whatever you think of that, there are two things to bear in mind: 1) Those Baltic States had always been heavily German oriented. They had, after all, been founded by Teutonic Knights. 2) People had an understandable desire to be rid of Russian/communist rule and operated on the basis that my enemy’s enemy is my friend.
Now, if you fail to mention it, I shall return to this post to point out that Finland was an ally of Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1944, for similar reasons. From time to time twists and turns of history makes for strange bedfellows.
Well said Frank.
@Ron P Wow, good find...
@Ron P , on October 15th 1930 Winston Churchill was NOT the Prime Minister of the UK! Any treaty he would have signed would have been null and void and maybe even treasonous! In October 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union were allies!
I believe Ukraine would be a lot more peaceful if they returned to the 1917 map
Simon is an historian but he lacks of knowledge about core documents, documented facts, hes knowledge comes from "education programs" in UK at time + obviously books which were often written according to certain "propaganda" narration or agenda of certain book authors, for example he repeats word by word all accusations toward III Reich Germany and more, I heard lots of such things in his other videos.
He has very wrong idea about major events from WW2 time, but I do not blame him, he simply relay on not fully reliable (objective) sources while doing his research and it is a very common mistake of people from his generation which were exposed on education according to narration which supports political goals/position of his country general narration toward certain events.
After all for the soviets as well for the countries in the west it had to look like a bunch of "good guys" are fighting a "devil" who wants to "conquer the world" enslaving or destroying all other nations in process...
So obviously III Reich Germany had to be demonized in eyes of the world and researching certain events from history had to be forbidden and criminalized by law because some people could reveal new light on what actually did happen and why..
Simon, why didn't you make a comparrison between the Ukrainian Nazi's of the 40's and the Azov Nazi battalion of today?
I fear the day they come for all of your books Simon.🇬🇧🏴
I am definitely with you regarding the choice of books rather than the internet. I have several dictionaries which I use when needed precisely because, like you said, some ideologue or political opportunist cannot edit them at will 1984 style.
Wow, could you please look up 'woman' in one of your dictionaries and tell us what it says?
Cheers! lol
I only read the Venerable Bede's history in the original as it is 100% correct and the subsequent revisions and other so - called history books are all revisionist rubbish.
Yes! I’ve been wanting to buy an old dictionary for precisely that reason.
@@LuckyCharms777 Do you mean encyclopaedias?
@@gilessteve 😂👏
I had a huge argument with a friend who gets his news from the MSM.and religiously follows Boris's narrative about Ukraine. When I tried to explain to him why Russia is paranoid about invasions from the West, he told me to stop referring to history: it always made things worse. Events these days, it seems, can only be understood through an idealogical lens.
There is no general paranoia amongst Russians about invasions from the West. The imperialists in Russia object to Western influence in the former territories of the Russian Empire which they wish to re-establish.
Western leaders are cowards and will never invade a country with nuclear weapons.
And there has been Western influence and activity in Ukraine for some time, as Julian Assange revealed via Wikileaks. Where is he now, oh he definitely p!ssed some powerful people off didn’t he.
@@jimmycampbell78 There has been away more Russian influence in Ukraine over the time than western.
@@kopner5672
Is that why russians have been burned alive while police watch?
My Ukrainian father in law ( a youngster from a farming community 50 miles from Kiev in the 40’s) hated both Russia and Germany. The Russians took over his village, killed his elderly relatives, raped the woman and took him to work in a farming work camp. The Germans after overrunning the territory, then took him to work in an industrial work camp making German boots. While being transferred to another camp he escaped the walking column by jumping in a ditch and hiding for 5 hours. He then surfaced to find a handful had done the same. Not knowing where they were they travelled at night, to where they did not know. The last night of ‘freedom’ he was amazed to see lots of fire flies in the sky.. Get down! his friends said- they’re tracer bullets. They found themselves between opposing fighting and crawled on the ground to try to get away. Luckily for them, the Americans found them. At the end of the war, the authorities asked him where he wanted to go? - England, Scotland, Australia, or Canada- He told me he said England- this was the only place from the list he had heard of. Hi bore the scar of the camp tattoo on his arm until his recent death, and only just before did he voice the horrors of what he had seen and experienced in WW11. That is just one story of this period. Man’s inhumanity to man. The horrors continue. Mankind will never learn it seems. (edited for typo's and just to say this is a very brief synopsis of what he told me at length before his death....) As a footnote, he weren’t in to be a valued member of British society, trained as a plumber and finally worked as a radial driller at the International Harvester factory in Bradford. He raised a family with his (also displaced) Austrian wife. Learned English, fitted into the British way of life, but retained his culturural links through the Ukrainian Club there. Never once did he think his culture etc should override the British way, complain about discrimination, or saw the Union flag as a right wing emblem- he simply got on with life and let others get on with theirs. He celebrated British culture, respected British law, and respected his local community.
