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dot com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back
to our reading of two hundred Years Together by Alexander Sulshanisen.
This is episode ninety eight. Johnson, how are you doing today.
Speaker 2: Physically? I'm getting better, slowly but surely, nowhere near you know,
hospital level. But it's been a rough couple of months.
But but on the positive side, my lighting has changed,
as you may have noticed. Although it is it is
pretty much dark here in western Pennsylvania. It is very cloudy.
But for all the breed of cats we own, my
wife bought me a t shirt with the breed on it.
So this one's the orange cat, of course, in reference
to Stanley, who is as always is next to me
well sleeping. But but I have a six month old,
as you know, Maine coon that takes up two chairs
now at the kitchen table. No one can to rob
my house. I could give away everything else I possess.
No one's gonna rob that house, not with this monster.
Her grandfather was a monster, and I think she can
be just like him. And she has no clue. She's
only six months old and she is just enormous.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. Yeah, purebred mancoons are just forces in nature.
One is your Yeah, all right, we're gonna start getting
into some Stalin here. During his political career, Stalin often
allied with Jewish leaders of the Communist Party and relied
on many Jewish backbenchers. By the mid nineteen thirties, he
saw in the example of Hitler all the disadvantages of
being self declared enemy of the Jews, yet he likely
harbored hostility toward them. His daughter's memoirs support this, though
even his closest Sir was probably unaware of it. However,
struggling against the trotsky Ies, he of course realized this
aspect as well his needs to further get rid of
the Jewish influence in the party, and sensing the war,
he perhaps was also grasping that proletarian internationalism alone would
not be sufficient, and that the notion of the homeland
and even the capital h Homeland would be much needed.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that first paragraph. First of all, now we're on
to Stalin and there's so much unpack here. I'm not
going to be able to do it in a show
like this. By backbenchers, they're referring to minor figures, usually backbenchy.
It meant fairly new members of parliament in the British Parliament,
or even from minor constituencies. Here it's kind of just
low levels of the bureaucracy. And the next the next sentence,
there's a lot of disadvantages of being a self declared
enemy of the Jews. Yeah, he held, he harbored hostility
towards him everyone who wasn't brainwashed, which at the time
was everybody. You don't you don't like them, No one
really likes them. You do business with them, you know.
But at that point, you know, that's simply you know,
his hostility, however, was not a violent one. His daughter,
of course, was very Jewish herself in her may be
married one. And and if his closest circle was unaware
of it, it couldn't be that that matter that that
that might that an intensive matter. So but then it
gets into the biggest problem with the left, the left's
refusal auto refusal to talk about the ethnic factions, the
ethnic elements of life, ethnic, racial whatever. What's going to
hold society together. You have to have something, you know,
the religious the religious element is extremely important. That's where
a society comes from. Let's see, the culture comes from
the cult, as Russell Kirk used to say. And you
can't just say this is the worker's paradise everyone who
wasn't and say that's sufficient to deal with the Germany
that now has that that that rose up from almost
sure destruction, stressing the nature of German culture, including German religion,
whether it be Catholic or or or or Lutheran. And
and and of course from the Orthodox point of view, Yeah,
the Russian Orthodox Church brought had a huge presence there.
They supported Hitler this point. I did a paper on that.
After the war, they were at a little worried. But
Hitler rebuilt the cathedral in Berlin out of his own money,
of his own personal funds. He never disliked Russians or
thought that Russians were inferior, never thought that that comes
from nonsense like the table talks and all that. No, no,
they were there were Europeans like anyone else. But he
despised what was ruling them at the time. Pulitarian internationalism
by definition can't motivate anybody. Homeland and capital ahs homeland. Well,
now that means we're talking about ethnicity. And I think
maybe in the back of his mind, maybe Sultanesan's also
talking about the Jewish. Jews of all people know that
this is true, that their ethnic culture is is that
that's what holds them together. They couldn't do anything we
talk about them all the time, they couldn't do any
of that without that ethnic culture at all. It's admirable,
as you know, sen Loong Shanks always have said, and
it is the capital H is a heavier conception, you know, race, religious, whatever.
And although it was very weak in Stalin's case, we
cannot exaggerate it. It was only you know, in the war.
You know the Stalin was playing the Western Powers very well.
I don't want anyone to believe that. You know, Hitler
was unprepared for any battle I got in nineteen forty,
German bombers were bombing Berlin. He didn't have a he
didn't have a heavy tank, he didn't have a long
range bomber.
