The Re-Writing of Russian History

December 1, 2009, 11:29 AM ET

By Iain Martin

Vladimir Putin is determined that Russian children learn a more “positive” and patriotic version of their nation’s troubled history. New books have been commissioned for Russian schools and the mass-murdering tyrant Stalin is being rehabilitated.

AFP/Getty Images

John Sweeney examines this trend in a new film for BBC2, and he previews it with a piece in the Times.
When Sweeney quotes passages from one of the “positive history” school textbooks, by author Aleksandr Filippov, the effect is decidedly eerie. As he says, it’s as though the clock has struck 13.
In the Great Famine, covered up in the west by Stalin’s useful idiots, somewhere between three million and 10 million people died. But in 83 pages on the industrialization of the period, Filippov deals with this in one paragraph.
On page 424 of his book, Filippov writes: “the anti-Fascist coalition was rather a strange one during the whole of the Second World War. The people of one of its members — the Soviet Union — spilt blood on its battlefields. The other members of the coalition (Great Britain and especially the U.S.) limited themselves mainly to supplying arms, materials and provisions to the U.S.S.R. until a decisive turning point was reached during the war. At the end of the war they tried to benefit from the fruits of the general victory and did not even have any scruples about holding separate (unilateral) talks with the enemy.”
Eh? For a start, it is simply not true that the Allies held separate talks with the enemy. But what of the victims of Stalin’s terror? Somewhere north of three million people died. It may have even been as many as 20 million.
Asks Sweeney: “How does the “positive history” book cover this? It quotes one number for people killed — specifically, those condemned to death: 786,000. Sweeney: “Where does it say in your book that millions died in Stalin’s Terror?”  Filippov: “Let’s have a look. Here is the bit about the repressions, and it is spread over three pages.” Sweeney: “So 786,000 were condemned to death. Where does it say that millions died? It’s not there, is it?” Filippov appeared to search for a reference, in vain.”
When those in the the West say they are worried about Russia, they tend to focus on energy supplies or the imprisonment of refusnik oligarchs. But the strong cultural undercurrents are just as important. An alternative “patriotic” reality is under construction.

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From: Paul Gadaloff <gadaloff@...>
Subject: Re: [RKKA] "The Dawns Here Are Quiet"
To: RKKA@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 12:44 AM

 

You too !!!  I lent my two disc copy of this movie to one too many person too !!! No one ever forgets the mass bathing scene in this...

 

PG

----- Original Message -----

From: Stan Moore

To: RKKA

Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 2009 7:26 AM

Subject: [RKKA] "The Dawns Here Are Quiet"

 

http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ The_Dawns_ Here_Are_ Quiet           The only part of the film that I did not care for was the postwar quad 23mm AA gun the women used.  The area this was filmed in, is nearly as beautiful as the area near Asheville, NC, where "The Last of the Mohicans" was filmed.   http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Ruskeala        I loaned my DVD of this film to a woman from Arlington at Zavalla.  DanK, could you email me offlist with her name and phone number so I can contact her about returning it?   Stas

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From: Timur Tsend <timur38@...>
Subject: Re: [RKKA] Soviet/Russian military movies
To: RKKA@yahoogroups.com, "Fernando Bonmati" <mariusmules@...>, "Vladimir Illya Boridin" <MountedRecon13@...>, "Georgi Alexandrovich Halletskoya" <Cwjag@...>, "Dimitri Ivanovych Kashikov" <razors_edge2002@...>, "Petral Kravchuck" <infantry61gew98@...>, "Pyotr Pyotrovich Markov" <wheaty45@...>, "Andrei Gregor Mashkov" <fusilier73@...>, "Galen McGrane" <wermac1940@...>, "Svetlana Petrov" <akitykat@...>, "Velodya Mikhailovich Petrov" <shatnerpossum@...>, "Volodymyr Ivan Vsahdneek" <gebirggfp@...>, "Peoples Army" <rkka@yahoogroups.com>, "Red Army Reenactor" <redarmy-reenactor@yahoogroups.com>, "Frontovik" <frontovik@yahoogroups.com>, redhorseman@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2009, 9:35 AM

 

Here is the Youtube playlist. This includes the whole movie. Something to check oout before you buy it.

