Is the long-running love affair of "news" media and Josef Stalin still on?
Surely by now everyone knows of The New York Times, its Moscow correspondent ("reporter" is too polite a term for him) Walter Duranty, and their infatuation with the second bloodiest tyrant the world has ever known.
Only Mao Tse-tung can have more bodies counted against his name (although Ho Chi Minh might have a higher percentage of population).
A friend wrote, regarding a columnist's recent writing, "I don't know what he means about 'come clean over Stalin's crimes'; is there anybody who's denying them?"
How about Associated Press writer Maria Danilova?
An article in the Times Free Press of Monday, 9 May 2005, has this paragraph in a story about the recent visit of President Bush and his meeting with Russia's more-or-less President Putin: "Stalin came to power after the death of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin in 1924 and began a reign of terror that lasted nearly three decades, ending only with his death in 1953. An estimated 20 million people were executed, imprisoned or deported to other parts of the former Soviet Union. Altogether, 10 million are believed to have died."
I would call that "praising with faint damns."
Even a certain former New York Times figure estimated more like 85 million died as a result of Stalin's crimes.
Heck, some 15 million died in Stalin's induced famine in (what was then The) Ukraine alone.
Danilova reported several efforts at "rehabilitating" Stalin, from erecting statues to Stalin to naming streets after him to re-re-naming Volgograd Stalingrad.
She reported that "Recent opinion polls have shown that nearly half of Russians hold a largely positive view of Stalin ..."
And there is this classic line attributed to Putin: "It goes without saying that Stalin was a tyrant, whom many call a criminal. But he wasn't a Hitler."
True enough. If Stalin had shown the efficiency and organization of Hitler and his Nazi butchers, perhaps he would have been able to claim even more scores of millions of victims.
"Wasn't a Hitler"? No, but he was Hitler's ally in the invasion of Poland.
He was so much worse than Hitler, that Ukrainians first welcomed even the invading Germans as liberators, until Nazi zeal overrode any strategic common sense.
Many of the peoples conquered and destroyed by Stalin saw even Hitler as a lesser evil.
Operation Keelhaul, though, put an end to any outspoken opposition to the bloody imperialist slavery of Stalin and his murderers.
Please go to Google and look up "Operation Keelhaul" for a chilling, terrifying reminder of another example of the U.S. government's aiding and abetting mass murder and slavery.
And while you're at it, look up "Walter Duranty" for a chilling, terrifying reminder of another example of "news" media, especially The New York Times, sellout of the human race.
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Michael, you have the Novaya Yorka Vremya bullseyed! They always have been as pink as a bad case of conjunctivitis.
ReplyDeleteIf Stalin had what Der Fuehrer had to work with, he would have decimated the planet. That Russia was, basically, a colonial-type economy with poor infrastructure, poor education, little technical expertise, and sporting a demoralized population was what prevented Stalin from making Hitler look like a rank amateur. The ``brave`` Russian soldier had no choice; he could take his chances fighting the Germans or face certain death at the hands of his tovarish. (I`d just as soon get shot in battle, too!)
If you got captured, you hoped to God (or Lenin) the Germans didn`t return you! Operation Keelhaul was one of the most despicable things America has ever done!
Oh, my -- such a pleasure to visit with my friends who know their history and know how to write about it. Bush has acknowledged that Yalta was a crime -- now let's get to the rest of the crimes. Stalin's saving grace as far as the world goes, is that he killed only his own people. Once he ran out of them he would have commenced killing on an even grander scale. If you want to read an unbelievably gripping book about being a prisoner in Stalin's hellhole -- read "Coming out of the Ice" by Victor Herman. Victor was an American boy who went to the Soviet Union with his father, who was a devoted communist. He wanted to help the Soviets build the perfect society. instead, Victor -- who became a famous athlete and pilot in the USSR -- was eventually arrested and deported to a Siberian labor camp -- his tale of survival is absolutely gripping -- it's out of print, but I did purchase a used copy on Amazon.
ReplyDeleteEventually, the entire family disappeared into the Gulag -- except Victor, who lived to tell the tale and even return to America.
It makes everything that happened there even more horrific when you actually read a personal account -- millions dead and deported is a horrible number -- but it's hard to comprehend -- whereas the tale of one man brings it all home.
Wow - I'm glad Michael is operating this blog site. I'm learning a lot from his columns and from readers' comments. Makes me feel downright ignorant. Thanks for the education. I look forward to expanding my knowledge.
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