http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/gulags/ en-us Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:42:45 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2103451/posts We know that history holds many surprises. One doesn't expect to learn more about the secret history of of the Gulag than we already know from both Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Acrcipelago" and Anne Applebaum's "Gulag: A history." This feat, however, is exactly what author Tim Tzouliadis has accomplished: the previously unknown story of the thousands of Americans who, during the Depression, sought employment and a better future in the "worker's paradise" built by the Bolsheviks. All kinds of Americans joined the exodus. Some of them were Communists or fellow-travelors but the majority were average Americans - skilled workers promised paid passage,... National Review magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2103451/posts#comment Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:42:45 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2061838/posts Russian troops are indiscriminately murdering civilians and interning them in concentration camps, the embattled Georgian president charged yesterday, as he begged the West not to "appease" Moscow as it did with Nazi Germany. The startling accusations came as Russian troops blatantly violated a cease-fire by sending an armored convoy through the strategic city of Gori. The invaders first poured into Georgia five days ago - ostensibly in defense of a pro-Moscow breakaway region, South Ossetia. "What they are doing is exactly what Stalin did to Finland, what they've done to Afghanistan, what in the Second World War Germany was doing... nypost.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2061838/posts#comment Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:01:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2000526/posts Last week, Russia's lower house of parliament passed a resolu tion insisting that Josef Stalin's man-made 1932-33 famine... wasn't genocide. Not even the Russians dispute that the Soviet government deliberately starved millions. But the Russian resolution indignantly states: "There is no historical proof that the famine was organized along ethnic lines." It notes that victims included "different peoples and nationalities living largely in agricultural areas of the country." Translation: We didn't kill millions of farmers because they were Ukrainians; we killed millions of Ukrainians because they were farmers. And that's all it takes to be acquitted of genocide. The United... New York Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2000526/posts#comment Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:33:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889333/posts Pete Seeger, America's best-known and most influential folksinger, wrote me a letter a few days ago. I did not expect to hear from him. Last June, I wrote in these pages about the new documentary on his life. The article ran under the headline "Time for Pete Seeger To Repent." My complaint was that the film, good as it is, did not give a completely honest account of Mr. Seeger's politics. The filmmaker, Jim Brown, interviewed me on camera, but he did not include any of my critical remarks in the final version. In my interview, I pointed out that... The New York Sun http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1889333/posts#comment Fri, 31 Aug 2007 13:13:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871485/posts Now in their 70s and 80s, children of the victims of Josef Stalin's political repressions remembered one of the darkest pages of Russia's history at a ceremony Wednesday in central Moscow. Several hundred people laid flowers and lit candles to honor the victims of the Great Purge of 1937, when millions were labeled "enemies of the state" and executed without trial or sent to labor camps. The 70th anniversary comes as the Kremlin, focused on restoring Russians' pride in their Soviet-era history, has been trying to soften public perception of Stalin's rule and hushing up the full horror of his... AP http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1871485/posts#comment Wed, 25 Jul 2007 19:08:59 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861715/posts A new manual for Russia's history teachers succinctly distills President Vladimir Putin's drive to rekindle patriotism, retelling events of the past six decades according to the Kremlin's preferred storyline: Russia is a great power that shouldn't be ashamed of its past. Backed by support from the president himself, the book, which rails against U.S. hegemony, is raising fears among some historians that the Kremlin is -- quite literally -- trying to rewrite history in a way that risks breeding ultranationalism and whitewashing the darkest chapters of Russia's past. ... The book, aimed at teachers of students who are in their... wsj.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1861715/posts#comment Fri, 6 Jul 2007 14:08:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1833886/posts The history of the Soviet gulag has been told before, most powerfully in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's epic, "The Gulag Archipelago," published in the 1970s. Yet so immense is this history, so vast was the whirlwind of terror that swept over the Soviet Union in the 1930s, that much is only now coming to light. The network of prison camps documented by Solzhenitsyn, we are learning, formed only part of the gulag system. There was a second or "hidden" gulag as well that destroyed the lives of millions of Soviet citizens. Seattle Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1833886/posts#comment Tue, 15 May 2007 15:14:13 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706341/posts Drive down Victory Boulevard in Grozny, and you'd never think there had been a war in Chechnya. Five years ago this broad avenue looked like Stalingrad after World War II. Now it's flanked with new apartments and boutiques selling Italian clothes -- snip--- The rest of the world may not have noticed, but Russia's president has won the Chechen war. He did not start it, but he prosecuted it with the full might of Russia's military. The conflict was as brutal as any Europe has known in the last century. Grozny was bombed flat, along with half of Chechnya's towns.... Newsweek http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1706341/posts#comment Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:13:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1597212/posts Don't Miss: Springtime for the Dear Leader March 15, 2006 · Okay, you've just escaped North Korea. You were held there for years in the gulag of prison camps. Your only crime? Listening to South Korean radio about the death of Kim Il Sung. But you're out now. You've made it to freedom. What do you do? Why, put on a musical, of course. Director Jung Sung San's musical, Yodok Story just opened in Seoul. It deals with rape, beatings, murder... great family fare, no? NPT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1597212/posts#comment Thu, 16 Mar 2006 04:25:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1589956/posts Fifty Years Later, Russians Regard Stalin Positively March 4, 2006 (Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in Russia think the tenure of one of the most notorious Soviet leaders was beneficial, according to a poll by the Public Opinion Foundation. 