 

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=e79EryzetBc&videos=WfR2gCTin7M&playnext_from= TL&playnext=1

 

 

Thank you,

 

Comrade Akimov

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From: Bruce gadbois <mountedrecon13@ yahoo.com>
To: Timur Akimov <timur38@yahoo. com>; Fernando Bonmati <mariusmules@ yahoo.com>; Vladimir Illya Boridin <MountedRecon13@ Yahoo.com>; Georgi Alexandrovich Halletskoya <Cwjag@...>; Dimitri Ivanovych Kashikov <razors_edge2002@ hotmail.com>; Petral Kravchuck <infantry61gew98@ aol.com>; Pyotr Pyotrovich Markov <wheaty45@hotmail. com>; Andrei Gregor Mashkov <fusilier73@yahoo. com>; Galen McGrane <wermac1940@aol. com>; Svetlana Petrov <akitykat@yahoo. com>; Velodya Mikhailovich Petrov <shatnerpossum@ yahoo.com>; Volodymyr Ivan Vsahdneek <gebirggfp@yahoo. com>; Peoples Army <rkka@yahoogroups. com>; Red Army Reenactor <redarmy-reenactor@ yahoogroups. com>; Frontovik <frontovik@yahoogrou ps.com>; redhorseman@ yahoogroups. com
Sent: Wed, November 25, 2009 12:09:05 PM
Subject: [RKKA] Soviet/Russian military movies

 

10. http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0068161/ A zori zdes tikhiye (1972) ("Lovages are quite here") - This movie almost got "Oscar" - It is about small group of women which were flak crews in Soviet rear. They had to fight against superior group of German paratroopers- saboteurs. I read an English translation of the book on which  this movie was based.  It was in the library at the Soviet Army base I was on during my participation in the arms reduction treaty.  I believe the title was "They say spring is quiet here."  I found it to be an enjoyable read about this little know incident in W W II.  The women in the story and the old sergeant in charge were really great characters.  It would be interesting to see the movie.

 

10. http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0068161/ A zori zdes tikhiye (1972) ("Lovages are quite here") - This movie almost got "Oscar" - It is about small group of women which were flak crews in Soviet rear. They had to fight against superior group of German paratroopers- saboteurs. I read an English translation of the book on which  this movie was based.  It was in the library at the Soviet Army base I was on during my participation in the arms reduction treaty.  I believe the title was "They say spring is quiet here."  I found it to be an enjoyable read about this little know incident in W W II.  The women in the story and the old sergeant in charge were really great characters.  It would be interesting to see the movie.

 

Here are a couple of sources for those who want to get copies of some of the movies Andrey lists.

International Historic Films at http://www.Historic videos.com
This has a number of the films Andrey mentioned, including Come and See and The Cranes Are Flying (I got my copies of these from this company). It also includes documentaries on the Red Army, etc, produced by the Soviet government in the years just before the beginning of WWII, as well as some produced during the war.

RBCmp3.com is another good source of Russian language films (VHS and DVD) as well as music CDs and books. They have a separate section entitled "Russian films with English subtitles" that is useful for those who don't speak Russian, and you can search at this location for "war films". I noticed several of the ones Andrey listed are available at this site.

You also may want to check out Armchair General Issue 6 when it comes out next January. In the Dispatches section, it's planned to have a section on Top 10 War Films, and one of the films Andrey lists made the Top 10 list (not bad considering the fact that most of the films our readers would necessarily be familiar with are mainly limited to those produced in USA, UK, and Germany).
 
Here are movies with English Audio or subtittles

You will get it for some days after giving money.

http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=24115
Torpedonostsy (1983)
("Torpedo-bombers" )


http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=26309
Letjat zhuravli (1957)
("Cranes are flying")


http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=29172
Zhenya, Zhenechka i 'Katyusha' (1967)

http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=26306
Ballada o soldate (1959)
("Ballade about soldier")


http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=34951
A zori zdes tikhiye (1972)
("Lovages are quite here")


Additional movie:

http://www.rbcmp3. com/store/ product.. ..9810&sku=29343
“Father of soldier”
In 1941 old Georgian arrived in infantry unit for meeting with son. And he joined to unit and became to fight.
 
Here is other GREAT link on US E-shop with Russian-Soviet movies

http://www.russianb eat.com/v_ tree.cf.. .E5%ED%ED% FB%E5

You will find here very many movies from my list.

Unfortunally not all these movies are translated in English.

Here is link on other excellent classic movie about Soviet spy in Germany

http://www.russianb eat.com/v_ tree.cf.. .E5%ED%ED% FB%E5
 
If you are interesting about Russian submariners. ..

