2023 - 2024 LEGISLATURE
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2023 ASSEMBLY JOINT RESOLUTION 85
October 30, 2023 - Introduced by Representatives GUNDRUM, CALLAHAN, DITTRICH,
GOEBEN, S. JOHNSON, KITCHENS, MURPHY, NEDWESKI, O'CONNOR, PENTERMAN,
RETTINGER, ROZAR, TITTL and WICHGERS, cosponsored by Senators KNODL,
COWLES, FELZKOWSKI and NASS. Referred to Committee on Rules.
1 Relating to: commemorating November 7, 2023, as Victims of Communism
2 Memorial Day.
3 Whereas, it has been 175 years since the publication of The Communist
4 Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels; and
5 Whereas, it has been 106 years since the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and
6 the establishment of the Soviet Union under Vladimir Lenin; and
7 Whereas, the formation of the Soviet Union led to decades of oppression and
8 violence against the Russian people; and
9 Whereas, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's policy of agricultural collectivization
10 forced millions of Russians off their land and led to a catastrophic famine in the
11 Soviet Union; and
12 Whereas, Joseph Stalin used the famine to kill more than 3 million Ukrainians
13 to eliminate chances of Ukrainian independence in what has today become known
14 as the Holodomor; and
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1 Whereas, the historical ramifications of the Holodomor are still felt to this day,
2 most recently with Russian President Vladimir Putin's unjustified invasion of
3 Ukraine; and
4 Whereas, estimates of Stalin's death toll range from 6 million to 20 million
5 people through mass murder, deportations, forced labor, and the Great Purge; and
6 Whereas, the Soviet Union imposed communist states across Eastern Europe
7 following the end of World War II, leading to a mass emigration of 15 million people
8 from Eastern Europe to the free nations of Western Europe; and
9 Whereas, following the communist takeover of China, dictator Mao Zedong's
10 Great Leap Forward policy led to the deaths of 45 million people; and
11 Whereas, numerous genocides on a smaller scale have taken place by
12 communist leaders like Fidel Castro in Cuba, Pol Pot in Cambodia, Ho Chi Minh in
13 North Vietnam, the Kim family in North Korea, and others; and
14 Whereas, it is estimated that nearly 100 million people have been killed by
15 communist regimes worldwide; and
16 Whereas, communism has continuously proven to be a failure and is not
17 compatible with American principles of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and
18 free market capitalism; and
19 Whereas, President Ronald Reagan declared that “freedom and democracy will
20 leave Marxism and Leninism on the ash heap of history”; now, therefore, be it
21 Resolved by the assembly, the senate concurring, That the members of the
22 Wisconsin Legislature commemorate November 7, 2023, as Victims of Communism
23 Memorial Day.
24 (END)