DOCSLIB.ORG

Defend Freedom of Movement! Inside: by Martin Thomas Iraqi Troops Out

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Defend Freedom of Movement! Inside: by Martin Thomas Iraqi Troops Out & Workers’ Liberty SolFor siociadl ownershaip of the branks aind intdustry y No 451 18 October 2017 50p/£1 Defend Freedom of Movement! Inside: By Martin Thomas Iraqi troops out Opinion polling on 10-11 October of Kirkuk! showed 64% saying that the Tory government is doing “badly” in nego - tiating Brexit, and only 21% saying it is doing “well”. 47% said that, with hindsight, they thought the vote for Brexit in June 2016 was wrong, 40% that it was right. Only a small minority say that Brexit will make Britain better off economically — only 23% overall, and only 12% of Labour voters. 44% think Brexit will make Britain worse off. The Iraqi army has entered Kirkuk as Kurds flee. More page 5 See page 3 STOP The Russian Revolution 100 years on The Russian Revolution happened on 25-26 October 1917 (old calendar). BREXIT See pages 6-7 Royal Mail wins injunction against strike What does the High Court injunction against the postal strike mean? See page 2 Join Labour! Open up the democracy review! See page 10 2 NEWS More online at www.workersliberty.org Weinstein case exposes reality of work-related sexual assaults ing the actions of Weinstein and curred in a work setting. A study in particularly from the bosses. This is policies on sexual harassment but By Caroline Jeffries sending messages of solidarity 2016 found that 52% of women in not to compare the work of Mc - rarely organise around the issue. to the survivors of Weinstein’s as - the UK had experienced sexual ha - Donald’s workers to Hollywood The labour movement needs to use Dozens of women have come saults. And now the hashtag rassment at work, with one in eight actors, but rather to highlight that this horrific case as a moment to forward accusing the famous #Metoo is trending, where women women reporting unwanted touch - sexual harassment is a significant step forward. Just as we organise Hollywood producer, Harvey We - from all over the world share their ing of their breast, buttocks or gen - issue regardless of industry or around pay and conditions we instein, of sexual harassment, stories of sexual harassment and itals. Despite these high numbers, work being done. need to organise around respect assault and rape, with some assault. While bringing survivors four in five women said they did No doubt the precarious nature and safety at work for the most op - cases dating back to the 1980s. Many women detail how he together, these events have demon - not report the incidents, mainly cit - of jobs like those at McDonald’s pressed groups in our society. would corner them asking for sex - strated the prevalence and accept - ing the fear that they wouldn’t be make reporting and finding sup - We can’t wait for our bosses ual favours with the clear implica - ance of gender-based abuse and taken seriously. port even harder. If you are on a and well meaning liberals to tion that he could make or break bullying globally. We should remember that one zero hours contract, standing up to change the conditions for their careers. But none of this is surprising, reason the McDonald’s workers your boss could mean you aren’t women; it is up to us in the Mainstream media, celebrities, particularly that most of the as - went on strike last September was offered any more hours. labour movement to define our and even politicians are condemn - saults in the Weinstein case oc - over workplace sexual harassment, Many trade unions have good grievances and organise to fight them. Royal Mail injunction Universal Credit on the rocks? sets precedent? The High Court ruled that the By Matthew Thompson By Gemma Short CWU had to abide by the agree - ment it signed. This raises ques - The government is coming under On Thursday 12 October the tions for the labour movement over High Court granted an injunction pressure to halt the roll-out of how deals signed by unions could Universal Credit, the new benefit to Royal Mail, stopping a strike be enforced by a court. organised by the Communica - which is replacing six existing The external mediation process ones: Jobseekers’ Allowance, tion Workers Union (CWU) due to in the ″Agenda for Growth″ agree - start on Thursday 19 October. Employment and Support Al - In granting the injunction, Mr ment is set at a five to seven week lowance, Housing Benefit, Work - Justice Supperstone said “I con - timeframe. It involves the appoint - ing Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit sider the strike call to be unlawful ment of a mutually-agreed external and Income Support. and the defendant is obliged to mediator, submissions from both Created by the Conservative-Lib withdraw its strike call until the ex - parties, the mediator producing Dem coalition government as part ternal mediation process has been non-binding recommendations, of the Welfare Reform Act in 2012, exhausted.” talks between both parties, and ei - Universal Credit was launched in In October 2013, at the time of ther the drawing up of an agree - 2013 as a pilot in a single area, the Royal Mail privatisation, the CWU ment or the notification of former textile town of Ashton- signed the “Agenda for Growth” intentions (i.e. declaring a dispute) under-Lyne just to the east of Man - agreement with the company. if the parties disagree. chester, and has since been Royal Mail intended this agree - As Royal Mail says it is now in - extended across the country, with ment to significantly decrease the voking this process, we can expect full implementation for new number of strikes in Royal Mail, a minimum of seven weeks before claimants due to be complete by Delays in Universal Credit has caused