A couple little notes while I have more substantive blog entries “in process,” a rather slow process at that.
I always keep track of current events as presented in the
mainstream and local-newspaper media, and generally opt not to comment on too
much, because other people usually have that covered, and sometimes by the time
I have something original to say, the “time” for talk on some topics is past.
For instance, I’ve taken interest in the deaths of Nelson
Mandela, American poet Amiri Baraka, and Israeli general and onetime prime
minister Ariel Sharon, and haven’t commented on any of them on my blogs, though
I had something substantive in mind to say. In fact, I will comment regarding Mandela
in an upcoming blog entry; and on Amiri Baraka I would note I had a
coworker (in 1990-91) who had had him as a teacher when she had attended
Rutgers in the late 1980s. Her comments on him to me indicated he was about as
solid a teacher as any creative-writing professional working in a university.
Maybe I’ll cover that latter anecdote in the future.
For now (the juxtaposition of these topics is not meant to
trivialize anyone’s experience)….
Ukraine
The recent developments in Ukraine fascinate me, though some
Americans might wonder why we are paying so much attention to that situation
when, even among other foreign-affairs hot spots that some Americans might not
care about, some are festeringly and appallingly worse, as in Syria.
The Ukraine situation is a sort of late “after-tremor” of
the dissolution of the Soviet Union (in 1991), also showing that some things
are slow to change in the former Eastern Bloc region (especially in some of the
propaganda that has been circulated on both sides).
With all the historical bearings that are brought up
regarding this (and the Crimean peninsula as a focal point refers to history
that goes back at least to the 1800s), it seems to have been forgotten in the
U.S. media that Ukraine—previously known as “the Ukraine” when it was more like
a region than a separate country, when it was integrated into the Soviet Union
(~1921-91)—suffered a tremendous blow under the Soviet Union during the
collectivization of agriculture in that country, resulting in a massive famine
(1929-33), which occurred in a number of Soviet areas but was primarily within
the Ukraine.
In fact, this has long been regarded as an episode of
genocide that, for scale (millions perished), has rivaled the Nazi Holocaust. This
collectivization effort/famine also, historically, was the sine qua non for the Soviet political purges that happened in 1936-39;
criticism of Stalin and political destabilization inspired by the famine (by
about 1934)—and all sorts of historical phases within Soviet government
business like the “Ryutin platform” and the assassination of Kirov (a member of
Stalin’s Politburo), covered by the likes of historian Robert Conquest—were
key antecedents of the later-’30s purges that were engineered by Stalin.
Ukraine is an interesting region; in the Middle Ages, the
more developed area of civilization in that general region (roughly speaking, western
Russia and what became Belarus and Ukraine) was around Kiev, now the capital of
Ukraine, not around (more northerly) Moscow. Obviously Ukrainians have developed
their own cultural style and sense of independence and purpose; their language
isn’t exactly Russian, but it looks very similar. On the other hand, their
economic and political interdependence with the Russians (along with bitter
complexity of relations) have long been a historical fact.
Apparently the Russians in their communist mode, especially
when in their position of being the primary ethnic group in charge of the
Soviet Union (by the late 1920s; though obviously Stalin was an ethnic
Georgian), always felt the Ukrainians would never be under their influence as
much as they would have liked. (See End note.) The Soviet collectivization of agriculture starting
in 1929 was, according to Conquest, in part a means to subjugate the
Ukrainians. No doubt a lot (or at least some) of the pro-Western political
exponents in Ukraine now have this episode, about 80 years old, in their
minds.
A more recent historian who has covered the sad history of
this area in the 20th century is Anne Applebaum.
Critters
I mentioned back in a February entry that some
chipmunks had apparently tunneled out of the ground and up through a
driveway snow bank out into the open. Well, chipmunks (not necessarily the
tunneling ones) have been more evident in recent weeks, which is all the odder
for the simple fact that we have the longest-lingering snow cover around here—at
least a foot and a half in places, and now icy-hard due to slight melts and
refreezes under bitter-cold temperatures—that I can remember. The snow pack has
been on the ground roughly two months, and it isn’t clear when we will get a
sustained period of warm-enough temps to melt the stuff. (A refresher: my
altitude is about 1,150 feet, and latitude-wise I am maybe 15 miles north of
the latitude of New York City.)
My mother has commented since the driveway episode on having
seen chipmunks out, and she spoke of one lying on a stone wall apparently
sunning itself. This morning I saw one in front of my house (I mean, mere
inches from it), and I saw another scurrying to a hideaway in a carport at a
house across the street. Chipmunks ordinarily don’t come out of hibernation here
in March, as far as I know, and these are out and about while so much of the
ground is snow-covered. They are apparently able to find stuff to eat—maybe seeds
and other crud that results from plants or trees, but it can’t be too much.
Which is partly to say that, just as we’ve had an unusual
winter, we’ll have an unusual spring, because things that would normally be
starting to emerge and bloom by now are delayed (like crocuses).
End note.
Russian ethnicity was not so central to the running of the Soviet Union (to 1991) as was an allegiance to communism. The area of ethnicities here is complex, historically and currently; note that, today, some street demonstrators in the Ukraine point out that their issue isn't with Russians per se as it is with the leadership of Russia.
End note.
Russian ethnicity was not so central to the running of the Soviet Union (to 1991) as was an allegiance to communism. The area of ethnicities here is complex, historically and currently; note that, today, some street demonstrators in the Ukraine point out that their issue isn't with Russians per se as it is with the leadership of Russia.