Here is link on "72 meters", it is modern Russian movie about submariners, it is "Russian answer on K-19" according advertisement.

http://www.russianb eat.com/v_ tree.cf.. .E5%F2%ED% FB%E9

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ABOUT MODERN RUSSIAN MILITARY MOVIES

I want to say a couple of words about modern Russian movies about the WWII.

For a few last years patriotism had been very popular in Russia. The people had liked to look movies about Great Patriotic War, the actors who had been played bandits a few years ago had been playing Soviet officers and soldiers for a few last years.

And it is not only about WWII events, it is also about modern police, secret services and militaries.

The Russian moviemakers also had seen what the people had been wanting to see so they had been beginning to produce a lot of movies about WWII. They had been producing movies and mini-TV series.

But... But the average quality of those movies and mini-TV series is very bad according my opinion. Sometimes it looks like those who had written the scenarios for the modern movies are idiots. They use stamps very often, it looks like they made a "soap opera" or a gamngster movie but a day after they were ordered to make a military movie.

Those guys make a market on military movies, they do not try to create a masterpiece. They had been got much money to make a movie and they spent it.

For example, in the most of modern movies there is an representative of NKVD ("osobist") who is a very bad guy. And often it looks like that guy harmed more than the Germans. I know that there were such bad guys but their amount is too much im modern Russian movies.

I can say a few examples:

"Shtrafbat" ("A penal battalion")- the actors are the best Russian actors, the played very well but the movie is complete idiotism which is not related to reality. One stupidity follows after another, one false - after another. It looks like the moviemakers wanted to show Red Army very bad. There was a very bad guy - representative of NKVD.

"Na bezymiannoi vysote" ("On a nameless hill") - I can say the same. Actors were great, the movie was a complete idiotism. Of course, there was a very bad guy - representative of NKVD.

"Convoy PQ-17". I suppose you can imagine about what this movie was. It is a mini-TV series based on the very famous in the USSR book - "Requiem to the convoy PQ-17" by V. Pikul. The book was a bestseller in the 80th when the Soviet people didn't know anything about the actions of the Western Allies in WWII. I was disappointed by the movie. The actors play very well, the music was very sad and sometimes tears welled up. But... The movie was made in the worst traditions of the Soviet propaganda. The Allied officers were shown as cowards or idiots, only ordinary Allied sailors were shown well.
I read the book which describes the events approximately correctly. But what the moviemakers had done!!! The real feats of real Allied ships that had been decribed in the book they transferred to one SOVIET ship. So in the result in the movie the Soviet ship made a few heroic actions that in reality were made by a few Allied ships (by escort and cargo ships). For example, in the book a few sailors of an Allied transport used some tanks that were placed on the deck as a cargo to defend against a German submarine. In the movie it was done by in the Soviet transport ship. In the book the story of a small escort ship was described. The escort ship refused to abandone the convoy and continued to escort a few transports which had been gathered around it. The commander of the escort ship ordered to paint all the ships in white and to move along the ice edge. In the movie the single Soviet ship re-painted in white and moved along the edge of the ice, nothing was spoken about the actions of that escort ship. And, of course, there was a very bad guy - representative of NKVD. He ordered to shoot two women who had seen that much gold was secretly loaded on the cruiser "Edinburg". It was nonsense, there was no one word about it in the book, I never heard about such cases. It looks like somebody saw the scenario and said "What??? Why doesn't it contain anything about bad NKVD-men? Add something about it, it is imposible to make a modern military movie and to not say anyting about bad NKVD-men". But commonly convoy PQ-17 is MUCH better than "Shtrafbat" and "On a nameless hill".

"Svolochi". It is one more complete nonsense. A group of boys-criminals was gathered and trained to make a special saboteur mission. It is something like "Dirty dozen" but about children. The most part of the movie the children were got training and scuffled against each other. The mission was shown for a few last minutes and it is not understandable why children had to done it.

So I want to warn that a label "Made in Russia" doesn't mean that the movie is good and that it shows RUSSIAN point of view. DO NOT SPEND YOUR money on unknown modern Russian movies about WWII. (Also there were a lot of BAD SOVIET movies about WWII so DO NOT BUY unknown Soviet movies about WWII - :-))

I want to repeat that the best Russian modern movie about WWII is "Zvezda" ("Star"). It is the remake of old Soviet movie and this movie is BETTER than his Soviet "brother". It was a real masterpiece.

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Windows 7: I wanted simpler, now it's simpler. I'm a rock star.

 

Here are links on best Soviet movies which I found in www.imdb.com. , and it is practically all best Soviet movies about WWII.
As I understood it is possible to buy it in West but I do not understand about translation of these movies in English.
I suppose that it will be useful for you to look on Eastern Front events by eyes of Soviets/Russians.

