T
Ted
Guest
On Oct 19, 7:07 am, FrankArthur <A...@Arthurian.com> wrote:
> ZYD/JEWISH CRIMES IN RUSSIA EXPOSED FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE
>
> On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:23:48 -0400, in soc.culture.canada "serwad"
>
> <ser...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of the revolution
>
> Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in Soviet-era
> repression
>
> Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who first exposed the horrors of the Stalinist
> gulag, is now attempting to tackle one of the most sensitive topics of his
> writing career - the role of the Jews in the Bolshevik revolution and Soviet
> purges.
> In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, 84, deals with one of the last taboos of
> the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the
> repression as its victims. Two Hundred Years Together - a reference to the
> 1772 partial annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the
> Russian Jewish population - contains three chapters discussing the Jewish
> role in the revolutionary genocide and secret police purges of Soviet
> Russia.
>
> But Jewish leaders and some historians have reacted furiously to the book,
> and questioned Solzhenitsyn's motives in writing it, accusing him of factual
> inaccuracies and of fanning the flames of anti-semitism in Russia.
> Solzhenitsyn argues that some Jewish satire of the revolutionary period
> "consciously or unconsciously descends on the Russians" as being behind the
> genocide. But he states that all the nation's ethnic groups must share the
> blame, and that people shy away from speaking the truth about the Jewish
> experience.
>
> In one remark which infuriated Russian Jews, he wrote: "If I would care to
> generalise, and to say that the life of the Jews in the camps was especially
> hard, I could, and would not face reproach for an unjust national
> generalisation. But in the camps where I was kept, it was different. The
> Jews whose experience I saw - their life was softer than that of others."
>
> Yet he added: "But it is impossible to find the answer to the eternal
> question: who is to be blamed, who led us to our death? To explain the
> actions of the Kiev cheka [secret police] only by the fact that two thirds
> were Jews, is certainly incorrect."
>
> Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, spent much of
> his life in Soviet prison camps, enduring persecution when he wrote about
> his experiences. He is currently in frail health, but in an interview given
> last month he said that Russia must come to terms with the Stalinist and
> revolutionary genocides - and that its Jewish population should be as
> offended at their own role in the purges as they are at the Soviet power
> that also persecuted them.
>
> "My book was directed to empathise with the thoughts, feelings and the
> psychology of the Jews - their spiritual component," he said. "I have never
> made general conclusions about a people. I will always differentiate between
> layers of Jews. One layer rushed headfirst to the revolution. Another, to
> the contrary, was trying to stand back. The Jewish subject for a long time
> was considered prohibited. Zhabotinsky [a Jewish writer] once said that the
> best service our Russian friends give to us is never to speak aloud about
> us."
>
> But Solzhenitsyn's book has caused controversy in Russia, where one Jewish
> leader said it was "not of any merit".
>
> "This is a mistake, but even geniuses make mistakes," said Yevgeny
> Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress. "Richard Wagner did
> not like the Jews, but was a great composer. Dostoyevsky was a great Russian
> writer, but had a very sceptical attitude towards the Jews.
>
> "This is not a book about how the Jews and Russians lived together for 200
> years, but one about how they lived apart after finding themselves on the
> same territory. This book is a weak one professionally. Factually, it is so
> bad as to be beyond criticism. As literature, it is not of any merit."
>
> But DM Thomas, one of Solzhenitsyn's biographers, said that he did not think
> the book was fuelled by anti-semitism. "I would not doubt his sincerity. He
> says that he firmly supports the state of Israel. In his fiction and factual
> writing there are Jewish characters that he writes about who are bright,
> decent, anti-Stalinist people."
>
> Professor Robert Service of Oxford University, an expert on 20th century
> Russian history, said that from what he had read about the book,
> Solzhenitsyn was "absolutely right".
>
> Researching a book on Lenin, Prof Service came across details of how
> Trotsky, who was of Jewish origin, asked the politburo in 1919 to ensure
> that Jews were enrolled in the Red army. Trotsky said that Jews were
> disproportionately represented in the Soviet civil bureaucracy, including
> the cheka.
>
> "Trotsky's idea was that the spread of anti-semitism was [partly down to]
> objections about their entrance into the civil service. There is something
> in this; that they were not just passive spectators of the revolution. They
> were part-victims and part-perpetrators.
>
> "It is not a question that anyone can write about without a huge amount of
> bravery, and [it] needs doing in Russia because the Jews are quite often
> written about by fanatics. Mr Solzhenitsyn's book seems much more measured
> than that."
>
> Yet others failed to see the need for Solzhenitsyn's pursuit of this
> particular subject at present. Vassili Berezhkov, a retired KGB colonel and
> historian of the secret services and the NKVD (the precursor of the KGB),
> said: "The question of ethnicity did not have any importance either in the
> revolution or the story of the NKVD. This was a social revolution and those
> who served in the NKVD and cheka were serving ideas of social change.
>
> "If Solzhenitsyn writes that there were many Jews in the NKVD, it will
> increase the passions of anti-semitism, which has deep roots in Russian
> history. I think it is better not to discuss such a question now."
