Victims without Perpetrators
Kazakh and Ukrainian Remembrance of the 1932-33 Famine
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In Ukraine, the 1932-33 famine is an essential component of national identity, while in Kazakhstan, which was also affected, the subject is ascribed far less significance. As much as the two societies differ in how they deal with this dark chapter in their respective histories, in one point, the stories about the famine resemble one another: in both cases, the victims’ perspective dominates, largely dispensing with perpetrators. The silence surrounding this aspect of their own “bad past” appears quite rational from both the Kazakh as well as the Ukrainian perspective.
(Osteuropa 3/2012, pp. 105–120)