Interesting story of war…
I raise my mug of tea to such lions of men! ⚔️🏆
Rest In Peace uncle 🙏
Britain needs immigrants of this ilk. Lions, not scroungers or draft dodgers from Syria (a cuntry nowt to do with the commonwealth)
The Allies and Communists fought together NOT for freedom but because they were both owned and controlled by these Mafias being exposed in this video here and Germany under AH escaped from this scam system and the Allies and Communists fought together to take them out and everything about WW2 and Germany etc from back then has been lies to hide all of this and every war, "terrorism" etc since WW2 has been part of these Mafias agenda also exposed in this video and AH and his party were warning the world about all of this back then and everything that they were saying is EXACTLY what is still going on today ruclips.net/video/98qv9ztkW_U/видео.html
One has to remember the millions who died under Stalns deleiberate policy of creating an artificial famine in the Ukraine . It is estimated 21 milllion died .
Of course it was nearly covered up but for a brave and corageous Welsh journalist who exposed this dreadful catastrophe . So when the Germans arrived in 1941 driving out the Russian commisars they were popular untill the SS arrived. Of course I don't only read British sources !
Good morning Simon. Question: do you think that, in the 50's, 60's and 70's the general populous were any better informed about communism? (Especially in the US where peoples kids were being drafted to Vietnam)
That's a good point. I think that at least there was more interest in and discussion about world affairs among young people.
no because they didnt have the internet to do their own research. and only had the msm to tell them what to believe
If the American public had listened to Norman Dodd who headed the Reece commission for American Congress then yes they were better informed. For anyone interested look up Norman Dodd : Tax Exempt Foundations. VERY interesting and his findings directly show why America and the West is in its current state.
@@HistoryDebunkedsimonwebb Simon, all I can see is Joe, Boris and Justin doing their best to fight Russia to the last Ukrainian soldier. Also, doing their best to get Poland and Romania to get involved in the war. Any thoughts on that?
You seem to forget that education in schools and universities encouraged debates by having 'debating clubs' where critical thinking was the norm. Nowadays, half caste professors with dreadlocks and jesus sandals are only fully versed in political correctness and appropriate respect.
One book that you should definitely read is THE NAMELESS WAR
by Captain Achibald.H.Maule Ramsay.
Simon wouldn’t like it.
"There is no limit to the depths of human depravity, Captain Maule Ramsay ... seems to have made a very determined attempt to plumb those depths."
The Jewish Chronicle
The Jewish chronicle is chip wrapping paper 😍
Totally agree with you Mr Webb. The drive to digitise books via such things as the Internet Archive and the World Digital Library is the way they will rewrite the history books by the click of a button. I hope people think on next time they buy a digital downloaded book from Amazon this is where the digital book burning has started. The clue is in the name. It's called Kindle for a reason.
People flying the Ukrainian flag outside their houses have no idea.
@@lasigh1478 No, it's quite different.
@@lasigh1478 Oh I get it. This is your schtick. It seems a bit lowbrow.
Once again Simon lays it all out more clearly in 5 minutes than the mainstream media ever would or could.
And triggers the antisemites in the process. Good one.
@nate grate ⚠️ Nutter alert! ⚠️
@nate grate yeh, in a nutshell. Selective debunking while holding the gate.
@nate grate Unfortunately it is you who lies regarding this!
Simon is an absolute disgrace.
Fun Fact: Victoria Nuland's (Choo) 'Ukrainian' grandfather was the main architect of the Holodomor.
Imagine my surprise
You need to get yourself a better class of " fact ". Victoria Nudelman's grandfather was Meyer Nudelman and during the 1920s and 30s he lived in The Bronx. He had nothing to do with the Holodomor but was Russian born if that's any help.
Lazar Kagnovich "the wolf of the kremlin" and Stalins brother-in-law who uncle said do whatever is good for the Jew instigated it to destroy Ukraine independence from the soviet Union. Khruschev removed him from the party but didn't send him down, accusing him of killing millions of Russians. He lived his remaining years in Moscow, until he died in 1989.
@@sav7568 Nulands husband's grandfather was. Lazar Kaganovich the Khazarians murderer 👹
@@jonbon8598 Robert Kagan's grandfather was Shmuel Kagan who died in Lithuania in 1934. Lazar Kaganovich died in Moscow in 1991. Wrong guy. Time to quit the urban myths.