Speaker 1: German bombers were bombing Berlin. That's what you said.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. British bombers after the after the
Battle of Britain. I apologize for that. Yeah, yeah, correct me. Please,
British bombers were bombing Berlin in nineteen forty. You know,
the the advance on Poland eventually stopped because they ran
out of fuel. You know this was the rebuilding of
Germany was not based on the military element, and what
what was often done in the Soviet Union. Stalin loved
the idea of the Western powers going to war somehow
using Germany in that in that mix, and then moving
in and taking over the entire continent, the icebreaker thesis,
which is at this point undoubtable. I don't know how
anyone could argue against it anymore so, but but more importantly,
in in our case, militarian internationalism is not something no
one's going to die for that. No one's going to
die for a trial by jewelry. No one's going to
die for an abstraction like that. You need to die
for family, hearth, and home, and that's only found in
true nationalism.
Speaker 1: S Schwartz lamented about anti revolutionary transformation of the party
as the unprecedented purge of the ruling party, the virtual
destruction of the old party and the establishment of a
new communist party under the same name in its place.
New in Social Composition and Ideology from nineteen thirty seven.
He also noted a gradual displacement of Jews from the
positions of power in all spheres of public life. Among
the old Bolsheviks who were involved in the activity before
the party came to power, and especially among those with
the pre revolutionary involvement, the percentage of Jews was noticeably
higher than in the Party on average. In younger generation,
the Jewish representation became even smaller. As a result of
the purge, almost all important Jewish Communists left the scene.
Lazar Kaganovitch was the exception. Still, in nineteen thirty nine,
after all the massacres, the faithful communist Zemlyyalka was made
the deputy head of the Soviet of People's Commissars, and
s Dridzo Lozowski was assigned the position of deputy to
the Narkama Foreign Affairs. And yet, in the wider picture,
Schwartz's observations are reasonable, as was demonstrated above.
Speaker 2: Well, I do challenge Swarts all the time, although you
know he does have the advantage of actually being there.
He was at the revolution. He but he is an
absolute fanatical Jewish nationalist, and anything that suited Jewish interests
he supported. But the ideology did not change. The only
time ideology you may have changed slightly is when is
when you know in the nineteen forty three forty four
were Stalin realized he needed to use some old, you know,
Russian nationalism to to motivate the population. That does not
make him a nationalist. He certainly was not. He turned
on all of them the minute the war was over,
creating his own church in forty three forty four. That
does not mean he was Orthodox. He turned on them
the minute the war was over, and they were they
were in a pathetic position. So it's reasonable to one extent.
But Sultan Eatson also said that he relied on backbenchers,
in other words, people who were less well known Jews,
who were less well known in the in the far
reaches of the now you know, well established apparatus, not
just the party of but the estate apparatus. S.
Speaker 1: Schwartz adds that in the second half of the nineteen thirties,
Jews were gradually barred from entering institutions of higher learning
which were preparing specialists for foreign relations and foreign trade,
and were banned from military educational institutions. The famous defector
from the USSR I S. Guzenko, shared rumors about a
secret percentage quota on Jewish admissions to the institutions of
higher learning, which was enforced from nineteen thirty nine. In
the nineteen nineties, they even wrote that Molotov, taking over
the People's Commissariate of Foreign Affairs in the spring of
nineteen thirty nine, publicly announced during the meeting with the
personnel that he will deal with the synagogue here, and
that he began firing Jews on the very same day. Still,
Litvanoff was quite useful during the war in his role
as Soviet ambassador to the US. They say that upon
his departure from the USA in nineteen forty three, he even
dared to passed a personal letter to Roosevelt suggesting that
Stalin had unleashed an anti Semitic campaign in the USSR.
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's there's quite a bit of the secret quotas well. No,
if he was the way that Solomon Swartz says he is,
it wouldn't be secret. Stalin's rule was in no danger
at the time, especially since he was building up a
military which I think at this point where we thirty six,
I guess thirty seven had reached well over four million.
There were no formal restrictions here. Solomon Schwartz was what
s Swartz. We've dealt with him before Solomon Schwartz, of course,
is known for exaggeration even more than you know normal
for his people. And yes, there were plenty of Jews
in the military educational institutions, but it was not their
big thing. Why would there be a quota in higher education?
We know why there was in the Tsarist era, But
why would that matter unless you know that wouldn't make
any difference to Stalin So and in fact it was
secret and it was only a rumor. Okay, Well, if
that's as good as you can do, then then this
is just a matter of speculation.