I've not seen anything in the press and what is title?
ted
> ZYD/JEWISH CRIMES IN RUSSIA EXPOSED FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE
>
> On Tue, 12 Sep 2006 22:23:48 -0400, in soc.culture.canada "serwad"
>
> <ser...@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> Solzhenitsyn breaks last taboo of the revolution
>
> Nobel laureate under fire for new book on the role of Jews in Soviet-era
> repression
>
> Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who first exposed the horrors of the Stalinist
> gulag, is now attempting to tackle one of the most sensitive topics of his
> writing career - the role of the Jews in the Bolshevik revolution and Soviet
> purges.
> In his latest book Solzhenitsyn, 84, deals with one of the last taboos of
> the communist revolution: that Jews were as much perpetrators of the
> repression as its victims. Two Hundred Years Together - a reference to the
> 1772 partial annexation of Poland and Russia which greatly increased the
> Russian Jewish population - contains three chapters discussing the Jewish
> role in the revolutionary genocide and secret police purges of Soviet
> Russia.
>
> But Jewish leaders and some historians have reacted furiously to the book,
> and questioned Solzhenitsyn's motives in writing it, accusing him of factual
> inaccuracies and of fanning the flames of anti-semitism in Russia.
> Solzhenitsyn argues that some Jewish satire of the revolutionary period
> "consciously or unconsciously descends on the Russians" as being behind the
> genocide. But he states that all the nation's ethnic groups must share the
> blame, and that people shy away from speaking the truth about the Jewish
> experience.
>
> In one remark which infuriated Russian Jews, he wrote: "If I would care to
> generalise, and to say that the life of the Jews in the camps was especially
> hard, I could, and would not face reproach for an unjust national
> generalisation. But in the camps where I was kept, it was different. The
> Jews whose experience I saw - their life was softer than that of others."
>
> Yet he added: "But it is impossible to find the answer to the eternal
> question: who is to be blamed, who led us to our death? To explain the
> actions of the Kiev cheka [secret police] only by the fact that two thirds
> were Jews, is certainly incorrect."
>
> Solzhenitsyn, awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970, spent much of
> his life in Soviet prison camps, enduring persecution when he wrote about
> his experiences. He is currently in frail health, but in an interview given
> last month he said that Russia must come to terms with the Stalinist and
> revolutionary genocides - and that its Jewish population should be as
> offended at their own role in the purges as they are at the Soviet power
> that also persecuted them.
>
> "My book was directed to empathise with the thoughts, feelings and the
> psychology of the Jews - their spiritual component," he said. "I have never
> made general conclusions about a people. I will always differentiate between
> layers of Jews. One layer rushed headfirst to the revolution. Another, to
> the contrary, was trying to stand back. The Jewish subject for a long time
> was considered prohibited. Zhabotinsky [a Jewish writer] once said that the
> best service our Russian friends give to us is never to speak aloud about
> us."
>
> But Solzhenitsyn's book has caused controversy in Russia, where one Jewish
> leader said it was "not of any merit".
>
> "This is a mistake, but even geniuses make mistakes," said Yevgeny
> Satanovsky, president of the Russian Jewish Congress. "Richard Wagner did
> not like the Jews, but was a great composer. Dostoyevsky was a great Russian
> writer, but had a very sceptical attitude towards the Jews.
>
> "This is not a book about how the Jews and Russians lived together for 200
> years, but one about how they lived apart after finding themselves on the
> same territory. This book is a weak one professionally. Factually, it is so
> bad as to be beyond criticism. As literature, it is not of any merit."
>
> But DM Thomas, one of Solzhenitsyn's biographers, said that he did not think
> the book was fuelled by anti-semitism. "I would not doubt his sincerity. He
> says that he firmly supports the state of Israel. In his fiction and factual
> writing there are Jewish characters that he writes about who are bright,
> decent, anti-Stalinist people."
>
> Professor Robert Service of Oxford University, an expert on 20th century
> Russian history, said that from what he had read about the book,
> Solzhenitsyn was "absolutely right".
>
> Researching a book on Lenin, Prof Service came across details of how
> Trotsky, who was of Jewish origin, asked the politburo in 1919 to ensure
> that Jews were enrolled in the Red army. Trotsky said that Jews were
> disproportionately represented in the Soviet civil bureaucracy, including
> the cheka.
>
> "Trotsky's idea was that the spread of anti-semitism was [partly down to]
> objections about their entrance into the civil service. There is something
> in this; that they were not just passive spectators of the revolution. They
> were part-victims and part-perpetrators.
>
> "It is not a question that anyone can write about without a huge amount of
> bravery, and [it] needs doing in Russia because the Jews are quite often
> written about by fanatics. Mr Solzhenitsyn's book seems much more measured
> than that."
>
> Yet others failed to see the need for Solzhenitsyn's pursuit of this
> particular subject at present. Vassili Berezhkov, a retired KGB colonel and
> historian of the secret services and the NKVD (the precursor of the KGB),
> said: "The question of ethnicity did not have any importance either in the
> revolution or the story of the NKVD. This was a social revolution and those
> who served in the NKVD and cheka were serving ideas of social change.
>
> "If Solzhenitsyn writes that there were many Jews in the NKVD, it will
> increase the passions of anti-semitism, which has deep roots in Russian
> history. I think it is better not to discuss such a question now."
I've not seen anything in the press and what is title?
ted
