The U.S. Committee for Holodomor-Genocide Awareness has launched a petition for Amazon to remove Soviet-era merchandise from its inventory. The announcement from the organization was posted on Facebook on April 26, with comments on the post calling Amazon’s decision to sell these items “white-washing history.” (Another comment noted that Amazon also sells Nazi memorabilia.)
A simple search on Amazon for “Soviet memorabilia” pulls up items such as “Victory Day” medals commemorating the Soviet victory in the “Great Patriotic War” (as Soviet nostalgists call the second world war); propaganda material, including a poster of the Soviet flag being raised over the Reichstag in 1945; Soviet commemorative coins and currency; KGB insignias, Soviet badges and propaganda pins; and more. Many of these items are adorned with the offensive hammer and sickle of the USSR, which should be acknowledged as a symbol of oppression, mass killing, terror and subjugation.