Star light, star bright

This curious document from way back shows that the tentacles of you know who were never at rest.
The document is a part of Ukrainian KGB archives that survived destruction and are being published.

Donetsk region

On November 26, 1980 several customers in the department store #2, city of Shakhtersk* noticed that a fir tree** adornment toy "Comet" (made of glass in the form of a sphere) carries a depiction of a six-pointed star, identical to the Zionist symbol.

The toy is produced by the Terebovlyansk factory of fir tree toys (Ternopol region). The toys arrived to the department store (total of 800 items) on November 6 of this year. 600 of these were already sold to the population. The sale of the toys was suspended.

The investigation is carried out by UKGB*** of Ternopol region.The total number of toys produced and the shops that received them are being studied. The KGB offices of the regions were notified.

(*) A city in Donetsk region of Ukraine
(**) A Soviet euphemism for the Christmas tree.
(***) Ukrainian KGB

I couldn't find a photograph of the toy in question, so in lieu of one:

The death of Stalin and other animals

This extraordinary document deserves a translation. While my expertise as a translator is somewhat unimpressive, I shall try to do my best. The letter below was sent to Nikita Khrushchev immediately after the tyrant and mass murderer croaked. Khrushchev was the chairman of the funeral commission.

***

Dear Nikita Sergeevich [Khrushchev]!

Whether under the influence of the great grief that befell our Soviet people, or under the influence of burning hatred for the enemies and traitors of the people, murderous terrorists who carried their sting over our leaders and statesmen, or under the influence of both. I dare to express and hope, not only my opinion and wish, but also the opinion and wish of many Soviet citizens, the wish is that during the civil funeral for our beloved and beloved leader I.V. Stalin did not allow the "Jewish ensemble", called the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, which team is always assigned to play mourning music in the Hall of Columns of the House of Unions.

The mourning melody of this orchestra, consisting of 95% of Jews, sounds insincere. After each funeral, this Jewish weed, rallied under the guise of the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, with a sense of satisfaction, calculates its unplanned income. I believe that this Jewish team of the symphony orchestra is not worthy of being in close proximity to our great, beloved leader, dear I.V. Stalin.

We have many orchestras consisting of the devoted sons of our multinational Soviet state, and there is no need to impose this mission on the people (the Jews), who have not shown examples of heroism and devotion throughout their history. The only thing that our industrious people hear and confront is theft, cheating, speculation, betrayal and murder on the part of this small, corrupt people, one word about which - “Jew” - evokes a feeling of disgust and distaste.

As for the composition of the State Symphony Orchestra of USSR, it would be useful to think about its future existence in such composition. A small group of leaders of the orchestra, that creates an aura of fame for Jewish musicians in the competitive selection of musicians for the orchestra, often under pressure from Jewish musicians, do not give players of Russian nationality the opportunity to join the orchestra, although they are far superior to Jews who insinuate into the orchestra through the intrusiveness of the Jews and the support of the Jewish members of the entire symphony orchestra.

V.Antonov [the author]

***

The official answer to this letter is no less amazing. Here are some excerpts:

***

... In fact, the position in the orchestra is as follows: out of 112 orchestra members, 66 are Russians (59%), 40 are Jews (35.7%) and 6 are of other nationalities(5.3%).

The message of the author of the letter that few Russians were accepted at the contests held in the orchestra is not true. In 1951/52, only 14 musicians were enrolled to the orchestra after the selection process, of which 11 were Russian and 3 Jews.

... During May - June of this year. The Arts Committee retires 10 musicians (2 of them are Russians, 8 are Jews). In September 1953, the orchestra will be replenished by new musicians of indigenous nationality.

V. Kruzhkov and P. Tarasov [signed the response]

***

Hat tip: M.T.

Murder of a poet - 80 years

Behind us still our fate was grimly holding,

A razor-handed madman, seeking fee.

(Arseny Aleksandrovich Tarkovsky)

The picture above is, most probably, the last picture of Osip Mandelshtam, one of the brightest stars in Russian poetry of XX century. It was taken by a prison photographer not long before his death. His murder, in fact. The poet signed his death sentence by his famous epigram of the tyrant:

We live, not feeling the earth beneath us
At ten paces our words evaporate.
But when there’s the will to crack open our mouths
our words orbit the Kremlin mountain man.
Murderer, peasant killer.

His fingers plump as grubs.
His words drop like lead weights.
His laughing cockroach whiskers.
The gleam of his boot rims.

Around him a circle of chicken-skinned bosses
sycophantic half-beings for him to toy with.
One whines, another purrs, a third snivels
as he babbles and points.

He forges decrees to be flung
like horseshoes
at the groin, the face, the eyes.

He rolls the liquidations on his tongue like berries
delicacies for the barrel-chested Georgian.

It is not my place to write about the life and poetry of the genius, but here are some memories of his last days. His last letter to the family:

Dear Shura! 

I am - Vladivostok, СВИТЛ*, the 11th barrack. Got 5 years for the к.р.д.** by decision of the ОСО***. From Moscow, the Butyrki, our group left on September 9, arrived on October 12. Health is very weak, exhausted to the extreme, emaciated, almost unrecognizable, but I don’t know whether to send things, food and money makes sense. Try all the same. Very cold without things.

My dear Nadinka, I do not know whether you are alive, my dove. You, Shura, write about Nadya to me now. Here I am at a transit point. I was not taken to the Kolyma. Wintering is possible.
My dear, I kiss you.

Osya and Shurochka, I am writing more. The last days I went to work, and it raised my spirits. From our camp, as a transit point, they send [people] to the permanent [camps]. I have obviously got "screened out", and I have to get ready for the winter.

And please send me a telegram and money by telegraph.