a spike in food bank referrals. particularly the unofficial ones any strikes. Strikes may happen the end of 2018 (existing claimants from the start of December, in time receiving benefits being replaced which postal workers have a long benefits, currently £16,000, after The government has already for the Christmas period. by it are due to be transferred onto history of organising. which benefits are annulled. made a series of recent u-turns on It is unlikely that either the CWU Universal Credit between the end The agreement commits the The implementation of Universal controversial policies such as the will call strikes despite the ruling, of this year and 2021). union to an external mediation Credit, if not all the principles un - so-called “dementia tax”. Northern or that there will be unofficial As well as delays caused by IT is - process in the event of a national derlying it, has been criticised by a Ireland’s Democratic Unionists strikes. Despite a tradition of unof - sues, Universal Credit has led to disagreement, or in the event that a wide spectrum of voluntary organ - have threatened to abstain in a ficial strikes on local issues, such as problems caused by the structure of local, unofficial, strike is not re - isation and charities, groups repre - House of Commons vote on the a worker being suspended or the benefit itself. solved (the emphasis being on the senting claimants, PCS, the trade issue. sacked, this has never been ex - The brainchild of former Work CWU controlling its members). union of the civil servants respon - tended to national disputes. and Pensions Secretary Iain Dun - A pause in the roll-out of this The ″Agenda for Change″ deal sible for implementing it in jobcen - Royal Mail clearly intends to dis - can Smith, Universal Credit is in - continuing attack on some of the gave workers a 9.1% pay increase tres, Labour’s Shadow Work and rupt the momentum of the dispute tended to mimic the payment of poorest people in Britain is now over three years, and committed Pensions Secretary Debbie Abra - after the large ballot result for wages, and so is paid four-weekly, a real possibility. Royal Mail to protect workers’ hams, and even some Tory back - strikes. However there is no reason rather than weekly or fortnightly as terms and conditions for at least benchers. five years. However this was seri - why the CWU cannot maintain mo - most benefits were before, with an ously undermined by the attempt mentum through the mediation initial six-week waiting period and, to curtail strikes, and by a loophole process. in the case of housing costs, directly which allowed Royal Mail to re - The CWU should publish full re - to claimants rather than to land - nege on those commitments if ports of the negotiations, including lords as has been standard until Egypt tortures LGBT people bosses deem any of them “reason - what the employer says, in the in - now. The Egyptian government has campaign of moral panic and ho - ably likely to have a materially ad - terests of democracy and keeping This has led to a spike in referrals conducted an intense campaign mophobic outrage after images verse effect on the employer′s members involved. to food banks in areas where it has of arrests, torture and intimida - circulated of rainbow flags being business or prospects″. Workplace meetings which de - been introduced and a build-up of tion against LGBT people over waved at the gig. Immediately 57 Part of the current dispute is over livered the large ballot result rent arrears, and ultimately evic - should continue for members to tions, for tenants in both social the past month. people were arrested, but the cam - the imminent likelihood of Royal Dozens of LGBT people have discuss the outcomes of the me - housing and privately rented ac - paign has not let up. Mail using that loophole to change been arrested, and many subjected diation, and make plans for the commodation.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Volume 66: Number 2, 2020: Summary
    International Affairs: Volume 66: Number 2, 2020: Summary. Sergey Lavrov Turns 70. International Affairs Editorial Board and Staff Members. Dear Sergey Viktorovich, Staff members of the International Affairs journal are sending their sincere, heartfelt wishes on your birthday. We are genuinely proud of the fact that for many years (far from the easiest ones in the history of Russia and humankind), the International Affairs Board has been headed by a Russian politician and statesman such as you. Your diplomatic talent, reinforced by your professionalism, will to victory and sometimes unconventional decisions, give confidence that Russia will pass through this zone of turbulence, the times of arbitrary rules, not international laws, and the sanctions chaos in international relations and will emerge as a model of stability and a sought-after world arbiter. We are grateful that, despite your superhuman schedule of meetings and trips, addressing priority international issues in real time and sometimes actually saving the world, you find an opportunity to get your articles published in our journal and become involved in our projects. This is very important to us. We hope that this will continue to be the case in the future. We wish you good health, well-being and many more years at the service of our Motherland. To Provide Strategic Stability and Form a Just World Order. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation. DEAR FRIENDS, Let me extend my heartfelt wishes on your professional holiday, Diplomats’ Day. Russian diplomats have always resolutely and consistently defended the interests of our Fatherland. While continuing the glorious traditions of our predecessors, you carry out your duty with honor and deal with challenging and responsible foreign policy tasks.