47 per cent of respondents believe Josef Stalin played a positive role in the country’s history. Stalin was the second leader of the Soviet Union, taking over after the death of Vladimir Lenin in 1924. Stalin was responsible for a series of repressive campaigns—known as the Great Purge—during the 1930s. During his tenure, Stalin eliminated all possible political opposition... Angus Reid http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1589956/posts#comment Sat, 4 Mar 2006 17:04:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550534/posts "In Aug., 2003, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced the results of their $1.2 million tax-payer funded study.  It stated, essentially, that traditionalists are mentally disturbed.  Scholars from the Universities of Maryland, California at Berkeley, and Stanford had determined that social conservatives, in particular, suffer from 'mental rigidity,' 'dogmatism,' and 'uncertainty avoidance,' together with associated indicators for mental illness."  (B.K. Eakman, Chronicles, Oct. 2004, pp. 28-29)   As usual with leftists, the true meaning of their words is couched in deceptive code.  When the deceptions are peeled away we discover that ''dogmatism''... Chronwatch http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1550534/posts#comment Mon, 2 Jan 2006 12:01:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1537765/posts The 48-year-old man turned down a job because he feared that a co-worker would be gay. He was upset that gay culture was becoming mainstream and blamed most of his personal, professional and emotional problems on the gay and lesbian movement. These fixations preoccupied him every day. Articles in magazines about gays made him agitated. He confessed that his fears had left him socially isolated and unemployed for years: A recovering alcoholic, the man even avoided 12-step meetings out of fear he might encounter a gay person. "He had a fixed delusion about the world," said Sondra E. Solomon, a... Washington Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1537765/posts#comment Sat, 10 Dec 2005 15:00:41 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1451026/posts If I were a judge, I would sentence Durbin and his fellow travelers and comrades in the Gitmo Flat Earth Society to: Endless hours of sleep-deprived filibustering watching continued reruns of documented terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and their murder of thousands; the beheadings of journalist Daniel Pearl, Nicolas Berg and others; the films of Uday and Qusay, Saddam Hussein's sons, depicting the systematic torture and murder of hundreds of Iraqis; Hitler's concentration camps in Germany and the starvation, gassing, burning of millions of Jews; the carnage of Pol Pot's systematic fratricide of 2 to 3... A.I.M.ORG http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1451026/posts#comment Tue, 26 Jul 2005 20:50:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1434946/posts So Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois thinks our Guantanamo soldiers are like the Nazis? As a soldier stationed in Germany, the land where Hitler's Nazis once trod, I found my blood boiling by the words coming from the liberal Democratic senator from Illinois. Senator Durbin, along with the rest of his left wing and terrorist sympathizing party thinks President Bush should close the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, because--in his words--the soldiers at Gitmo are "acting like Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, Pol Pot, or others who had no concern for human beings." Two things here: Where is the outcry... CHRONWATCH.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1434946/posts#comment Fri, 1 Jul 2005 22:20:12 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1433796/posts Last week's long-range confrontation between Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin was much more than a personal tiff involving two formidable Illinois Democrats who obviously are not fond of each other. It contrasted Daley's majority Democratic Party of bygone years with Durbin's minority Democratic Party of today. When Daley in his June 21 press conference referred to Durbin's rancorous comments about the U.S. military as a ''disgrace,'' he was only repeating in public what many old-line Democratic loyalists told me not for quotation. But Durbin's Washington party colleagues defended his comparison of the U.S. detention... Chicago Sun-Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1433796/posts#comment Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:13:14 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1433619/posts Okay, a quick show of hands. How many of you bought that “apology” from Dick Durbin? Which one, you ask? Well, let’s forget about the one where he blamed America for not being smart enough to understand his “nuance.” That was pretty much an insult to everyone’s intelligence. For that matter, so was the real apology, where he was sorry for potentially being “misunderstood” by the great unwashed. (That’s us, in case you’re curious). Now, I’m quite sure that all of you heard about Durbin’s little snit on the Senate floor, where he compared Gitmo to the worst depredations of... CHRONWATCH.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1433619/posts#comment Thu, 30 Jun 2005 04:23:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425826/posts You know things aren’t going well for the Democrats when their main fighting issue is what the room temperature is at Guantanamo Bay’s Motel 6. Among the brilliant ideas of the “We Support the Troops” party is to close down the island-resort prison center affectionately referred to as Gitmo. The people most upset about the “torture” are mainly a bunch of leftwing, bed-wetting socialists who have never supported the war in any form or at any stage, but who we are now supposed to take as objective, credible persons. Senator Dick Durbin (D-Idiot) breathlessly announced the extent of the torture... CHRONWATCH.