Important Book Launch - October 22, 2010

[Hannia]

Stalin put secular assimilationists, Izrail Leplevskii, Lev Raikman and Boris Borman, in charge of both the "kulak operation" and the "Polish operation" executions, precisely for the reason that they were Jews. His idea was that this would foster anti-semitism and hatred for the Russian Jews, who had not absorded by Reconstituted Poland post WW2. Stalin was a sociopath, but his plan worked. Today 60 yrs after his death it is still working.

Stalin had plans for everybody. The three deputies , who had done his dirty bidding and met his death quotas, were themselves executed at the tail end of 1938. Reason given was that they were overly enthusiastic and killed more than they were suppose to.

Stalin was a mad man.

Keep in mind that all these executions took place in the Interwar Period. This was not war time. These people were executed for being Ukrainian, for being Polish, for being Belarusyn, for being Latvian, Estonian and Lithuanian.

BUT, by official international definition of genocide, this was not genocide, because he did not focus on a singular race.

[Hannia]

Snyder included 1933 Diaries of Gareth Jones in his research for "Bloodlands".

Gareth Jones Diary Download Page for Cambridge 2009

[g bilous]

I have recently finished reading BLOODLANDS. I cannot say it was a good read as it is not that type of book. For those of us with links to the regions affected I believe it is a must to read. It will give us a better understanding of the events during this period of time.
I also believe that no matter how many books we read about these events we will never ever know how the people of this region have suffered,what they went through or how anyone survived. It is just so incomprehensible. Buy and read it and help to keep the memories alive. They should not be forgotten. Those of us not from these lands are so so lucky.
After reading the book I found something on the forum, I think it was one of Hannia's posts. It was REMEMBER by Orsyia Paszczak Tracz. I found it very moving and upsetting to read but to me it summed up BLOODLANDS in two pages.

[Hannia]

Remember
Orysia Paszczak Tracz

In addition to those war dead whose memory we honour on Remembrance Day, I wish to remember those whom very few in Canada will think of -- not the soldiers, but the ordinary people, the innocent victims of war. I was born right after the war, but my family and I still bear the scars.

On this day

- Remember those who died in the flames of their own homes, bombed by one side or the other.

- Remember those who were left hanging for days on Gestapo gallows in so many Ukrainian villages, as a reminder to others not to oppose foreign authority.

- Remember those who were herded into cattle cars from village and city markets, into forced labour, who died in German factories and railroads from Allied bombs.

- Remember those who were forced into the German army, to die in internment camps from starvation and typhoid without fighting for or against anyone.

- Remember the concentration camp inmates, not only the Jews, but the clergy, the Ukrainians, Poles, Balts, Gypsies, and the homosexuals.

- Remember those who were executed on the spot for harboring or even feeding Jews.

- Remember the political prisoners who were executed in their cells or left for dead by the retreating Soviet army.

- Remember the underground and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, who fought both the Nazis and the Soviets, with no aid from anyone else.

- Remember the refugees who died fleeing their homes, who were killed as they rode or walked the roads west -- shot down by low-flying Soviet planes who could see whom they were shooting.

- Remember those who died after being forcibly repatriated from the Displaced Persons camps to the Soviet Union -- and those who committed suicide rather than return.

- Remember those who massively deserted the Red Army, to fight for independence, who were sent to dig ditches instead, only to die in them.

- Remember the orphans, and the helpless elderly.

- Remember the babies, who died of hunger and lack of medical care. There were no doctors for the untermenschen, the "subhuman" Slavs.

- Remember the survivors, some of whom are the living dead, whose minds and emotions have departed to another time and place because of what they lived through then.

- Remember the millions -- victims of war, conquest, hunger -- who lie in unmarked graves throughout Eastern Europe, whom the West has forgotten or chooses to ignore.

- Remember, then dare look me in the eye and tell me about war crimes, collaboration, and atrocities.

- Remember, and thank God the war was not fought on North American soil.

© 1999 Orysia Tracz, Winnipeg.

[Hannia]

Today came across following by accident:

Marina Lewycka, author of A SHORT HISTORY OF TRACTORS reconnected to family in Ukraine.
A short history of tracking down my family in Ukraine | Travel | The Observer

[zarjacks]

CBC.ca | Ideas | Bloodlands

[sjoyce]

Thank you so much Ruth. I bought the book and have read it so will send to cousins in Ukraine. They love books
Joyce