Paul
Goble
Staunton, Christmas 2016 – Many
Russians still view Pavel Postyshev (1887-1939) as their favorite Bolshevik
because of his role, as the author of a letter to “Pravda” on December 28,
1935, calling for the introduction of new year’s trees as substitute for Christmas
trees that the Bolsheviks had banned (ng.ru/ng_religii/2016-12-21/6_412_staroobr.html).
Indeed, Postyshev’s idea, which
spread rapidly across the Soviet Union, brought a dash of color and occasion
for happiness in the otherwise drab and depressing world of Stalin’s times and
is remembered with fondness even now when it is possible to celebrate Christmas
without state interference (azbyka.ru/deti/kak-novogodnyaya-elka-prevratilas-v-rozhdestvenskuyu).e
To this day, some view it as a way
that Christmas was covertly kept alive and even suggest that was Postyshev’s
purpose. Like many in the Stalinist guard, he came from an Old Believer
background and would have had experience in coming up with ways to remember the
faith without calling attention to it.
But most remember it as the mark of
a happy occasion when people could exchange come together for celebratory meals
and exchange presents, a truly secular Christmas not all that different from
the one that unfortunately many people around the world mark in our
increasingly irreligious time.
For one nation in the former Soviet
space, however, new year’s trees because of Postyshev’s involvement in
promoting them should be anathema. Ukrainians know that Postyshev played a key
role in implementing the Holodomor, Stalin’s terror famine that killed millions
of their co-nationals.
Consequently, as Ukrainians move
away from the Soviet past – as when they
tear down statues to Soviet leaders or introduce Santa Claus in place of Father
Frost (novorosinform.org/news/64516)
– they should dispense with yet another symbol linked to those who did
everything in their power to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians.
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