russia-insider--2020-03-11--Tokyo 1945: 100K Women, Children and Men Too Old to Fight Were Burned Alive in 6 Hours on March 10th

“ Can you imagine standing in front of an open bomb-bay door and smelling a city burn up ?
It was terrifying .
At low altitude like that , I didn ’ t wear an oxygen mask .
All I can say is that the smell was nauseating .
I ’ ve never smelled anything like it since , and I don ’ t want to ” Just past midnight , hundreds of B-29 Superfortress bombers arrived over Tokyo , having launched from the Mariana Islands , which the United States had recently captured from the Imperial Japanese Army at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ largely been stripped of their armaments so that they could carry even more clusters of small incendiary munitions .
Young American officers in the sky dropped hundreds of thousands of bomblets on the working-class section of the city , with its densely packed wooden dwellings mainly inhabited at the time by women , children and men too old to fight .
Before that March 10 , 1945 , assault , named Operation Meetinghouse , the Army Air Forces had been conducting high-altitude , high-explosive “ precision ” attacks during the day on military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ limited success .
So Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay , the officer in charge of strategic bombing from the Marianas , drew upon years of U.S. military research on the flammability of Japanese buildings to usher in a more aggressive tactic : dropping firebombs ( also known as incendiary bombs ) at night on population centers .
If they couldn ’ t take out the factories , they could kill the people who worked in them .
Over several hours , U.S. Army Air Forces warplanes destroyed the shitamachi , or the low @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an estimated 100,000 Japanese citizens in a firestorm .
The United States Strategic Bombing Survey later wrote that “ probably more persons lost their lives by fire at Tokyo in a six-hour period than at any time in the history of man.
” The devastating results motivated military leaders to continue incendiary bombing raids on Japan ’ s other cities — both large and small — in hopes of forcing the Japanese to surrender .
Before the war ’ s end , firebombs dropped by B-29s killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bombs leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki .
“ We hated what we were doing , ” said Jim Marich , one of the airmen who flew over Tokyo that night as part of the B-29 aircrews .
“ But we thought we had to do it .
We thought that raid might cause the Japanese to surrender.
” Marich ’ s somber account of his role in the missions is a grim reminder of the indelible scars left on both the survivors of the attack and those who conducted it .
In interviews with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and three other airmen who took part in the firebombings reflected on their determination to accomplish their missions and get home as soon as possible , while grappling with the particular horror they witnessed being inflicted on those below .
On Saipan , I was in Quonset hut barracks with another crew .
And that crew was chosen as the lead crew on the first firebomb mission .
The crew members were brought in and asked if they objected to firebombing the cities of Japan .
A number of people raised their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ Well , that ’ s your opinion , but the orders are you ’ re going to go on the mission.
” I guess they could have declined , but I don ’ t know if any did .
This was the first information people had that we were going to be bombing the cities .
I was a navigator .
At the time , you just didn ’ t think about those things .
We had a job to do and we did it .
We were burning houses , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the people .
I didn ’ t reflect on the war until much later .
You start to think about how awful the war was .
Afterward , I decided to go to medical school and do something positive for a change .
Our group , the 497th , was the last one to go in .
It started out like a regular mission .
We had changed from fragmentary bombs to the incendiaries at Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay ’ s request — or demand .
He brought us down from high-altitude bombing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
We wiped out that whole area on that one night .
It was terrifying , really .
You could smell , I ’ m sorry to say , burning flesh in the airplane .
And we were really tossed around from the updrafts .
We safely went on with the mission and went on with lesser-known missions .
But by then , the Japanese fighter response was practically nil .
And we knew that the war was going to be over pretty doggone soon .
I was home in October of that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I had not even achieved my 20th birthday .
I was a gunner , looking out the right blister window , right behind the wing .
All I wanted to do was go home .
The Japanese laid out their cities like a big checkerboard , and so we had pathfinder crews that went in first and then the other bombers came in after .
Since we were behind other planes , we ran into smoke clouds that could send you up 20,000 feet with the snap of a finger .
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that collided and went down in a smoke cloud .
My job was to stand by the open bomb-bay doors and throw chaff out — these long strips of aluminum foil to confuse Japanese radar .
Can you imagine standing in front of an open bomb-bay door and smelling a city burn up ?
It was terrifying .
At low altitude like that , I didn ’ t wear an oxygen mask .
All I can say is that the smell was nauseating .
