DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich

**Sillaycheg** · 07-14-2008, 08:48 PM

What I was trying to say was, as Fausto picked up, that two murderous criminal dictators, one an imported Austrian, the other an imported Georgian (i.e. neither had any loyalty from birth to the peoples they were oppressing), drew a line on a piece of paper, i.e. the Secret Protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, with Stalin, I think, holding the pencil, and divided Europe in two. Half for me, half for you. Like you could do with a cake at a picnic.

All the pathos-soaked rhetoric that we hear about the Soviet Union rescuing Europe from the nasty Nazis is only partly true. Western European armchair Communists and Marxists still don't want to believe what is staring them in the face: that the Russians were so cowed and stupid that they let Stalin create a system which was based on fear, lies and murder. And, of course, a system where you kept your nose clean. And joined the KGB if that would save your skin. Etc. Not like in Britain.

Stalin was as much of an anti-Semite as Hitler. So one way for a Leningrad Jew to escape anti-Semitism in Russia was to move to the Baltic countries. There were honourable people, like the semioticist Yuri Lotman and his wife Zara Mintz, who moved to Tartu, Estonia. A lot of Russian Jews, however, found life so much better in the Baltic republics, so they joined the KGB and got posted there. Who could blame them? But the result: Balts don't like Jews, because they are associated with being KGB agents. So much for multiculturalism.

The Balts did not feel that they were rescued from the Soviets by the Germans (1941) or from the Germans by the Soviets (1944). Two occupations do not make freedom.

During WWII, the Russians were our allies. Churchill had to do some calculations to see how best to smite the Nazi foe. Unfortunately for the Balts, once WWII was over, and everybody was thoroughly sick of war, destruction and death, there was no appetite in the West for rescuing the Balts from Soviet oppression. Plans were no doubt made, the U.S. Army had an Estonian language manual ready (I've got a copy), should they need to infiltrate freedom fighters into the Baltic states. But no one wanted a nuclear war with Russia. So the Balts drew the short straw.

If you know your history, Solzhenitsyn makes so much more sense. Remember that Solzhenitsyn was sent to the Gulag at the end of WWII. The Soviets / Russians were still up to their tricks, even though the nastiest dictator, Stalin, died in 1953. The Soviets finally got fed up of this troublesome man and booted him out in 1974. He then went to live in Canada. Strangely enough, now that he is back in Russia, he appears to have become an almost chauvinistic Russian patriot.

07-14-2008, 08:48 PM	#9
Sillaycheg Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 494 Senior Member	What I was trying to say was, as Fausto picked up, that two murderous criminal dictators, one an imported Austrian, the other an imported Georgian (i.e. neither had any loyalty from birth to the peoples they were oppressing), drew a line on a piece of paper, i.e. the Secret Protocol to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, with Stalin, I think, holding the pencil, and divided Europe in two. Half for me, half for you. Like you could do with a cake at a picnic. All the pathos-soaked rhetoric that we hear about the Soviet Union rescuing Europe from the nasty Nazis is only partly true. Western European armchair Communists and Marxists still don't want to believe what is staring them in the face: that the Russians were so cowed and stupid that they let Stalin create a system which was based on fear, lies and murder. And, of course, a system where you kept your nose clean. And joined the KGB if that would save your skin. Etc. Not like in Britain. Stalin was as much of an anti-Semite as Hitler. So one way for a Leningrad Jew to escape anti-Semitism in Russia was to move to the Baltic countries. There were honourable people, like the semioticist Yuri Lotman and his wife Zara Mintz, who moved to Tartu, Estonia. A lot of Russian Jews, however, found life so much better in the Baltic republics, so they joined the KGB and got posted there. Who could blame them? But the result: Balts don't like Jews, because they are associated with being KGB agents. So much for multiculturalism. The Balts did not feel that they were rescued from the Soviets by the Germans (1941) or from the Germans by the Soviets (1944). Two occupations do not make freedom. During WWII, the Russians were our allies. Churchill had to do some calculations to see how best to smite the Nazi foe. Unfortunately for the Balts, once WWII was over, and everybody was thoroughly sick of war, destruction and death, there was no appetite in the West for rescuing the Balts from Soviet oppression. Plans were no doubt made, the U.S. Army had an Estonian language manual ready (I've got a copy), should they need to infiltrate freedom fighters into the Baltic states. But no one wanted a nuclear war with Russia. So the Balts drew the short straw. If you know your history, Solzhenitsyn makes so much more sense. Remember that Solzhenitsyn was sent to the Gulag at the end of WWII. The Soviets / Russians were still up to their tricks, even though the nastiest dictator, Stalin, died in 1953. The Soviets finally got fed up of this troublesome man and booted him out in 1974. He then went to live in Canada. Strangely enough, now that he is back in Russia, he appears to have become an almost chauvinistic Russian patriot.
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