(*) СВИТЛ - Northeast Forced Labor and Correction Camps - a branch of GULAG.
(**) к.р.д. - Counter-revolutionary activities.
(***) ОСО, Special Committee) - an administrative body under the NKVD of the USSR, which existed from 1934 to 1953.

And a description of the poet's death:

...in November we have started being eaten alive by thoroughbred white lice. Typhus, of course, got to us. The sick people were taken away, and not seen anymore. On a morning at the end of December, a few days before the New Year, we were led to the baths, to "sanitary processing". There was no water. We were ordered to undress in the cold and take the clothing to the heating room*. And then we were transferred to the other half of the premises, the dressing room, where it was even colder. The room stank of sulphur and smoke. At this time two naked men fell unconscious.
Several flankeys came up. They took out pieces of plywood, twine and put tags on the dead. His tag said "Mandelshtam Osip, Article 58 (10), 10 years."

(*) Heating room - a preferred way then to kill the lice in clothing.

This is the end of one of the very few through whom the deity of poetry speaks.

Take from my palms some sun to bring you joy
and take a little honey - so the bees
of cold Persephone commanded us.

No loosing of the boat that is not moored,
no hearing of the shadow shod in fur,
no overcoming fear in life's dense wood.

And kisses are all that's left us now,
kisses as hairy as the little bees
who perish if they fly out of the hive.

They rustle in transparent depths of night,
their home dense forests on Taigetos' slopes,
their food is honeysuckle, mint and time.

So for your joy receive my savage gift,
a dry and homely necklace of dead bees
who have transmuted honey into sun*.

(*) Well, better a poor translation than nothing. Not that there is any possibility to translate him.

An epitaph to Goldsmiths

Founded in 1891 in New Cross in south-east London, The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute (today known as Goldsmiths) was set up to provide an education to working class people of the area. Goldsmiths became part of the University of London in 1904 and saw a rapid rise in student numbers in the 1960s.

Goldsmiths has an excellent reputation as an academic and research institution with a famously strong arts and social sciences offering and there are several world-renowned artists among its alumni. Goldsmiths has always had a reputation for independence and free thinking both as an institution and among its student body and the university cultivates an atmosphere that is encouraging and receptive to new ideas.

This blurb could very well be used on the tombstone for the glorious institution's remains. Because a place of learning, where students are producing the kind of tirade you shall immediately read, is practically dead. Now just read, there is no need to comment or interpret. You may click on each of the three images to enlarge them.

In a country, where a good portion of population is clamoring for a repeat performance of what once took place in the late Soviet Union, this kind of arrogant ignorance is just the ticker. This time they will do it right, though, so no worries.

NKVD uniform circa 1943, for children - why do you wait?

A personal disclosure: I have little sympathy for the Stalin's prime butchers of NKVD. My reasons are, with all else, rather personal. In 1939 one of my late and beloved uncles, being of the socialist persuasion, illegally crossed the border to get to the socialist heaven of USSR, was promptly arrested, accused of spying and spent more than 15 years in the worst parts of GULAG. The folks in blue and red hats have done their considerable best by him.

Anyhow, we are in the blessed XXI century now, and Mother Russia was celebrating the Victory Day (May 9), as it does every year. This time, some enterprising Internet-based outfit decided to spice the celebration with a special gift for kids:

NKVD officer defending the Motherland

"The uniform is intended for military reconstructions, role games, Victory Day celebrations, theatrical productions, photo shoots," it says in the product description. It is noted that, in addition to the uniform, you can buy a belt, a holster, a sword belt, leather boots and epaulettes.

So, enough time has passed that some elements in Russia, nostalgic for the days of the murderous dictator, decided to start whitewashing the murderous vermin at the beck and call of the 'roach mustaches.

We are living, but can’t feel the land where we stay,
More than ten steps away you can’t hear what we say.
But if people would talk on occasion,
They should mention the Kremlin Caucasian.

His thick fingers are bulky and fat like live-baits,
And his accurate words are as heavy as weights.
Cucaracha’s moustaches are screaming,
And his boot-tops are shining and gleaming.

But around him a crowd of thin-necked henchmen,
And he plays with the services of these half-men.
Some are whistling, some meowing, some sniffing,
He’s alone booming, poking and whiffing.

He is forging his rules and decrees like horseshoes –
Into groins, into foreheads, in eyes, and eyebrows.
Every killing for him is delight,
And Ossetian torso is wide*.

This is the man NKVD served so loyally, and the bones of their victims are scattered all over the country in their silent millions.

Adds a blogger tverdyi_znak:

It might be good to hand all buyers a memo - from whom and how the soldiers of the NKVD protected the Motherland. Among the terrible enemies of the Motherland was, for example, Misha Shamonin, who was shot at Butovo landfill at the age of 13. And not just by mistake, but by law, which allowed the NKVD to incarcerate and kill children from the age of 12.

Misha Shamonin, executed at age 13.

The Russians are obviously trying to forget their past, as do many others. And some (too many) of them will not rest until the past is safely buried. Here is a response from an arch-patriotic Bell of Russia. It is a long screed, most of it in defense of the heroic soldiers of NKVD that were the first to defend the Motherland against the Nazi hordes. It is full of scorn and hate directed at the "libruls" who dare to show their indignation by the revolting marketing ploy. The hateful rhetoric raises to its peak at the end:

What the Russian liberals are doing, mocking the heroes of the Great Patriotic War, looks like rehabilitation of fascism, for which the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for up to three years of imprisonment. Perhaps, when the Russian liberal public finally realizes that punishment for such things is inevitable, their desire to engage in sacrilege will begin to wane. Such kind of people, unfortunately, do not understand kind persuasion...

So much for kindness.