    [Show full text]
  • Cossacks in the Service of the Third Reich
    Scientific Journal of the Military University of Land Forces ISSN: 2544-7122 (print), 2545-0719 (online) 2020, Volume 52, Number 1(195), Pages 87-102 DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0014.0263 Original article Cossacks in the service of the Third Reich Adam Szymanowicz Faculty of Security Sciences, General Tadeusz Kosciuszko Military University of Land Forces, Wroclaw, Poland, e-mail: adam.szymanowicz @awl.edu.pl INFORMATIONS ABSTRACT Article history: The origins of Cossacs probably date back to the 15th and 16th centuries. Cos- Submited: 21 October 2018 sacks appeared both in the south-eastern areas under the authority of the Accepted: 10 September 2019 Commonwealth and in the south-west of Moscow. They played a significant role in the history of our country, fighting together with the Crown and Lithu- Published: 16 March 2020 anian armies in the wars against the Tatars, Turks, Moscow and Sweden. How- ever, they also caused uprisings which seriously weakened the Commonwealth. In the 16th century, Cossack troops in the service of the rulers of Moscow were formed, used for conquests made by this country. Cossacks also suppressed uprisings and rebellions against tsarist authorities. During the civil war in Rus- sia, a significant part of them sympathized with the Whites. After the Bolshe- vik occupation of the Cossack territories, there was repression compared by Lenin to the Vendée genocide during the French Revolution. Persecution also took place there during the collectivization and the Great Terror. Many Cossacks emigrated. Some of them in Germany, where they later be- gan cooperation with the Nazis, especially after the Third Reich’s aggression against the USSR.
    [Show full text]
  • The Old New Russian: the Dual Nature of Style and Language in Day of the Oprichnik and Sugar Kremlin
    The Old New Russian: The Dual Nature of Style and Language in Day of the Oprichnik and Sugar Kremlin Marina Aptekman In 2006 Vladimir Sorokin published a novel, Den’ oprichnika (Day of the Oprichnik), which depicts Russia, in the year 2028, as a nationalist country ruled with an iron fist which has completely shut itself off from the West by constructing an impenetrable wall. The story, which has been read by many as a social commentary on current Russian politics and government, can be seen as a response to the revival in recent decades of Russian nationalist and Eurasianist movements.1 The Russia of the novel is an authoritarian empire governed by a tsar with the help of a group of secret police, the oprichnina. In an interview with the German magazine Spiegel, Sorokin said: “I just imagined what would happen to Russia if it isolated itself completely from the Western world — that is, if it erected a new Iron Curtain. […] This would mean that Russia would be overtaken by its past, and our past would be our future.”2 In Day of the Oprichnik Sorokin adapted for a new Russian reality the classical utopias of nationalistic Eurasianism, in particular, the utopian novel Za chertopolokhom (Behind the Thistle, 1922) by the reactionary émigré novelist Petr Krasnov, as well as later, anti-nationalist anti-uto- pias such as Vladimir Voinovich’s Moskva 2042 (Moscow 2042, 1986). 1 As the Russian critic Leonid Parfenov recently mentioned: “Sorokin has taken an idea that was flying through the air and taken it to the extreme.” (Сорокин довел до абсолюта идеи, носящиеся в воздухе.) Leonid Parfenov, 2006, “History comes back not only as a farce,” Russian Newsweek, 26 December.
