Otto's Random Thoughts

Finally Blogger is Unblocked

2009-11-22T23:43:00.001-05:00

For the last eleven days Blogger has been blocked in all of Bishkek and I assume all of Kyrgyzstan. I do not know why. But, it is now available again.

Raspberry Flavoured M&Ms

2009-11-11T23:15:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I found raspberry flavoured M&Ms for sale at the lunch counter at work. I thought they were pretty good, but one of my students described them as the taste of "total perversion."

New Publication in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism

2009-11-11T01:36:00.002-05:00

My article, "Volk auf dem Weg: Transnational Migration of the Russian-Germans from 1763 to the Present Day," has now been published in Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism: Vol. 9, No. 2, 2009.

It is now Winter in Bishkek

2009-11-10T07:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday it snowed all day. I do not think we will be getting many more warm days here in Bishkek for the rest of the year. I also hope they turn the heat on soon. My flat is freezing.

I actually took two days off this weekend!

2009-11-09T06:28:00.000-05:00

I decided not to work on Sunday either. I am pretty sure that is the longest stretch of time I have gone without working since January. Instead I spent the weekend with my girlfriend and her son. He is now starting to recite parts of Green Eggs and Ham

Revolution Day

2009-11-06T03:56:00.000-05:00

Tommorrow is the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. That means that I get the day off. It of course falls on a Saturday this year. But, since I normally have to work on weekends, I am still counting it as a day off. After all the other two days I get off are Catholic and Orthodox Easter, both of which fall on a Sunday.

71 Years Since Stalin Murdered Yusup (Jusup) Abdrakhmanov

2009-11-05T02:19:00.004-05:00

Probably more than any other individual Abdrakhmanov is responsible for the creation of modern Kyrgyzstan. Although only 18 at the time he was instrumental in the creation of the Mountain Kara-Kyrgyz Oblast within the Turkestan ASSR in 1922. This territory, however, only included the northern regions of present day Kyrgyzstan. The status of the present day oblasts of Bakten, Osh, and Jalal-Abad still remained unresolved at this time. Two years later Abdrakhmanov played an important role in the formation of the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast within the RSFSR. This second territory provided defined borders and state structures for the Kyrgyz people for the first time in modern history. Abdrakhmanov became the second secretary of the Oblast Committee of the Communist Party of this newly formed state formation.

On 25 March 1925, the Kara-Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast became the Kyrgyz Autonomous Oblast and on 1 February 1926 it became the Kyrgyz ASSR. Abdrakhmanov at age 23 became the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissariarts of this newly upgraded territory. His responsibilities included questions of land, finance, education, labor and the workers and peasants inspectorate. In 1933, the Stalin regime removed Abdrakhmanov from his post after falsely accusing him of abusing his position and transferred him to work first in Samara and then Orenburg. In 1937 he was again falsely accused by the Stalin regime. This time of having been a member of Alash-Orda. He was arrested and transferred to Frunze (Bishkek) for trial. On 5 November 1938, the Stalin regime executed Abdrakhmanov for his alleged membership in this party. He was 34 years old. The Khrushchev administration later formally rehabilitated Abdrakhmanov in 1958.

Source:

O. Dzh. Osmonov, Istoriia Kyrgyzstana: Kratkii kurs (Bishkek: Ministry of Education and Culture of the Kyrgyz Republic, 2003), pp. 206-217.

AUCA-Manas Agreement?

2009-11-04T05:52:00.001-05:00

Today the front page of the student newspaper, New Star, has an article about what appears to be some sort of agreement between AUCA and the US military base at Manas. This is the first I was aware that there was any proposal for the university to openly cooperate with the US military. The article does not give much information and it has a lot of grammer and spelling errors, but I have reproduced it in its entirety below.

Sharing Common Interests

Students of American University visited the Manas Transit Center on October 17 with aim to start off the corroboration between two institutions. The visit was initiated by Tomas Joyes, the colonel order to raise awareness and understanding between representatives of American military and students of American University in Central Asia First meeting gave ideas for mutual collaboration. The military workers are planning to attend AUCA initiation ceremony and AUCA students in return will visit the Transit Center on Thanksgiving. The existing Manas Air base was renamed into Manas Transit Center in 2009, in order to clarify the function of the center in Kyrgyzstan. The main function of the Center is to operates transition of fuel, cargo and troops from USA to Afghanistan and backwards. Around 1800 military workers, both soldiers and technicians can go throw base to the country of their destination. The number of workers of the center made up from 1100 American military workers, of 200 European military workers and 700 Kyrgyz people who work on the center on different positions.

Ryskulova Nargiza

If anybody has any additional information regarding this "mutual collaboration" could you please let me know.

Registration for next semester

2009-11-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of registration for next semester's classes. So I spent much of the day signing my name over and over again. I will be teaching Politics of the Middle East, Democratization, and Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism.