(*) Osip Mandelstam, 1933. The epigram that became his death sentence.

Henry Joel Cadbury and American Reform Rabbis

The story of the connection between the two started for me with this disturbing NYT quote:

Not knowing who professor Henry J. Cadbury was, I have started googling, and one of the first links happened to be an archive page of JTA, from the year 1934, referenced in the quote above.

Professor Pleads for Accord Between Jews and Germans

Lo and behold: the quote above was sounded not in some judenrein "safe space", but at annual convention of the Central Conference of American Reform Rabbis.

A plea that the Jewish people “display good will instead of hatred” toward the Nazis who are provoked to committing violence by an attitude of antagonism, was voiced by Professor Henry J. Cadbury, of Bryn Mawr, chairman of the American Friends Service Committee, in an address at the opening session of the forty-fifth annual convention of the Central Conference of American Reform Rabbis held here at the South Mountain Manor Summer Resort. More than 150 rabbis from all parts of the United States and Canada attended.

Read more »

Lady Liberty - a result of Jewish conspiracy?

There hardly are many people who don't recognize this statue. Most people, however, don't detect the Jewish conspiracy behind this historic monument. So here comes news for you.

The story of Lady Liberty doesn't start with Jews, rather with French people who initiated the idea and financed the work by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi.

Than it went sideways...

Bartholdi's search for a female face to serve as a prototype for the lady stopped on one Isabella Eugenie Boyer:

who, accidentally (?) happened to be a wife of one Isaac Merritt Singer:

This sewing machine Jewish magnate, inventor, actor, businessman and father of about 23 children he sired with (approximately) 6 women, doesn't play a direct role in the fate of the statue, however an inquiring mind might be concerned...

Then the American side of the story comes in. And the fundraising for the pedestal, where:

Fundraising for the statue had begun in 1882. The committee organized a large number of money-raising events.[81] As part of one such effort, an auction of art and manuscripts, poet Emma Lazarus was asked to donate an original work.
...
She saw a way to express her empathy for these refugees in terms of the statue. The resulting sonnet, "The New Colossus", including the iconic lines "Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free", is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty and is inscribed on a plaque in the museum in its base.

And this is not all, because:

Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, a New York newspaper, announced a drive to raise $100,000—the equivalent of $2.3 million today. Pulitzer pledged to print the name of every contributor, no matter how small the amount given. The drive captured the imagination of New Yorkers, especially when Pulitzer began publishing the notes he received from contributors.

Well, it makes four "Zionists" out of five. Well, rather three out of four, if you (correctly) consider Mr Singer to be only a random actor in this story. Although, what with him being an oligarch and all, no normal conspiracy seeking head will discount him, of course.

Now you know...

P.S. Since only Wiki was used for this quick and dirty compilation, who knows which additional names might come up with some more digging. One shudders at the thought.

Exhumation of Stalin's fetid carcass: step by step

People carry a portrait of Soviet leader Josef Stalin during a march to celebrate the 72nd anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany in Sevastopol in Russian occupied Crimea on May 9, 2017,

The slow motion Russian zombocalypse - returning to unlife the Bolshevik murderers and tyrants - is nothing new. It started in a relatively hushed manner, with Stalin and his sidekicks favorably mentioned on different state occasions. With Stalin's portraits appearing in private dwellings. With Stalin's statues reappearing in various cities, joined by Lenin, Dzerzhinsky etc.

Today nobody stirs while reading that "Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the "excessive demonization" of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin "is one means of attacking the Soviet Union and Russia.""

This roundabout expression of support for the smelly stiff pales, though, compared to the following clip. The recording comes from Omsk, not from a central Russian media outfit. Boonies by Russian standards, but the level of adoration heaped on the premier mass murderer is staggering. So I decided to translate the speech for those in the West who might be interested.

***

On December 25th 135 years passed from the birthday of Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin. During the time of his rule [sic!] Stalin succeeded to return to the State all historically Russian lands, lost as a result of wars and political intrigues. Under his direct guidance a really socially-oriented economy was created. It excluded parasitism and exploitation. In addition a powerful industrial-technological breakthrough occurred. The national economy progressed without crises and credits and without foreign manpower. The Soviet state succeeded on its own, without borrowing foreign capital, to perform a grandiose program of socialist endeavor. And this on the background of devastating international economic depression. A two-dimensional (?) system of pricing, the most effective in the history of humanity, was created.

Profit was derived not like it is done now - from a components of the end product - but from the end product itself. Thus the whole system was aimed at reduction of costs and reduction of the consumer prices. This is what allowed reduction of prices and increase of wages.

Iosif Vissarionovich was ahead of the whole world in the development of democracy. USSR already had direct elections system since 1936. Moreover, he insisted that the elections be equal and the ballot - secret. For comparison we'll remind that the least democratic elections system is the American one, where it is not direct and the right to elect was given to Americans only in the sixties [XX century]. It will be prudent to mention that the "exemplary democracy" in Switzerland allowed women to participate in election only in 1972.

From the point of view of a regular worker, unskilled in politics and economics, evaluation of Stalin's achievements could be expressed in simple words:

• A worker could be paid more than director.
• Everyone was guaranteed free healthcare.
• Pensions were higher than a minimal cost of life.
• Everyone could achieve free high education.
• A peasant boy, having the ability, could grow to become a minister.
• The referees in Olympic games were literally afraid to judge our athletes unfair.
• Not a single shred of Russian land could be sold to a foreign speculator.

The people loved Stalin and our enemies feared him. Our enemies fear Stalin even today, and, as long as the power of his spirit is alive in every one of us, as long as we feel pride in our past and believe in our strength, we are invincible.

***

So there. I am not commenting on this at all.

