Randy

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Par For The Course

Life & Events > Dancing Under the Red Star
 

Dancing Under the Red Star

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.

posted on Dec 31, 2010 6:57 AM ()

Comments:

I call it "living in a bubble" and you're right...we're all guilty of it. Until we're forced to face it or live through something similar, we're completely unable to relate.

I'm glad for this post. Reading books like that tend to give me really bad nightmares. I like my bubble better.
comment by juliansmom on Jan 1, 2011 4:52 PM ()
I know what you mean. I force myself to read these kind of books, despite the "depression" and anger it brings on. I'm a bubble person, too. Thanks for your response.
reply by solitaire on Jan 3, 2011 5:30 AM ()
No William Hurt was in the movie.Robin was not around at that time.
comment by fredo on Jan 1, 2011 9:45 AM ()
Kind people outnumber tyrants — each of us can stretch out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach!
comment by marta on Dec 31, 2010 7:25 PM ()
I guess "kindness" is the word of the day (mentioned several times here). I think of sheep being kind to one another as a wolf lurks nearby. Nice thought, if we ignore the wolf.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:56 AM ()
We can choose to be kind. We cannot think of horror and war all the time
or life would not be worth living. Ellie's parents suffer constant
poverty and inconvenience and they miss her dreadfully but are so glad
that she is here instead of in Russia. She has always said that Putin is
not to be trusted because he came from the KBG.
comment by elderjane on Dec 31, 2010 5:01 PM ()
I forgot you have access in "inside information". If it weren't for the internet and cell phones to get the message out of and about life in Russia, Putin would become another Stalin.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:53 AM ()
I don't want to get in a God-belief pissing match with you, but this is a good example where someone's faith sustains them, giving them something to think about beyond their miserable day-to-day existence, it brings them hope that life is worth living. It works for some people, and they should be able to observe their faith without being ridiculed and called mindless sheep. And the non-believers can pin their faith on whatever helps them, but it's the same concept, the idea is to live your life your way and let everyone else live it their own way.
comment by troutbend on Dec 31, 2010 2:30 PM ()
Were you and Dottie separated at birth? I don't disagree with you. Faith is powerful medicine. I guess I just don't understand how people can be so self-centered when 100 people are killed in a plane crash except one, and that "God was watching over me" explains the sole survivor.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:49 AM ()
Did you ever read Gorky Park or see the movie?
If not you see this.You will loved it.
Happy New Year Randy.
comment by fredo on Dec 31, 2010 1:07 PM ()
I read the book years ago. Was Robin Williams in the movie?
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:43 AM ()
Oh, and that book sounds really really interesting!
comment by kristilyn3 on Dec 31, 2010 11:39 AM ()
So true...
Although I think if we all stopped to think about all the suffering in the world - both animal and human - we'd all freak the heck out and need mass quantities of drugs to restore our faith in human kind. AKA sometimes it's just too depressing to stop to think about things that seem so out of our control.
comment by kristilyn3 on Dec 31, 2010 11:38 AM ()
That's why I seldom read any more than headlines of newspaper articles--bombings, murders, crashes, etc. Quite depressing. Sometimes we have to stick our heads in the sand, simply to avoid the downer. The book was put together by Karl Tobien, the son, if you want to look it up. Worth reading.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:41 AM ()
Stalin was a tyrant! There is a road (still there) named the 'bone road'. It is built entirely of human bones from the Gulags (and it is a 'long road').

comment by febreze on Dec 31, 2010 8:10 AM ()
Very true! All of Stalin's atrocities were being undertaken during this period too! It was all 'hush hush' (or, we just didn't take any notice, if 'whispers' were being told to us).
reply by febreze on Jan 1, 2011 5:47 AM ()
But because Stalin's Russia was an ally to the Western forces in WWII, we looked the other way, concentrating more on what Hitler was doing. We were complicit!
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:37 AM ()
Your opening statement is the most frightening of all. Russia is falling back into its old ways of sending innocent people to prison. Putin is behind this new return to terror in Russia.
comment by timetraveler on Dec 31, 2010 8:00 AM ()
True. While time marches on, the Russian leadership continues its old tyrannical ways.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:34 AM ()
Some of us are aware of the depth of human depravity throughout the world. I think our response... my response... is to choose to be kind.
comment by dragonflyby on Dec 31, 2010 7:13 AM ()
Kindness doesn't hurt. But when despots rule with an iron fist, "killing fields" occur: Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, et.al. Kindness there is like a lump of sugar sweetening the ocean.
reply by solitaire on Jan 1, 2011 5:31 AM ()

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