The Architecture of Genocide: Russia’s Strategic Imprint
Systematic Erasure: Russia’s Role in a Genocidal Blueprint / Part 3
Adel Bashqawi
October 06, 2025
This is the third of four parts in an article titled:
The Architecture of Genocide: Russia’s Strategic Imprint
Systematic Erasure: Russia’s Role in a Genocidal Blueprint
Part III: Echoes of Empire — Russia’s War on Ukraine and the Legacy of Genocide
It is worthwhile to examine Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, beginning in February 2014, when Russian forces infiltrated city centers and strategic areas in Crimea. They occupied and separated the peninsula from Ukraine, unjustly and aggressively annexing it to the Russian state under a veil of lies and illusions. In addition, Russia created loyalist armed militias in southeastern regions of Ukraine to spread chaos and seize territory for future annexation. The attacks escalated in February 2022, when Russia declared war and launched a full-scale invasion across multiple fronts. The goal was clear: to occupy and annex independent, sovereign Ukraine—or parts of it—into the Russian colonial state, driven by nostalgia for the Soviet era.
Famine Genocide: The Holodomor
Ukraine’s suffering under Russian rule predates the current war. In the early 1930s, the Soviet regime employed innovative and brutal methods to eliminate millions of Ukrainians—most notably through starvation. Despite being one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union and a major agricultural producer, Ukraine was subjected to a man-made famine that defies logic and morality. The tyrannical authorities deprived Ukrainians of their own harvests, leading to the extermination of millions.
Russia’s scorched-earth policy contributed to the destruction of towns and villages, while demographic engineering replaced indigenous populations with pro-Russian settlers. These settlers were initially housed in military forts, which served as frontline posts for systematic operations aimed at expanding territorial control. As one source notes: “The regime’s brutality was not incidental—it was systemic. Racist and fascist policies marginalized, exterminated, ethnically cleansed, and forcibly annexed entire peoples and nations against their will.”[1]
The Soviet tyranny and genocide were extensions of the infamous crimes of the Russian Empire. “Intentional brutal acts, non-humanitarian hunger, and starvation were the circumstances experienced by the Ukrainians. They had endured a tip of the iceberg. Stalin was grabbing Ukraine entirely and intended to change its national character… The victims of Stalin’s murderous attack by famine on the Ukrainian people, which claimed as many as ten million lives, intentionally led to the Russification of Ukraine, and thus set the stage for many of today’s problems there.” [2]
In 1932 and 1933, millions of Ukrainians were killed in the Holodomor—a man-made famine engineered by Stalin’s Soviet government. The primary victims were rural farmers and villagers, who made up roughly 80% of Ukraine’s population. Scholarly estimates range from 3.5 to 7 million deaths, with the most detailed demographic studies placing the toll at 3.9 million. [3]
The Holodomor exemplifies how prejudice and a desire to dominate an ethnic group can lead to mass oppression and genocide. Four integral components of this genocidal process were identified:
- The decimation of Ukrainian national elites (political and cultural leaders)
- The destruction of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church
- The starvation of the Ukrainian farming population
- The replacement of Ukrainians with settlers from the RSFSR and elsewhere [4]
Contemporary Challenges and Risks
Europe is no longer sitting idly by. With Russia’s overt and covert ambitions laid bare, countering these threats has become a priority for collective defense. The urgency of supporting Ukraine is now widely recognized. While some states once played the role of “deaf, dumb, and blind,” pretending not to comprehend the unfolding tragedy, that era is fading.
Former Soviet republics and Eastern European countries—once aligned with the Soviet Union—know firsthand the truth about Russia’s aggressive policies toward oppressed peoples. In 2014, Russia violated the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and accelerated its occupation of Crimea. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 confirmed that peace with the imperial Russian state is no longer a realistic prospect.
French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that Russia has become a constant destabilizing force and a threat to many European nations. He urged Europeans not to be naive about the Kremlin. According to Le Figaro, Macron described Vladimir Putin as “a predator, a cannibal at our gates” who must continue to feed for his own survival. [5] [6]
Russia’s ambitions in Ukraine stem from its strategic location at Europe’s gateway, its rich natural resources, fertile agricultural lands, and abundant inland and coastal waters. The war has displaced a third of Ukraine’s population: over 9 million have fled abroad, while approximately 6 million are internally displaced.
It is worth noting that 3 million Ukrainians were sent to Russia—some forcibly deported—constituting another form of war crime. Russian troops have committed atrocities including genocide against civilians in Kyiv, Chernihiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv, Izyum, Sumy, Bucha, Kherson, and other locations. As always, Russia denies responsibility for crimes against humanity. Its policy of colonial acquisition continues unabated, indifferent to the suffering it causes.
In its aggressive wars, Russia recruits young men from non-Slavic peoples and nations that were arbitrarily occupied and annexed into its colonial entity. These youth are forcibly conscripted and sent to die in Russia’s imperial wars—such as the ongoing war in Ukraine—further deepening the cycle of oppression and exploitation.
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References:
[1] https://justicefornorthcaucasus.info/?p=1251685947
[2] (Circassia: Born to Be Free, Bashqawi A., p. 260)
[3] https://cla.umn.edu/chgs/holocaust-genocide-education/resource-guides/holodomor
[4] Circassia and Ukraine: Two Nations Even Russian Genocide Can’t Destroy, Bashqawi A., p. 12)
[5] https://charter97.org/en/news/2025/8/19/652679/
[6] https://x.com/Mylovanov/status/1958106665380630985
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To be continued…
