I’m trying to get systematic, pulling together my Amazon reviews on evolution and the sexes in order to expand on my recent video.
One of the categories I used is Ukraine and Russia. I have reviewed a lot of books on Russian history and the relationship between the countries. Although that’s not what I’m pursuing at the moment, you may find these reviews interesting.
It is gratifying, going over them, to find that Amazon presents a significant number of them as top reviews. Amazon’s politics and mine are not totally aligned. I conclude that they can see that I tried to do an honest job. The review of “The Crucifixion of Russia,” Columbus Falco’s translation of Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s “200 Years Together” has been deleted – Amazon refuses to carry it. My English review of the Russian original is still in the list.
This is an opportunity to put in a plug for Ron Unz’ bookstore of books banned by Amazon. F. Roger Devlin’s Sexual Utopia in Power, which I will soon be referencing, is available there. Anyhow, here are reviews that pertain to Ukraine, Russia and the war. I trust that the sheer number of them will convince you that I don’t select them to forward an agenda. I read everything I can find.
Ukraine, a History, Orest Subtelny, 2009
Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, Timothy Snyder, 2010
How Russia Really Works: The Informal Practices That Shaped Post-Soviet Politics and Business, Alena V. Ledeneva, 2011
Reinventing Collapse: The Soviet Experience and American Prospects, Dmitry Orlov, 2012
Hammer And Tickle: A History Of Communism Told Through Communist Jokes, Ben Lewis, 2012
Abuse of Power: Corruption in the office of the president, J V Koshiw, 2014
Stalin: The Kremlin Mountaineer (Icons), Paul Johnson, 2014
Ukraine Diaries: Dispatches From Kiev, Andrey Kurkov, 2014
Restraint: A New Foundation for U.S. Grand Strategy (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs), Barry R. Posen, 2014
Russia and the New World Disorder, Bobo Lo, 2015
Letters from Russia, Marquis de Custine, 2016
The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine, Serhii Plokhy, 2016
Putin's War Against Ukraine: Revolution, Nationalism, and Crime, Taras Kuzio, 2017
Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, Anne Applebaum, 2017
Two Hundred Years Together, Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Putin's Wars: The Rise of Russia's New Imperialism, Marcel H. Van Herpen, 2019
War with Russia?: From Putin & Ukraine to Trump & Russiagate, Stephen F. Cohen, 2019
Escapes: A True Story, Darian Darachok, 2020
Flight МН17, Ukraine and the new Cold War: Prism of disaster (Geopolitical Economy), Kees van der Pijl, 2022
The Crucifixion of Russia, Columbus Falco, 2017
The Fourth Political Theory, Alexander Dugin, 2014
Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice, Bill Browder, 2015
People who have known me for decades and certainly know better have written me privately in response to my recent blog “Touching on a Touchy Subject” to once again, ad infinitum, call me an anti-Semite and a racist. Their attitude appears similar to that of their ancestors, who assumed that the schwartzers had no feelings and they could say whatever they wanted in their presence because they would be oblivious.
Though I am known to speak my mind, as I do here, I have never applied slurs such as yours to any racial or ethnic group. I am not doing so now, though some of you are certainly aware of why you were chosen for this rebuke.
I do have feelings. Rather, a feeling. Of disgust at your lack of manners. And a request. Please do not send such messages to my email. Instead, post your opinions as comments on this blog, so the whole world can see how boorishly you behave. And gain an insight into how an animus against you might arise. Please, stick to substantive responses to what I post, not just ad hominem put-downs.
Covid is the subject that just won’t go away. Last week two of the bloggers who are forever being cancelled, never being answered, posted wide-ranging summaries of analyses of vaccine outcomes.
Metatron’s is entitled The Fake Pandemic - Global COVID-19 Pandemic Outcomes: Dissecting a Failed Strategy. Pandemic of wealthy nations. It is an analysis of the outcomes in 108 countries around the world.
Steve Kirsch’s is entitled Most vs. least vaccinated states: Can you guess which did better when COVID broke out? It is not as far-reaching as Metatron’s. After all, there are only 50 states and 320 million people. But you get the point.
That’s the news from Lake WeBeGone, where the good-looking woman pulled together a marvelous dinner party last night. BBQ as usual – Eddie and I handled that. Oksana outdid herself with the dessert, and our guests brought three delicious salads, among other things. The kids played well together. I’m sure she will be inspired to do it again before long.
I haven't read any of the books that you reviewed, except Bloodlands and half of Applebaum's Red Famine, though I have read extensively on the history of Russia and Ukraine. I started to read Red Famine but two things stopped me. First, having read Bloodlands, I knew everything in her book about the Holodomor and second it was too horrible to read again. I've read a lot of biographies and other more in depth works which have given me a wide perspective of the history of the two countries. I also visited dozens of museums in Russia, including the museums and churches in the Kremlin. I visited house museums and battlefields and more.
Russia is an insane asylum of sorts. One day, I was in the house museum of Dostoyevsky, when all the old babushas got very upset. It seems outside on the sidewalk, a car had deliberately driven up onto the sidewalk and killed a half dozen people. When we went outside, they had covered the bodies with blood stained tarps. That same day, I bought a watermelon from a nice Azeri man who the next day was kicked to death by Russian skinheads who helped the police in their inquiries by videoing the entire incident. Two days later, I came out of my flat early in the morning and found a bum dead on the sidewalk, frozen to death. A few days later, I was going to the location of Pushkin's duel when we walked by a lifeless woman dead on the train platform. Everybody walked past the body without looking. On the same trip, I was taken to a huge cemetery on one of the islands in St. Petersburg where there were dozens of head stones for the young. My guide told me that there was an epidemic of drug abuse deaths in the city, lots of headstones with the portraits of teens killed that summer.
I met lots of Russians, One girl told me the story of her sister, who had married a guy in the mafia. They had gone to a birthday party, and when they left the party, the sister, her husband, and their 4 year old daughter, the car blew up and killed them, a car bomb triggered on a quiet street. I had lunch with one girl in a cafe. It turns out that we were not alone. There was a table with three guys, plus one guy watching one door and another guy watching the other door. There was a gangland war going on at the time.
One of my Russian friends got beaten up in the entrance to his building. He had come in late when it was dark and the guy was waiting for him. The husband of one of the girls who he was seeing on the side. It was a wild and crazy time, but I suppose pretty normal for Russia. One of my friends told me that there was something seriously wrong with Russia, something mentally wrong, because there was so much killing. I had been going to Russia since 1992 regularly visiting friends, seeing new places, and then Putin was elected President, and I decided to move to Kyiv, much saner place.