Posted on 08/25/2015 6:04:10 AM PDT by elhombrelibre
Kremlin stunt to destroy imports of banned European foods backfires in city that suffered starvation in World War Two
It is one of the stranger witch hunts of modern times: a crusade against food that has seen Russian officials launch a feverish hunt to bulldoze Western-made produce.
For the Kremlin, the decision to destroy French cheeses and Polish apples smuggled into the country is a matter of sovereignty - an attempt to wage economic war on the countries that sanctioned Russia after the annexation of Crimea.
But for a great many in the city of St Petersburg, it is an incomprehensible and deeply upsetting strategy that brings back painful memories.
“It simply makes my heart bleed to see it. When you remember what happened here, when you have seen a child asking for food and known that you have nothing to give it, such waste is simply incomprehensible,” said Ludmilla Smirnova, a St Petersburg pensioner and veteran of the siege of what was then known as Leningrad.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I can sympathize. We had to clean out old food from my grandmother’s refrigerator while she was asleep. As a child of the Depression she absolutely refused to throw away food.
As an aside, why is it that the battle of Stalingrad gets all the attention (books, movies, etc.), but the siege of Leningrad is mostly ignored?
~4 million(!) casualties (dead, wounded) on both sides.
Maybe because a lot of the story was always written to support the Stalinist view of the fight. Leningrad’s suffering was beyond horrible, but it wasn’t necessarily heroic. And it was a consequence of Stalin’s collaboration with Hitler.
OK, thanks. I just recently read up on that a little and it made me wonder.
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