I ’ ve never smelled anything like it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ want to .
The original idea of the Geneva Convention is that civilian targets were out , and it was military targets that should be used .
In Europe , you had the Russians and the Germans — especially the Nazis — bombing civilians .
When we did the firebombings , we were killing civilians .
I made one firebomb mission with my second crew on March 24 .
We went in at about 6,800 feet .
There were something like 400 planes up that night .
We were about 200 in .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , about 100 miles away .
I ’ ve always felt bad about that .
I thought , Where will the people go ?
If everything around you is burning , what do you do ?
They burned up an awful lot of Nagoya that night .
I don ’ t remember how many square miles .
If I remember correctly , when they announced what was going to happen , there were a few pilots who refused to fly because of humanitarian reasons .
But eventually there was enough pressure put on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I still wouldn ’ t approve of it today .
Of course , the rules of war are pretty vague , but one of the things is that you don ’ t attack civilians .
But they justified it by saying people were manufacturing things for the war effort in their homes .
I often questioned how much they could really be doing .
But one thing people agree on is that the fire raids were probably worse than the atomic bomb .

“Can you imagine standing in front of an open bomb-bay door and smelling a city burn up? It was terrifying. At low altitude like that, I didn’t wear an oxygen mask. All I can say is that the smell was nauseating. I’ve never smelled anything like it since, and I don’t want to”
Just past midnight, hundreds of B-29 Superfortress bombers arrived over Tokyo, having launched from the Mariana Islands, which the United States had recently captured from the Imperial Japanese Army at great human cost. The aircraft had largely been stripped of their armaments so that they could carry even more clusters of small incendiary munitions. Young American officers in the sky dropped hundreds of thousands of bomblets on the working-class section of the city, with its densely packed wooden dwellings mainly inhabited at the time by women, children and men too old to fight.
Before that March 10, 1945, assault, named Operation Meetinghouse, the Army Air Forces had been conducting high-altitude, high-explosive “precision” attacks during the day on military sites and factories in Japan, with limited success. So Maj. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the officer in charge of strategic bombing from the Marianas, drew upon years of U.S. military research on the flammability of Japanese buildings to usher in a more aggressive tactic: dropping firebombs (also known as incendiary bombs) at night on population centers. If they couldn’t take out the factories, they could kill the people who worked in them.
Curtis LeMay receiving the after-action report for the March 10th Tokyo raid
Over several hours, U.S. Army Air Forces warplanes destroyed the shitamachi, or the low -lying section of Tokyo, and killed an estimated 100,000 Japanese citizens in a firestorm. The United States Strategic Bombing Survey later wrote that “probably more persons lost their lives by fire at Tokyo in a six-hour period than at any time in the history of man.” The devastating results motivated military leaders to continue incendiary bombing raids on Japan’s other cities — both large and small — in hopes of forcing the Japanese to surrender. Before the war’s end, firebombs dropped by B-29s killed hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens in more than 60 cities before nuclear bombs leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“We hated what we were doing,” said Jim Marich, one of the airmen who flew over Tokyo that night as part of the B-29 aircrews. “But we thought we had to do it. We thought that raid might cause the Japanese to surrender.” Marich’s somber account of his role in the missions is a grim reminder of the indelible scars left on both the survivors of the attack and those who conducted it.
In interviews with The Times, Marich, now 94, and three other airmen who took part in the firebombings reflected on their determination to accomplish their missions and get home as soon as possible, while grappling with the particular horror they witnessed being inflicted on those below.
First Lt. Richard Gross
Richard Gross, 95
Mercer Island, Wash.
First Lieutenant, 874th Bomb Squadron, 498th Bomb Group
On Saipan, I was in Quonset hut barracks with another crew. And that crew was chosen as the lead crew on the first firebomb mission. The crew members were brought in and asked if they objected to firebombing the cities of Japan. A number of people raised their hands. But the order came down: “Well, that’s your opinion, but the orders are you’re going to go on the mission.” I guess they could have declined, but I don’t know if any did. This was the first information people had that we were going to be bombing the cities.
Lt. Richard Gross served as a B-29 navigator on 35 missions over Japan in 1945
I was a navigator. At the time, you just didn’t think about those things. We had a job to do and we did it. We were burning houses, but we didn’t think about the people. I didn’t reflect on the war until much later. You start to think about how awful the war was. Afterward, I decided to go to medical school and do something positive for a change.