Speaker 1: By the mid nineteen thirties, the sympathy of European jewelry
toward the Ussar had further increased. Trotsky explained it.
Speaker 2: But he knows what he's Sultan needs to knows what
he's doing when he's writing these words. You know he does,
he knows. Okay, go ahead.
Speaker 1: Trotsky explained it in nineteen thirty seven, on his way
to Mexico. The Jewish intelligentsia turns to the not because
they are interested in Marxism or Communism, but in search
of support against aggressive German anti Semitism. It was what
it was, this same commoncern that approved the Malotsov Ribbons
trop pack pack, the pack that dealts a mortal blowed
to East European jewelry.
Speaker 2: Yeah again, Jews are are known for their penton for exaggeration.
You got to remember. And what what what Trotsky is
is getting at is partially true, is that given the
rise of Adolf Hitler, Stalin didn't have to do could
could be he didn't have to do much to be
the favorite of Jews throughout the world. And of course
he was not the US it was. It was the
us SR. Jewish parties in Europe did not see Stalin
as as anti as anti Judaic or or or port
pershing Jews as as a race, as a specific group
of people. But but, and Trotsky will then bring up
the issue now for the rest of his life, which
you know he wouldn't have if he you know, if
he didn't, if he didn't get expelled. So Jewish intelligentia, Yeah, well,
you know some of them are, I mean, many of
them are interested in Marxism or Communism. I don't know,
I don't think. I don't think Trotsky was interested in
Marxism or Communism. I have a lot of proof of that.
But it served Jewish interests, especially in this period of
time where Hitler was not just rising, but he was
being led did he was making all other parties irrelevant.
He was the only one that was going to uh,
that was that was spitting at the the Treaty of Versign.
You know, he was the only one who was saying
what was happening. And the Western world, of course, was
was extremely angry at him. He was not financed by
Western corporations. As as a myth goes, there were the
they were the ones at this point screaming for war
against him. So uh, and it was it was difficult
though for for Jews and other and you throughout Europe
and and uh, you know North America too to go
along with with Stalin on certain things. Well we'll get
to that in a little bit. But but he did
anything but unleash and anti been a campaign in the USSR.
I'm getting I'm getting ahead of myself here.
Speaker 1: In September nineteen thirty nine, hundreds of thousands of Polish
Jews fled from the advancing German armies, fleeing further and
further east and trying to head for the territory occupied
by the Red Army. For the first two months they
succeeded because of the favorable attitude of Soviet authorities. The
Germans quite often encouraged this flight. But at the end
of November, the Soviet government closed the border.
Speaker 2: The Red Army. Did you you know how long it
takes for even a history grad student professor to realize
that Red Army is even involved in this period of time.
You know, the Red Army invaded Poland just a week
I think maybe ten days after. The Germans never gets mentioned,
never gets talked about. Stalin invaded neutral countries like the Baltics,
doesn't get mentioned. You know, there was you know, and
this I think that the Jewish power has a lot
to do with this. What he means by close the border,
I'm not sure, but it was certainly in his interest
to have plenty of anti German Jews on his side,
and he did. And as Hitler rose into power, his
enemies again, they didn't run to the US, where there
was a substantial community there. They ran to the USSR.
I'd have to prove Hitler right.
Speaker 1: In different areas of the front, things took shape differently.
In some areas, the Soviets would not admit Jewish refugees
at all. In other places they were welcome, but later
sometimes sent back to the Germans. Overall, it is believed
that around three hundred thousand Jews managed to migrate from
the western to the year to the eastern, from western
to eastern Poland in the first months of the war,
and later the Soviets evacuated them deeper into the USSR.
They demanded that Polish Jews registers Soviet citizens, but many
of them did not rush to accept Soviet citizenship. After all,
they thought the war would would soon be over and
they would return home or go to America or to Palestine.
Yet in the eyes of the Soviet regime, they thereby
immediately fell into the category of suspected of espionage, especially
if they tried to correspond with relatives in Poland. Still
we read in the Chicago Sentinel that the Soviet Union
gave refuge to ninety percent of all European Jewish refugees
fleeing from Hitler.
Speaker 2: So Trotsky again was full of it. They didn't close
the border. And that's what I was going to get
to when I stopped myself, I was getting ahead of myself.
It just he didn't close the border. It wasn't his
interest to allow these people in large numbers now suspected
of espionage. Now this is something of personal interests or
sultan Esen, because anyone who was captured and spent any
time in a pow camp was by definition suspected of espionage.
When they came back, they weren't subject to their brainwashing consistently.