One of the things I still regret is trading in my first semester history book in collage in 1981. It seemed quite factual. The second semester book was very shy on correct facts and filled with left leaning philosophy. Even at a young age I knew enough live and learned history to spot bull shit.
My grandfather was brought up in an orphanage in a town near Kharkov in the 1930s. During the great famine, he became blind from malnutrition, fortunately his eyesight returned later. Since childhood, I have repeatedly heard my grandmother talk about his memories of those years. He said that in the river there were barges loaded with grain and flooded. And that he, along with other boys, dived into the water to these barges lying at the bottom, took a handful of grain into their mouths, and then rubbed the soaked grain with stones on the shore, and ate the resulting gruel, and then dived again. In those years, I did not hear the word "Holodomor" and heard little about that famine from official sources.
But later I began to wonder how the barges loaded with grain ended up at the bottom of the river, in the midst of famine, why the authorities did not try to lift them and their cargo.
Grandpa and other people believed that the barges were clearly sunk on purpose. I have no doubt that the famine that killed millions of lives not only in Ukraine was caused artificially. Grandfather later went to the front, as he said, because at least they were fed in the army. Now one thought haunts me, the fact that he fought on the side of the regime that killed millions of his compatriots. Just like millions of soldiers from other republics of the USSR served for that regime.
This is a word about the Ukrainians who collaborated with the Germans. After all, no one calls "collaborators" people who collaborated with the russians.
And in the comments, people cited the situation in Finland as an example and why this country had to cooperate with Germany after the aggression of the USSR.
Some may be wondering why no one blames the Western allies for collaborating with the Stalinist regime in those years. No one thinks about the fact that the USSR paid for lend-lease with gold, platinum, precious woods, and that all these resources were obtained by the slave labor of labor camp prisoners. Speaking of collaborators, they rarely remember the Russian Liberation Army of General Vlasov, a large formation that fought on the side of Germany and consisted mainly of Russians.
Russia's hatred of Ukrainians goes much deeper into the past, it's not just about the events of World War II.
And speaking of the fact that the Russians use the term "Nazis" so often, this is the same strategy by which in the West the media and "woke" clowns constantly shout "Rayyycism!! Sexiiism!! Homophobiaaaa!".)
That was very interesting. You bring up a lot of good points regarding co-operating with evil regimes. It seems that few nations are innocent in that regard.
The past is mired in an infinite web of allegiances and enemies. What matters to me is that one country has invaded its neighbour, committed countless war crimes, targeted civilians mercilessly, and threatened multiple western democracies with nuclear annihilation.
I don’t find it the slightest bit difficult to stand with Ukraine today, regardless of what they did or didn’t do in the 1940’s.
I would also point out that the USA cooperated with Nazis, Werner Von Braun and Operation Paperclip come to mind. The USA also let the Japanese Unit 731 skate on their crimes in exchange for information.
Great post......a lot of truth......the west biggest trading partner is communist china....it goes on
@@displaychicken seems like the replies are being hidden again. Mr History censoring the truth as ever..
Your last sentence hits the bullseye and pretty much sums up Russian politics that are equally hypocritical as are US and the mentality of people who support Russia in this madness that they've imposed on Ukraine.
@@displaychicken " What matters to me is that one country has invaded its neighbour, committed countless war crimes, targeted civilians mercilessly, and threatened multiple western democracies with nuclear annihilation. "-
many people, both in the west and in the east, are sure that everything that happens is happening in close cooperation between Russia and the United States and Europe. Ukraine has been turned into a blood-drenched chessboard, behind which big players do their business. And unfortunately, but I believe that the West will betray Ukraine again in the future ..
Nuclear threats towards Western countries are especially interesting if you remember that all the corrupt leadership of Russia, officials, oligarchs, keep their billions in Western banks and own property in the West. And their children live in the west, study there in universities and colleges. During the Cold War, the USSR and the USA also threatened each other with a nuclear weapons, but the children of Stalin and Khrushchev live in the USA.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn often gets accused of anti-semitism and of being anti-semitic.
Thank you. As a history buff myself I was aware of the context, but as you say our leaders should pick up the odd history book now and then. One of my favourite historians once said that the first lesson of history is that we don't learn from the lessons of history and the second lesson is that freedom is not a universal value witness those who assumed that democracy would be a natural consequence of Afghanistan, Iraq and the so called 'Arab spring' that never was in Libya, step forward Messrs Blair and Cameron.
"democracy" is just socialism with a fig leaf.
oh, they know ! but they ignore it as it doesn't suit their own Agenda !