One remark only: after reading the list of Stalin's achievements, I realised that I want to live in USSR.

Then...

Comrade Court - a bit of history

Comrade Court: in the USSR an elected public body called upon to actively promote the education of citizens in the spirit of a communist attitude to work, to socialist property, the observance of the rules of socialist community life, respect for the honor and dignity of citizens. The main direction of the work of CC - prevention of offenses and misdemeanors, that harm society, by education, persuasion and social influence.
...
CC can be created at enterprises, institutions, organizations, educational institutions (by decision of the general meeting of the collective of workers, students), in collective farms, houses served by house management or united by street committees, and in rural settlements (by decision of the general meeting of collective farmers , residents of the house, villagers, with the consent of the respective executive committees of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies).

Warning: A long post.

The term, which in Russian is "Товарищеский Суд", gives one a bit of a headache when trying to translate it. To explain it by an inversion: every offense that wasn't of a clearly criminal nature or wasn't of sufficient interest to the omnipresent KGB, but still required some measure of response, was shipped off to the Comrade Court. Some examples of situations that caused a person to be summoned CC:

• Underperformance at work, being frequently late for work etc.
• Adultery
• Pilfering of small items not warranting police involvement
• Rudeness to other comrades
• Alcoholism
• Violence in the family
• Political incorrectness: telling "anti-Soviet", jokes, dissing the Leaders, writing "subversive" statements in articles or books etc...
• Lodging a request to leave USSR permanently for some foreign location, worse of all - a capitalist state or, deity forbid, the Zionist entity.

Of course, the list of people "elected" to serve as members of the CC was approved by the management of the organization or the local party committee, but is wasn't necessarily a permanent appointment, usually an ad hoc selection.

Since most (but by no means all) sessions of the CC must have been carefully orchestrated, the session was usually preceded by a hearing. This meant that the guilty subject was summoned to a meeting with one or several senior employees of his organization, in some delicate (meaning political) cases joined by an outside (party or KGB, depending on importance) representative. It was very important to the powers that be to establish not only the guilt of the subject, but also his/her potential for disruptive and provocative behavior during the public session of CC. Potential troublemakers are not only bad for the organization's image, they are dangerous for the public moral. The mere possibility of such characters gaining even smallest public expression of support among their comrades, present at the CC session, was mightily feared by the organizers.

The "hearing" by itself was designed as a kind of preliminary punishment. Taking hours sometimes, it consisted mainly of a long and exhausting variety of probing questions, many having nothing to do with the specific offense, caused (or allegedly caused) by the subject. If behavior of the subject during the hearing wasn't satisfactory, the big cheeses present were peppering the questioning by direct or indirect threats - such as sacking, transfer to a low paying job, jail time etc. If the case was political and the subject was being stubborn and/or provocative, the case could have been transferred to the "higher authority", with the blessing of that KGB/party member present in the meeting.

But of course, alcoholics, thieves, wife beaters and similar were dealt with quickly in most cases. Eventually, if a person was deemed by the powers that be fit to stand a public CC trial, the employees were summoned to the public meeting, where the members of the CC and the defendant took the places of honor (see the picture). Of course, one of the prerequisites for this gathering was careful selection and preparation of volunteers (yep, don't be surprised by that oxymoron) that were schooled and assigned to raise their arms and come up with some short text fitting the occasion.

Apolitical cases were, in most cases, of little interest (well, possibly aside of the adultery-related ones). A member of the CC read the description of the offense in question, somebody (or the same member) gave a short speech relating the position of the State regarding the offense. Then one or two "volunteers" stood up and spoke briefly about their (negative, of course) feelings about this or another offense and the behavior of the offender. It was not unheard of that one or two of the people's present offered a positive personal characteristic of the offender, to go towards softening of the CC conclusions regarding the potential punishment. After all, adulterers, thieves and alcoholics are part and parcel...

The defendant was given an opportunity to speak, the expectation was for a sincere (depending on the subject's acting ability) repentance. The subject, in most cases an inarticulate victim of the circumstances, mumbled a few expected sentences and benignly allowed to stand down. Then the sentence of the CC - a petition to the management actually - for a fine, a temporary demotion, a record in the personal file etc, was proposed and duly voted "yes" by 100% of the public present (not that anyone counted usually).

Not infrequently, apolitical cases were enlivened by some unintended hilarity, when the questions addressed to the defendant got an unexpected funny result (what can I do, she slipped on the wet floor several times and these bruises, you know how it is...). A warm and fuzzy feeling was enveloping all present at the end of the session, and the accused was not infrequently patted on the shoulder: just don't do it anymore, buddy, although we all understand and know how it goes.

Not so with the "political" offenses. The atmosphere in the room was tense. People were usually quiet, the wooden expressions on the faces of CC members stressing the seriousness of the situation. In many cases the proceedings started with a senior member of CC giving a speech about the "international situation", about the latest capitalists' nefarious anti-Soviet intrigues, about the Zionists' latest aggression, about Soviet Union being the shining lighthouse and beacon to the progressive elements elsewhere in... etc. Then the litany of imperialist cowardly misdeeds seamlessly entered the current case - the obvious rudiment of the bourgeois (feudal... etc.) past that sits here before you, comrades, his/her misdeeds begging for punishment. How could our healthy body have caught this inexplicable disease, comrades? What have we hitherto missed?

After the speech, the "volunteers" were "asked" to present to the public their wrath and indignation. In most cases, the wrath and the indignation were inspired by the prepared in advance text, pre-approved by the CC. In most cases the relatively short speeches of this kind went down smoothly, a few clearly forgivable mistakes with some overly long or foreign words notwithstanding. However, overzealousness sometimes caused unintended hilarity too. When some of the ultra-patriots, present in the session and especially incensed by the gravity of the anti-Soviet offenses committed by the defendant, jumped up and offered their assistance with execution of the offender. Or, at least, offered a rich menu of punishments deserved by the anti-Soviet vermin. Unlike the apolitical cases, though, no one laughed during such outbursts. Just in case, you know...