Therefore they were a threat, even though these were these
people were completely innocent, you know, military men. He was
an artillery officer brought under a sense of the Gulag
because he had been been a bow. The Germans captured
what three and a half million Soviet soldiers in a
couple of months, an Operation Barbarossa, which of course wouldn't
make any sense unless, uh they you know this, this
was the invasion force. So but now I don't know.
The Chicago Sentinel may not be the best authority, but yeah,
it would make sense for anyone running the USS. Aren't
the time to give rescue to European Jews because they were,
you know, they hated Hitler and they could be used
against them for that reason.
Speaker 1: According to the January nineteen thirty nine census, three million,
twenty thousand Jews lived in the USSR. Now, after occupation
of the Baltics, annexation of a part of Poland and
taking in Jewish refugees, approximately two million more Jews were added,
giving a total of around five million. Before nineteen thirty nine,
the Jews were the seventh largest people in the USSR
number wise. Now, after annexation of all western areas, they
became the fourth largest people of the USSR, after the
three Slavic peoples Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian. The Mutual Non
Aggression Pact of August twenty third, nineteen thirty nine between
the Third reichrom the Soviet Union evoked serious fear about
the future of Soviet Jewry, though the policy of the
Soviet Union toward its Jewish city since was not changed,
and although there were some revorse reverse deportations, overall, the
legal status of the Jewish population remained unchanged. During the
twenty months of the Soviet German collaboration and.
Speaker 2: There was a big split in the left the Communist
Party between those following Moscow and those following Tronsky. And
this was the big issue. You know, you're a Jewish
member of the party. Salom has a non aggression pact
with Hitler. You have to go along with it, you know,
it's a problem and so and then of course they
would go to the trotsky Anites instead, and then over
over a long period of time, their intellectual leaders became
what we call the neocons today. But no one had
any idea that they knew the war was coming. Salomon
absolutely knew the war was coming. The only the only
UH entity that was ready for it was the Soviet Union.
Germany was not contrary to all the mythology, and and
that was quite by design, you know, uh, the splitting
of Poland. But it was only Poland that was that
that that that caused the the Western Allies to declare
war on Germany, despite the fact that Stalin also invaded
a third of the country, and then at the end
of the war had no problem giving it to Stalin anyway,
you know, it's just and and you know, Jews made
out either way and then not a non aggression pact
didn't last long, but Germany took advantage of it. That's
where a lot of their newer tanks were were tested out.
But by now Versailles was a dead letter Hitler. It
was clear it was a dead letter. Now, but there
were Germany was no way ready for a war.
Speaker 1: There's only a couple of lines left in this chapter,
but the next chapter is only eight pages long. I
think we should start the next chapter. How does that sound?
Speaker 2: Oh? Oh, oh, I see yeah, yeah, going through the footnotes. Okay, well,
I've read a lot of this stuff. Oh Solomon Schwartz,
Yeah we should we s could we should talk about him?
He was a piece of work. Here we go.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I forgot Are you seeing you seeing the
title this chapter?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm seeing the title. Yeah, yeah, okay, all.
Speaker 1: Right, well let's finish this chapter up here.
Speaker 2: Well you want to just go to go to the
chapter twenty.
Speaker 1: Oh, well we have we have a couple of lines left,
and this this next paragraph is really good. Is a
really good one, okay. With With the start of war
in Poland, Jewish sympathies finally crystallized in Polish Jews and
the Jewish youth in particular met the advancing Red Army
with exulting enthusiasm. Thus, according to many testimonies, including Emma
Girsky's one, Polish Jews like their co ethnics in Besarabia.
But Bookavina and Lithuania became the main pillar of the
Soviet regime, supporting it tooth and nail. Yet how much
did these East European Jews know about what was going
on in the USSR. They unerringly sensed that a catastrophe
was rolling at them from Germany, those still not fully
or clearly recognized, but undoubtedly a catastrophe, and so the
Soviet welcome appeared to them to embody certain salvation, you know.
Speaker 2: And when Orthodox peasants welcomed the German army with all
their verses and everything else they had, they're condemned. But
we see the exact same thing happening with with young Jews.
And uh but but I do love the line all
the disadvantages about being a public enemy or a self
declared enemy of of of the Jews. I remember William Pirius,
not that I'm a big you know, I like him.