If anyone from Western public saw it tell your opinion.

I want to repeat that I wrote only about best movies.

Top 10 movies:

1.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0073488/
Oni srazhalis za rodinu (1975)
("They fought for the Motherland") - One of best Soviet military movies, very many best Soviet famous actors played in this movie. As I remember, this movie got "Oscar" in USA. Summer of 1942... Remainders of broken regiment are retreating in Don region. Their regiment lost most part of men, they fought and retreat very long time but they do not run, they retreat in order and continue to fight when command order to defend positions. Excellent movie.

2.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0057717/
Zhivye i myortvye (1963)
("Alive and dead") - It is one of best military movies. It is about events of 1941, it is based on famous novel of Simonov.

3.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0212194/
Goryachij sneg (1972)
("Burning snow") - It is one of best military movies. It is company scale story about feat of soldiers of 2nd Guard Army in December of 1942, which stopped tanks of German general Got which tried to breakthrough to Stalingrad for saving of encircled German troops.

4.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0063333/
Na vojne, kak na vojne (1968)
("At war is at war") - One of best military movies. Young lieutenant arrives in self-propelled guns unit as commander of self-propelled gun in summer of 1943. He will come in first combat soon and he is nervous... Song from this movie is unofficial hymn of Soviet/Russian tankmen.

5.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0088777/
"Batalyony prosyat ognya" (1985) (mini)
("Battalions asked for artillery cover")- It is one of best military movies. It is about crossing of Dnepr in 1943.

6.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0167900/
Dom, v kotorom ya zhivu (1957)
("House where I live") - One of best Soviet movie, it is very sad story about people who lived in one house for many years including WWII and about fates of these people.

7.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0091251/
Idi i smotri (1985)
("Come and see") - It is one of best movies about partisans, it is very brutal movie, start is quite but in the end spectator will be shocked. It is really cruel movie, in time of USSR this movie was forbidden in DDR, which was considered puppet of USSR in all questions.

8.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0151852/
"Osvobozhdeniye" (1970) (mini)
("Liberation" ) - It is many part movie with same heroes, time of action - from Kursk battle to Berlin operation. There are some propaganda stamps but it is really epic movie.

9.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0067517/
Ofitsery (1971)
("Officers") - Story of some generations of Soviet officers from Civil War to 70th. Excellent romantic movie.

10.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0068161/
A zori zdes tikhiye (1972)
("Lovages are quite here") - This movie almost got "Oscar" - It is about small group of women which were flak crews in Soviet rear. They had to fight against superior group of German paratroopers- saboteurs.


Other good movies:

11.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0144111/
Blokada: Luzhskij rubezh, Pulkovskij meredian (1974)
("Blockade: Luga line, Pulkov meridian") - Part 1 of large movie about defense of Leningrad.

12.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0315844/
Blokada: Leningradskij metronom, Operatsiya Iskra (1977)
("Blockade: Leningrad metronome, Operation "Spark") - Part 2 of large movie about defense of Leningrad.

13.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0069628/
"Semnadtsat mgnovenij vesny" (1973) (mini)
("17 moments of spring") - Classics of Soviet movies. Names of movie heroes became very famous, there were no crimes when this movie was shown in Soviet TV, all USSR population was near TV sets in this time. Later this movie was used in spy schools of KGB. Spring of 1945. Soviet spy Isaev (he is known as Standartenfuhrer SS Shtirlitz, large scale member of SS security service in Berlin) got order to know about possible separate negotiations between unknown German leader and representatives of US intelligence. ..

14.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0052600/
Ballada o soldate (1959)
("Ballade about soldier") - This movie got Oscar in USA - It is about soldier, which got some day leave in summer of 1942 for coming home.

15.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0326450/
Zvezda (2002)
("Star") - It is very sad story about group of soviet army scouts in rear of German troops.

16.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0070861/
V boj idut odni stariki (1973)
("Only veterans come in battle") - It is movie about pilots of fighters in summer of 1944.

17.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0053628/
Baltijskoye nebo - 1 seriya (1960)
("Baltic sky. Part 1") - It is movie about fighter-pilots in time of blockade of Leningrad.

18.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0054659/
Baltijskoye nebo - 2 seriya (1960)
("Baltic sky. Part 2") - continuation.

19.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0059529/
Obyknovennyj fashizm (1965)
("Usual fascism") - It is very good documentary film about fascism ("Nazism" in West) and it's crimes. Soviet version.