Russian Government Backtracks on Full Rehabilitation of Stalin

2009-10-31T03:52:00.002-04:00

The Russian government has now publicly distanced itself from the full rehabilitation of Joseph Stalin. Medvedev recently strongly criticized the late Soviet dictator. See the BBC story in the URL below for more details.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8334009.stm

Picture of me and two students

2009-10-28T07:15:00.003-04:00

This is a picture from a while ago when everybody in the photograph was younger.

Late Geek Blogging: Watchmen

2009-10-27T08:30:00.003-04:00

I finally saw Watchmen. I know all the real geeks saw it when it came out in the summer, but I see no reason to rush these things. For the record I have never read the comic book on which the movie is based. But, I did like the movie. I especially liked Dr. Manhattan. Since he achieved victory in Vietnam I bet he could do the same in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course Dr. Manhattan does not actually exist so the US might need some other strategy. However, I see nothing remotely as promising as having a big, blue, naked, radioactive guy march upon the enemy and blow them to pieces.

Why am I at work on a Saturday?

2009-10-24T04:23:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I finished writing a journal article. Today I came into the office, but I have found myself completely unmotivated to do any actual work. Since it is Saturday and still fall break I am going to cease trying to get anything productive done today. Maybe I will have some motivation tomorrow. If not then work will have to wait until Monday like it does for everybody else.

Why is Rawls so boring?

2009-10-23T05:23:00.000-04:00

Recently I tried reading John Rawls, A Theory of Justice, but have been unable to get past the first fifty pages. It is so boring. The other night I read about ten pages and lost all consciousness. It was like I injested a handful of Benadryl. I do not understand why he is so highly regarded. The ideas in the first fifty pages could have been presented in one paragraph.

Truly Random Events in my Life

2009-10-22T09:15:00.000-04:00

Two of my Afghan students gave me a jar of fresh chili paste. It tastes like very good Mexican salsa. I have been eating it on Russian style rye bread for the last week.

Yesterday, I went to a kalian (hookah) lounge with some friends. If you are looking for good flavor combinations try watermelon and mint. Also quite good is melon with mint. In fact my new policy is mint in all my shisha blends.

I have spent most of fall break working. The afternoon I took off yesterday to go smoke minty fruits is the closest thing to a vacation I have gotten since January. I am hoping to be able to take some time off before I turn forty.

Link to my editorial on Suprun

2009-10-22T01:44:00.008-04:00

The link below will take you to an abridged German translation of an editorial I wrote on the historical context of the recent persecution of Mikhail Suprun and Aleksandr Dudarev. You can see by the use of brackets and elipses that they cut out quite a bit due to length. However, if you go to the sidebars on the right you can get the complete English language original and its German translation in PDF format.

http://www.ornis-press.de/zurueck-in-die-zeit-des-grossen-schweigens.1196.0.html

More on Russian-German Gulag victims

2009-10-19T01:07:00.006-04:00

Below is another memory book entry regarding ethnic Germans who perished in the Viatlag camps. Between 1938 and 1956 a total of 2,309 Germans, mostly Volga Germans, perished from hunger, disease and shootings in the Viatlag complex. Of this number only 540 were ever convicted by Soviet courts, the vast majority, 1,487 were special settlers and members of the labor army. Another 282 died while still under investigation before being convicted (Berdinskikh, p. 394). The single greatest year for mortality was 1942 with 1,185 deaths among ethnic Germans in Viatlag (Berdinskikh, p. 398). This year also saw 2,265 Russian-German deaths in Bogoslav, 302 in Tagillag and 925 in Usollag (Krieger, pp. 145-146). A recorded total of 11,874 Russian-Germans conscripted into the labor army died in NKVD camps during 1942 (German, table 4, p. 180). Some of these victims have been identified and their fate has been published in various memory books such as those for Viatlag. Mikhail Suprun and Aleksandr Dudarev were attempting to assemble a memory book for the ethnic Germans in the camps and special settlements of Arkhangelsk Oblast before the FSB confiscated their research. On 20 March 1949 there were 11,275 Russian-German special settlers in that region. Among this group were 809 Russian-Germans deported as kulaks during the early 1930s, 9,300 forcibly repatriated from Germany in 1945 and 1946 including 385 that had joined Andrei Vlaslov's Russian Liberation Army, 835 mobilized into the labor army, and 295 non-Germans sent into internal exile with German family members (Zemskov, pp. 127-128). Documenting the indivdual fate of these men and women is an important historical project which the Russian government currently seeks to make illegal.