The critical moment usually came when the CC master of ceremonies called for the offender to speak. Even after the vetting by the previously described "hearing" committee, politically correct behavior of the defendant was not totally guaranteed, of course. There was a certain element of risk. A cautious defendant, minding his future, usually got over this part with a few mumbled sentences of repentance and apologies of some non-binding nature. As expected by all present. If, however, in spite of all the precautions and threats, the offender went into a defiant counterattack, the situation quickly deteriorated. Such behavior endangered not just the defendant, it stained the lily white record of the people that prepared that meeting and (especially) the people who have been present at the hearing. One of the hearing's goal was to make sure that such eventuality was prevented, after all.

The crowd present, of course, might have started booing and protesting the "anti-Soviet" outburst, but if a friend or two of the defendant, of more fearless nature, were present, expressions of support weren't totally unknown to happen. Havoc sometimes ensued, and the only remaining way for the august committee was to quickly declare the session aborted and done with. Usually in such case the punishment of the miscreant was stiffened. In one specific case of my buddy who was accused of anti-socialist behavior and views, his uppity behavior during the CC session caused a criminal charge being concocted against him later, ending in a criminal court* hearing and subsequent punishment.

Still, on the average, with all the travesty of the public "trial" with a predicted result, with no defense lawyer and no law at all, the absurd ritual no one really believed in and no one really was excited about, was much better than falling into the hands of the criminal court or the KGB. Besides, as mentioned, these CC proceedings sometimes provided some much required hilarity. Thanks for the small favors in the continuous grey reality of permanent lie.


(*) To remind you, there were no "political" cases or political prisoners, everything in USSR was filed under the Criminal Codex.

The Great October Socialist Revolution

will be celebrated here in a quiet and subdued way. By this random selection:

Raisa Bochlen (1917 - 1937)

A typist in the HQ of the Glavsevmorput [Northern maritime affairs HQ]

Date of arrest: September 23, 1937

Sentenced to death by shooting squad by a NKVD USSR committee on October 29, 1937.

Charge: spying for Japan.

Burial site: Butovo [a place of mass burials]

RIP, Raisa.

Professor Ghodsee and superiority of socialist female's orgasms

A woman working at a collective farm near Moscow in 1955

One of the more troubling signs in the Western academy is the creeping revisionism of everything related to one of the two most repressive and bloody political movements of the XX century - the Soviet style socialism. This post is about an example of modern days feminist "research", based on socialist propaganda, chiefly meant to hail the dubious achievements in the women's liberation and empowerment. Taken as granted by people ready and willing to be duped.

The main reason for this post isn't to fight the misinformation and improve the quality of the relevant research - it is mission impossible in the current atmosphere on the campuses. Nope, it is mainly to warn some of my friends from the Western countries who took the misinformation and misinterpretation seriously and believed it.

***

The woman in the picture - let's call her Dasha, since she will appear in this post a few times - was chosen to grace the masthead of a curious article. The article caused a serious bout of jaw dropping amongst my friends, who, like I, experienced first hand the real life in the socialist heaven. To start with, it hits you between the eyes with its headline:

Why Women Had Better Sex Under Socialism

The reader is not asked to ponder whether the ladies had indeed better sex under socialism, just made curious why. Obviously the author has decided that the former is a solid fact.

The anchor statement in the article: "Women under Communism enjoyed more sexual pleasure." It is chiefly based on a longish video, comparing favorably the wise attitude of the East Germany's communist party towards all matters sexual, including sex education in schools. There is one slight problem with this piece of evidence: it is based on the communist-produced and fairly crude propaganda clips, created, as it was done all over the "socialist camp", with one goal in mind: brainwashing. Usually laughed off by the local citizenry at the time as a sordid pack of lies, it seems to work today, if a professor of Gender and Women's Studies* sees it fit to be used as valid historical document.

But I'm not into comparing East and West Germanies, so let's go to the Motherland of that unfortunate social phenomenon, the Soviet Union. Let's take as an example our Dasha and see how she enjoyed all these orgasm-inducing "rights and privileges unknown in liberal democracies at the time" of the socialist heaven that the author of the article so touchingly presents:

1. Major state investments in their education and training.

Nope, there weren't any special investments for education of the better gender. In case of Dasha, had she decided to throw down her pitchfork and enroll in an university, she would first have to ask for a permission from her collective farm management to travel to an university and be issued an internal passport (you couldn't travel without one, and collective farm workers got a passport only in special cases - a form of slavery incomprehensible in the West, but probably unknown to the Western scientists in the field of Gender and Women's Studies).

The next step Dasha would have to make is to pass the entrance exams. No special allowance for gender there, Soviet Union practiced a purely merit-based entrance examination system, the only exception made to favor/disfavor these or other ethnic minorities. Not even mentioning bribes and family connections...

And the last but not the least: Dasha's ability to study these 5 years required to get a master's degree were largely dependent on support her parents could possibly muster. Yes, the education was free and Dasha would have probably gotten a monthly stipend, but far from enough to survive. To expect that her collective farm parents would have been able to support Dasha - nah, very unlikely.

Dasha's sisters from the city had much better chances to get an university education, but it was too dependent on the financial situation of their parents. Not much difference in that, unless the parents belonged to the "more equal" category or, as it was widely practiced, were stealing something or other.

