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1 comments about From the Yaroslavsky Station: Russia Perceived, Third Edition.

1. This is a beautifully written, truly wonderful book. Ms. Pond took a train trip on the Trans-Siberian railroad, and wrote fascinating and erudite vignettes based loosely on each of her stops, from Moscow to the far East.

   I've read widely about Communism. But I must say that, with the exception of Solzhenitsyn's works and Edmund Wilson's To the Finland Station, I have never read any book that contributed as much to my understanding of this morally bankrupt, dying empire.

5 comments about The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine.

1. This book shows just how bad things can get when the realities of economics are ignored. When people have no incentive to produce, they will not produce. This is a message that I wish were better understood by those who persist in thinking that we can solve poverty by giving out handouts.



2. The whole plenary hall arises. There are applause, prolonged applause. Shouts are heard. Long live comrade Stalin! Long live the great Stalin! Long live the esteemed and beloved Stalin! Long live Generalissimus Stalin!
   
   Vivat, vivat, vivat!
   
   Long live the great leader of the world proletariat, comrade Iossif Vissarionovich Stalin!!!
   
   Oh, Stalin, how many are the songs we wish to sing to you, the poems we wish to read to you. Oh, Stalin, you are the sun in the heavens and the brightest star in the firmament!
   
   Vivat, vivat, vivat!
   
   When comrade Stalin was born, the nightingales were singing, and the roses were blossoming, and the fishermen caught a very large fish, with a red jewel inside. When comrade Stalin died, the birds stopped singing out of sorrow, the roses withered and died, and the fishermen didnt caught any fish. Then, the bourgeois revisionists removed comrade Stalins body from its glass casket.
   
   Vivat Generalissimus, Vivat Generalissimus, Vivat Generalissimus!
   
   HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA



3. Years ago I attended a 2 yr. technical school, which required taking a speech class in addition to electronics classes. The text of my 15 minute speech was extracts from 'Harvest of Sorrow.' I knew the speech was having an effect of sorts, for a class full of fidgety post teen guys slowly moved their attention from hand held games and car magazines to me, with their mouths hanging open. I finished my speech and left, thinking nothing more of it.
   The next day, a teacher from another class approached me, saying, "Do you know that you are now famous? The speech teacher raved on and on at our lunch after the class, saying that you had the entire class riveted to the floor with that subject! He said that after 14 years of teaching speech, your effort forced him to give his first 100% grade for a speech!"
   It strikes one to think that there is so much WW II stuff on the History Channel that it is now called the Hitler Channel, but they will barely give one hour a month for a far greater demon (Stalin) and a far worse system (Communism.) Why?



4. This was the first thorough Western documentation of what happened in the Communists' collectivization famines in the Ukraine and just how many people died - 10 to 15 million, more than died in the Holocaust. This is one of the more important conservative books of our time, because it documents in copious detail one of the worst crimes in history, one which the Left has continually sought to cover up or downplay.
   
   Ukrainian peasants were murdered, starved or deported to slave labor and death in order to turn their rich farmland into collectives. As Ukrainians they ran up against the supposedly internationalist but really Russian nationalist Communist regime, and as peasants they were officially regarded as a uselessly reactionary class unreceptive to revolution, by the proletariat-favoring Party.
   
   Nearly every aspect of the Holocaust 10 years later, is on display here - starving people to weaken them, looting their wealth before killing them, waves of deportation over several years, and shipping them in boxcars to concentration camps with no hope of return. It gives rise to this stunning question: did Hitler model the tactics of the Final Solution on this?
   
   That this work wasn't done in the West for nearly half a century is itself criminal, allowing the left to argue for coexistence with a "peaceful" and "progressive" Soviet Union. And the academic silence tells you all you need to know about the state of today's academy. Conquest documents the willing burial of the facts by Western liberals, most importantly New York Times writer Walter Duranty who knew about it but didn't publish it, meanwhile continuing to glorify the Socialist Revolution in print.
   
   When you read about this, you'll wonder, "Why haven't I heard about this before?" Good question.



5. The black earth
   Was sown with bones
   And watered with blood
   For a harvest of sorrow
   On the land of Rus.
   - _The Armament of Igor_.
   
