Gulag survivor perfectly explains the current predicament between Russia and the U.S.

UKR Weekly ^ | August 2018 | Alexander Kuzma

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Prof. Miroslav Marynovych is Ukrainian Catholic University's vice-rector of university mission, and survivor of seven years of hard labor in one of the harshest prison camps in the Soviet gulag – Perm Camp 36.

Marynovyych pointed out that Vladimir Putin has taken a new approach in his rivalry with the United States. “There was a time when Nikita Khrushchev invented the slogan: ‘Let us catch up to America and leave it behind!’ The idea was to make the Soviet Union as big [strong] as the U.S.A.
Now Putin understands that is impossible. So the goal was modified:

‘Let us make America and the West as weak as possible and force it down to our level.’

...“We are dealing now with the consequences of the injustice made by the 1945 Yalta agreement. Firstly, it created double standards in evaluating the crimes of totalitarian systems: Nazi crimes were publicly and totally condemned; Communist crimes were covered up by security imperatives and almost taken out of ethical evaluation.”

“For many people in the West, Nazi Germany was an absolute evil, while the Communist Soviet Union was a victorious good with some occasional dark spots on its shining garments. What was forgotten was the fact that the main winner of the war, Stalin’s Soviet Union, entered the war as an ally of its main begetter, Hitler’s Germany.”

"The world heard the pain of victims of Gestapo and didn’t hear that of victims of the NKVD.” As Leszek Kolakowski ironically put it: “Should a prisoner who was dying in Vorkuta, Siberia be pleased… with the fact that he avoided the same fate in Dachau? The moral equation of Nazism and communism is, from my point of view, absolutely justified and even necessary.”

[CondoleezzaProtege]

The world has not yet come to grips with the legacy of the Soviet Union. - Professor Marynorvych

This fact not only lies at the root of our problems with Russia and its ongoing geopolitical exploits in the Middle East and elsewhere, but also of our problems with communist China beyond economics.

It lies at the root of our dissonance with North Korea, in terms of how it thinks and operates, and in our dealings with numerous other spheres of significance both internationally *and* domestically.

Domestically: think the onslaught of secularism on the part of the cultural left and the resurgence of socialism's appeal among many young Americans. And figureheads on the right who buy the lie that Russia is truly "post-Soviet."

[DIRTYSECRET]

Reopen the Gulag and staff it with Illegal immigrants in our prisons. Free labor for Siberian development. Stand up to the ulterior motive Chinese.

[Telepathic Intruder]

Liberals are able to dismiss the evil of communism vs. Nazism because they can attribute the genocides to something other than communism—bad leadership. So Stalin was just a bad leader, not a communist, while Hitler was a Nazi, therefore bad by association. And to them, Nazism itself was bad because of the racism, not the socialism. So communism is just fine to them, while Nazism is not. They completely misunderstand both, however.

[Rurudyne]

Actually, it took a bunch of neopagan mysticism pulled from the darkest heart of antichristian Europe working in the same foul ideological plot that the Terrors in France started tilling to make fascism as bad as communism....

Fascism is bad, don’t get me wrong, but without Nazism to make it worse it’s a pale shadow of communism’s inherent thuggishness. Like comparing the Mafia as shown in The Godfather movies to the drug cartels of reality.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

Bkmrk.

[Rashputin]

It's not Putin or anyone else who has spent the past sixty years destroying America, it's the scum like the Clintons and the whole DC machine that gets fat and happy feeding the war machine, increasing opium production worldwide, ignoring massive illegal immigration, and shipping industry overseas

I accept the judgement of Gulag survivor Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn over this guy and the Ukrainian propaganda rag that the article comes from.

[laweeks]

Read Alexander Dolgun's story: An American in the Gulag to see how much the gulags had to do with Russian history.

[Reverend Wright]

Now Putin understands that is impossible. So the goal was modified:

‘Let us make America and the West as weak as possible and force it down to our level.’

Putin doesn't need any help. The secular, atheist, progressive, multicultural, globalist component of the West is doing that more efficiently than any outside saboteur ever could.

[Mariner]

“And figureheads on the right who buy the lie that Russia is truly “post-Soviet.”

I realize you may not be erudite, or have the discernment of age and experience, so I’ll try to edify you...and others who are reading.

Russians do not stand in queue for groceries
Russians have an unencumbered Christian church
There are no Russians in the Gulag
Russian student at university study what they wish, and
Once graduated, work where they will
Russians live where they wish
Russia has elections which are blessed by the UN
Russians own homes, cars and farms
The Soviet Communist party is defunct

That is “post Soviet” to any thinking person. Of course very few despicable NeoConservatives have ever been accused of thinking.

You would do well to seek new mentors.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Putin’s economy diversifies and he can underbid our penal unions. Prison overcrowding, solved. Recidivism, down.

[Rashputin]

I agree 100% and all the BS that floats through about evil Russia is exactly the same sort of distraction from putting America First that worked so well for decades keeping the hogs on Capitol Hill fat and the public distracted. Anything but America First which is still the case as can be seen from the great panic the media formerly known as mainstream had over Trump using the term, "America First".

Now Trump is pointing the way, it's America First, and some people play their little game of trying to rekindle the same old rope-a-dope game they played for decades. Russia! Libya! Russia! Syria! Russia! Iran! Russia! Ukraine! Russia! Venezuela! Just ignore the seventeen years in Afghanistan where opium production went from 200 tons of opium poppies the last year the Taliban was in control to this year's crop of 9000 tons. Oh, and Iraq? Don't worry about it, it's all taken care of now that 95% of the Christians are dead or fled.

