9. Russia
Like in Armenia, Stalin wanted to prevent the independence of Ukraine, whose aspirations were noticed in 1917 when the Russian Czar was killed and suddenly the nations he had ruled wanted their freedom. The first person who prevented these aspirations from turning into reality was Lenin who created the Soviet Union, but, nevertheless, the real enemy of Ukraine’s independence was Stalin. Willing to prevent Ukraine from becoming an independent country, Stalin started torturing and killing intellectuals, while other people who had been declared enemies of the regime were taken to gulags where they were forced to work in the fields and grow vegetables and rice without being given any salary. Many of them were literally starved to death, sick or exhausted. Historians have estimated that more than 7 million people died during this awful period which was ended when World War II broke out and the Nazi army entered the country starting their own type of genocide.