I'm not a big fan of of of a lot
of things. But but you know, he just says, you know,
people will do business with them. We have people don't
really like them, though, you know, And of course that
was many years ago. You know, I've had I've had
Jewish friends who have no idea what what I do
in the dark. Ah. But they're they're generally unlikable unless
they're totally assimilated, so you know which case their Jewish nature. Well,
they could always plug into their system at any time,
they just don't need it right now. And I do
think they knew what was going on in the USSR.
The Jews did an excellent job of communicating back and forth.
And you know, it was Marxism, it was Stalinism. It
was Leninism that was the target of Adolf Hitler, not
Judaism as such.
Speaker 1: All right, Chapter twenty in the Camps of the Ghoul
of the Gulag. If I hadn't been there, it wouldn't
be possible for me to compose this chapter. Before the camps,
I thought that no one should notice nationalities, that there
are no nationalities, there is only one human kind. But
when you were sent into the camp, you find it out.
If you are a lucky nationality, then you are a
fortunate man, You are provided for, you have survived. But
if you are aality, well, then no offense. Because nationality
is perhaps the most important trait that gives a prisoner
a chance to be picked into the life saving core
of idiots. You want me to read the translator's note here, Yes, Jim, Yeah,
translator's note. This is from the Russia. The Russian word
translated to idiots full or idiot. This is an inmate
slang term to denote other inmates who didn't do common
labor but managed to obtain positions with easy duties, usually
pretending to be incapable of doing hard work because of
poor health.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know where this is going.
Speaker 1: I oh, I know exactly where this is going. I
remember the beginning of this book. Every experienced camp inmate
can confirm that ethnic proportions among idiots were very different
from those in the general camp population. Indeed, there were
virtually no privats among idiots, regardless of their actual number
in the camp, and there were many of them. There
were also Russians, of course, but incomparably smaller proportion than
in the camp on average, and those were often selected
from orthodox members of the party. On the other hand,
some others were noticeably concentrated. Jews. Georgians, Armenians and Azeris
also ended there in higher proportions, and to some extent
Caucasian mountaineers also. Certainly, none of them can be blamed
for that every nation in the Gulag did its best
crawling to survival, and the smaller and nimbler it was,
the easier it was to accomplish. And again Georgians were
the very last nation in their own Russian camps, like
they were like they were in German Krea. I can't
pronounce that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know. You know, the concept of an idiot,
in the way that Aristotle defined mind, it was somebody
who didn't need the rest of society, like Bigfoot something
like that, something that could survive without everybody else. Didn't
necessarily mean that they were a moron. Maybe maybe on
the contrary, but here, you know, you concluding had privileges.
It's like you know in in in the German camps,
Jews were normally the the the those who you know,
guarded the inmates. Uh, we get to that some other time.
And in Mays have said this themselves, But it's like
in American prisons, their race comes out, you know, white,
Hispanic and black. And if you have a long prison stretch,
you know, you go to you you don't separate from
your race. It's just one place. For whatever whatever reason,
the intense stress brings out the most fundamental element which
seems to be racial, and that's how they survive. People
condemn members of the Aryan Brotherhood, I said, well, what
do you expect them to do? Just be raped by
everyone else. They have to form their own, their own groups,
this kind of organization based on language and appearance. Right,
this is how they function and survived. Hence it is
a normal and natural way to function.
Speaker 1: That German word kriegs kafon jennen laggers means a prisoner
of war, prisoner of war camp. All right, Yet it
is not us who have been who have blamed them,
but it is they Armenians, Georgians, highlanders who would have
been in their right to ask us, why did you
establish these camps? Why do you force us to live
in your state? Do not hold us and we will
not land here and occupy these such attractive, idiotic positions.
But while we are your prisoners a la ger comte
de le de ala.
Speaker 2: He is referring to the gulag here, not Gulags in Pow.
Two two different, two different things. You know, Armenians and
Georgians always you know there were two ethnicities in the
Russians in the Soviet Empire. That that I mean relatively speaking,
did fairly well. I mean they always met their quota,
sometimes exceeded it. There are very few Georgians outside of Georgia.
This is probably the first time the draft brought them
outside of their own borders. And you know, you don't
see a lot of Georgian Orthodox churches out there because
they don't have much of a diaspora. So I don't know,
you know it certainly it speaks from personal experience here, uh,
and not just personal experience, but emotional experience.
Speaker 1: That French term means in war, anything goes. Yeah, but
what about Jews? For fate interwove Russian and Jews, perhaps forever,
which is why this book is being written. Before that,
before this very line. There will be readers who have
been in the camps and who haven't been, who will
be quick to contest the truth in what I say here.
