Nukes and Russian Posturing

Medvedev sees arms race if missile shield not agreed. That was the recent headline by BBC news. Further, the article began: "Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said a new arms race could begin in the next decade if Nato and Moscow fail to agree on a joint missile shield." Really, a new arms race?

Back to the Katyn Forest

There was a recent news story, "Russian parliament: Stalin ordered Katyn massacre," last week that explained that Russia is still dealing with the repercussions of the Katyn Massacre, which occurred during World War II. Former Russian President Eltsin had initially taken steps in the direction of acknowledging Russia's responsibility for the crime, but since 2000 little had been done. Then earlier this year, there was the disaster of the Polish airliner, with key Polish government officials crashing on their way to a Katyn memorial. This happened just outside of Smolensk. (There is a wiki entry on the crash.) Now the Russian Duma has passed some sort of statement noting that yes, it was Stalin, that ordered the massacre.

Russia Burns

It has been a record-setting summer temperature-wise for most of Russia, and this has lead to the outbreak of forest fires everywhere. The most dangerous were in the western reaches of the country where much of the area had been contaminated by fallout from the Chernobyl accident back in the 1980s.

Unrest in Kyrgyzstan

Trouble has again erupted in the former Soviet republic (now an independent country) of Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyz Republic). Since independence in 1991, and then the subsequent Tulip Revolution of 2005, political stabiity has been difficult to come by, primarily because of ongoing corruption issues and the failure to the government to develop any sort of firm economic basis for the country's citizens.

Katyn Tragedy Redux

As if the first Katyn Forest massacre was not enough, Poland now must mourn again. A plane of Polish army and political leaders crashed in heavy fog conditions as they were on their way to a memorial service at Katyn (60 years since the original massacre in 1940 of Polish military leaders by the Soviet secret police and military on the orders of Stalin). The memorial service was to be attended by PM Vladimir Putin himself as a gesture to improving Polish-Russian relations, which have tended to be quite frosty over the years.

S novym godom

Happy New Year. I have not been very good about posting to my blog about events in Russia. Mostly because I have been swamped with grading (end of semester in December and start of semester in January). We have been having pretty good enrollments in our online HIS 241 course (History of Russia I) the past few semesters of about 20 per semester--not that many actually finish the course. HIS 242 (History of Russia II) usually enrolls fewer, about 7-10 students.
In the meantime, Russia is experiencing an economic crisis,much like most of Western Europe and the United States, but a recent article pointed out how much of the economy has turned "underground" or non-official or illegal.

Gorbachev

Interesting article in the Washington Post, How Gorbachev Slowed the Arms Race (21 September 2009), b David Hoffman and adpated from The Dead Hand: The Untold Story of the Cold War Arms Race and Its Dangerous Legacy (2009)--aside, the article was buried on page A11. Anyway, it remains somewhat amazing to me why few Russians to this day appreciate the kind of efforts that Gorbachev undertook to end the arms race (and thus the Cold War). In addition, there was his attempt to re-invigorate Soviet society and re-orient the economy away from military and heavy industry spending. I still believe that he was the major player in bringing about the end of communism in Eastern Europe, the destruction down of the wall, and really the end of the Cold War.
ps. Another fine article in the Post dealt with the effort to control fissionable Uranium in the former republics of the Soviet Union, in this case Kazakhstan, Half a Ton of Uranium -- and a Long Flight by David E Hoffman.

September Days

Recent news that Russia was willing to scrap missiles along the Polish border after the US declared something about abandoning a European missile shield. What nonsense. As if anyone in Russia believed that the US was still aiming missiles at Russia--actually who knows where they are pointing these days. And as if the Poles were a real security threat to the integrity of Russia. Ah, the games people play.

Talking about Trotskii

Check out the dialogue between Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service on the legacy of Trotskii, or whether there ever really was a Trotskiite alternative to Stalinism. This was part of the Uncommon Knowledge program (You might need to check the August 2009 archives).

Another Russian Journalist Has Been Murdered

The editorial piece by Tanya Lokshina, Another Voice Silenced in Russia (Washington Post, 17 July) documented yet another in a long series of "mysterious murders" of journalists who have dared to criticize the Russian government's actions, particularly those that have occurred in Chechnya.