Jim Marich, 94
Mercer Island, Wash.
Second Lieutenant, 869th Bomb Squadron, 497th Bomb Group
Our group, the 497th, was the last one to go in. It started out like a regular mission. We had changed from fragmentary bombs to the incendiaries at Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay’s request — or demand. He brought us down from high-altitude bombing with fragmentary bombs to low-level with incendiaries. We wiped out that whole area on that one night. It was terrifying, really.
You could smell, I’m sorry to say, burning flesh in the airplane. And we were really tossed around from the updrafts. We safely went on with the mission and went on with lesser-known missions. But by then, the Japanese fighter response was practically nil. And we knew that the war was going to be over pretty doggone soon. I was home in October of that year in my own little bed, and I had not even achieved my 20th birthday.
Ed Lawson, 96
Fredonia, N.Y
Technical Sergeant, 882nd Bomb Squadron, 500th Bomb Group
I was a gunner, looking out the right blister window, right behind the wing. All I wanted to do was go home. The Japanese laid out their cities like a big checkerboard, and so we had pathfinder crews that went in first and then the other bombers came in after. Since we were behind other planes, we ran into smoke clouds that could send you up 20,000 feet with the snap of a finger. There were at least two B-29s I knew of that collided and went down in a smoke cloud.
My job was to stand by the open bomb-bay doors and throw chaff out — these long strips of aluminum foil to confuse Japanese radar. Can you imagine standing in front of an open bomb-bay door and smelling a city burn up? It was terrifying. At low altitude like that, I didn’t wear an oxygen mask. All I can say is that the smell was nauseating. I’ve never smelled anything like it since, and I don’t want to.
The original idea of the Geneva Convention is that civilian targets were out, and it was military targets that should be used. In Europe, you had the Russians and the Germans — especially the Nazis — bombing civilians. When we did the firebombings, we were killing civilians.
Clint Osborne, 96
Golden Eagle, Ill.
Technical Sergeant, 873rd Bomb Squadron, 498th Bomb Group
I made one firebomb mission with my second crew on March 24. We went in at about 6,800 feet. There were something like 400 planes up that night. We were about 200 in. You could see flames, they estimated, about 100 miles away. I’ve always felt bad about that. I thought, Where will the people go? If everything around you is burning, what do you do? They burned up an awful lot of Nagoya that night. I don’t remember how many square miles.
If I remember correctly, when they announced what was going to happen, there were a few pilots who refused to fly because of humanitarian reasons. But eventually there was enough pressure put on them that they changed their mind.
Clint Osborne in March 1943
I still wouldn’t approve of it today. Of course, the rules of war are pretty vague, but one of the things is that you don’t attack civilians. But they justified it by saying people were manufacturing things for the war effort in their homes. I often questioned how much they could really be doing. But one thing people agree on is that the fire raids were probably worse than the atomic bomb.


russia-insider--2020-03-11--Leather-Jacketed, Coke-Snorting Jews in the Soviet Secret Police, Torturing, Raping and Killing Gent

Leather-Jacketed, Coke-Snorting Jews in the Soviet Secret Police, Torturing, Raping and Killing Gentiles: The Evidence

In “ Ted Gold and the Jews of Weatherman ” ( September 2017 in TOO ) , I wrote , in describing a envisioned takeover of the United States by the Jewish radical group Weatherman , “ Cue the return of leather-jacketed coke-snorting Jewish secret police rounding up the gentiles for rape , torture and murder in dank abattoirs .
It happened , look it up.
” This somewhat jarring historical reference left one commenter , “ Jim , ” nonplussed .
He wrote , whether ironically or seriously ( but amusingly ) , “ Where can I find info @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Somewhat belatedly , I thought I would review some of the evidence for the separate elements of my statement : leather jackets , cocaine , and torture , rape and murder in “ dank abattoirs.
” And , of course , Jewish Cheka agents .
When the Bolsheviks seized the power that was so famously “ lying in the streets ” in early November 1917 , they didn ’ t disguise the fact that they meant to rule by force and terror .
Within weeks they established the coercive arm of their permanent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage , ” Ve-Cheka for short or Cheka for shorter .
Lenin placed the fanatical Pole Felix Dzerzhinsky in charge of it , and he in turn recruited a cohort of Latvians , Jews , and renegade Russians to help him devastate the Russian nation .
