Apparently, new understandings of how to interpret the way the Soviet Union acted in the world from the perspective of mostly those acted upon is considered "rewriting history". Well, all I can say to that, is if the history that is written down is dead wrong, then maybe it needs to be rewritten!
I grew up knowing that the Soviet Union was a major aggressor during WW2 and beyond. Having a Dad who was deported to Siberia by the Soviets in a railway cattle car, during winter, when he was a child, along with his whole family, tends to cement a certain finality on this perspective. Moreso, even, when you know you may have known your Grandmother and a number of your Uncles and Aunts, if they had not starved to death in Kazakhstan, courtesy of the the same Soviets. Trying to tell one such as I that the Soviets were the West's allies tends to elicit a certain incredulity, at first, that a person should be so gullible. Unfortunately for me, the extent and the sheer number of gullible individuals seems to be an extraordinary number, that quite honestly has taken me by surprise.
So I read such an article as this with barely repressed, outraged anger. If it was on paper, I would tear it into little pieces.
Related Link: This rewriting of history is spreading Europe's poison ~ Guardian
Thanks to Psycho Milt for pointing out this abominable article to me. Putting on my new makeup helped elevate my mood enough so that I could write something more other than just wanting to rip the writer's head off.
I grew up knowing that the Soviet Union was a major aggressor during WW2 and beyond. Having a Dad who was deported to Siberia by the Soviets in a railway cattle car, during winter, when he was a child, along with his whole family, tends to cement a certain finality on this perspective. Moreso, even, when you know you may have known your Grandmother and a number of your Uncles and Aunts, if they had not starved to death in Kazakhstan, courtesy of the the same Soviets. Trying to tell one such as I that the Soviets were the West's allies tends to elicit a certain incredulity, at first, that a person should be so gullible. Unfortunately for me, the extent and the sheer number of gullible individuals seems to be an extraordinary number, that quite honestly has taken me by surprise.
So I read such an article as this with barely repressed, outraged anger. If it was on paper, I would tear it into little pieces.
Related Link: This rewriting of history is spreading Europe's poison ~ Guardian
Thanks to Psycho Milt for pointing out this abominable article to me. Putting on my new makeup helped elevate my mood enough so that I could write something more other than just wanting to rip the writer's head off.
What else should one expect from the media front for communism that is the Guardian?
ReplyDeleteNo-one takes the Guardian seriously and neither should they.
Nice uncle Joe didn't invade Poland on the 17th of September 1939, nor annex the Baltic Republics or attack Finland in 1940 - surely not.
ReplyDeleteThat cretinous writer has no idea at all of the conditions in Eastern Europe from 1939 on - or before for that matter.
The Holodomor, for example, in the thirties where Stalin used famine as a political tool is beyond this foolish man's comprehension. So some Ukrainians, and Balts fought for Hitler - a few became war criminals even, they were at War with Stalin before Hitler came on the scene in their homelands.
The whole damn thing was a human catastrophe beyond comprehension with people caught up in a horrendous whirlwind of evil.
England got of lightly in comparison and New Zealand was to all intents and purposes untouched -which is not to say they didn't play their part for the greater good but they do not have in their DNA the ghastlyness that overwhelmed the East.
Hi,Lucia
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you have come across a book entitled The Liberation of One by Romuald Spasowski. I read it years ago when the Wall was still up and eastern Europe remained under Soviet thrall. It was my introduction to the sufferings of the Polish people.
One particularly striking image I have never forgotten was Spasowski recounting hearing the clandestine freight trains running all through the night, carrying grain voluntarily sent from the US to aid Poland, but now being reshipped to the Soviet Union. The Soviets were expropriating the grain for themselves--leaving Polish people to starve.
The Empire was indeed evil.
JT
Thanks guys, for your comments.
ReplyDeleteJohn, no, I haven't come across the book that you've mentioned. I've read a few on the subject and have my Dad's own experiences that he related to me. The most profound writings to me have been a book by General Wladislaw Anders, An Army in Exile and an Australian history project, where the stories of the survivors were compiled together.
I've just looked up the Liberation of One on Amazon - it looks too annoying to read. I've got another book that I can't read, I've read about 200 pages but can't read anymore, it just makes me too angry and upset. That's Rising '44: The Battle for Warsaw. That book mentioned things like the allied fighter pilots that tried to help Warsaw during the 1944 Uprising against the Nazis that the Soviets were not their friends was the fact that Soviets shot at them if they flew over their territory. Most preferred the dangerous flight back over Nazi controlled airspace because being shot at by your clearly defined enemies was better than being shot at by your so called friends and allies.