20.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0053317/
Sudba cheloveka (1959)
("The fate of the man") - It is very good story about fate of one Soviet soldier.

21.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0055181/
Mir vkhodyashchemu (1961)
("Peace for incoming one") - It is very good movie. Soviet truck is moving through Germany in last days of war. German pregnant woman asked to help...

22.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0050634/
Letjat zhuravli (1957)
("Cranes are flying") - This movie got "Oscar" in USA. Young man is coming at war, his girl is waiting his...

23.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0175809/
Khronika pikiruyushchego bombardirovshchika (1967)
("Chronicle of diving bomber") - This movie is about some days of life of crew of Soviet Pe-2 bomber.

24.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0049001/
Bessmertnyj garnizon (1956)
("Unfading garrison") - It is about feat of garrison of Brest Fortress (It was Soviet/Russian "Alamo") which was encircled in first day of war but fought for month without of hope and didn't surrender.

25.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0141666/
Normandie - Niémen (1960)
("Normandy- Neman") - This movie describes actions of very famous in USSR French fighter squadron (later-regiment) "Normandy" which fought in Eastern front under Soviet command.

26.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0067625/
Proverka na dorogakh (1971)
("Checking in roads") - This movie was not shown in USSR before Gorbatchev's Perestroyka. Partisan detachment. Suddenly Soviet soldier, who was POW and joined to pro-German Vlasov's troops for surviving, came to partisans and said that he wants to fight against Germans. How to treat with him? Soldiers of Red Army had order to not surrender but this soldier even is suited in enemy uniform. Command of partisan detachment decided to check his in combat conditions.

27.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0062523/
Zhenya, Zhenechka i 'Katyusha' (1967)
(Only names so it is nothing to translate) - This movie was not shown in USSR before Gorbatchev's Perestroyka. It is sad comedy about love in war. Romantic intelligent 18-year boy Zhenya from Moscow serve in “Katysha” unit. He loves girl-signaller who also has name Zhenya, blandly – Zhenechka…

28.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0262052/
Torpedonostsy (1983)
("Torpedo-bombers" ) - It is movie about one week of life of pilots of torpedo-bombers of Northern Fleet.

29.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0209212/
Otryad (1984)
("Detachment" ) - Group of Soviet soldiers worked separately from their unit when war began. Suddenly they understood that they are in German rear. They have no weapon but they decide to go in east for connection with Soviet troops.

30.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0089828/
Porokh (1985)
("Powder") - It is about first days of Leningrad blockade. Civilian specialist got order to provide at any price transferring of powder stores from Kronstadt to Leningrad. This movie shows how horrific was that war.

31.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0314947/
Zhavoronok (1964)
("Lark") - Germans decided to check ability of anti-tank guns against really moving T-34. They ordered for some POWs to be crew of T-34 (without ammo) and to move on this road...

32.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0065507/
Byl mesyats maj (1970) (TV)
("It was in May") - Small group of Soviet soldiers got order to live in house of rich German peasant in May of 1945, some days after victory...


33.
http://us.imdb. com/title/ tt0040601/
Molodaja gvardija (1948)
("Young guard") - 1942. Germans occupied town Volgodonsk. Group of former schoolboys decided to fight with Germans. It is based on real events.

34.
http://www.imdb. com/title/ tt0051541/
Dobrovoltsy (1958)
("Volunteers" ) - It is very good romantic movie about 3 friends and their friendship for many years.

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By Leni Friedman Valenta

Monday, November 16

“Is it true,” I asked our cab driver, that a quarter of the former Soviet people admire Stalin?“ “Yes,” he said. “ Stalin won the war. He was a strong leader.” Unasked, he added, “Many people feel things were better under the USSR although there’s no going back now.” I said nothing. On the way to Gori last August my husband and I looked forward to further enlightenments at the Stalin Museum in the dictator’s birthplace.

The singular deficiency of this museum is, of course, world renowned -- zero exhibits on the major crimes of history’s worst mass murderer. True, there is Lenin’s letter describing Stalin’s unfitness to be General Secretary due to his rude, undiplomatic nature. In the gift shop, a female “Red soldier” was selling Stalin T shirts. The tour’s finale was Stalin’s death mask set like on icon in a solitary circle.