    [Show full text]
  • Filatelicfiesta.Org Stamp Counterfeiting Flying the B-47 and B-52 The
    Whole number 191 March2014 The Winter Olympic Games Flying the B-47 and B-52 he 2014 Winter Olympics took place n Saturday, March 8th at 11:00 9 - 11—WE WILL NEVER FORGET February 7 - 23 in Socchi, Russia. O am Lt. Col. William “Bill” Van T 2013 Club Officers Although the modern Olympic Games Cleve will present an in depth look at two began in 1896, the first Winter Games very historic but different airplanes. President didn’t occur until 1924, in Chamonix, Bill will cover the topics: Brian Jones. 408.927.6861 France. It was known at the time as [email protected] Development of the B-47 International Winter Sports Week, and • Vice President was formally declared the first Winter • Why the B-47 was the key element David Occhipinti . 408.723.0122 Olympics by the International Olympic in the Emergency War Plan Secretary Committee (IOC) the following year. • Importance of the B-47 design to David Gilman . .408.264.1953 [email protected] the aircraft industry Treasurer • New Techniques required to fly Richard Clever . 408.238.0893 the B-47 [email protected] • Overseas deployments of the B-47’s Newsletter Editor • Development of the B-52 James Sauer . 408.445.2694 [email protected] • Similarities and differences between Filatelic Fiesta General Chairman the B-47 and B-52 Steve Schumann . 510.785.4794 • Operational use of the B-52 following [email protected] the Cold War Exhibits Chairman Your editor plans on attending and you Dr. Edward Laveroni . 408.356.7561 The first United States stamp honoring the Winter are welcome to carpool with me.
    [Show full text]
  • Shalamov's Testament: Pushkinian Precepts in Kolyma Tales
    Bard College Bard Digital Commons Senior Projects Spring 2020 Bard Undergraduate Senior Projects Spring 2020 Shalamov's Testament: Pushkinian Precepts in Kolyma Tales Andres I. Meraz Bard College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020 Part of the Russian Literature Commons This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Meraz, Andres I., "Shalamov's Testament: Pushkinian Precepts in Kolyma Tales" (2020). Senior Projects Spring 2020. 310. https://digitalcommons.bard.edu/senproj_s2020/310 This Open Access work is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been provided to you by Bard College's Stevenson Library with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this work in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights- holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Shalamov’s Testament: Pushkinian Precepts in Kolyma Tales Senior Project Submitted to The Division of Languages and Literature of Bard College by Andres I. Meraz Annandale-on-Hudson, New York May 2020 Contents Acknowledgments ii Introduction The Gulag Chronicler and the National Poet 1 Chapter 1 Pushkin’s Heir 13 Chapter 2 Pushkinian Authorial Strategies in Kolyma Tales 32 Chapter 3 A Chronicler of His Time 50 Conclusion The Testament of Pushkin in Contemporary Russian Fiction 68 Bibliography 72 i Acknowledgments This project would not have been possible without the Russian and Eurasian Studies program at Bard College.
    [Show full text]
  • Reassessing Russian Warlordism: the Case for a New Paradigm Collin J
    Florida State University Libraries 2016 Reassessing Russian Warlordism: The Case for a New Paradigm Collin J. (Collin James) Wonnacott Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PUBLIC POLICY REASSESSING RUSSIAN WARLORDISM: THE CASE FOR A NEW PARADIGM By COLLIN J. WONNACOTT A Thesis submitted to the Program in Russian and Eastern European Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts 2016 Collin J. Wonnacott defended this thesis on April 13, 2016. The members of the supervisory committee were: Jonathan Grant Professor Directing Thesis Mark Souva Committee Member Nina Efimov Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iv CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND ...............................................................................................1 CHAPTER TWO: SOUTHERN WHITES ...................................................................................12 CHAPTER THREE: KOLCHAK’S WHITES .............................................................................39 CHAPTER FOUR: EASTERN WHITES ....................................................................................46
    [Show full text]
  • Praise for All Power to the Councils! a Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918-1919
    PRAISE FOR All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918-1919 Gabriel Kuhn’s excellent volume illuminates a profound global revolutionary moment, in which brilliant ideas and debates lit the sky, and from which emerged the likes of Ret Marut, a.k.a. B. Traven, perhaps history’s greatest proletarian novelist. Herein lie the roots of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and much else besides. —Marcus Rediker, author of Villains of all Nations and The Slave Ship This remarkable collection, skillfully edited by Gabriel Kuhn, brings to life that most pivotal of revolutions, crackling with the acrid odor of street fighting, insurgent hopes, and ulti- mately defeat. Had it triumphed, millions would have been spared the inferno of fascism; its failure ushered in counter- revolution far beyond its borders. In an era brimming with anticapitalist aspirations, these pages ring with that still unmet revolutionary promise: I was, I am, I shall be. —Sasha Lilley, author of Capital and Its Discontents and co-author of Catastrophism Drawing on newly uncovered material through pioneering archival historical research, Gabriel Kuhn’s powerful book on the German workers’ councils movement is essential reading to understanding the way forward for democratic worker con- trol today. All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 confers important lessons that will avert the setbacks of the past while providing pen- etrating and invaluable historical documentation crucial for anticipating the inevitable dangers in the struggle for building working class democracy. —Immanuel Ness, Graduate Center for Worker Education, Brooklyn College An indispensable resource on a world-historic event.