2. Full incorporation of women into the labor force

Assuming our Dasha was lucky to become an engineer, a doctor or other graduate of the best educational system in the world (but of course), she might have conceivably been assigned (yes, available jobs were mostly assigned after graduation, with very few exceptions) to an appropriate socialist enterprise. That Dasha's chances to get a position that fit her education were pretty low is besides the point. What is more to the point is that Dasha's chances to get an apartment (or even a room in a communal apartment she could consider her own) were practically nil. It usually took years and years of waiting in line for an available and miserable one or two room flat, and for an unmarried citizen it usually meant years and years in a dormitory with one or more roommates. Kinda puts a stop to one's sexual plans, doesn't it? Taking into account the scarcity of cars and, in case one got a boyfriend with a car, the puny size of the back seat, the difficulty of having any sex, not to mention superior one, are limited to forests, parks, dark alleys, weather or parents obligingly going on a vacation out of the city etc.

But, assuming that Dasha succeeded to come through all this unscathed, without a social disease (rampant in the place at the time), avoided falling into the hands of a pimp (yep, even in the socialist motherland there were quite a few of them) and got happily married, her aspirations, as far as sex is concerned, might still remain unfulfilled. If her hubby didn't belong to the "more equal" or otherwise financially well to do family, their joint effort to bring enough money to feed the young family, their time spent in the endless queues for food and other necessary items, their daily exhaustion etc... the going joke was that the best birth control instrument is the engineer's salary, which is completely true. Of course, you might notice, birth control and sex are not one and the same. True, but take into account the scarcity of the former...

In short, engineer Dasha wasn't too much into sex, not after her honeymoon.

3. Generous maternity leave allowances

Yep. Maternity leave there was and it was growing with time, up to three years at the end of USSR, if my memory is serving me right. The only catch was that the number of paid months was limited to 4 (four). So most of the women never used the generosity of unpaid leave: to survive on one salary - if there was a husband, of course - was practically impossible. Another one of the Soviet myths fit for brainwashing the Western starry-eyed sympathizers.

4. Quaranteed free child care.

That guarantee, as much of what was written in the Soviet constitution (indeed, on paper, a wondrous document, most of it fiction, of course) isn't worth the paper - even that of NYT, where the article is printed. First of all, the available places in kindergartens were scarce, especially if you were a medium/big city dweller. Even when available, it frequently meant a long bus ride from one's home to the kindergarten - only adding to that exhaustion at the end of the day. And even if you got to be a lucky parent with a place in the kindergarten: the average number of days your kid would have spent there was about half of the planned, due to incessant illnesses. And the cases where, for instance, the kindergarten staff will keep the windows open during the wintertime, to make more kids sick, were very frequent as well...

Add to all of the above the rampant alcoholism, the habitual wife beating, the cramped living conditions with large families squeezed in one or two rooms - yep, all that surely encouraged exquisite sex. Oh well.

As any Soviet citizen with brain a bit larger than that of hamster will tell you: find a person who waxes lyrically about his/her life (sex life included) under the Soviet regime, and I'll show you a person of privilege, not a regular Joe the Public.

And of course I just have to bring up this exquisite passage from the article:

Consider Ana Durcheva from Bulgaria, who was 65 when I first met her in 2011. Having lived her first 43 years under Communism, she often complained that the new free market hindered Bulgarians’ ability to develop healthy amorous relationships.

The hilarious quote caused me a few laughs. I am not disclosing my age, but I still could compare my amorous relationships before and after my 43. There simply ain't any comparison, you are totally right, Ana, but I am sure it is not because of the social changes Bulgaria underwent. The weather was better back then too...

Dasha on the collective farm

But why have we, indeed, decided to send our Dasha off to the big city to study? What's the reason behind it? Wouldn't she be better off and happier where she is - shoveling hay with that pitchfork? Waking up at 4:00 AM to feed the livestock, then to the fields with her instrument of true socialist labor (as depicted). Six days a week at least, covered by chigger bites and other signs of the wildlife's attention on her body?

We should, possibly, mention that the sanitary conditions at Dasha's accommodations, such as lack of running water, the ubiquitous outhouse, the communal bathhouse once a week etc. - all these were hardly conducive to sexual desires, not to mention deeds. But Dasha was young and where there is a will, there is a way. After all, it is not out of the question that her BF got a few rubbers when the supplies truck visited the collective farm's grocery last week. And he might have even found a way to wash up... but let's not fantasize too much.

And I don't even want to go into unplanned pregnancy and the consequences thereof... too sad.

Conclusion

When I read sentences like these:

Although gender wage disparities and labor segregation persisted, and although the Communists never fully reformed domestic patriarchy, Communist women enjoyed a degree of self-sufficiency that few Western women could have imagined. Eastern bloc women did not need to marry, or have sex, for money.

and when I read the work based on quotes from socialist era "sexologists" and references to August Bebel, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, I feel not just a temporal displacement (am I forced to listen to an interminable lecture by a party chieftain again?) but dread. Dread for the youngsters undergoing all this brainwashing by "progressive" professors of Gender and Women's Studies and similar exalted sciences.

Because the seeds these professors sow have already set roots and we see the results on the streets, where jobless (thanks to their useless diplomas) SJWs, Occupiers, Antifa and similar victims of miseducation, are paving the way to the bright socialist future.

Where some of us have already been once.

***

(*) About the author of the article: Kristen R. Ghodsee (born April 26, 1970) is an American ethnographer and a Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Bowdoin College. Also - Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures in at the University of Pennsylvania, according to this.

It is interesting to notice that under the rubric "Criticism" there appears the following statement:

In a 2014 essay in the European Journal of Women’s Studies, philosopher Nanette Funk included Ghodsee among a handful of “Revisionist Feminist Scholars” who uncritically tout the achievements of communist era women’s organizations, ignoring the oppressive nature of authoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe.