To an American this is shocking. These days, Americans only debate whether Hitler or Stalin was worse.. I asked our guide, “Why do so many Georgians revere a bloody dictator?” “It’s mainly the older folks,” she said. “The young don’t know much about either Stalin or Lenin.” (We also heard this from guides at Stalin‘s Sochi dacha and Yerevan‘s military museum). “Sometimes it’s necessary for a strong leader to take harsh measures to bring about the best results,” she adde.

Her comments reflected recent Russian polls which also show that views of Stalin became ‘’far rosier’’ under Putin. But her basic view that the “ends justify the means” is Soviet-speak, only furthering the nostalgic myth, seemingly shared by Vladimir Putin, that the dictator’s “ends”, largely benefited the empire’s people. They did not! Neither his terrifying police state with its arrests and torture of ordinary citizens, nor his introduction of a centralized, planned economy, nor the empire’s huge allocations to the military-industrial Moloch at the expense of agriculture, helped the Soviet people. It only starved them. Today’s generation has either forgotten or never knew that Mikhail Gorbachev launched economic reforms because by 1985 the USSR, still basically anchored in the Stalinist system, was falling into an economic abyss. Thereafter, in the maelstrom of transition, Yeltsin’s attempted democratic revolution was gradually reversed .

As for Stalin “winning the Great Patriotic War” few would deny the massive contribution of the Soviet people, or Stalin’s able stewardship. However, Stalin, in complicity with Hitler, also helped to start the war by parsing and masticating Poland and the Baltics with the 1939 Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. Imagination also blows a fuse, attempting to contemplate the new world order, had the Hitler-Stalin alliance remained intact!

Yet many Russians do abhor Stalin -- among them President Dmitri Medvedev. In a recent video blog of a holiday devoted to victims of repression, he deplored both the ignorance of the young and the efforts of revisionist historians and museums to gloss over Stalin’s crimes. Unfortunately, his welcome tropism towards pluralistic democracy and economic reform is overshadowed in the uneasy dual power arrangement with Putin.

The Stalin museum should follow Medvedev’s lead by exposing the rivers of blood that Stalin spilled. I have some starter suggestions for new exhibits -- and perhaps some intrepid Georgian history teachers can assign such topics to their students: The forced confessions, show trials and destruction of Stalin’s closest colleagues and rivals. The recreation of serfdom through forced collectivization. The 18 million people Stalin sent to the gulags. The bombing of the village communes and wholesale starving of the peasant class. The destruction of the Cossacks. The deportation of various ethnic groups to Siberia in freezing cattle cars. The hideous “Doctor’s Plot” and planned pogrom of the Jews days before his death. As a Jew myself, may I suggest new museum T-shirts bearing an X’d out Stalin portrait with the holocaust slogan, “Never forget.”

While visiting Gori, we interviewed residents bombed in the ‘08 war with Ossetia during the latest eruption of Russia’s imperial disease. Amidst their tales of helicopters, bombs, tanks, deaths, destroyed homes and looted stores, we noted that the enormous statue of Gori’s gory dictator was still standing in Stalin Square. I was reminded that Russia’s 1988-91 democratic movement was once largely powered by ‘Memorial,’ an organization devoted to Stalin’s victims. Is it possible Mr. Medvedev remembers too?


Author Leni Valenta is the CEO of JV&LV, an institute devoted to post-communist studies. The institute’s website is JVLV.net

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Russia holds military march in honor of 1941 parade

www.chinaview. cn 2009-11-07 20:16:20

Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. The Nov. 7, 1941 parade, which commemorated the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was held after Russia joined World War II and aimed to raise morale as Nazi German forces approached Moscow. The troops headed straight to the front line outside Moscow after the parade.(Xinhua/ Lu Jinbo) Photo Gallery>>>     MOSCOW, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform and other historical military costumes, accompanied by two famed T-34 tanks, marched through Moscow's Red Square on Saturday to mark the 68th anniversary of a legendary military parade in 1941.     About 4,000 young Muscovites also participated in the parade, watched by some 6,000 spectators, including at least 45 participants of the 1941 parade.     The Nov. 7, 1941 parade, which commemorated the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was held after Russia joined World War II and aimed to raise morale as Nazi German forces approached Moscow. The troops headed straight to the front line outside Moscow after the parade.     The T-34 Soviet medium tank, often referred to as the best tank design of the war and appearing in the parade for the first time, was the backbone of the Red Army during World War II.     In order to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, or the Great October Socialist Revolution, separate marches and rallies have been planned by communist and other left-wing groups in central Moscow and across the country.

