On 25/1/05 8:24 AM, "Ken Wolman" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Because people like me never heard of Kolyma until just now, and thank
> you for bringing the name forward. My entire awareness of the gulags
> was that people who didn't get shot under Stalin's rule were
> "disappeared" into the wilds of Siberia, never or almost never to
> return. I had no name to put on the place or region.
> Saying what I just said doesn't answer your question about why Auschwitz
> and not Kolyma. I am not sure an answer is possible and I'm flailing
> around. Maybe the victims need to tell the story: that is absurd but
> it's all I can think of. Jews needless to say have talked and written
> at length about the death camps: "Never again" was not simply the motto
> of that _vilde chaye_ Meier Kahane.
Hi Ken - actually, a lot of Jews died in the gulags, too, though they
weren't targeted specifically. Nor were they death camps like Auschwitz,
but more like Nazi forced labour camps; although in some cases, because
people were dumped in inhospitable places with no shelter or food, or worked
to death smashing rocks &c, the death rates were such that they might as
well have been. The scale of the network of gulags (and their
extraordinarily chaotic disorganisation, which seems to have killed more
people than anything else) is staggering.
I guess reading Russian poets of the time sensitises you to the existence of
the terror. The terrible histories of Mandelstam, Akhmatova and Tsetaeyeva
- you wonder how anyone survived. Well, many didn't.
The first I read of Kolyma was in Kapuschinski's extraordinary book
Imperium, a kind of travel book about the outer edges of the Soviet empire
as if was collapsing. He visited Kolyma, and gives an unforgettable,
haunting description of it. (Btw, a book that for this and many other
reasons, I heartily recommend to anyone). Anne Appelbaum has written a
recent history called Gulag, which is a compelling if brick size read. (A
review here)
http://www.newpartisan.com/home/2004/04/21/a-brief-history-of-the-gulag.html
Btw, I should say I was wrong about the gulags killing more people than the
Nazis: people don't really know how many people died, but one estimate is
that 18 million people passed through the gulag system, and 4.5 million
never returned.
As for why people don't know about it: that's a very complicated question.
But one clue might be in how Orwell was accused of abandoning socialistic
ideals in part because of his criticisms of Stalin's atrocities. Criticising
Soviet communism was at one time considered to be siding with the right
wing. Another factor was that it was hard to get information out of Soviet
Russia, but a lot is coming out after Perestroika and the release of KGB
records, &c.
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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