A district Party conference was under way in Moscow Province. It was presided over by a new secretary of the District Party Committee, replacing one recently arrested. At the conclusion of the conference, a tribute to Comrade Stalin was called for. Of course, everyone stood up (just as everyone had leaded to his feet during the conference at every mention of his name). The small hall echoed with “stormy applause, rising to an ovation.” For three minutes, four minutes, five minutes, the “stormy applause, rising to an ovation,” continued. But palms were getting sore and raised arms were already aching. And the older people were panting from exhaustion. It was becoming insufferably silly even to those who really adored Stalin. However, who would dare be the first to stop?
The secretary of the District Party Committee could have done it. He was standing on the platform, and it was he who had just called for the ovation. But he was a newcomer. He had taken the place of a man who’d been arrested. He was afraid! After all, NKVD men were standing in the hall applauding and watching to see who quit first! And in that obscure, small hall, unknown to the Leader, the applause went on – six, seven, eight minutes! They were done for! Their goose was cooked! They couldn’t stop now till they collapsed with heat attacks! At the rear of the hall, which was crowded, they could of course cheat a bit, clap less frequently, less vigorously, not so eagerly – but up there with the presidium where everyone could see them?
The director of the local paper factory, an independent and strong-minded man, stood with the presidium. Aware of all the falsity and all the impossibility of the situation, he still kept on applauding! Nine minute! Ten! In anguish he watched the secretary of the District Party Committee, but the latter dared not stop. Insanity! To the last man! With make-believe enthusiasm on their faces, looking at each other with faint hope, the district leaders were just going to go on and on applauding till they fell where they stood, till they were carried out of the hall on stretchers! And even then those who were left would not falter…
Then, after eleven minutes, the director of the paper factory assumed a businesslike expression and sat down in his seat. And, oh, a miracle took place! Where had the universal, uninhibited, indescribable enthusiasm gone? To a man, everyone else stopped dead and sat down. They had been saved! The squirrel had been smart enough to jump off his revolving wheel.
That, however, was how they discovered who the independent people were. And that was how they went about eliminating them. That same night the factory director was arrested. They easily pasted ten years on him on the pretext of something quite different. But after he had signed Form 206, the final document of the interrogation, his interrogator reminded him: “Don’t ever be the first to stop applauding!”
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago
Unthinking support for the war in Ukraine, irregardless of causalities or outcome, is in some ways surrogate to the failed “Russia collusion” hoax.
No doubt.
No surprise it’s from Michael Beschloss, the so called historian. Read about his wife and you’ll see what he’s really all about.
It’s disconcerting that this nonsense is coming from a mainstream Democrat who has been a public figure for 40 years. Makes you wonder if these guys were always commissars but were less exhibitionistic about it when they were younger.
Beschloss has done archival research, so I guess makes it under the envelope as a historian.
I haven’t a clue what his wife is supposed to have to do with this.
International relations and conflict is a complicated matter. For those looking for clear good guys and bad guys, they will probably have to keep looking. While Russia is clearly on the side of the devil, Belarus is something of an enigma. Mouths support for Putin but fails to aid him directly. Ukraine got in bed with the Bidens years ago and are now collecting on the debt though the current Ukraine government was not involved and the people themselves had no say in the matter. As far as damage done to ambitions; Putin is clearly the loser in reputation sullied. This will not be over soon and in the process, Western Europe will pay for its naivete toward Russia.
Well if you don’t know, perhaps you could look it up. Her list of organizations with left wing international financial groups is quite extensive. My point is her husband and her will probably share the same political interests and goals due to her very heavy and public presence in those same organizations.
That should be “goals” not “groups”.
Ukraine got in bed with the Bidens years ago and are now collecting on the debt though the current Ukraine government was not involved and the people themselves had no say in the matter.
Huh?
My point is her husband and her will probably share the same political interests and goals due to her very heavy and public presence in those same organizations.
That doesn’t tell me why he wants Lauren Boebert interrogated for not clapping. AFAICT about his wife, she got some award from the Klaus Schwalb outfit nearly 30 years ago. She worked for the World Bank. I’m guessing proper performance and financial audits of World Bank activities might prove embarrassing. Not sure what they’ve done which qualifies as ‘left wing’. She seems like an uber establishmentarian from way back. The establishment is faddish, so she’s probably for open borders, DEI tripe, &c.
Zelenskyy is pro-LGBTQ and pro-abortion. He is as evil as his opponent, that murderous ex-KGB gangster thug Putin. Meanwhile, innocent Ukrainian women and children suffer, and young Russian conscript troops are being ordered to certain death. Do the godless Democrats care? NO! Does all this give Satan joy? Yes. 😞
LQC: If that is the yardstick of measurement for Zelensky, what does that make us? As for ANY war, remember the words of Gen. Sherman.
Zelensky is not on the same level as Putin. Not even close.
Every American has the legal right to his own view on the matter of Ukraine, just like Americans had the legal right to their views on Communism and its threats in the 1950s. The courts ruled then that without hard evidence that someone was in the pay of the USSR stealing secrets etc, the state could do nothing. Nada. Zippo. The morality of those views was not a matter for the FBI.
For me, I’m sorry Russia had no Nuremberg, which would have seen the leaders of that ex-monster state, strung up or jailed, and their Western running-dogs in academia and the media exposed for the crawly, witless dupes they were (although being witless and crawly was their legal right). It didn’t happen and that’s how Putin got his Mini-Me Stalinist Russia back as a threat to the peace of Europe.
Donald Link, very good point. We have a geriatric senile imbecile as POTUS and that godless witch of iniquity, expert in fellatio with a former mayor in a city in Californication, as VP. Both are pro-aborts, pro-LGBTQ. Yes, they are every bit as evil as Putin.
Zelensky is worse than Putin. At least Putin isn’t venerated by the people controlling this nation’s purse strings.
Zelensky is not worse than Putin. Saying so shows a lack.of grasp of the facts.
Whining about the less than 85 cents per taxpayer per day going to Ukraine while remaining silent about the trillions the US government wastes on left wing pet projects is Tucker Carlson level hysterics.
Zelensky is worse than Putin.
What nations has Zelinsky invaded?
What civilian population has Zelinsky ordered bombed into oblivion?
Both of you are idiots. Zelensky is a left-wing pet project, and neocon boomers like you are more than eager to fill his coffers because you have delusions about re-enacting the glory days of World War II.
Thank God I’m not a Catholic.
You are banned from the blog John. You seem to like to sling insults something I frown upon and your joy that you are not a Catholic makes you an ill fit for this blog.
I’m fairly certain that there’s a vast sea of truth somewhere between the position: “Zelensky is worse than Putin” and that of “neocon boomers who are more than eager to fill [Zelensky’s] coffers”
For John’s purposes, however, that sea needs to be ignored.
I’m not sure if John is one of the cranks hanging out at Unz or he’s attempting a cack-handed parody.
Thank God I’m not a Catholic.
-lil’ john
Don’t thank God John.
Thank Satan.
We thank the one’s that we serve.
Over at American Greatness, there are writers who quite agree with John. I won’t waste time mentioning them.