I'm 61 years old and live across the pond . When I attended High School , history class never mentioned the Holodomor . Also when I was a teenager , it was common to watch war documentaries on tv , typically on Saturday mornings . This is where I learned about the Holodomor although I don't think it was referred too as the Holodomor but rather a human caused famine .
I'm in my 30s and I was regularly told how horrible the Nazis were. This included seeing black and white video on the History Channel in my living room. The Nazis were mentioned everywhere, school, movies, TV. It wasn't until maybe 5 years ago that I learned how much more horrible the Communists were. I learned about the Holodomor by reading books and watching videos such as Simon's.
@@thomasacreman6007 I was told and saw how bad the nasties were and that the Soviets were worse , the j aps too , what went on after the war was a disgrace as the war was over , my dad was in ww2 and I grew up listening to a lot and seeing war films every Sunday afternoon and they did tend to focus on the nasties
Propoganda
@@tommccabe8441 So was Auschwitz.
@@tommccabe8441 yes, spot on
When I was a lad in the British school system, (early 1960s), we studied the Holodomor in some detail. We also studied WWI and II in considerable detail. The reasons for and the outcomes thereof. I remember that all of us lads were quite stunned and distressed that leaders of so called civilised societies could, and did act in such a manner as to harm so many for such foolish reasons. I remember that among ourselves we discussed what we would have done were we in such a position of power. Of course we were probably completely sideways about our intentions and ways of achieving said intentions.
Yes I'm 60 and your comment came from my thoughts of learning same subjects in school and the same shock.
Perhaps one reason for the current lack of interest in history and foreign affairs is that they have enough worries about the state of affairs at home. The destruction of their history and culture due to woke garbage and the sheer scale of immigration almost to the point where native people are a minority in their own land and the lack of will in "so called" leaders to tackle the situation which could ,perhaps uncharitably, be seen as being complicit in the replacement of the native population.
Might not want to mention the Azov battalions original roots and who funded them either
Got my copy of the gulag archipelago on the shelf right now. Think I'll finish reading it today!
Thank you, Simon, such a turbulent and confusing era, your videos help with learning real history.
@@WillyEckaslike ....... sadly so ...... State worker ......
David Irving is a real historian
@@vercingetorixwulf9298 I know hes good, best man for info about camps is professor Robert Faurisson, they couldnt shut him up, he's dead now, the old lad 😭
Thank you very very much for sharing your knowledge, insight, and wisdom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Spot on Simon I read years ago The Gulag and a day in the Life etc. Awesome writing . Life was Ruthless then . Problem is it still is and some choose to throw petrol back on it. There has been funny enough no attempt to de escalate this war? . Maybe it needs to come to a head . The sooner the better . The notion that Ukraine can defeat Russia is crazy. It is only promoting the loss of young honest guys lives.
Holodomor was the most tragic event In history
Dinosaurs... bigot!
Indeed, the real deal.......not made up.
The Bolshevik Revolution was.
@@kopner5672 - financed from NYC.
Oof.
Three cheers for Simon!
Right on target.
Dead right about digital media being vulnerable to revisionist ideologies too.
As I understand it, there were two holodomor famines engineered by Stalin's administration. One explanation says that the food was exported for trade purposes.
We have to remember that famine seems to be part of the communist play book... Spain, China, Cambodia, etc. all fledgling communist regimes thought that starvation was part of the worker's utopia.
So... food shortages in the US... the current communist regime ruling the US seems to be repeating the pattern here.
It wasn't done deliberately, they were just typical politicians they never have the foggiest idea what they're doing
@@BillSikes. Don't buy the incompetence theory of world history... If you act randomly, you are bound to get it right occasionally. The consistency across time and place makes it clearly deliberate.
Starving people are easy to manage.
They will do anything for a bite.
Solidarity is non existent.
@@davebutler3905
Nah, starving people are a threat to those in power, well fed people are servile and docile, it's all about Bread and Circuses
Thank you for that piece of Education!
It throws light where there was darkness before!!
Enjoyed this immensely. Knew most of this. I remember the Demyanuk(s) trial fir being a SS camp Guard. I realize that this is unusual for an America who proudly like to show our ignorance of even our history. I enjoy your site as it tries to keep English history alive as so many in Britain are actively engaged in "de-colonization" but in fact are colonizing Britain. Destroying our collective history seems to be their aim.
Well said sir. I talked to people at work about this and I got the same blankly stare.
Mostly the people I worked with couldn't get past the plot of coronation street. Mention anything like this to them would send them twitching nervously, scurrying to the coffee room
Annoys me that some claim the famine they call holodomor was uniquely ukranian - when it was across the whole USSR, every rural area. Exacerbated by farmers losing motivation and trying to hoard.