They will claim that many Jews were forced to take
part in common labor activities. They will deny that there
were camps where Jews were the majority among idiots. They
will indignantly reject that nations in the camps were helping
each other selectively and therefore at the expense of others.
Some others will not consider themselves as distate Jews at all,
perceiving themselves as Russians and everything. Besides, even if there
was overrepresent representation of Jews on key camp positions, it
was absolutely unpremeditated, wasn't it. The selection was exclusively based
on merit and personal talents and abilities to do business. Well,
who is to blame if Russians lacked business talents?
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and that's that's been that that's come up
many times in this book. Well, who's to blame? And
so that means that Russians did all the work. Russians
were just the one that they were the one ethnic
group that really wasn't allowed to organize in the Soviet Union.
Everyone else had their own you know, media and everything else,
not not Russia and Russi was the threat. Russian nationalism
was the threat to the Soviet leadership. And I've mentioned
that many times, but it is a key factor of
understanding all of this.
Speaker 1: There will also be those who will passionately assert directly
opposite that it was Jews who suffered worse than the camps.
This is exactly how it is understood in the West.
In Soviet camps, nobody suffered as badly as Jews. Among
the letters from readers of Ivan Denisovitch, there was one
from an anonymous Jew quote, you have met innocent Jews
who languished in camps with you, and you obviously not
at once witnessed their suffering and persecution. They endure double oppression,
imprisonment and enmity from the rest of inmates. Tell us
about these people, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I have a book out on the Orthodox tradition
in Russian literature, and this short novel i've in the
Nisovitch's I think it may be the first the first
chapter I was so long ago. And if I were
to for for our listeners to start with Sultzanten as
a literary figure, that would be the first book that
in the House of the Dead. Maybe the House of
the Dead first, and then and then Ivan Denisovitch. But
as far as the Cans are concerned, that was his
first offering in this in this regard. But Jews, you know,
wherever they went, even if it was a small number,
immediately organized and immediately took advantage of it. This is
why ethnic organized, you know. This is this is how
human beings function. The We're not turtles, you know, we don't.
We don't, you know, lay eggs and leave and all
the babies just run to the sea. Now we've we've
formed communities, and these communities have to be based on something,
and it's language, religion, and ethnicity, all pushing together to
create the Ethnos. Jews know that better than anyone in
the world. The problem they have is that when other
people start noticing.
Speaker 1: That, and if I wish to generalize and state that
the life of Jews and camps was especially difficult, then
I would be allowed to do so and wouldn't be
peppered with admonitions for unjust ethnic generalizations. But in the
camps where I was imprison it was the other way around.
The life of Jews, to the extent of possible generalization,
was easier. Simon Badash, my camp mate from Ekabab Bassust,
recounts in his memoirs how he had managed to settle
later in a camp at Nourlsk. In the medical unit,
Max Mins asked a radiologist, Lazlo Newsbomb, to solicit for
Badash before a free head of the unit. He was accepted.
Badash at least finished three years of medical school before imprisonment.
Compare that with other nurses, Gank and Goral, like Gorovich,
like one of my pals, l couple couple lev from
Unslag who never before in their lives had anything to
do with medicine.
Speaker 2: Keep in mind that the camps weren't just h There
was a strong element where it was just forced labor
in the snow. Yeah, that's true. But other camps in
Sultanas's own own writing, uh and in truth, other camps
were scientific institutes actually within the Gulag. And this is
where you know, Jews can be sent if they had
their requisite skills to do, you know, to to produce things.
It's shocking people and realized that they have these these
institutes and research institutes right within the Gulag system. Yeah,
it's true, Soulcial Ancient writes about it at great length.
But maybe even if they didn't have that ability, they
still could be brought there because they're a Jew.
Speaker 1: Some people absolutely seriously write like this, A Belenkoff was
thrown into the most despicable category of idiots, and I
am tempted to inappropriately add and languishers here, though the
languishers were the social antipods of idiots, and Belenkoff never
was among the languishers to be thrown into the group
of idiots. What an expression to be diminished by being
accepted into the ranks of gentlemen. And here goes to
justification to dig soil. But at the age of twenty
three he not only never did it, he never saw
a shovel in his life. Well, then he had no
other choice but to become an idiot.
Speaker 2: That paragraph could summarize what we've done in this book
so far in a certain way. People would people would
misunderstand the word either Greek idiots, you know, someone separate.
