Sunday, October 18, 2009



Russia returns to normal (for Russia)

We read:
"A Russian historian investigating the fate of Germans imprisoned in the Soviet Union during the second world war has been arrested, in the latest apparent clampdown on historical research into the Stalin era by the Russian authorities. Mikhail Suprun was detained last month by officers from Russia's security services. They searched his apartment and carried off his entire personal archive. He has now been charged with violating privacy laws and, if convicted, faces up to four years in jail.

Suprun had been researching Germans sent to Russia's Arctic gulags. A professor of history at Arkhangelsk's Pomorskiy university, his study included German prisoners of war captured by the Red Army as well as Russian-speaking ethnic Germans, many from southern Russia, deported by Stalin. Both groups ended up in Arkhangelsk camps.

"I had been planning to write two books. I need another two or three years before I can finish them," Suprun told the Guardian today. The historian – who described his arrest as "absurd" – said he had signed an agreement with local officials not to talk further about his case.

But the arrest has provoked outrage in Germany and among leading historians. It comes amid Kremlin attempts to rehabilitate Stalin and to clamp down on independent historical research – with political repression during the Soviet era and victims of the gulag system now taboo topics.

"What we are seeing is the rebirth of control over history," said Rauf Gabidullin, of Arkhangelsk's movement for human rights. "The majority of Russians don't have any idea of the scale of Stalin's repression. Those in power are from the KGB. They don't want people to know what their KGB predecessors were doing, or its huge scope."

Source

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

So long as Putin remains in charge, (and don't think he isn't) Russia will always be the Soviet Union. He's still an old-school, hard-core KGB agent, and he has no intention of giving up his power, to anyone.

Bobby said...

They want to rehabilitate Stalin? I know commies that hate Stalin, but coming from Putin, I guess I'd understand if he had Stalin-ambitions.

Anonymous said...

"1984" was written with the Soviet Union in mind - and clearly nothing has changed in that part of the world - just a case of new labels on old bottles!

Mr. Clean said...

Pal'ing around with commies, Bobby? Typical liberal.

Anonymous said...

Which makes me think ...

Obamaism

Bobby said...

"Pal'ing around with commies, Bobby? Typical liberal."

---You do realize that Ann Coulter is best friends with Bill Maher, a guy who couldn't be more ideologically apart if he wanted to.

As for the commies I knew, I met in college, they had a table and I spoke to them. I wouldn't call them friends since I never got to know them.

However, my ideology does not require a litmus test from me. Jesus himself was friends with both the virtuous and the sinful, you might want to think about that.

So if you're gonna call me a liberal you're gonna have to call Ann Coulter a liberal as well.

Use the Name, Luke said...

Hey, Stalin was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Twice! What more do we need to know?

[/sarcasm off]

Anonymous said...

Bobby said...
"---You do realize that Ann Coulter is best friends with Bill Maher, a guy who couldn't be more ideologically apart if he wanted to."

Where did you get that from, since even oil and water would blend better than those two. Perhaps Coulter's friends with Maher's black, street-hooker, live-in girlfriend?

Mr. Clean said...

"So if you're gonna call me a liberal you're gonna have to call Ann Coulter a liberal as well."

Your logic is impecable. Not.

Bobby said...

Mr. Clean, I may not be a perfect conservative but neither are you.

Anyone who visits this link will see that Mr. Clean has said:

https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=32538379&postID=5828117296179087205

"The world would be a much better place without Rush Limbaugh."

"In addition to your list, other people I can do without: Bill Maher, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Nancy Pelosi, John Ensign, Darth Cheney, H. Clinton, Michele Bachmann, Chris Dodd, Ms. Palin, Barbara Boxer."

I don't know any conservatives who hates Coulter, o'reilly, Cheney and Palin.


As for Maher and Coulter, here's what Coulter has to say about Bill.
http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2005/10/ann_coulter_wit_1.html

Bobby said...

"Maher and Coulter used to be friends in the late ’90s (how close has been subject to various unverified speculations). “She was a fun, witty, engaging party animal,” Maher said in a recent telephonic reminiscence from his Los Angeles office, confirming that the pair used to hang out together in New York but confirming nothing beyond that. “She’s bright. We’d have a lot of fun. A lot of laughs.”"


http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/the_theater_loop/2009/03/2009-speaker-series-the-minds-that-move-the-world---730-pm-wednesday-bill-maher-and-ann-coulter-in-humorous-perspecti.html

So you see, Mr. Clean? My logic if impeccable. If Coulter can "have a lot of fun. A lot of laughs" with a lib like Maher so can I.

Anonymous said...

in the soviet empire the ones who wanted to maintain the leftist practices of the Kremlin where called conservatives , and the ones trying to move to the center where called liberals . in the U.S. the conservatives wanted nether radical left nor radical right policies , and the liberals have been pushing to the left for decades .

If my president and his party faithful get everything they want , I will without changing any of my philosophies become a liberal .

SMTSA

Robert said...

It also used to be the case in the U.S. that those who wanted to roll back the gains in individual liberty and standards of living achieved in the American and Industrial Revolutions and conserve the old, medieval feudal order, where elites lived off the fruit of the labor of the peasants and governments gave tax money to favored corporations, were known as conservatives, while those who favored maintaining and expanding individual liberty were known as liberals. That lasted until those formerly known as "conservatives" bought the support of intellectuals and began perverting the meanings of the words, eventually inverting the terms, and appropriating the "liberal" label for themselves, and branding those who favored maintaining and expanding individual liberty as "conservatives", the meanings by which we understand the terms now.

Anonymous said...

it comes down to who owns the status quo , the radical left or the radical right have historically produced unsavory people and tragic results

SMTSA