News of the absurd: NDP MLAs get "Hammer and Sickle" vodka pulled from Alberta stores

In the latest -- and one of the most absurd -- example of "social democrats" and others pandering to cartoonish anti-communism, two Alberta NDP government MLAs have successfully pressured the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission to have a Russian vodka brand pulled from Alberta stores.

The reason? Because its name and logo, the hammer and sickle, have been deemed as "offensive to the general public".

"Ukranian Canadian Congress (UCC) Alberta chapter president Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz likened it to “having a swastika on a bottle of cognac.”", which is a grotesque perversion of history, though one that is common among liberals and on the right.

Her comment is also deeply ironic given that the UCC helped to get a monument to Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych built in Edmonton  -- partly with public funds -- a monument that sits outside the Ukrainian Youth Unity Complex to this day.

These attempts to portray the long, complex and ongoing history of the international communist movement and communist states (past and present) as analogous to the genocidal and barbaric Nazis who started WWII are based on simplistic historical narratives that greatly benefit the rising East European nationalist far right.

In countries such as Ukraine, Poland and Latvia, this has led to a total whitewashing of histories of collaboration with Nazism by governments and nationalists. In some cases attempts have even been made to criminalize talking about this history.

Further Readings:

Secrets and Lies -- Chrystia Freeland's grandfather and collaborating with the Nazis

"Never to Be Forgotten..." Nazi and Nationalist Collaborator WWII Crimes in the Ukraine, Ukraina Society 1986

"Never to Be Forgotten..." Nazi and Nationalist Collaborator WWII Crimes in the Ukraine, Ukraina Society 1986- Olexander M.Butsko (Part II)