American Historical Review, October 1993

romaninukraine.com/Stuff/GTY-Penal_System.pdf

Centered in Moscow and the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, the networks trafficking women run east to Japan and Thailand, where thousands of young Slavic women now work against their will as prostitutes, and west to the Adriatic Coast and beyond. The routes are controlled by Russian crime gangs based in Moscow. Even when they do not specifically move the women overseas, they provide security, logistical support, liaison with brothel owners in many countries and, usually, false documents.

Women often start their hellish journey by choice. Seeking a better life, they are lured by local advertisements for good jobs in foreign countries at wages they could never imagine at home.

In Ukraine alone, the number of women who leave is staggering. As many as 400,000 women under 30 have gone in the past decade, according to their country’s Interior Ministry. The Thai Embassy in Moscow, which processes visa applications from Russia and Ukraine, says it receives nearly 1,000 visa applications a day, most of these from women.

Israel is a fairly typical destination. Prostitution is not illegal here, although brothels are, and with 250,000 foreign male workers — most of whom are single or here without their wives — the demand is great. Police officials estimate that there are 25,000 paid sexual transactions every day. Brothels are ubiquitous. . . .

Many end up like Irina. Stunned and outraged by the sudden order to prostitute herself, she simply refused. She was beaten and raped before she succumbed. Finally she got a break. The brothel was raided and she was brought here to Neve Tirtsa in Ramle, the only women’s prison in Israel. Now, like hundreds of Ukrainian and Russian women with no documents or obvious forgeries, she is waiting to be sent home.

”I don’t think the man who ruined my life will even be fined,” she said softly, slow tears filling her enormous green eyes. ”You can call me a fool for coming here. That’s my crime. I am stupid. A stupid girl from a little village. But can people really buy and sell women and get away with it? Sometimes I sit here and ask myself if that really happened to me, if it can really happen at all.”

Then, waving her arm toward the muddy prison yard, where Russian is spoken more commonly than Hebrew, she whispered one last thought: ”I’m not the only one, you know. They have ruined us all.” . . .

The Tropicana, in Tel Aviv’s bustling business district, is one of the busiest bordellos. The women who work there, like nearly all prostitutes in Israel today, are Russian. Their boss, however, is not.

”Israelis love Russian girls,” said Jacob Golan, who owns this and two other clubs, and spoke willingly about the business he finds so ”successful.” ”They are blonde and good-looking and different from us,” he said, chuckling as he drew his hand over his black hair. ”And they are desperate. They are ready to do anything for money.”

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/01/11/world/contraband-women-a-special-report-traffickers-new-cargo-naive-slavic-women.html

What a disgraceful thing to do!

The family of a Welsh journalist who uncovered the horrific truth about a Ukranian famine claims an upcoming film’s depiction of him eating the remains of a dead boy is one of ‘multiple fictions’ invented by the screenwriter.

Gareth Jones travelled to the Soviet Union and onto Ukraine in 1933.

There, he uncovered truths about the Holodomor, a horrific famine that claimed the lives of millions.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7931129/Family-Welsh-journalist-blast-new-movie-Mr-Jones-showing-resorting-CANNIBALISM.html

Introductory remarks by Frank Sysyn, Professor of History, University of Alberta, at the Symposium — Jews and Ukrainians: A Millennium of Co-Existence, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, 27 October 2016.

– In the 1960s the Ukrainian diaspora formed dialogue groups working directly with Jews in Israel, not between the Ukrainian diaspora and the Jewish diaspora
– 1:28 Two major historical paradigms of Jewish Ukrainian visions of Ukraine: 1) Early modern, end of the 18th century, 2) Modernization, emancipation, nation and state
– 2:20 Jews supported of the oppressive regime of the Polish-Lithuanian State against Ukrainians
– 2:35 Ukraine was the land of milk and honey, Ukraine was a “Ukrainian Volcano”. Ukraine offered Jews ability to live in a way they had never lived before, to take up new positions but this was dangerous and often lead to violence
– 3:13 Modernization, emancipation, nation and state
– 3:48 Jews opposed to social and cultural advancement of Ukrainian population
– 5:00 Dangers of stereotypes, Kulish, Jewish historians
– 7:00 Context for difficult stories
– 9:32 Ethnic Jews: 38,000 people on the Canadian census declared themselves ethnic Jews but not Jews by religion
– 10:02 Many Ukrainians viewed Jews as a nation before Jews themselves
– 10:17 Categories of Ukrainian Jews and Jewish Ukrainians
– 10:56 Holodomor project, Temerty Foundation; 4-5 million killed in Ukraine during the Holodomor. Stalin
– 12:10 Special treatment of Ukraine. Many members of the Ukrainian government were of Jewish extraction.
– 12:51 Mennonites were a great segment of the population in Ukraine. Mennonite committee in the West got aid through to Ukraine during the Holodomor, bribed Soviet authorities and saved lives
– 13:20 Maidan changed the entire civic national makeup of Ukraine. Russian Jews/Ukrainian Jews in the diaspora are retro-grade in their views and support Putin

I’m now very curious to read the book.

I stumbled across this really fascinating discussion by Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie about Chabad in Russia and Ukraine. You get a little bit of news about their revival after Communism, struggling to build ties between communities despite the watchful eye of the KGB, and, interesting for me two rivalries — 1. between Chabad and Mossad, and 2. between Chabad and Western Jewish Lobbies.

Video here: https://torah.com/learn/2019/01/15/chabad-mossad-and-the-kgb/

4:30 – Underground network run by Chabad superior to Mossad’s.

5:00 – Same division of Mossad that integrated with Chabad’s underground network, is the one whhich ran Jonathan Pollard in the US.

7:30 – Chabad system was a huge secret to Jews of America and Mossad as well.

13:00 – Ari Fleisher (Bush Administration) Connection.

16:00 to 17:00 – How Chabad U.S. prepared their man for a trip to Russia to build ties with Jewish community despite KGB interference.

24:15 – Finding people with common surnames in Russia and Israel to get family out of Russia using “family re-unification” rule.

34:30 – Chabad anticipated fall of communism just three weeks after Gorbachov became leader of the Soviet Union. They began preparing for the emigration of Jews from Russia. When Gorbachev heard the story he said “how could they have known when I didn’t know.”

38:30 – Sending people to the big cities in Ukraine and Russia – Moscow, St Peterburg, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv.

42:00 – Description of influence in Dnipropetrovsk.

45:30 – “Putin may not be good for Russia, but he’s definitely good for the Jews of Russia.”

48:20 – Putin bought an apartment for a teacher in Israel whom he apparently knew during childhood.

51:30 – Probably between half a million and a million Jews in Russia.

56:20 – Argument that Jackson Vanic Amendment that didn’t help Jews leave the Soviet Union.

57:10 – Russia, unlike America has to be deal with in quiet back-door deals. American political mentality is that public conflict works.

58:45 – Funny story about Russian-Jewish oligarchs dancing.

59:20 – Boasting about Chabad’s influence in Russia and independence from Western Jewish organization.