I just saw where Russia has sentenced an oil tycoon to prison for "embezzlement" of his own money. No surprise.

I read a book recently (see post title) about a young (like 18) American girl sent to a Siberian Gulag back in 1946 for 10 years. At age 9, she went with her parents to Russia (Gorky) to work for the Ford Motor Co to build cars there. Huge mistake.

The father was accused of being an American spy, tried, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was never heard from again (and actually died in 1942). His wife and daughter survived poverty and German bombing raids during the war, and Margaret Werner, the girl, was forcibly taken as a traitor and spy. Totally innocent, she spent the next 10 years of her youth in prison and Siberian work camps.

This was all under the Stalin terror regime. One has no idea how dreadful and inhumane life (if one could call it that) was during his reign--and much longer after his death. You have to read the account to appreciate the depth of depravity that existed in the Soviet Union. It is beyond comprehension.

Miss Werner was finally released (9 mo early for "good behavior"), but under constant watchful eyes. She eventually married, escaped to E. Germany, then to W. Germany. With a 5 yr old boy (and mother) in tow, she finally returned to America in late 1961. It was never easy. She became a noted figure, although I was in college and never became aware of her (she even lived close by in Cincinnati). By the way, she always maintained a faith in her god, proclaiming "He" was watching over her, despite the despair, torture, and death surrounding her.

The point of my post is: until you live through such a period in history (via the book/tale of the Werner family), one is fairly ignorant about such environments. We live in our own little worlds, virtually unaware (slightly cognizant perhaps) of life and tragedy elsewhere (Darfur, for example). Stalin's Gulag camps and executions of millions upon millions of innocent human beings is a story that has yet to be exposed in the history of the 20th century, a time of wars, mass "killing fields, and countless suffering. We should be ashamed of our ignorance and selfishness.