Bezel

Albert Viktorovich

Born 1901 in city of Kamyshin (Pushkin Street, Building 20) Stalingrad/Volgorad oblast (Rossiia), German, citizen of USSR, white collar class background, education – 4 grades (Krasnokutsk gymnasium 1916), non-party, book keeper, white collar worker (chief book keeper city housing administration and reconstruction office), lived in city of Engles(?) Volga German ASSR, married, 1 child (son), convicted, sentenced in January 1941 by Supreme court of the Volga German ASSR under article 109 UK RSFSR (abuse of his official position, violating financial discipline) to 6 months forced labor with deduction of 25% of salary, sentence served in place of residence, served in RKKA (28 May – 10 October 1941, technical-quartermaster 2nd rank, active army, Western front, 320th artillery regiment), removed to reserves and exiled as a “person of German nationality”, place of settlement (from 17 November 1941) – Rossiia, Krasnoiarsk krai, city Minunsinsk, Lenin Street, building 160, labor army man, mobilized 25 January 1942 by Minunsinsk district military command, arrived in Viatlag 16 February 1942 from Krasnoiarsk, used for book keeping work in the financial section (12th lumber preparation detachment),confined under guard 16 July 1943 by chekist-operative section of Viatlag after being accused of “counterrevolutionary crimes” (“anti-soviet agitation”), sentenced 29 January 1944 by Special board of the NKVD USSR under article 58 point 10-2 UK RSFSR (“anti-soviet defeatist agitation”) to eight years of deprivation of freedom, started sentence 16 July 1943, was to finish sentence - 16 July 1951, died 25 March 1944 of tuberculosis of the lungs and alimentary dystrophy of the third degree, 12th camp point, station Ima (branch No. 15), rehabilitated 13 October 1989, archive personal file - No. 2515-m. (Reproduced in Berdinskikh, pp. 360-361.)

Sources:

V.I. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005).

A.A. German, "Mobilizovannye sovetskie nemtsy v lageriakh NKVD i na khoziaistvennykh ob'ektakh drugikh narkomatov v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny," in Stranitsy Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (k-60-letiu pobedy): Doklady Akademii Nauk, No. 3, 2008.

Viktor Krieger, “Einsatz im Zwangsarbeitslager,” in Alfred Eisfeld, ed., Von der Autonomiegrundung zur Verbannung und Entrechtung. Die Jahre 1918 und 1941 bis 1948 in der Geschichte der Deutschen in Russland (Stuttgart: Landsmannschaft der Deutschen aus Russland, 2008).

V.N. Zemskov, Spetsposelenty v SSSR, 1930-1960 (Moscow: Nauk, 2003).

Fall Break

2009-10-17T04:07:00.001-04:00

This next week is fall break. I am going to try and catch up on everything during this time since I do not have any classes to teach. This includes all those letters of recommendation I need to write for students.

Another Memory Book Entry

2009-10-17T04:01:00.003-04:00

Here is another memory book entry taken from the same source as the one in my previous post.

Gaan

Genrich (Gennadii) Davidovich

Born 1917 in village of Mannheim (Mannheim – Mainskoe) Gnadenfliur canton(Federovsk district/?/) Volga German ASSR – Saratov Oblast (Rossiia) German, citizen USSR (according to him a citizen of Germany), from poor peasant class, education middle specialist (Krasnokutsk agro-technical school, Volga German ASSR 1937), candidate member of VKP (b) [All Union Communist Party (Bolshevik)] since 1939, agronomist, white collar worker (participating agronomist in Gnadenfliur machine-tractor station Volga German ASSR 1937-1940), married, lived in place of birth, from August 1940 – in RKKA (Red Army soldier 518th rifle regiment 129th rifle division), from 18.07.41 – in German POW camp, from 20.07.1941 – in German army (translator for commander of 733rd artillery division), captured and placed in POW camp 02.02.1943 by section of the RKKA at the Stalingrad front, arrested 17.04.1943 by Dubonsk district department UNKVD [Administration of Peoples Commissariat of Internal Affairs] Stalingrad oblast, sentenced 30.07.1943 by the military tribunal of the Stalingrad garrison under article 58 point 1-b UK RSFSR (treason to the motherland by military personnel) to 10 years deprivation of freedom and five years deprivation of rights with confiscation of property, began sentence 20.04.1943, was to finish sentence on 20.04.1953, arrived in Viatlag 09.01.1944 from Stalingrad (Volgograd), employed as a lumberjack (5th and 8th camp points), classified on 31.07.1945 as 4th (“nonworking”) category of work suitability (a traumatic injury to the spleen) died 14.08.1945 from tuberculosis of the lungs ([technical medical terms I do not understand in English yet alone Russian]), 4th camp point (“sangorodok”) settlement Polevoi-2, grave No. O-12, archive personal file - No. 74759 (26 pages).

Source:

V.I. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 2, pp. 415-416.