 

Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform parade on the Red Square Nov. 7, 2009 to mark the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)   Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform act as former Soviet soldiers rushing to the front after the military parade on the Red Square during an event held on Nov. 7, 2009, marking the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo) Russian soldiers in World War II Soviet uniform act as former Soviet soldiers rushing to the front after the military parade on the Red Square during an event held on Nov. 7, 2009, marking the 68th anniversary of the legendary military parade of 1941. (Xinhua/Lu Jinbo)

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© RIA Novosti Zelma

07:2707/11/2009

MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) - Two famed WWII T-34 tanks will take part in a march on Moscow's Red Square on Saturday to commemorate the legendary military parade of 1941 and in honor of the country's World War II effort.
The T-34 Soviet medium tank, produced from 1940 to 1958, was the mainstay of the Red Army armored forces throughout World War II. It has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential tank design of the war.
The November 7, 1941 parade, which commemorated the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, was held for the first time after Russia entered the war and aimed to raise morale as Nazi German forces closed in on Moscow. After troops marched pass leader Josef Stalin they headed straight for the frontlines just outside the Russian capital.
The festive march on Saturday will involve units from the Moscow military district, wearing WWII Soviet military dress and other historical military costumes, and about 4,000 members of various youth groups.
At least 45 participants of the 1941 parade are expected to attend the Saturday parade as guests of honor.
Meanwhile, Russia's communists plan separate marches and rallies in central Moscow and around the country on Saturday to celebrate the 92nd anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, which is more commonly referred to in Russia as the Great October Socialist Revolution.
Although November 7 has not been celebrated as a national holiday since former president Vladimir Putin abolished it several years ago, opinion surveys say many Russians still mark the date as the anniversary of the revolution.
 

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16/11/2009 | Moscow News №44 2009 Learning the lessons of Stalinism   Tim Wall A common argument about the legacy of Stalinism is that we should "let sleeping dogs lie", but the controversy has recently shown no sign of quieting down. After the bizarre renaming of the Anti-Sovietskaya restaurant in northern Moscow, due to a World War II veterans' protest, and the subsequent hounding of liberal writer Alexander Podrabinek over his reaction, plus the restoration of pro-Stalin lyrics in the Moscow metro, Dmitry Medvedev felt compelled to make a stand on the issue. Yet while the president strongly condemned Josef Stalin's repression, beyond his words there remains little if any real accounting in society for the killing of millions of Soviet citizens during his purges.  There have, after all, been no Nuremberg-style trials, or even a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, as was tried in South Africa after the end of Apartheid. Even now, to find out what happened to the victims of Stalin's purges from the present-day Federal Security Service requires courage from relatives. Those who died, often "without any reason", deserve better than this. Yet no psychological counselling for the victims of Stalinist repression is currently provided for, and the only help relatives are likely to get is from Memorial, an under-resourced NGO that faces more than occasional harassment for trying to unearth the truth about the past. The political legacy of Stalinism still casts a huge shadow over the country, as was shown in the "Name of Russia" TV poll last year - where Stalin came in third, despite official distaste for his support. There is also a modern kind of echo in the yearning for a strong, authoritarian leadership - and the (comparatively modest) steps towards reviving a cult of personality. One effect of this is to prevent any serious review of the country's powerful state security services, which remain largely unreformed, despite initial attempts in the early 1990s to hold them up to democratic scrutiny. Without any real examination of how Stalinist repression worked during his time in power and afterwards - under neo-Stalinists Krushchev, Brezhnev and even Gorbachev - it's easy to see how it's seen as "normal" today that many of the top posts in government and society are held by the siloviki. The effects are felt in other areas too. The gulag system produced a distortion in the country's economy that persists to this day - witness the giant Norilsk Nickel enterprise, founded on slave labour. Even today, it's difficult for descendants of prisoners to leave such isolated places, due to the economic difficulties involved. And the bureaucratic central planning, without any real democratic control by local people in their workplaces or communities, made the system highly inefficient. Given the choice, neither the capitalist free market nor democratic socialist planning would today build a giant car factory in the middle of the Eurasian landmass, rather than several smaller plants closer to transport hubs, the country's big cities or ports. The biggest tragedy for Russia's future, however, may come from a failure to learn the historical lessons of how Stalin came to power, and why his policies were so disastrous. Many Western historians since the Soviet collapse make no distinction between Stalin and his fellow Bolshevik leaders. Yet Stalin thought the differences between them big enough to have nearly all of them killed. The ideas of the most principled of Stalin's critics, the Left Opposition, stood in complete contrast to those of Stalin: No forced collectivisation of agriculture, a democratic plan of production and internationalism, not the "Socialism in One Country" that eventually led to the isolation and complete stagnation of the economies of the Soviet Union and its satellite states. While no one can say for certain what would have happened if other leaders had come to the fore instead of Stalin and the mediocrities that surrounded him, the idea that the Soviet Union would have degenerated into the grotesque police state it became by the mid-1930s under more principled leaders is preposterous. A good part of the blame for the mass carnage in World War II can also be laid squarely at Stalin's door. His disastrous policy of ordering the German Communists to form alliances with the Nazi party in Germany (against the Socialists) allowed Hitler to come to power in 1933, while his massacre of the Soviet military command in 1937-38 and the subsequent pact with Hitler in 1939 left the Soviet people unprepared for the coming conflict. Papering over such disastrous policies, and the repression used to enforce them, in the name of defending the Soviet people's sacrifices in World War II, is wrong. And to glorify or justify Stalinism today risks repeating the same mistakes - of bureaucracy and repression - all over again.

