Recent headlines about rare minerals in Ukraine, remind me of the day trip we took while visiting Ukraine twenty years ago when I got to view a titanium mine near Zhytomyr.
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| Titanium mine near Zhytomyr |
Whenever I hear or see Zhytomyr in the news, I pay attention. That’s where my grandfather was arrested, interrogated and executed back in 1937. When I stayed there in 2004 it was a sleepy, maybe even depressed, town still boasting its Lenin statue. I was more interested in the secret police archives than in Zhytomyr’s mines.
Now, Zhytomyr might become a hub for American mining companies—or not! That will definitely bring changes to the area. I hope they’re good ones. This area, once known as Volhynia, has been through decades of dark times … expertly discussed in Timothy Synder’s Bloodlands. (Link to YouTube lecture he gave). From collectivization to famine to Nazi terror to extreme poverty and neglect … maybe titanium will bring prosperity. But so far, Zhytomyr in 2025, has only more turmoil.
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| With Lenin in 2004 town square of Zhytomyr |
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| Zhytomyr ditch where my grandfather's body was thrown after his 1937 execution |