It was a stupid policy to trash all farms.
Agreed - it is a complicated story.
The Soviets created a lot of famine all over.
@@partygrove5321 One might also claim that the Soviets solved the problem of recurring famine in the Ukraine. - It is a complex story.
@@williamtell6750 Lysenko was brilliant biologist, and if you disagreed you were liquidated
@@partygrove5321 I know about Lysenko.
Excellent! Simon.
Two sides to every story.
🇬🇧🏴
I suggest that the root of this is our schools. In the 1970's out teachers encouraged us to THINK, we had indeed to pass exams, but were expected to be able to form a view and gather evidence to support our own view or challenge an alternative perspective. From looking at grandchildrens secondary school work, our children seem to be given facts which lead to a given conclusion, hence the homgeneity of opinion and the lack of ability to think for themselves. I did know about the Holomodor etc, perhaps because I know the pleasure of learning something new, thank you 1970's teachers.
The fate of the kulaks in Ukraine is the reason why I believe the general population should be armed.
Not all Kulaks. Bronstein's grandfather got granted some land by the Czar in an effort to make Jews farmers.
BTW, every farmer with a cow was deemed Kulak.
Not just Ukraine.
My Great-great grandfather was a kulak, he starved to death(he lived in the Urals).
The bolsheviks stole all his property, he migrated into a town to become a worker, this did not save him.
As far as I know there was some armed resistance to collectivisation in parts of the USSR.
Interesting thing, loosing our history. This morning, june 2nd, French television news was reporting that the 70 year reign of Queen Elizabeth is unpresidented yet their own Louis the 14th reigned for 72 years and 110 days. It says a lot about French education.
excellent again Simon, when the new phase of the "war" began this year after a month I decided to look for a bit of context, I found a series called Roses have Thorns by Watchdog media, it does change your mind when you see information, also after 2014 , the Ukrainians decided to have a memorial day for Stepan Bandera and declare him a hero of the Ukraine, this is the same Bandera who was a collaborator with Germany in WW2
The UK and the US have a very clear view of right and wrong in WW2. Not so clear if you're a Ukrainian, who rightly blames the USSR for murdering possibly 10,000,000 of your own people. Germany invades, kicks the Russians out and claims to be your friend and liberator. The SS puts a gun in your hand and offers you the chance for vengeance. Hard to say no.
Bandera is responsible for the deaths of about 100,000 Ukraine and Polish civilians.
The English put up a statue to Winston Churchill who condoned the use of chemicals on civilians in WW1 & played a significant part in the deaths of millions of Indians.
@@alba9507 total bollocks... Japan attacking the commonwealth was the reason for the famine. Not Winston Churchill?
@@davidlloyd2583 - Churchill was nothing but an alcoholic racist little knob
I get the impression that the younger generations, that I am also a part of, are getting negatively impacted by being bombarded with way too much information and stimuli. I remember growing up without a computer, we couldn't afford it, and reading tons of books all the time on various topics. But after having to start using a computer since high school, I'm just exhausted of every little thing and find it close to impossible, to actually read much. I really miss it, something definitively changed. I'm going to have to minimise computer use as much as possible, currently I pretty much only use it to pay bills and listening to music.
We also didn't have smartphones, social media and the trans menace. We were very lucky.
A computer cost maybe $1m in today's money when I was a child. We couldn't afford one either!
The last book I read was when my internet was down for the weekend over a year ago. I got about half way through it, then the internet came back on. Guess what...? lol
@@gilessteve how old are you for that level of inflation 😂🤔.
Just be glad it wasn't a guide to computer networks, how annoying would that be to get half way through and then find not needing to finish
Quit being a fragile weakling! Sheesh! I have a PC and I read books no problem. The younger generation are so friggen weak and fragile and every tiny thing just breaks them-YOU!
No, you are just lazy and don't want to use your critical thinking abilities along with searching and cross-referencing information. Look into who is saying what as well as their past history to see if they have lied. There are always two sides to a story.
We love you Simon 😍🤗🤗😘
It's so good hearing some reasonable thoughts on the conflict.Thank for some truth,not that it matters to so many these days.
A bigger question is why students aren't taught the evils of communism.
J Stalin makes AH look like child's play
I thought you were referring to Amber Heard as she is very topical at the moment.😆
He was 🤡
I am one of the one in a thousand who is aware, so it's just like Covid, where my years of study of things scientific, medical and cultural meant that the accepted narrative was not truly based on science, ethics and morality. I know only two people I can discuss it with and get reasoned responses rather than rolling eyes. I am just getting on with my own projects now until I leave this mortal coil. I watch the descent of the world into hell with the detachment with which I read the Gulag Archipelago. I am done raging about it. The young can make their beds and lie in them.