Folks stupid enough to fall for the rope-a-dope again are pitiful indeed.

[sergeantdave]

Prepare for the usual paid neo-Nazi, 50 IQ Soros trolls to show up and label you as a Putinista, a stooge, a useful idiot, a Stalinist and a hater of kittens and puppies.

[Thank You Rush]

Read American Betrayal (recommended by a FReeper) and you will see that it’s been RUSSIA FIRST in this country for a long time - certainly from about the time a lot of us here were born...a stunning book and very disturbing. Stands on its head so much of what we were taught and what we have been consistently told for the past 70 years...Joe McCarthy - BAD - FDR - great guy! I posted last night on another thread - nothing is as it seems!

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/diana-west/american-betrayal-secret-assault/

[Mariner]

“Prepare for the usual paid neo-Nazi, 50 IQ Soros trolls to show up and label you as a Putinista”

I’ve already been through it with the few remaining despicable Neocons on this site.

I am well prepared. Most dare not even respond to me, as evidenced by no response from the original poster.

They are blinded by their emotions (hatred of Russia) and cannot think straight. Easy prey.

[sockmonkey]

For every American Serviceman killed in WWII, how many Soviet Servicemen gave their lives?
With which side did Ukraine ally themselves?

Yeah...

[Flag_This]

"For every American Serviceman killed in WWII, how many Soviet Servicemen gave their lives?"

I get all teary-eyed when I see quotes like this, but then I remember Uncle Joe conspired with Hitler to invade Poland and start WWII in the first place and then I'm all like, "tough sh!t, Ivan."

With which side did Ukraine ally themselves?"

How many millions of Ukrainians did Stalin's "famine" starve to death in 32-33? That might have caused a bit of animosity towards the commies, maybe.

Yeah...

[T-Bone Texan]

"...Russians have an unencumbered Christian church..."

Absolutely not true.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

"The Russian people, just like the peoples of Europe, were the victims of the inhumane machine of Hitlerism and Stalinism. Stalin did not win the war, he built victory with the bodies of millions of people, our fathers and grandfathers, who truly accomplished heroic deeds, but we must not forget that many of them went into combat faced with the muzzles of Russian automatic machine guns.

This is worth talking about as well, as much as possible. World War II – that great human tragedy, which our current government uses as bait for the hook that the Russian people has swallowed. It hurts me that on May 9, instead of silence and shame, we have death machines rolling across Red Square, and the standard-bearers of the ruling regime stand next to the unburied corpse of Lenin and raise, in the eyes of the citizens, their political ratings, all the while calling it patriotism."

- Russian playwright, Ivan Vyrypaev, July 2017

How many millions of Ukrainians did Stalin's "famine" starve to death in 32-33? That might have caused a bit of animosity towards the commies, maybe.

And don't forget to add The Rape of Berlin where an estimated 100,000 girls and women were raped, often gang-raped brutally by Red Army soldiers as their 'reward' for Victory. Don't forget the tons upon tons food and aid from the West that Stalin barred from reaching the people of Berlin following the war. Don't forget the legacy of Soviet occupation suffered by the Eastern Bloc, which many admit was just as bad if not worse than the Nazi presence. And to make matters worse, rather than repent or even admit the complexity of their legacy--the Russian government continues to pressure and harass countries like Poland, Estonia, Czech Republic to upkeep statues and monuments to their Stalinist oppressors. Even editing the inscriptions to something more accurate invites harassment as Prague just recently experienced.

You know, I was also actually going to add to the above:

The unfortunate phenomenon of Americans downplaying our role in winning World War II, in favor of the false Stalinist narrative that Putin currently promotes and exploits his people's emotions while doing so.

America is not perfect. Certainly no nation is especially during war, when the lines between good and evil are so often blurred...But in this case, overall, our CAUSE was truly just. And the world is better for it.

Stalin was initially allied with Hitler and did not give a crap about even his own people. Hence why so many millions NEEDLESSLY died. And Stalin's influence around the world continues to bear witness to the horror of his legacy. Just look at North Korea - it was Stalin who installed the Kim Il Sung regime. Compare it to South Korea, which Americans continue to guard!

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Diana West's book looks like a great read. If anything the buzz Russia gets for so-called Trump collusion distracts from their real intentions, and diminishes the gravity of how malign their activities are!

As the Gulag survivor above states. Putin's bottom line:
‘Let us make America and the West as weak as possible and force it down to our level.’

The only way to win, is not so much by playing along with their game -- but by being strong in and of ourselves. Leading the world again by example. America First.

[CondoleezzaProtege]

To add. It's also worth noting (as I had grandparents on both the Western and Eastern blocks) that as far as Europe is concerned: while Soviet soldiers are most likely to remembered as occupiers or even criminals, American soldiers are remembered as liberators.

Given the tone President Trump has set, even the stubborn elitists of the E.U. must acknowledge America's contributions to defending and preserving the Free World from Nazi fascism AND Soviet totalitarianism. The history can no longer be taken for granted.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledges what life was like in Soviet-controlled East Germany:

"I grew up in the part of Germany that was not free, the German Democratic Republic. For many years I dreamed of freedom, just as many others did -- also of the freedom to travel to the United States."

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker:

"I want to pay tribute to Mr Brookins and all other American soldiers for their courage and bravery. We are forever grateful. I offered as a gift to President Trump a photo of a military cemetery in Luxembourg, where General Patton is buried..."

French President Emmanuel Macron remembered US contributions to the First World War when he gifted President Trump a tree sapling from Belleau Wood upon his visit to the White House:

"The tree from the Belleau Wood grew from the earth where the blood of your soldiers was spilled to defend France."