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A blog about the struggles of the Ukrainian people, particularly during WWII, when roughly 10 million Ukrainian civilians were killed, more than any other nation.
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Brian Spadora
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Scattered Graves: A Blog By Brian Spadora

English - History, Ukraine, Wwii
http://brianspadora.com
Scattered Graves · 7M ago

Interview With Novelist and Activist Vasyl Shklyar

I had the opportunity recently to interview the Ukrainian novelist Vasyl Shklyar.  Shklyar has attracted a lot of attention in Ukraine this year both for his bestselling novel, Black Raven, as well for the statements he’s made against the erosion of freedoms that has taken place under President Vikt
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Scattered Graves · 8M ago

A Jew, a Ukrainian Jew, and a Gentile Ukrainophile head onto the Internet…

Consciously or unconsciously, I have largely avoided the controversy concerning Ukrainian–particularly Ukrainian nationalist–participation in the Holocaust.  Two primary reasons for this are that there is still considerable debate about the issue even among historians, which makes me reluctant to sp
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Scattered Graves · 11M ago

The Nazi Invasion of the Soviet Union: One Village’s Perspective

Seventy years ago today, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. For millions who lived in Eastern Europe, this marked the end of a brutal Soviet occupation that had begun in October 1939.  The successive occupations brought uncertainty, fear, and even hope that the new army would be better than the
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Scattered Graves · 1Y ago

Russia’s lack of a response to Chernobyl adds injustice to injury

Ceremonies marked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown across the former Soviet Union today.  But the disaster was not an event confined to April 26, 1986.  It merely began then.  People continue to become sick and die because of Chernobyl.  This piece in the Guardian expla
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

NPR Report on Victory Day and Why Ukrainians Don’t Feel Like Celebrating

It is rare to hear news about Ukraine on the radio and rarer still hear a report that evinces an understanding of Ukraine’s history, so I was encouraged by this story on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition” yesterday: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126630828. The report ex
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

ASN Day One: Ukrainians and Jews

I am attending the Association for the Study of Nationalities Convention (April 15-17) at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute.  This is my first post about the convention. My schedule allowed me to attend just one panel from the opening day of the ASN Convention, “Ukrainians and Jews: National
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

A Monument to Ignorance and Barbarism

After five years of studying Ukraine’s history and observing its politics, I thought I could no longer be shocked by Russified Ukrainians, anti-Ukrainian Russians, and those who remain proud Communists with no shame over Communism’s crimes.  But yesterday I read that Communists in Ukraine are prepar
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

Sometimes The Truth Is The Only Justice

There was an interesting piece on NPR about a three-year push by the FBI to close cold-case murders from the civil rights era.  Three years ago, the FBI pledged to investigate cases that had gone unsolved for decades.  The effort is wrapping up now. As FBI Agent Cynthia Deitle explains in the interv
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

Outrage and Shame

I just learned that Volodomyr Vyatrovych, a historian who was serving as director of the archives for Ukraine’s SBU, was fired from that post.  The SBU is the successor to the KGB, and Vyatrovych made great progress in opening the archives from the Soviet era, archives that document the innumerable
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Scattered Graves · 2Y ago

The Boy Who Watched World War II Unfold

Hryhoriy Sesak was born in Lackie Szlacheckie, which is now called Lypivka, when the village, which is about 15 miles from the city of Ivano-Frankivsk, was part of Poland.  He was a boy when he witnessed the Soviet and Nazi occupations.   I interviewed him in 2007 in front of the small farmhouse whe
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