But you know I've mentioned before she was always functioned
as a mafia organization, even even in the USSR. And
I think what he's getting at here is something along
the lines of a no work job. That the mafia,
at least on the East Coast specialized in any any
project that they had their hands in. They could give
their friends a job with health insurance and everything else,
and they didn't either either have to show, or if
they did show, they didn't have to work. And I
think that's what languishers mean here.
Speaker 1: Or read what Levinson Krasnoff wrote about one Pinski, a
literature expert that he was a nurse in the camp,
which means that he on the camp scale, has adhered well. However,
Levitton presents us as an example of the greatest humiliation
possible for a professor of the humanities, or take prisoner
who survived. Lev Roskin a journalist and not a medic
at all, who was heavily published afterwards. But from his
story in Ogonik nineteen eighty eight we find that he
used to be a medic in the camp's medical unit,
and moreover, an unescorted medic from other his stories. From
other of his stories, we can figure out that he
also worked as a senior controller at a horrible timber
logging station. But there is not a single story from
which we can conclude that he ever participated in common labor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is a little bit like stolen Valor here,
where these guys once the you know, and once nineteen
ninety came ninety one ninety two, they they made claims
of camp suffering that of course they never they never
had anything to do with despite the fact that even
while reading it, I don't think i've read rascon myself,
although I unescorted metic, meaning that he is so he's
trusted by the authorities. What the hell's he doing in
the gulag? Then, I think it pretty much do as
he pleases. But later on they'll write these stories of
their own suffering and pain, and and that's why you
know sultanation was so important, and why you had the
Jewish avalanche against him starting in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 1: Or a story of Frank Dickler, a Jew from far
away Brazil. He was imprisoned and couldn't speak Russian, of course,
and guess what he had pull in the camp and
he had become a chief of the medical unit's kitchen,
a truly magnificent treasure. Or Alexander Varnel, who was a
political youngster when he landed in the camps, says that
immediately after getting in the camp, he was readily assisted
by other Jewish inmates who had not the slightest idea
about my political views. A Jewish inmate responsible for running
the bathhouse, a very important idiot as well, has spotted
him instantly and ordered him to come if he needs
any help. A Jew from prisoner of security, also an idiot,
told another Jew, a brigadier, there are two Jewish guys. Hakim,
don't allow them to get in trouble, and the brigadier
gave them strong protection. Other thieves, especially elders, approved him.
You are so right, Hakim, you support your own kin.
Yet we Russians are like wolves to each other.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that that if that doesn't resonate with our listeners.
You know, uh, the Jewish ability to organize and assist
one another despite I know that they could be very
fractious and all that, but under these conditions, if the
Russians still there was no conception of that. And this
is the reason why they did all the work. This
is why sultanese and even after he got cancer. Can
you imagine being in the Gulag and having cancer. You know,
he moved to Kazakhstan when when that was discovered. But
you talk about talking about suffering here. But you notice,
you know, guards, actual you know, infantrymen or policemen we
would call CEOs. They didn't really exist unless, yeah, there
was a big problem, unless there was a riot or
something like that. Now, this was all organized at the
camp level, and so and so that means that the
most the best organized group, whoever that might be, is
going to be the best off. Well, we all know
who that is, but it's not just Jews, it is
also Armenians in Georgians again fairly small although although elite
in my opinion ethnic groups, and I like the Brazilian
one is funny because he didn't speak the language, but
he's still well, he's one of us, so he's brought
in and is and it doesn't have to do the work.
He could cook or something like that. But it's clear
that this is the one place where Jewish organization and
ethnic fanaticism saved them. Yeah, there were plenty of Jews
in the camps for a whole bunch of different reasons,
Zionist especially, and it would still being in a gulag
wherever you were was you know, gulogs were all over
the empire. They all had different purposes. I think by
by let's say, the by Stalin's death nineteen fifty three,
they comprised maybe ten or twelve percent of the Soviet economy.
So you did have, I mentioned, you did have fairly
sophisticated production in certain places. It wasn't just you know,
banging rocks with it with a pick, but to the
extent that there was was banking rocks with a pick.
We know who's going to be doing it. It's going
to be Russians doing it with a Jews sitting there
not having to worry about it.
Speaker 1: And let's not forget that even during camp imprisonment, by
virtue of a common stereotype regarding all Jews as businessmen,
many of them were getting commercial offers, sometimes even when
they didn't actively look for such enterprises. Take for instance,
m He emphatically notes, quote, what a pity that I
can't describe to you those camp situations. There are so
many rich, beautiful stories. However, the ethical code of the
reliable Jews seals my mouth. You know, even the smallest
commercial secrets should be kept forever. That's the law of
the tribe. End quote. I love when they do that.
