2023 Senate Joint Resolution 81
ENROLLED JOINT RESOLUTION
Relating to: commemorating November 7, 2023, as Victims 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
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.
