English articles
Forgotten History: How the US and Czechoslovakia helped millions survive the famine in Soviet Russia
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"The ban on our film by the Russian authorities is completely illegal. It is censorship. The film was intended for cinemas, it is a pity that people in Russia will not see it on the wide screen. But we will definitely release it and it will be free to watch. They don't want to remember the time when Russia needed help and the whole world came to save us. They want to show that the US and Europe have always wanted to destroy us. The film shows the opposite."
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Not much is known about the famine in Soviet Russia in 1921-1923, but it killed a similar number of people as the famine in Ukraine in 1932-1933. No one knows the exact number of victims, but estimates are around 5 million.
In Russia, people were starving to death in 1891, but the famine of 1921 was different for many reasons. First, the number of victims was ten times higher. This was largely due to the policies of the Communists, led by Lenin, who had just come to power. And for two years huge amounts of humanitarian aid flowed into the country from abroad, especially from the United States, but Czechoslovakia was one of the most active countries. At one point, the U.S. was feeding 10 million Russians a day, wrote the Slovak independent Dennik N.
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"Putin really, really won't change. Whoever thinks so is dreaming. Europe must change and find reliable companions." Karel Mrzílek (2014)
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"Russia will always cause problems with its policies. The only thing it understands is violence. No one can get along with it the easy way. 1939: annexation of eastern Poland in cooperation with the Germans, Katyn, 1957 invasion of Hungary, 1968 Czechoslovakia, 2013, 2014 Ukraine." Jan Herna (2014)
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Italian Prime Minister Giorgina Meloni could not have said it better in the name of preserving freedom and democracy. A fascinating response from the real boss, to calls from Italian "desolates" to stop sending arms to the Ukrainians: "Is it better to live under a dictatorship than to die? No, people should live in freedom."
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Journalist Jaroslav Spurný responds to my criticism about the silence of the weekly RESPEKT (2021): I have to get used to the fact that "What is good for the public is fortunately not decided by Šinágl" (I can no longer find the text on FB). JŠ
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About a case from the State Department, or the de facto decision-making power remains in the hands of technocrats elected by no one. Overwhelming bureaucracy just one of the problems that is capable of stifling any effort at change.
The main method is to manipulate their minister, primarily by keeping him busy with time-consuming tasks whose sole purpose is to keep the minister busy and out of his way. However, he does not shy away from using his own mistakes against the Minister.
"This is a tragedy, the entire state and public apparatus is riddled with it. They don't decide ability but who is whose friend, who is kissing up to whom and can be useful in return, by passing on contracts to friends who helped him into office. You can change the whole government, but this is here to stay. You have to change the whole system and that is a Sisyphean job and I'm afraid it's just not feasible without a total screw-up of the whole society."
Systemic change will have to include at least three aspects:
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There was vomit, blood and lots of cobwebs on the walls. There was water in the cell, but it ran dirty and smelled.
"In Kingisepp they didn't give me drinking water at all, only three decilitres of tea in the morning and evening. In an emergency, when I was terribly thirsty, I had to drink even the stinking water. Diarrhoea naturally followed. The toilet was a hole in the ground, like an open sewer. I don't even need to mention the outrageous smell," Mazák said.
In St. Petersburg, they had cockroaches in the cells, which caused prisoners to plug their ears with cotton wool
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"This is the highest truth I know; only those deserve freedom and life who conquer both every new day."
J.W.Goethe
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Damn, we need more people like that in the world, and not for them to leave so soon. We will never forget and thank you for making us a part of your life.
The obituary ends with the words: Good friend, dad and friend, good brother and son, cousin and uncle. A good journalist, a good farmer, a good politician and ultimately a skilled lawyer.
Ales' life's mission was to fight for justice. For justice for himself, for his family, friends, acquaintances... and in time for anyone decent who turned to him. For example, Ales was one of the first Czechs to open a censored website, where cases were published with the names of corrupters, judges, bankruptcy trustees and police officers. He was therefore more than at home with the police. Any scoundrel could have found a place with her. All the godfathers were crystal clear and to this day civil servants walk around them with kid gloves. Despite all the vicissitudes, Ales was always willing to help, cooperate and listen. He just got more and more tired. Just as those with time on their side calculate.
Yes, there has been a great relief in Ales over the last year. He has devoted himself much more to his son Max and the rest of his family. He wanted a break from the worries of the last two decades of his life. Unfortunately, fate had taken a very different approach to his desire for rest.
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