I had only heard of the Holodomor because it is mentioned in the 2015 film Child 44, a story of post WW2 USSR. Mr Webb makes a valid point about books and I frequently visit the second hand bookshops these days.
Based on the book of the same name, by British author Tom Rob Smith.
I have the whole Leo (I forget his surname off the top of my head) trilogy: Child 44, The Secret Speech, Agent 6.
Quite agree simon, everything on the Internet has been vetted to make sure it fits in with blm, gay pride,and political correctness you can't upset the new modern way of thinking. Whatever you do don't upset people with the truth.
Out dated attitudes,is a bit of Minitruth, Newspeak 😭
I have been watching your channel for the past couple of years. The videos you make are so informative, particularly this one being so poignant at a time where some people are so quick to jump on the bandwagon of wokeness. Thank you for your hard work good sir.
When is a Nazi not a nazi, when it's a Ukrainian !
The Bolshevik revolution head shed were small hatters round 85 percent.
So was the red army over represented by the same group .
The cultural Marxism which is destroying western society today is the very same used in the Bolshevik revolution.
And I’m sure people can guess what group of people carl Marx was from and what group created the Frankfurt school .
Will you talk about that Simon
100% correct fellow Noticer!
Yuri bezmenzov did a cool lecture on this, many moons ago 🌙
You've really only touched on this Simon maybe for obvious reasons but people need to understand that the Soviet leadership in the revolution and the 20's and early 30's (until Stalin removed them) was almost entirely Jewish. Jewish Bolshevism was the architect of the Holodomor that saw up to 10M Ukrainians dead through the collectivisation policies you mention.
The soviet revolution was also funded by the Wall Bankers who just happen to share the same ethno-religious background as the soviet leadership. So it was a marriage between Jewish Wall Street Banks and the Jewish soviet leadership that over threw the Czars and led to the famine and starvation of Ukrainians and others.
That is the real source of hatred of Jews and the reason that the Hitler and the NSP decided to remove them from Europe initially supporting the move to Palestine and rejecting the Wall Street / City of London money system that is run by these same groups - think Warburg, Rothschild etc.
So when the Nazis invaded Ukraine to the Ukranians who had suffered so badly they were seen as 'liberators'. That is the reason they so enthusiastically joined the Germans and why the Germans were so determined to force Jews out of Europe because the Wall Street Banks in league with Balfour and the British govt signed a 'pact' that America would join the WW1 effort in exchange for guaranteeing the state of Israel. That caused the defeat of Germany in WW1 and the treaty of Versailles to be imposed which punished Germany unfairly and led to the revolution and destruction of Weimar in the 20's.
Oy vey!
Yes Simon,. the re-writing of history to fit modern narratives and ideologies has been under way for some time now. In NZ, a series of leftist Labour governments (starting in 1984) re-wrote NZ history to sanitise it, making the Maori people look as pure as the driven snow. All references to their barbarism, genocide against the Moriori who were here before them, their lack of a written language or music, their lust for war and revenge, their treatment of women as no more than cattle, and their cannibalism, gone. To cap it off, the Treaty of Waitangi was "reinterpreted" so as to cede all power and land to the Maoris, giving them full ownership of the country, something the ACTUAL treaty never allowed for. It just goes to show, wickedness, in all its forms, raises its ugly head when enough self-interested, nepotistic fools get together to push forward something that otherwise would defy logic and common sense, alerting the average sheeple to the wool being pulled over their eyes. The whole business of the Ukraine situation is a variation on the theme, where the "they" running the show have some agenda to lionize and sanctify the Ukrainians, simplify the narrative so it can be spoon-fed to the masses of dullards who lack the brain power to ask questions, and reshape the collective understanding of truth and even reality, after a fashion. As you say, one can't trust the Internet at all - it's far, far too easy to edit and manipulate "documents", photos and videos, even audio recordings, whereas "antique" books, DVDs and even cassettes/records and video tapes - analog media - can't be touched. Well, can't be touched until the powers that be start holding book burnings and similar purges. One might smile and roll one's eyes condescendingly at such "tin foil hat" notions, but then, two years ago one wouldn't have expected the entire planet to fall for the biggest scam in human history (the scamdemic), either. Just because one can't conceive of "big lies" and sweeping, Orwellian-level authoritarianism, that doesn't prevent such things from happening...