    [Show full text]
  • Contributors
    Contributors José Alaniz · is Associate Professor in the Department of Slavic Lan- guages and Literatures and the Department of Comparative Literature (adjunct) at the University of Washington — Seattle; published his first book, Komiks: Comic Art in Russia in 2010. His articles have appeared in the International Journal of Comic Art, the Comics Journal, Ulbandus, Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema and KinoKultura, as well as the an- thologies The Ages of Superman: Essays on the Man of Steel in Changing Times (201 2), The Cinema of Alexander Sokurov (2011) and Russian Chil- dren’s Literature and Culture (2007). In 2009 he edited a symposium on Czech comics for ijoca. He is currently the Chair of the Executive Com- mittee of the International Comic Arts Forum (icaf), the leading Com- ics Studies conference in the US. His research interests include death and dying, disability studies, film studies, eco-criticism and comics studies. His current projects include Death, Disability and the Superhero: The Sil- ver Age and Beyond and a history of Czech comics. Marina Aptekman · received her PhD in Slavic Languages and Lit- eratures at Brown University in 2005. She has taught at Brandeis and Cornell Universities and Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. Since 2009 she has been working as an Assistant Professor of Russian Language and Literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. Her primary interests include contemporary Russian literature, culture and media, the trace of occult and esoteric influences on Russian litera- ture and Jewish-Russian literary history. She is the author of the mono- graph Jacob’s Ladder: Kabbalistic Allegory in Russian Literature (2011).
    [Show full text]
  • Imagining Japan in Moscow and Sakhalin, and Imagining Russia in Tokyo and Hokkaido : Contrasting Identities and Title Images of Other in the Center and Periphery
    Imagining Japan in Moscow and Sakhalin, and Imagining Russia in Tokyo and Hokkaido : Contrasting identities and Title images of Other in the center and periphery. Author(s) BUNTILOV, GEORGY Citation 北海道大学. 博士(教育学) 甲第13626号 Issue Date 2019-03-25 DOI 10.14943/doctoral.k13626 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/74661 Type theses (doctoral) File Information Georgy_Buntilov.pdf Instructions for use Hokkaido University Collection of Scholarly and Academic Papers : HUSCAP Doctoral Thesis Imagining Japan in Moscow and Sakhalin, and Imagining Russia in Tokyo and Hokkaido: Contrasting identities and images of Other in the center and periphery. モスクワ及びサハリンから見た日本と東京及び北海道 から見たロシア: 中心と周辺地域における「他者」に対する日本及びロ シアのアイデンティティとイメージの対比。 BUNTILOV GEORGY Department of Multicultural Studies Graduate School of Education Hokkaido University February 25, 2018 Abstract This thesis is a comparative analysis of newspaper articles that discusses two sets of images: images of Japan as seen in Russian federal and Sakhalin newspapers, and images of Russia as seen in Japanese national newspapers and Hokkaidō Shimbun. The project employs qualitative and quantitative content analysis to investigate imagery associated with Russia and Japan in printed media, as well as discourses on national identity in Russia and Japan. This research approaches Russo-Japanese relations from two angles: border studies through analysis of media in Hokkaido and Sakhalin, and the center–periphery paradigm through analysis of national and federal media. Using an identity model based on the phenomenological concepts of Self and Other, as well as the notion of antagonism, this research analyzes national identity discourses and images of the antagonized Other-nation in the center and periphery on each side of the border.