Bullseye.

But the trains run on time, right, professor Ghodsee?

Nikolai Berdyaev on freedom and equality

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev, a remarkable Russian religious and political philosopher, in one of his lesser known quotes on the subject:

Freedom is the right to inequality.

Equality (if it is understood more broadly than purely formal legal term "equal rights") and freedom are incompatible things. By nature, people are not equal, equality can only be achieved through violence, which will always be an alignment to the lowest level.

It is possible to equalize the poor with the rich, but only by taking away from the rich his wealth.
It is possible to equalize the weak with the strong, but only by taking away from the strong his strength.
It is possible to equalize the fool with the clever, but only by turning the wisdom from dignity into a blemish.

The society of universal equality is a society of the poor, the weak and the foolish, based on violence.

For all those who tend to mix people's equality with people's equal rights.

An enemy of two states or Move Over, James Bond!

If you are a lover of spy thrillers, you will be astounded reading this article. The slight difference this time is that the article tells a real story of a real spy. A man who, according to the other pro, was

"...the most completely colorless and nondescript person I had ever seen; he could have faded into any crowd and never been noticed." Short, with alert eyes, a receding hairline, a pronounced limp, and a Brooklyn accent...

Different sources describe the man quite differently. Here comes Amazon, where Joseph Katz left a trace, compiling a book of his letters to his brother, poet Menke Katz:

Joseph Katz is the former Chief Executive Officer of Saltzman Enterprises, producers of the James Bond films in London. Living out a kind of nomadic odyssey, Mr. Katz spent time in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Japan and Africa, finally settling in the State of Israel. He was instrumental in the formation of the Kibbutz industries in Israel, and he served in the U.S. Merchant Marine.

And here what someone who bothered to put a short blurb in Wiki says:

Joseph Katz (1912—2004) worked for Soviet intelligence from the 1930s to the late 1940s as one of its most active liaison agents. Katz was assigned management of the “First Line,” that part of the NKGB mission aimed at recruiting selected members of the Communist Party USA. He was an agent/group leader (gruppovik) and co-owner of a Soviet front company that manufactured gloves.

Like that parable of the blind men and an elephant... Traced briefly, his life story will look like this (highlights only!): US citizen - Soviet superspy - Merchant Marine seaman - Israeli citizen and founder of kibbutz industries - British resident and inventor - a minor movie industry mogul - one of creators of James Bond character... - etc.

And through all this: Never Done Any Time In The Nick!

Well, read that darn article. Don't drool.

Hat tip: J.Z.

Fidel Castro dead: on the death of a liar

Some news is nicer than the other to wake up to. So Fidel has gone to that section of hell that is dedicated to the tyrants and their able assistants. I swore long ago to dedicate a post to The Beard when he croaks. The waiting, though, became so interminable that I've started to have my doubts regarding the possibility of that post ever happening. What with the incredible achievements of socialist medicine in Cuba, he might have very well survived me, who knew? But I won that race eventually.

And no, I didn't intend this post as a blanket condemnation of the typical Latin American junta hiding behind the fake facade of the quasi-socialism, of starving its citizens, of institutionalized spying by everyone after everyone, of bringing the world to the brink of nuclear war and so many other crimes. Nope, that future post was meant to be a highly personal missive.

It was planned to describe a boy who, proudly sporting a Pioneer's cravat, marched with other snotty idiots, shouting in unison "Yankees no, Cuba yes!", "Yankees, keep you hands off Cuba!" and similar. That boy was absolutely enamored by the Granma stories, by the fearless Barbudos who, being so few in numbers, made the impossible, deposing an evil and (indeed) corrupted Batista. As he was enamored by other myths, songs, pictures from the enchanting island so far from the fairly grey and dreary Soviet existence.

But time goes by and one learns. Among other things, one learns the true story of the so called "Communism" the junta has chosen as a choice of convenience to make the new Moscow patrons happy. About making Cuba a mercenary power, carrying out military and espionage designs of that patron all over the world. About the summary executions, about the racism...

Then the boy's attitude to Castro became kind of personal. Took some years to wait, though.

So rot in hell with your buddy Che, you scoundrel. And may Cuba become libre eventually.

Feng-Shan Ho: he who saves one life, saves the whole world

This post is not about some news item. The life and story of the Chinese diplomat is known and his name is in the list of the Righteous Among the Nations. It is just my own way to say that I've learned about the man right now and to say thank you.

After Austria’s annexation to Nazi Germany in March 1938, the 185,000 Jews there were subjected to a severe reign of terror, which resulted in intense pressure to leave the country. In order to do so, the Nazis required that Jews have entry visas or boat tickets to another country. However, the majority of the world’s nations refused to budge from their restrictive immigration policies, a stance reaffirmed at the Evian Conference, in July 1938.

Unlike his fellow-diplomats, Ho issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them, even to those wishing to travel elsewhere but needing a visa to leave Nazi Germany.

Many of those helped by Ho did indeed reach Shanghai, either by boat from Italy or overland via the Soviet Union. Many others made use of their visas to reach alternate destinations, including Palestine, the Philippines, and elsewhere...

May your name be blessed and rest in peace, Feng-Shan Ho.

Hat tip: L.G.

The Israeli Museum: Night over Germany.

About 50 pictures of the German avant-garde artists from the period between WW I and WW II presented. As one who usually does his best to forego the blight of the audio guide, I was bending over almost 50 times to read the short blurbs telling about the artists and the fate of their works. During the Nazi time a lot of their masterpieces ended up in the specially created exposition of "Degenerate art". And a lot was destroyed, being considered decadent and degenerate.