   _The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivizaton and the Terror-Famine_, first published in 1986, by historian Robert Conquest is an excellent accounting of the horrors of the Soviet state unleashed upon the Russian peasantry by the Soviet Communist Party between 1929 and 1933. Robert Conquest is a British historian who early on joined the Communist Party and fought in World War II; however, after seeing firsthand the horrors of Soviet communism he became an anti-communist. In this book a detailed accounting of the more than 14.5 million deaths (more than the total number of deaths from all countries involved in World War I) that resulted directly from policies sanctioned by the Soviet Communist Party is detailed. Such policies as dekulakization, collectivization, and the "terror-famine" in the Ukraine had drastic consequences for those living under this oppressive and horrendous regime. Further, many Western intellectuals turned a blind eye to these atrocities because of their support for this horrendous and ungodly ideology. Even today many continue to deny such crimes occurred among the communists, while at the same time a repeated accounting is made of Nazi and fascist crimes. For those who believe that Soviet communism was a just and noble endeavor, a book like this is certainly sobering. Through painstaking research, Robert Conquest unveils the horrors behind Soviet communism.
   
   Conquest begins by noting the importance of Ukrainian nationalism, feared by the Soviets, and comparing the atrocities of communism to those of the other totalitarian ideologies of the twentieth century, Nazism and fascism. To begin with, the Soviets long regarded the peasants as backwards and reactionary, clinging to their traditions and religion, and thus "counter-revolutionary" and a threat to human progress. Such hatred for the peasant goes all the way back to Karl Marx, the founding father of Soviet communism. Lenin also denigrated the peasant as a threat to the creation of the Soviet state. Conquest traces the development of Ukrainian nationalism as it contrasted with Leninism and Soviet communism. For example, as Engels commented, "Now you ask me whether I have no sympathy whatever for the small Slav peoples, and remnants of peoples . . . In fact, I have damned little sympathy for them." During the years 1917 - 21, the revolution broke out sponsored by the Bolsheviks. At the same time the peasant war and famine broke out. Repeated famines were common in the history of the Soviet regime, showing the utter failure of the Soviet economic system to provide food for its people. Such famine was so bad at times that many Russians even had to resort to cannibalism in their efforts to stay alive. Further, during this time and following, the Soviet state began a series of purges against "counter-revolutionaries", those who stood in the way, the religious, and those who did not sufficiently truckle to the powers that be. The NKVD and secret police were formed to rid the state of dissenters. The League of Militant Godless, a band of militant atheists, formed which sought to purge the state of religious and ransacked the Orthodox churches. At the same time, purges were made of kulaks (and suspected kulaks), largely middle-class peasants who could afford to hire labor or lenders. Frequently the individuals accused of being kulaks were very poor, and hardly the rich exploiters they were portrayed to be. Indeed, the accusations and railings of individuals such as Josef Stalin against the kulak bear an eerie resemblance to those of Hitler. At the same time, the free peasantry was abolished and the land was laid to waste. So inefficient were the Soviet agricultural methods that millions starved. In particular, children faced a horrific fate under the Soviet regime and frequently starved or were left to die as orphans. All the while massive purges continued and the state officially denied any problems existed (afterall the Soviet state was supposed to be a utopia). Conquest sums up the death toll as follows:
   
   Peasant dead: 1930 - 37 11 million
   Arrested in this period dying in camps later 3.5 million
   TOTAL 14.5 million.
   
   The record of the West in responding to these atrocities was equally horrendous, particularly among intellectuals who frequently harbored communist sympathies. In particular, individuals such as Sidney and Beatrice Webb and Walter Duranty denied such occurrences. Further, the reports of such individuals (which could be likely classified as nothing more than official propaganda for the Soviet state) were accorded places of prominence among leading Western sources. However, others did catch on to the evils of the Soviet regime and began speaking out against it as well as providing aid. Following this, Conquest attempts to assign responsibilities for such atrocities. Certainly, we cannot forget these horrors and a full accounting must be made, even and especially if such an accounting happens to undermine one of our most favored ideologies. Conquest ends by discussing the aftermath of such terror and the Soviet Union up to the present time. This book was written before the fall of the USSR.
   
   This book is to be highly recommended for those who want to know the truth about Soviet Communism. The official Soviet line denied such atrocities occurred under their regime. The twentieth century is likely to be remembered as an era of totalitarian regimes, and the Soviet Union remains one of the worst such regimes ever known to man. Nevertheless, there exist those who continue to deny that such things ever occurred because of their support for such an ideology. Indeed, Conquest himself has been much vilified by a largely pro-Communist Left that refuses to face up to its own atrocities while at the same time preaching constantly about the horrors of "right wing fascism". That is why a proper accounting such as that made in this book is all the more important.

1 comments about The Marquis De Custine and His Russia in 1839.

1. This is a tiny book that talks about a very large one. This book is summarized into a foreward in many reprintings of Custine, and if you have read that, this is unnecessary. It's a good study of Custine's life, however by a biased source.