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425826/posts#comment Sat, 18 Jun 2005 22:32:30 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425799/posts Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) says he was misunderstood, when he made his scurrilous comments on the Senate floor, last week. Saying that he would not apologize for his comments on Thursday, he issued this on Friday: “My statement in the Senate was critical of the policies of this administration, which add to the risk our soldiers face. I have learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood. I sincerely regret if what I said caused anyone to misunderstand my true feelings. Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and... MENS NEWS DAILY.COM http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1425799/posts#comment Sat, 18 Jun 2005 20:59:42 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424239/posts So now the Democrats are attacking our troops by comparing them to the guards in the Gulag Archipelago and Pol Pot death camps. Once again the Party is supporting the enemy Terrorists that we are fighting as always. The same Party who has supported the IRA, PLO, FLN, KLA, Hezbola and every other terrorist group that attacks America supports today’s terrorists killing Americans. The same Party that hid and supported the Gulag when it was run by the Soviet Union is now condemning those prisons of death. If Dick Durtbag wants to throw around words like Gulag, let’s take a... self http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1424239/posts#comment Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:46:01 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423095/posts Had Che Guevara not been executed by Bolivians in 1967, he may well be celebrating his 77th birthday this week. Or he may have endured a bloody death at the hands of other enemies. Had he lived, Western college students almost certainly would not be walking around campus mindlessly displaying his likeness on flaming red T-shirts. A dead martyr is much easier to lionize than a living dictator. Though he died nearly 40 years ago, Guevara is still sparking controversy. Rolling Stone magazine reported last week that guitar legend Carlos Santana was protested at his June 1 Miami concert. The... The American Prowler http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1423095/posts#comment Wed, 15 Jun 2005 06:46:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420733/posts ”They gave me a good time in Cuba,” 15-year-old Afghan former-detainee Mohammed Ismail Agha said in a 2004 interview with the London Telegraph. "They treated us well,” elderly farmer Faiz Mohammed added. “We had enough food. I didn't mind [being detained] because they took my old clothes and gave me new clothes." Okay, maybe these are atypical examples, but can you believe even one person who survived the Soviet prison system came out with a favorable recommendation? “Great diet plan,” Ivan Ivanov said, “I lost 130 pounds!” Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan's description of the U.S. detention facility at... FOUNDATION FOR THE DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES.ORG http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420733/posts#comment Sat, 11 Jun 2005 03:15:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420093/posts They gave me a good time in Cuba,” 15-year-old Afghan former-detainee Mohammed Ismail Agha said in a 2004 interview with the London Telegraph. "They treated us well,” elderly farmer Faiz Mohammed added. “We had enough food. I didn't mind [being detained] because they took my old clothes and gave me new clothes." Okay, maybe these are atypical examples, but can you believe even one person who survived the Soviet prison system came out with a favorable recommendation? “Great diet plan,” Ivan Ivanov said, “I lost 130 pounds!”    Amnesty International secretary general Irene Khan’s description of the U.S. detention facility... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420093/posts#comment Fri, 10 Jun 2005 05:26:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419260/posts For over 225 years, Americans have valued the rights spoken of in the Declaration of Independence – Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Americans have spilt their blood and spent their treasure to protect these basic rights for themselves and others. Amnesty International’s stated purpose is to prevent human rights violations. Thus, one might expect the United States and Amnesty International to be allies. However, they are not because Amnesty International’s stated purpose and its actual purpose are very different. Whatever its claimed purpose, Amnesty International has become just another extreme Left anti-American organization. Amnesty International’s secretary general, Irene... FRONTIERS OF FREEDOM.ORG http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1419260/posts#comment Thu, 9 Jun 2005 03:00:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399332/posts SEOUL, May 9 (Yonhap) -- U.S. President George W. Bush is reading a North Korean defector's book revealing gruesome human rights abuses in the Stalinist country, according to a White House source contacted in Seoul over the weekend. "I am in the middle of reading 'the Aquariums of Pyongyang,'" the White House source quoted Bush as saying in a recent meeting with aides. The White House source, whose name is being withheld by the Yonhap News Agency for privacy, told a friend in Seoul that Bush "appeared to be very concerned" about the plight of the 23 million North... Yonhap News (South Korea) http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1399332/posts#comment Mon, 9 May 2005 06:21:39 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394814/posts Just out of university Lev Mishchenko was sent to the Soviet front where he was captured and clung to life at a series of brutal camps including Buchenwald, little knowing 10 years hard labor in a gulag awaited him on his return home. ``As the war began the authorities announced the formation of volunteer militias. We organised in the universities and factories and around 100,000 of us Moscovites signed up,'' said Mr Mishchenko, who was 24 when the Soviet Union entered World War Two in June 1941. ``We thought we'd be trained and then led by career soldiers but they... Bangkok Post http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1394814/posts#comment Sun, 1 May 2005 20:40:58 GMT