Besides getting a creaking back, I realized that the fate of these artists or, rather, of their work (most have emigrated - but not all), is eerily similar to that of many Russian painters, writers, composers etc, whose work was banned, destroyed or forbidden. Although the Nazis murdered less of their artists, I have to add.

And, by the way, the "politically correct" artwork as approved by the Nazi regime was no less eerily similar to that approved by Stalin's art connoisseurs. As close as twins.

And - a result of simple arithmetic - the German artists were somewhat luckier than their Soviet counterparts. At least, their travail lasted only about 12 years (well, a bit more, given the aftermath of the war). At the time when Soviet oppression of the arts continued for 70 years, give or take. Still somewhat not totally over, if you ask me.

Horst Strempel's "Nacht über Deutschland" (Night over Germany)

This painting gave its name to the exposition.

The photograph of the painting was "borrowed" from the blog post of Ein Berliner, Briefly.

November 3, 1969 - Soviet Toilet Paper Day

It looks like the subject of waste management is heating up lately, so, in order not to miss the trend, here is another interesting historical event, as covered by Russian Wiki:

Two huge British paper machines were purchased in 1968 for Syassky pulp and paper mill (Leningrad region) for production of toilet paper. A ceremonial start of production occurred on November 3, 1969.  At first the new product encountered zero demand - a simple citizen of the USSR didn't know what do with these rolls of paper and didn't buy it. But quite shortly, after an advertising campaign organized through newsreels in theaters (shown before the main movie) and voluntary-compulsory distribution among workers in large factories, toilet paper has become a scarce commodity.

This is the factual historical treatment. The wider social aspects of this event were interpreted by a Russian blogger:

Emergence of the toilet paper in the Soviet Union affected the durability of the Soviet state's foundations most directly. Going to the toilet and settling there for a long time, a citizen of the most reading country in the world picked up a Soviet newspaper hanging there and inevitably ingested from it a few ideologically correct statements about the advantages of the socialist system over the capitalist one. And this wasn't happening at Party meetings - but during a very special state of the citizen's mind.

Along with the lead from the newspaper ink, all the newsprint wisdom of Marxism-Leninism and the leading and guiding force of Soviet society - the Communist Party - were rubbed into the arse of the Soviet citizen.

And with the advent of the toilet paper, the said arses became too tender, which led to the collapse of their hitherto unswerving ideological orientation ...

So when you hear that we "shut the USSR out", you can safely take it literally!

As this wise Russian guy says:

(The closest translation will be "cut the crap", but it hardly conveys the spirit of the original).

Marilyn Monroe and Ya'akov Hodorov: fame and infamy

The history of football in Israel is rather a lesson in more or less uninterrupted failure and humiliation at the hands (feet) of even the least able of the world teams, national and otherwise. One would suggest it's time to quit this business altogether and direct the means into some more satisfying endeavor. Like bridge or bingo or something. Well, anyway, this post is about a rare heartwarming moment in this miserable history.

This picture, which I picked up thanks to Fred Lapides, depicts such a moment. The picture, according to the photographer Bob Henriques, shows Marilyn Monroe opening the USA-Israel Football International at Ebbets Field, home of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1959.

The picture caused me to do some googling. The player on the left appears to be no one else but Ya'akov Hodorov, the goalkeeper of the Israeli team. Wiki knows some things about him:

Ya'akov Hodorov (Hebrew: יעקב חודורוב) (born 16 June 1927; died 31 December 2006) was an Israeli football goalkeeper in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. He was considered by many to be Israel's best goalkeeper in history, and among the best goalkeepers of his generation.

There are more facts about one of the very few really good Israeli footballers in this link.

As for the occasion where this picture was taken: I have dug up a 2003 Haaretz article that tells the story of the Israeli team visit to US and the round of games it played there. The tour started with the game in New York, at Ebbets Field, as is correctly stated in the Bob Henriques' entry. The date, however, is wrong - the game was played on May 15, 1957.

According to the article, Ya'akov Hodorov succeeded to "monopolize" Marilyn's attention, keeping her near himself all the time during an unprecedentedly warm and festive reception organized by New Yorkers for the Israeli team. A lot of pictures are said to be shot of the pair.

As for the game itself, played against the New York all stars team - the Israeli team won 6-4, while Hodorov, as the article remarks, was in a somewhat dreamy state. Probably influenced by his beautiful host...

Well, back to infamy. The Israeli team played another two games during the visit: one in Philly against a local team, another in Washington - against Scots of Glasgow's Celtic. Lost both. So much for the customary infamy.

Here is another picture of Marilyn Monroe and Ya'akov Hodorov:

Which is surely better than just Israeli football.

Felix Dzerzhinsky - back to Lubyanka?

Not yet, but the chances are that the man who presided over the bloodbath of Red Terror, the infamous murderous fanatic Iron Felix, will soon grace the environs of the Lubyanka square.

Moscow authorities allowed a referendum on the restoration of the monument to Dzerzhinsky on Lubyanka Square. Earlier the communists were forbidden to hold a referendum...

It is not a done deal yet, granted, but seeing the prevailing mood in nowadays Russia, there is a high probability of the butcher's image coming back. Which will make the commies happy, no doubt.

Oh, and the return will surely improve the motivation of the folks sitting in that building on Lubyanka...

What has been will be again.

Mossad and Ayatollah Khomeini: a thriller that wasn't

This is a blast from the past:

In a shocking revelation at a special conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, it was revealed that former Iranian Prime Minister Shapour Bakhtiar, the last prime minister before the Islamic Revolution, asked Mossad agents in Tehran to assassinate the leader of the Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini.

Says Yossi Alpher, a former Mossad official:

I told the heads of the Mossad that I had difficulty supporting the request because we didn't know enough about who and what Khomeini was. I really regret not supporting that request.

You bet.