 

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Diary that helped expose Stalin's famine displayed

By RAPHAEL G. SATTER – 4 days ago

LONDON — The diaries of a British reporter who risked his reputation to expose the horrors of Stalin's murderous famine in Ukraine were put on public display for the first time Friday.
Welsh journalist Gareth Jones sneaked into Ukraine in March of 1933, at the height of a famine engineered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Millions of people starved to death between 1932 and 1933 as the Soviet secret police emptied the countryside of grain and livestock as part of a campaign to force peasants into collective farms.
Jones' reporting was one of the first attempts to bring the disaster to the world's attention.
"Famine Grips Russia — Millions Dying" read the front page of the New York Evening Post on March 29, 1933. "Famine on a colossal scale, impending death of millions from hunger, murderous terror ... this is the summary of Mr. Jones's firsthand observations, " the paper said.
As starvation and cannibalism spread across Ukraine, Soviet authorities exported more than a million tons of grain to the West, using the money to build factories and arm its military.
Historians say that between 4 million and 5 million Ukrainians perished in what is sometimes referred to as the Great Famine.
Walking from village to village, Jones recorded conversations with desperate people scrambling for food, scribbling brief interviews in pencil on lined notebooks.
"They all had the same story: 'There is no bread — we haven't had bread for two months — a lot are dying,'" Jones wrote in one entry.
"We are the living dead," he quoted a peasant as saying.
Jones' eyewitness account had little effect on world opinion at the time. Stalin's totalitarian regime tightly controlled the flow of information out of the U.S.S.R., and many Moscow-based foreign correspondents — some of whom had pro-Soviet sympathies — refused to believe Jones' reporting.
The New York Times' Walter Duranty, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, dismissed Jones' article as a scare story.
"Conditions are bad, but there is no famine," Duranty wrote. Other correspondents chimed in with public denials, and with his colleagues against him, Jones was discredited.
Eugene Lyons, an American wire agency reporter who gradually went from communist sympathizer to fierce critic of the Soviet regime, later acknowledged the role that fellow journalists had played in trying to destroy Jones' career.
"Jones must have been the most surprised human being alive when the facts he so painstakingly garnered from our mouths were snowed under by our denials," Lyons wrote in his 1937 autobiography, "Assignment in Utopia."
Lyons' admission came too late for Jones, who was killed by bandits in 1935 while covering Japan's expansion into China in the run-up to World War II. The full circumstances of his death remain murky.
Britain's World War I-era prime minister, David Lloyd George, whom Jones had once served as an aide, said the intrepid journalist might have been killed because he "knew too much of what was going on."
"I had always been afraid that he would take one risk too many."
Jones' handwritten diaries are on show at the Wren Library at Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he was a student, until mid-December. The university said it was the first time that the documents — which had been in the care of Jones' family — were being publicly displayed.

On the Net:

• Trinity College: http://www.trin. cam.ac.uk/
• Web site devoted to Jones: http://www.garethjo nes.org/

In this B/W photo released by Cambridge University Gareth Jones is seen at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a student in the late 1920s and where the diaries are now going on display for the first time. The diaries of a British reporter who risked his reputation to expose the horrors of Stalin's murderous famine in Ukraine are to go on display on Friday Nov. 13 2009. Welsh journalist Gareth Jones snuck into Ukraine in March of 1933, at the height of an artificial famine engineered by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. Millions were starving to death as the Soviet secret police emptied the countryside of grain and livestock, and Jones' reporting was one of first attempts to bring the disaster to the world's attention. (AP Photo / Cambridge University / ho)

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