I understood the Holodomor better, strangely enough, when I visited Armenia. In Yerevan, their capital city, there is a memorial and museum to the Armenian Genocide. The memorial built by the Soviets, and the museum built after the Cold War and partly funded by American money.
My first impression of this place was how strange it is to see two objects standing in direct ideological opposition to each other. The memorial, like most Soviet monuments, is minimalist and doesn’t browbeat the onlooker with a political message. The American-influenced exhibit, however, does the opposite. The main and perhaps only message of the site is the evil of Islam and Turks.
There is the violence, and also the obsession with rape of the Armenian virgins. And the story doesn’t end with a victory. It is all just an unrevenged crime. So the goal here isn’t so much to educate, but to radicalize the visitor in the context of contemporary politics. Armenia’s Muslim neighbors are portrayed as absolutely depraved monsters.
I found it funny that Turkey is supposedly a close ally of the USA, literally a full fledged member of NATO, yet here is a monument sponsored by American NGOs saying that Turkey is bad.
Another interesting aspect, or rather a lack of one, was how the narratives chiseled into the museum granite and placards went out of their way to not mention the Russian Empire’s role in protecting at least a portion of the Armenian population from being wiped out. In fact the major theme of post-Armenian exhibits is pretending Russian influence didn’t happen.
Or the pesky little fact that, in the absence of the Russians, the Armenian nation state would almost certainly not exist at all. It would have been wiped out several times over. What are Armenian textbooks like? I have to wonder.
If propaganda galvanizes a people against supposed enemies while simultaneously isolating them from their friends, then the intentions of the propagandist need to be questioned. Especially in the case of a country that is weak in comparison to its neighbors like Armenia.
The Armenian Genocide museum and various other American-funded exhibits around the city reminded me of a god of trickery who disguises himself and encourages two different groups of people to hate each other.
And it was odd to see such an extravant museum that looks like it could be in central Moscow, considering that much of the rest of Yerevan is shanty towns and hovels.
So I am not saying the Armenian Genocide did not happen, or that it was not an awful thing to do, but I am saying the narrative is unhelpful to modern Armenians who need to develop a working relationship with their modern Muslim neighbors. Especially since, as I said, those neighbors are more numerous and have stronger militaries and economies. How could any rational person say it is good to encourage Armenians to moan about lost territories they have no chance of getting back and fight people who would almost certainly beat them?
Everything I just said applies to the Holodomor narrative in Ukraine. And the fact that Ukraine is embroiled in a war that is demographically destroying them should be proof that I am right.
If I was that god of trickery who wanted to create several armies of disposable soldiers to use against my enemies, I would do exactly what the USA is doing in Ukraine, Armenia, Romania, Georgia and other places.
By the way, for what it is worth, I had a very similar feeling when I visited Moscow’s Victory Park, which was built in 1995. Victory Park, like much of the 1990s architecture built in the former Soviet republics, was clearly intended to overshadow the Red Square’ connotations of victory and be a centerpiece of Russian neo-nationalism.
Though not to the extreme of the Armenian Genocide museum, Victory Park seems to go out of its way to contradict both the war messaging under Stalin, and the “thaw” under Krushchev. And the extravagance lacks the subtle, tasteful nuance and minimalism of Soviet era monuments.
I felt disturbed at Victory Park, and I think the reason why is because such a neo-nationalist place was being built in “American friendly” Russia while Holodomor architecture was simultaneously going up in Ukraine. Why this happened is anybody’s guess but I think the USA was betting on both horses and were always planning to simply align with whichever post Soviet country conformed the best to American interests.
As bizarre as the idea seems now, the USA giving “unwavering support to Russian sovereignty against unprovoked Ukrainian aggression” was not off the table. It is even possible to find Hollywood movies from the 1990s depicting the USA and Russia (with Russia as the junior partner, of course) working together to put down other baddies in the post Soviet space. As hilarious as that might seem looking back in 2025, it is crucial to remember that being an ally of the USA is fatal. Russians are too stubborn and arrogant to fall on their own swords like they were supposed to, so could not ever be the junior partner of America.
Ian Kummer
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As a kid I worked at a Jewish camp (room & board & recreation privileges, too young to work legally).
The old Polish proprietor (who gave all his money to Israel) used to bewail the fact that “where Hitler failed, American TV will succeed”. He meant erasing Judaism but more specifically, intermarriage with the goyim. That’s why parents sent their kids there, to pick up some of their heritage and hopefully meet a suitably Jewish boyfriend or girlfriend.
Your piece reminded me of Brian Berletti who emphasizes that American propaganda is the US Empire’s secret powerful weapon. It is a cultural solvent in which any other group and culture can be dissolved and turned into something unrecognizable. Specifically in UA and Armenia, you are seeing how whole nations can be put on the path to dissolution.
And this mind virus affects in particular the compromised liberal elites that so many nations have on board.
Americans themselves have also been completed subjugated to endless propaganda, commercial or otherwise, to the point that there is no cultural identity or even culture left, just silly imitations. When people stop having kids and commit genital mutilation on their progeny you are approaching an asymptote.