Two Boys-Two Lives-Two Legacies
On December 18, 1878, a woman in the Soviet Republic of Georgia gave birth to a boy whose political and revolutionary life would dramatically affect millions of people in a nation that spans eleven time zones and boasts one-sixth of the world’s landmass. That boy grew to be the man history would know as Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin. He won power over the masses in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in 1924. He began to ruthlessly eliminate anyone who stood in the way of his idea of creating the perfect paradise within the USSR.
One such group was the people of Ukraine. Fiercely independent and culturally rich, they increasingly became a threat to Stalin’s dream. In 1929, Stalin began a campaign to rid his country of those who were too Ukrainian and not Soviet. He unleashed a reign of terror—arresting, banishing, and often killing writers, artists, intellectuals, educators, and other independent thinkers. Satisfied, Stalin then turned his attention to the farmers, who, in 1929, made up 80% of the population in the republic of Ukraine. By controlling grain production and turning all privately-owned land into collective farms, Stalin embarked upon destroying the Ukrainian farmer. Resistance met with deadly force by Stalin's government. By 1930, nearly two million farmers were either shot or sent to Siberian concentration camps in the space of one year. Stalin established his own Soviet authorities in positions of control and government power as he continued to use food as a weapon to control Ukraine.
Photos taken at Holodomor Victims Memorial
Kiev, Ukraine
Farmers who miraculously survived were forced to give up their grain harvests and other produce. The government quota had to be met before a farmer could keep food for his own family. In a few short years, Stalin continued to raise this quota, making it impossible for a farmer to feed himself. Nothing, even storage for winter, could be kept for private use. A child would be shot if found taking vegetables from a field.
In January 1933, the USSR passed a law sealing Ukraine's borders from other parts of the Soviet Union, thus preventing farmers and families from fleeing to secure food in surrounding republics of Russia or Belarus. Sadly, this also prevented food from coming in. Stalin implemented internal passports, denied to farmers, and effectively isolated the Ukrainian population from the rest of the world. Stalin’s imposed man-made famine came to be known as The Great Famine (Holodomor) or the Ukrainian Genocide of 1932-33. It is estimated 7-10 million Ukrainians died during these years. (Author's note: a recently released movie, Mr. Jones, tells the true story of a Welsh journalist secretly traveling to Ukraine and subsequently, revealing to the world this famine. You can buy the film online-Google Play and Amazon Prime Video.)
During this bleak and desperate time, a group of underground Christians who believed God was with them, began their secretive long journey of escape from Ukraine. With meager provisions, Bibles, and relying literally on hearing God speak to them each day of where to go and stop, they made their way across treacherous terrain through Russia and Kazakhstan. After some time living in Central Asia, God led them down into China. Over twenty years made up this journey for many of these determined and faithful believers. Presently, several books are being written by grandchildren and great-grandchildren telling the fantastic story of survival and God's leading in their lives.
“Because he loves me, says the Lord, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my Name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.”
Upon settling in western China, a family named Dikih had a baby boy, Alex, who grew up learning Chinese and working to help his family. He married a young woman, also part of this ethnic-religious community. As the years passed, he began to venture eastward along with others to find a better life for his family. Shaking the dust of persecution, famine, and hiding, they arrived in Sydney, Australia, in 1959.
On a warm spring day in 1960, eighty-two years after the birth of Stalin and 8,500 miles away, a baby boy was born to Alex and his wife. He eventually would lead a life of influence, but in the opposite direction than Stalin. He would bring life and hope rather than death to the people of Ukraine and the Soviet Union's former republics. Unbeknownst to little Dmitri, who later became known as Jim, his life and story though painful, would bring healing and forgiveness to hundreds and come full circle back to the land of his heritage.
“As we yield to God’s purposes, we unknowingly write life stories that make a mark on history.”