I love when they say that stuff out loud.
Speaker 2: You know, yeah, honesty a let.
Speaker 1: Ann Bernstein, one of my witnesses from Archipelago, thinks that
he managed to survive in the camps only because in
times of hardship he asked the Jews for help, and
that the Jews, judging by his last name and nimble manners,
mistook him for their tribesmen and always provided assistance. He
says that in all his camps, Jews always constituted the
upper crust, and that the most important free employees were
also Jews. Shulman head of special Department, Greenberg head of
campus station, Kegel's chief mechanic of the factory, and according
to his recollections, they also preferred to select Jewish inmates
to staff their units.
Speaker 2: Oh, I've been mistaken many years ago, not anymore, when
my New Jersey accent was much heavier. I was mistaken
for a Jew many times. And because I know enough
of the of the of the lingo to get by,
and it's been yeah, yeah, I mean, I grew up
in an Italian Jewish area and it's it's I know
exactly what's what he's talking about here. So even in
the goolog system, the Jewish organization is what saves and
that's that's that's the moral of the story so far here.
The only thing that could ever bring about justice or
or peace is ethnic organization. When I say ethnic, I'm
also you know, I'm referring to language, uh and and religion.
It's really tough to not have the religions as a
central element, and that that creates culture and that's you know,
that's that's the key. That's the only way. That's how
human beings are designed. And if it takes this extreme
experience to bring that out, or what they do in
American prisons, where everything is based racially, at least in
state prisons, in federal prisons, it's and and sometimes you
really have to be Jewish if if you're if you could,
if you're perceived as such, you can still get the benefits.
I couldn't keep it up. I couldn't keep doing that
for long. I'd always mess up somehow. But but if
my my accent was heavier like my late sistress was,
I'd be able to do it all the time.
Speaker 1: I think that's the stopping point. We can pick up
from there and finish that chapter on the on the
next go round.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you notice that there's a huge change in language
and how he's talking. But all of a sudden, this
isn't nearly this is this is.
Speaker 1: Less academic and more personal.
Speaker 2: More personal, and it is more emotional. He's still gonna
get in trouble for it. You got to remember when
this came out and for this electrified Russia, and this
came out around the time Putin started, you know, throwing
the Jewish on a Gardsen prison. That's when the letter
of the three thousand came out, all that stuff, and
it's you know, Jews or zero point six percent of
the Jews right now in the Russian Federation. Uh. But
but this, this is this shook Russia. This brought out
me on when Putin came out and said, yeah, the
Bullshep Revolution was Jewish. He said that many times, you know,
it was it was, you know, either coming from from
this or from something like this. It's so by two
thousand and two, three four, Putin's policy started in of course,
you know, Putin became immensely popular, you know, by by
by throwing these people in in in prison that they
should they should be in prison, made them when exile instead.
This popularity has never gone down since then for that
very reason. And then the economy was able to take
off as a result. Now, of course, I know this
is a totally different story, but but this, this book, this,
but what it did to Russia. And how long did
it take to show up in English? I remember talking
about it too years for even a couple of sentences
to show up. I was the only one. I had
a couple of my papers I had three or four
like paragraphs that I had translated myself. But in terms
of the entire book, it took a very long time.
And we all know what well the reason for it,
and you know what, to be honest with you, maybe
I have to because of what I do full time.
I don't have to see what the official translation is
going to be. But there's no getting out of this,
there's no unless they just canmpletely mutilate the language. You know.
The moral of the story is ethnic organization. There's no
content concept of supremacy necessarily bringing out the best traits
of whatever group you're in. Every every ethnic group has
as different traits and protecting that culture. That's the nature
of justice, you know, in a very broad sense, you know.
And that's the that's the moral of the stories so far.
That's that's that's why, you know. Yeah, they had to
do time, but their time wasn't nearly as awful as
it would have been otherwise. And the Russians, because they
were fighting each other all the time, they're the ones
who did all the hard work and the suffered by
far more than anybody else.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll pick it up and finish this chapter.
On the next go round. I encourage everyone to go
to the show notes and go to the descriptions in
the videos. There. I have linked the articles and I
also have linked how you can support doctor Johnson's work.
Go ahead and do that. And also I have a
link to his new books to go buy that. That's
another way of supporting him. So yeah, that's it, doctor Johnson.
Glad you're feeling better, and you know, rest up and
see you on the next go run.
Speaker 2: Yes, my friend, thank you very much. I appreciate it.