LRB-4801/1
CMH:cjs&wlj
2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
2023 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTIO N 81
October 30, 2023 - Introduced by Senators KNODL, COWLES, FELZKOWSKI and NASS,
cosponsored by Representatives GUNDRUM, CALLAHAN, DITTRICH, GOEBEN, S.
JOHNSON, KITCHENS, MURPHY, NEDWESKI, O'CONNOR, PENTERMAN, RETTINGER,
ROZAR, TITTL and WICHGERS. Referred to Committee on Senate Organization.
Relating to: commemorating November 7, 2023, as V ictims of Communism
Memorial Day.
Whereas, it has been 175 years since the publication of The Communist
Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; and
Whereas, it has been 106 years since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and
the establishment of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin; and
Whereas, the formation of the Soviet Union led to decades of oppression and
violence against the Russian people; and
Whereas, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's policy of agricultural collectivization
forced millions of Russians off their land and led to a catastrophic famine in the
Soviet Union; and
Whereas, Joseph Stalin used the famine to kill more than 3 million Ukrainians
to eliminate chances of Ukrainian independence in what has today become known
as the Holodomor; and
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LRB-4801/1
CMH:cjs&wlj
2023 - 2024 Legislature
Whereas, the historical ramifications of the Holodomor are still felt to this day,
most recently with Russian President Vladimir Putin's unjustified invasion of
Ukraine; and
Whereas, estimates of Stalin's death toll range from 6 million to 20 million
people through mass murder, deportations, forced labor, and the Great Purge; and
Whereas, the Soviet Union imposed communist states across Eastern Europe
following the end of World War II, leading to a mass emigration of 15 million people
from Eastern Europe to the free nations of Western Europe; and
Whereas, following the communist takeover of China, dictator Mao Zedong's
Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of 45 million people; and
Whereas, numerous genocides on a smaller scale have taken place by
communist leaders like Fidel Castro in Cuba, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh in
North Vietnam, the Kim family in North Korea, and others; and
Whereas, it is estimated that nearly 100 million people have been killed by
communist regimes worldwide; and
Whereas, communism has continuously proven to be a failure and is not
compatible with American principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and
free market capitalism; and
Whereas, President Ronald Reagan declared that “freedom and democracy will
leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history”; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the senate, the assembly concurring, That the members of the
Wisconsin Legislature commemorate November 7, 2023, as Victims of Communism
Memorial Day.
(END)
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