You are absolutely right about revisionism and also that the majority in the UK have zero knowledge and understanding of Eastern European conflicts. For a start, everyone who remains within the conflict zone is regarded and treated as an enemy combatant, there are no civilian casualties. Infrastructure and resources are more important than human life. So the Ukraine will be ground to dust if necessary for Russia to obtain the victory it needs. You only need to look back to the records of previous conflicts to see that humanitarian issues are not of any concern to either side in the conflict. The supply of western armaments to Ukraine will be used by Russia to justify each and every escalation of violence until victory is achieved, by Russia. Things aren’t going so well in the economic war between east and west either judging by supply issues and massively hiked prices in the west.
You should read " two hundred years together" by the author of Gulag Archipelago
Crimean Tatars also collaborated with the Germans and as punishment they were forcefully relocated into other areas of the Union
As you say, there is a lot of truth bending on digital media and books from the past can't be altered.
BUT give it time and I'm sure BOOK burning will make a comeback.
I'd still like a catalogue of your books one day Simon so we can also start building a similar library. I have a lot. But I constantly hear new ones from you which are excellent, and I've never heard of anywhere else.
Kuznetsov's Babi Yar is still very much available through Amazon, and I presume still available via most bookshops. It is definitely a must-read book. I have visited Babi Yar, now a badly maintained park in the suburbs of Kiev, the original ravine having been filled in after WWII. But for the three monuments you would never know what a place of horror it was.
I read an account that the German Einsatzgruppen got so exhausted pulling the trigger, they got the German army to help. 33,000 mainly old men, women and children. Do they matter... YES THEY DO.
I would suggest looking up Volyn Slaughter and would like to hear your thoughts on the matter
I once worked with a former Spetsnaz soldier and Afghanistan veteran who was astonished to discover that Russian POWs in WE 2 volunteered to work with the Germans. That as much as 20% of German divisions fighting in Stalingrad were composed of Russian Hiwiis. Even more surprised to discover that the singles largest foreign contingent of volunteers in the Waffen SS were Russian by the end of the war, forming two full divisions. Something Putin and his supporters would very much to wipe from the history books.
Some of the most loyal fighters for the German cause in WW2 were foreign legions, one of the most famous was the Freikorps who fought to the last man in Berlin.
Never truer words uttered.
Well said Simon
Ukraine started this war not Russia
As an older person I new none of this Simon so it is all new to me
And you can understand everything now
Thank you
Thank you Simon for the clear explanation of the history behind the present conflict. And for the reminder to hold onto our books!
Like you i read those back in the 70s. generally speaking if you mention a book written before 1980 that I DON'T remember I try to acquire a copy asap, before they all get pulped. Libraries have been flogging off anything more than a decade old, even reference books, and most charity shops now seem to throw out any that aren't recent.
I did people looked at me blank..I had these people working on a contract once too..apparently I know nothing unlike the bloke off the telly..hmmm..in fact the only one who agreed was my new Romanian neighbour 🙄
They know how dangerous books are, thats why most people have no interest or even the capacity to apply themselves to reading one or even understand what they read.
My investigation into Germans in Ukraine is slightly different Simon. Ukraine had a large population of ethnic Germans that had been targeted by stalin long before ww2. He sent hundreds of thousands to gulags stole their land was a pretty terrible time for them. When the nazis turned up they used these ethnic German people what was left of them anyway. You should do a peice on them maybe then people will understand a little more about German ties to Ukraine👍
There in a nutshell highlights the very complex nature of these “fluid” parts of the world.
The British don’t realise how lucky we are to be an Island nation but even we have complexities
historically.
@@georgehetty7857 That's because the English run the show!!!
🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️🤦🏼♀️ it’s like you heard something, didn’t get it properly and made a wrong conclusion as a result
@@PeterPete Nope check the companies house website most corporations, Universities etc are not British run and nothing to do with Britain most corporations are run by foreign influence and owned by the Vanguard group they own Britain.
@@cha2117 I was referring to the commenter who stated "The British don’t realise how lucky we are to be an Island nation but even we have complexities
historically."
The Scots dislike the English, the Welsh dislike the English, the English dislike the Scots and the Welsh. The UK Parliament is based in England, not Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. It's the (Dis)United Kingdom.
One of Wikipedia's cofounders walked away from what he had helped set up years ago due to the changing of truth and facts. His conscience couldn't deal with it. Holding onto decent books is very crucial!
Had a few moments like this too. Understanding the reasons behind the current situation in Ukraine is not the same as supporting Putins invasion. Ignorance is bliss
"Putin's" invasion? No Russian president could have acted differently.
