Posted on 02/10/2018 3:28:27 PM PST by GoldenState_Rose
Yuri N. Afanasyev, a Russian historian and former Communist loyalist who became a leading democratic politician in the late Soviet era ...died Sept. 14. He was 81.
In 1989, Mr. Afanasyev helped found Memorial, an organization dedicated to exposing Stalin’s atrocities and commemorating the victims.
That year he also joined the Soviet Union’s first freely elected parliamentary body, the Congress of People’s Deputies, which was created under Mr. Gorbachev’s reforms. But he grew disenchanted, doubting that its unwieldy mix of Stalinists, democrats and Communist Party functionaries could bring about change, and denouncing both its “aggressively obedient majority” and Mr. Gorbachev.
Equally disappointed in Mr. Gorbachev’s successor, Boris N. Yeltsin, Mr. Afanasyev withdrew from politics and turned to education, founding the Russian State University for the Humanities...
In the 1990s he edited a multivolume work covering the nation’s 20th century. In 2001, in his book “Dangerous Russia,” he argued that Russia had been poisoned by its past.
As the title of one chapter, “Putin’s Reconstruction of the Russian State,” suggests, Mr. Afanasyev’s concerns extended to present-day Russia. In a 1999 essay, he projected a scenario in which Russia, in 2015, “will end up in the trap of imperial nationalism,” fueled by economic depression.
He was rector of the university until 2003 and retired as its president in 2006. Though his health was failing, he continued to write and speak about his country.
In May, at a conference in Poland marking 70 years since the end of World War II in Europe and attended by European leaders, Mr. Afanasyev warned of a new form of Stalinism growing in Russia and called the country under Mr. Putin “criminal from the bottom up.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Yeah, a lot of dedicated communists became big champions of democracy after their first heart attack or when it became clear the government couldn't keep the perks and privileges rolling along.
Better late than never I suppose, but it's funny how often those who had power under the Communists decry anyone who doesn't play ball with the Globalist thieves like Yeltsin did.
Probably because the lecture circuit in the US pays very well for those who will say what the audience wants to hear.
He repudiated both Yeltsin and Gorbachev.
I like him for pointing out the following:
“When we ask where democracy is possible, we can see that democracy has been established in the countries of Western Christianity...”
It’s fascinating to understand how the development of political systems parallel the Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity.
Uhhh, the report is from 2015.
Hence why I said “Flashback” Mutt. And 2015 is not that long ago. Putin is still in power and Afasyev’s predictions for Russia are materializing to the tee.
He also sang the praises of both Lenin and Stalin as well as revising history to suit his masters of the day including pooh poohing the starvation Stalin's pals in Ukraine oversaw. I suppose you figure Hitler deserves high praise because he loved his dogs and had Eva commit suicide rather than face the evil Ruskies, right?
Yeah, better late than never, but he should have been writing his memoirs from behind bars not making the EU/US lecture circuit and getting inflated payment for puff pieces in US media to keep the perks and privileges he had grown accustomed to rolling in.
By the by, what's Kiev pay these days?
Bkmrk.
Well I guess just to be safe we should nuke Russia back to flint tools and animal skins, then have a beer.
I saw that as soon as I posted. Sorry.
He was sponsored by George Soros.
Nytimes eulogised George Soros’ Russian friend, how strange.
BUMP for later reading
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.