    [Show full text]
  • Bridging Divides in Eastern Europe
    Bridging Divides in Eastern Europe Policy Perspectives June 2012 IERES • THE INSTITUTE FOR EUROPEAN, RUSSIAN AND EURASIAN STUDIES PONARS Eurasia is an international network of academics that advances new policy approaches to research and security in Russia and Eurasia. PONARS Eurasia is based at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. The program is generously supported by the International Program of Carnegie Corporation of New York and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The statements made and views expressed are solely the responsibility of the authors. Edited by Alexander Schmemann and Cory Welt. PONARS Eurasia Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES) Elliott School of International Affairs George Washington University 1957 E Street, NW, Suite 412 Washington, DC 20052 Tel: (202) 994-6340 www.ponarseurasia.org © PONARS Eurasia 2012. All rights reserved. Images: The Bronze Soldier, a statue commemorating Soviet soldiers killed during World War II at its new location, the Defense Forces Cemetery, Tallinn, Estonia. In 2007, it was removed from a downtown square in Estonia's capital provoking riots by ethnic Russians. The sign reads in Estonian and Russian: “To the Unknown Sodier.” Some ethnic Estonians consider the memorial a bitter reminder of the Soviet occupation of their Baltic republic, while some ethnic Russians view its removal as a slap at Soviet contributions and an example of discrimination against Russians. (AP Photo/NIPA, Timur Nisametdinov) The members of the Council of the Baltic Sea States pose in front of a giant tank at the Ozeaneum Sea Museum in Stralsund, Germany, May 31, 2012.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 "A Footnote to Yalta" First Published in the New Criterion Volume II
    1 "A footnote to Yalta" First published in The New Criterion Volume II, Number 2, October 1992 In the National Archives in Washington there exists a short clip of film, which would appear to be the only one of its kind ever made. It is the unedited footage taken by an American army camera unit at a prisoner of war camp in southern Germany in February 1946. A card, headed "Return of Russian Prisoners to Russia," identifies the subject matter of the film and the location where it was taken. For many years this unique piece of film was not available for public inspection. What it recorded was a small part of a vast operation that was one of the most sensitive of the Second World War, the handing over to Stalin of large numbers of Russians who in varying circumstances found themselves under German control by the war's end. Some of these Russians had been organized into military units to fight alongside German forces against the Red Army; in addition to them were well-known Cossack regiments who had left their homeland in the period 1917 - 1921 after the defeat of the White Russian armies by the Bolsheviks. In all, several hundred thousand Russians - a staggering number - took up arms against the Soviet Union in the years following the German invasion in June 1941. The fate of these Russians was one of the best kept secrets of the war. As many as could surrendered to American and British forces, trusting that they would eventually be able to settle somewhere outside the Soviet Union.
    [Show full text]
  • From the Archives
    From the Archives Edited by Nikolai V. Zlobin Thirteen Documents from the Secret Archives of Iosif Stalin An archival boom is presently underway in Russia. For the first time in many decades, it is possible for scholars, journalists and public figures to gain access to previously private and secret information. Everything is not quite so simple, however. On the one hand, there is neither a legal basis for the procedures of declassifying materials, nor are there workable laws concerning government secrets and archival files. On the other hand, the archives of the central and local organs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the army and the KGB were never cleared for research. As a result, many basic facilities still lack, and the researcher has to work with unpolished documents, rudimentary copying machines, etc. Reading rooms are almost non-existent. Since the time of their opening, the archival reserves have grown almost twice their original size and today contain approximately 193 million files. Yet, there are still those who are hindering the attainment of complete access to these files by trying to monopolize the newly opened reserves for their own use. In the last issue of Demokratizatsiya we began to publish previously unknown materials from the Russian archives. The idea of a special archival section was met with a great deal of enthusiasm and support by our readers from both sides of the Great Divide. So we decided to publish the section regularly. Our journal signed a special agreement of cooperation with one of the richest and most previously inaccessible archives—the Russian Center for the Preservation and Study of Documents of Contemporary History (RTsKhIDNI).
    [Show full text]