Entry from a Memory Book

2009-10-17T01:26:00.006-04:00

Since The Guardian ran an article on Thursday about the Russian government's persecution of Suprun and Dudarev the story seems to have gone viral. Almost all the new links are based on the article in The Guardian so I am not going to link to them. Instead I am going to provide some examples of exactly what got Suprun in trouble with the Russian government. He was compiling a memory book of the ethnic German victims of the Gulag labor camps and special settlements in Arkhangelsk. Memory books have been published in Russia before. They are nothing more than collections of basic biographical data of Stalin's victims. Sometimes they merely reproduce the information contained in the personal files of the victims. The entry below on Filipp Martinovich Ganzen (Genzen) was first published in a memory book dealing with ethnic Germans in Viatlag, Martirologa "Nemtsy v Viatlage", compiled by V. I. Verem’ev. It was later reproduced in V.I. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 1, pp. 412-413. The translation below is my own and I have attempted to stay as close as possible to the literal rendering of Soviet jargon and euphemisms as possible. For instance alimentary dystrophy is a fancy way of saying starvation. The swelling form of alimentary dystrophy is the familiar image people my age have of children starving to death in Ethiopia during the 1980s as a result of that country's communist government emulating Stalin's agricultural policies.

Ganzen (Genzen)

Filipp Martinovich

Born in 1904 in the village of Mariental/Sovetskoe Mariental canton/Sovetskogo district Volga German ASSR/Saratov oblast (Rossiia), German, citizen of the USSR, from working (artisan-peasant/?/) class, education – four grades (1912-1916), non-party, fireman (chief of fire fighters), married, 3 children (two daughters and a son), lived in place of birth, exiled in September 1941 as “a person of German nationality”, place of exile – village of Uralka (?) Ordynsk village soviet Tiukhtetsk district Krasnoiarsk krai (Rossiia), labor army man, mobilized 23. 01. 1942 by Tiukhtetsk district military command, arrived in Viatlag 16. 02. 1942 from Krasnoiarsk, employed in fire fighting and general work (9th lumber preparation detachment), sentenced 28.01.1944 by permanent session of the legal board for criminal affairs of the Kirov oblast court in Viatlag under article 59 point 6 UK [criminal code] of the RSFSR [Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic] (failure to carry out labor duties) to 6 years deprivation of freedom and three years deprivation of rights, sentence started - 28.01.1944, was to finish sentence on 28.01.1950, on the determination of the legal board for criminal affairs of the Supreme court of the RSFSR of 23.03.1944 the sentence was annulled, the case was declared closed, he was freed from punishment on 24.04.1944, transferred to category of “labor mobilized”(in “work columns”), declared an invalid on 10.01.1944 (swelling form of alimentary dystrophy), died 01.07.1944 from alimentary dystrophy of the 3rd degree (swelling form) with diarrhea, 1st camp point, settlement Rudnichnyi, grave No. G-50, archive personal file – No 1180-m/77452.

(Card of special registration of Viatskogo ULIU. Archive)

Source:

V.I. Berdinskikh, Spetsposelentsy: Politicheskaia ssylka narodov sovetskoi Rossii (Moscow: Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie, 2005), doc. 1 pp. 412-413.

Restaurants

2009-10-16T07:22:00.003-04:00

The Chinese restaurant behind the university has closed. So recently I have been eating at an Azerbaijani kebab place not far from work. It is very good, but the menu is quite limited. In fact every time I have been there I have had the kofte kebab and shish kebab combination. It is probably the best place in town for grilled meat. I just can not eat kebabs everyday the way I can Chinese food.

Chon Bash for Two Days

2009-10-16T06:23:00.003-04:00

The rest of the full time faulty in the ICP department were away today and yesterday so I got to be Chon Bash (Kyrgyz for Big Head). Fortunately, nothing beyond the means of my meagre administrative skills popped up. The most difficult decision I had to deal with was where to eat lunch.

Another Good Sign: Berlin Takes Action Regarding Suprun

2009-10-14T07:06:00.006-04:00

The German government has now officially complained to Russian President Medvedev about the political persecution of Suprun and Dudarev. The Russian government is seeking to imprison Suprun for up to four years for his research and writing on Stalin's repression of ethnic Germans in the USSR during the 1940s. The article below from The Moscow Times has more information on the case and the recent actions by the German government.

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/news/article/387359.html

A Small Important Victory in Reclaiming History

2009-10-14T05:30:00.003-04:00

The attempt by the grandson of Joseph Stalin to sue Novaya Gazeta for libel after they correctly characterized the late Soviet dictator as a "bloodthirsty cannibal" has failed. This is a very important victory for human rights activists and others seeking to prevent Russia and other post-Soviet states from sliding back into absolute dictatorships. The New York Times has a good article on the trial with lots of great links at the url below.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/13/stalins-grandson-loses-defamation-suit/?hp