Thanks for the video Simon. Once again I have leaned more on what’s really
Going on.
A late friend of mine here in Glasgow was born in Poland although the area is now Lithuania. He came here during WW2 on the Artic convoy to serve in the British army. He was a Polish soldier captured by the Russians and was interred in a camp in Eastern Ukraine. He told me when it was announced over the tannoy that the Germans had invaded the whole camp cheered including the Ukrainian guards.
Not to mention the Nazis and Fascists in the Azov Brigade which have wrought terror to native Russians in the Donbas since 2014.
Is there any truth about solzhenitsyn's other book "two hundred years together" being about the ethnicity of those in charge of the communists and therefore has never been translated to English?
When are the Ukraine people going to get rid of Zelenski?
As a historian i see people being ignorant or even dumb about history on a daily basis.
My family had to deal with all of what you've talked about in the past. As Germans living in Ukraine among Jews, Ukranians and Russians they lived through the holodomor. My grandfather had to eat dead dogs to survive. My great-grandmother had to serve a one-year prison sentence, because she had the audacity to steal a handful of grain to feed her one-year old daughter. And the insanity went on after WWII, when all germans were treated as traitors and used a slaves to build up remote parts of Russia (if not killed), just to be treated as third class citizens their whole lives. So glad we had the opportunity to leave the s***hole in the 80s.
@Robert Lamar They were. Must have gone there in the 1820s or 1830s. Hard to find out exactly, because the Reds destroyed most of history.
The proposed Museum of Communist Terror could make a much-needed valuable contribution to the education of young people in this respect. Always assuming that teachers would take their pupils on trips to see it. It seems to only exist online at the moment, but I believe they are aiming to have one or more actual buildings that people can visit. Here's hoping.
The ex-head of the ADL, Abe Foxman, flew over to Ukraine on the anniversary of the Holodomor to tell the Ukrainians to not compare the Holodomor and the Holocaust so as to not diminish the importance of the Holocaust.
Certain demographic wants the monopoly on suffering, as its very lucrative, and is used to deflect criticisms of them selves when they commit atrocities on theur neighbours in the Middle East.
@@occidentadvocate.9759 And these certain demographics taught others how to be professional victims (grifters). For instance that only Africans were ever enslaved. I came from a country where over half the population were once slaves. Do I have a chip on my shoulder about this history? No.
There's no one occurred, while there's many question marks over the other, the cheek barsteward,👹
Best ever History Debunked programme.
Thank you!
Might I suggest Simon is betraying some of the same traits he criticizes? He is either ignorant of, or at least not expressing, some important points:
1) Russia has been trying to extinguish any sign of distinct national identities of Ukrainians and Belarusians for centuries. The Tsars' pan-Slavism was part of this.
2) IN 1926, according to the first Soviet census, which is on line, not only was all of the Ukraine overwhelmingly Ukrainian-speaking, but so were several districts inside the Russian SFSR, indicating that, in drawing its internal borders, the USSR made a land grab of Ukrainian-speaking areas in favour of Russia. All trace of these Ukrainian-speakers has since been extinguished by the Russian education system.
3) The 1926 Soviet census shows only 2 million Russian-speakers in Ukraine. By 1991 there were 11 million. The great majority are the result of colonization by Moscow, which brought in millions of Russian-speakers to man massive state industrial projects in the Donbas in particular, but also places like "Transnistria" in Moldova.
4) At the same time the two things Simon does mention - the Hlodomor and German occupation - cut down millions (perhaps over 10 million) Ukrainian-speakers. Bad as the German invasion was for largely unoccupied Russia, it was much worse for occupied Ukraine and Belarus.
5) Putin is exploiting both the Hlodomor and German occupation to grab yet more of Ukraine using the recent Russian-speaking colonists as his excuse and, by using war to drive out Ukrainians from these areas, is intent on completely Russianizing yet more of Ukraine. Putin is part of a centuries old Russian drive to extinguish other Slavic identities before they can assert it fully on the international stage.
I like much of Simon's work, but here he is advancing only partial facts.
Contrary to you, Mr Webb gives sources.
'Only partial facts' is his forte.
It at least makes you realise how lucky we are in Britain compared to most of the residents of the world?
@@jjr1728 I believe, apart from Bibi who was polish, all "isn't-real" pm have been Ukrainian.
The last 5-6 comments I've left have disappeared like smoke in the wind! I expect Susan is shadowbanning again!
@@williamtell6750 The key source I gave you: The 1926 Soviet Census. It is on line, as I said. Please check it out. I note that while you complain that I don't give sources, but you don't dispute a single point I made.