5 comments about The Woman Who Walked to Russia: A Writer's Search for a Lost Legend.

1. The least information supplied in this book is about Lillian (last name uncertain), the woman, whose legend has it, walked to Russia. The author is Australian, and that is probably the market for which this book is intended. She sets off on an investigative journal to uncover information about the mysterious Lillian, and comes up instead with a travelogue about travelling in Northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and Alaska. Along the way, she fills in details of the scenery, the towns, her menu, her disfunctional friendship with her travelling companion, and offers a half dozen book reviews. For someone like myself, with a solid knowledge of North American current events and Arctic history, the narrative offers very little, and in fact, gives away important details some of books still waiting on my reading list. For others, who are looking for an introduction to the region, or enjoys another person's perspective, they may find some merit in the book. The writing style is fine, and the book does have flow to it. However, don't confuse it with investigative journalism.



2. I read this book while taking a Refugee and Immigrant Perspectives class. In the first third of the book, Pybus presented a historically strong case for her heroine (statistics, archives, interviews, etc.). Then, Pybus begins to profile her own journey - nearly overshadowing her writers' pursuit of Lillian Alling. While I found the final resolution more realistic but slightly less climatic than I had been expecting, Pybus' travels and observations lend themselves to the wild Alaskan frontier and the dangers of walking/driving/living there. Overall, a good read but perhaps should be renamed: The Woman Who Walked to Russia And The Writer Who Drove to Alaska. Now I'm off to read Into The Wild...



3. Pybus purportedly is writing about a woman who, in the 1920's, set out to walk from British Columbia all the way to Siberia. There isn't much information on this woman and Pybus, with a friend, was going to retrace her steps in an effort to find out more.
   That sounds really good. That is why I picked up the book to read it.
   What most of this book is about, though, is how mean Cassandra's friend is to her, how too many people are hunting Alaskan moose, how backwards Americans are, how nice Cassandra is. There is finally a resolution to the "woman who walked to Russia" story but it's only thrown in in a halfhearted way before Pybus throws her whole self into telling us how happy she is to be back with her husband, and that's what really matters, right? If she had spent more time being sympathetic the first 3/4 of the book I could have been happier with the ending. As it was, I was completely uninterested in Cassandra's personal life, having been given regular doses of it throughout the book.
   There are some good descriptions of Yukon & Alaska in this book; it's an area I've visited before, and her descriptions made me miss it. I can get nostalgic without having to tread through 200 pages of complaining about Pybus's sad lot in life.



4. I thought that The Woman Who Walked to Russia, by Cassandra Pybus was a good book. The book showed a relationship between Cassandra and her friend Gerry; and how Cassandra never gave up. I felt that it was important that Pybus never gave up because she felt and was so into Lillian Alling and how she supposedly walked through the wilderness to get back where her home was. Pybus said "To follow Lillian's trek from Vancouver would involve a return trip of ten thousand kilometers, allowing for a side trip to Providenija , and to do the trip I would need to hire a four-wheel-drive vehicle for five to six weeks."(p.41) Knowing that all this would have to be done to find how and what Lillian had to do to get back home is remarkable. If I was in Pybus position I do not think that I would go through all that trouble.
   The relationship between Pybus and Gerry is a good one for the both of them on this trip. They are both from Australia so they can relate on things, but also can snap at each other. For example when Gerry says, "And I got fat!" and later after they ate dinner, "As if nothing has happened between us, she cheerfully dismantles the Tranjia stove, packs up the food box and locks them into the trunk of the car."(p.111) With it just being them two in a car driving it must get crazy at times. Not having anyone else to talk to or having your own place to just get away must be really challenging.
   I liked this book because I never read a book with the people in it being from Australia and looking for someone that they have never met before and them determination just moved me. Also the determination that Lillian had to go back where she was from and here she knew where her home was at.
   
   Natalie San Francisco



5. The woman of the title is nowhere to be found. If you are looking for wilderness adventure, as I was, you will be disappointed. Pybus has almost no information on Lillian Alling's life or supposed epic hike to Siberia. In fact, she doesn't even know her name. Lillian Alling is largely a guess. In the end, she finds a few tidbits and one first hand account and from that weaves a wispy fairy tale. What the reader finds instead is an often fascinating, if unintended self-portrait author -- a woman frightened by wilderness and unable to comprehend anything beyond her own limited and narrow world view. As when she mocks rural Americans or expresses "astonishment" that readers of Jon Krakauer's "Into the Wild" see anything more than hubris in the the book's protagonist.
   
   The interactions between her, her travel companion, and her thoughts along the way are mesmerizing, if often painful.

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