The Cheka almost immediately launched into one of the most horrifying orgies of mass murder ever recorded , and men of Jewish blood , who like other Jewish leftists , retained their Jewish identity , played a very prominent role in it .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the first twenty years of its history , vastly over-represented in the ranks of the Cheka in proportion to their numbers in the population of the Soviet Union .
A few citations will suffice .
The historian Richard Pipes quotes a member of the early Kiev Cheka to the effect that three-quarters of its personnel were Jewish .
[ 1 ] Another source shows that 37 of the top 96 NKVD ( later nomenclature for the Cheka ) officials in 1934 were Jews , an astounding number considering they made up only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2 ] The Jews actually outnumbered ethnic Russians in these top positions all the way up to early 1937 , when Stalin began purging them .
The Soviet-born Israeli journalist Sever Plocker writes , “ Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity ” —at a time , incidentally , when celebrating the Bolshevik Revolution was entirely mainstream in the Jewish diaspora community in the West .
At the same time , Jews were underrepresented in the population of the Gulag @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 3 ] Within months of the institution of the Cheka , provincial Chekas were sprouting up throughout the territory controlled by the beleaguered Bolshevik dictatorship .
Because the central Cheka was essentially an extra-legal body , and had for some time little bureaucratic control over the provincial Chekas , the latter often amounted to little more than local strong-arm groups , composed of criminals and Jews , whose motives were plunder and revenge .
Central authorities did eventually succeed in bringing their Cheka franchises under discipline , but the murder , torture , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being central direction and a better paper trail .
The prestige and élan that surrounded the early Cheka and its personnel is strange to evoke at this point in time , but it was significant , at least among some circles .
The organization had no problem recruiting .
They affected a hard-edged style that featured leather jackets or trench coats .
Yakov Sverdlov , an important early Jewish Bolshevik commissar—Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and thus de jure head of state—apparently spread the vogue for leather jackets and even leather trousers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , to the right of Lenin : The Jewish functionary and terrorist Rozalia Zemliachka , best known for butchering 50,000 people in the Crimea after the Civil War , was also well-known for her fondness for leather jackets and a hardline persona : “ In her forties when the Civil War began , Zemliachka dressed in the stereotypical garb of a Bolshevik commissar and killed with a vengeance.
” [ 5 ] Another source relates that Dzerzhinsky commandeered a shipment of leather coats meant for air force pilots , and outfitted his men @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the early days , every self-respecting Bolshevik commissar and Cheka officer sported leather jackets .
The Jews who flocked into the ranks of the secret police were burning for revenge on their Christian neighbors , and nobody nurses a grievance quite like the Jews—the pogroms , despite their exaggeration by Jewish activists at the time and since , were certainly a component of Jewish hatred toward the Russian Empire .
A variety of sources confirm a sense of revenge as a motive .
Yuri Slezkine reviews some of the works of early Soviet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
For example , the amorous advances of the Jewish protagonist of Eduard Bagritsky ’ s poem “ February ” are rebuffed by a Russian girl , but their positions are changed after the Revolution when he becomes a deputy commissar .
Seeing the girl in a brothel , he has sex with her without taking off his boots , his gun , or his trench coat—an act of aggression and revenge : Igor Shafarevich , a mathematician and member of the prestigious U. S. National Academy of Sciences reviewed Jewish literary works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ finding a prominent theme of Jewish hatred mixed with a powerful desire for revenge toward pre-revolutionary Russia and its culture .
But Shafarevich also suggests that the Jewish “ Russophobia ” that prompted the mass murder is not a unique phenomenon , but results from traditional Jewish hostility toward the non-Jewish world , considered tref ( unclean ) , and toward non-Jews themselves , considered sub-human and as worthy of destruction—a very reasonable interpretation given traditional Jewish ethics in which non-Jews have no moral standing .
People with such beliefs have no moral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and murder of their perceived enemies .
Hatred toward the peoples and cultures of non-Jews and the image of enslaved ancestors as victims of anti-Semitism have been the Jewish norm throughout history—much commented on , from Tacitus to the present .
Finally , the Jewish hatred and desire for revenge was not confined to the USSR .
Jewish members of the internal security force in post-World War Poland often appear to have been motivated by personal rage and a desire for revenge related to their Jewish identity : “ A ‘ Continuous Spree @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Torture and Murder The Cheka official quoted by Pipes above said the early days in Kiev ( 1918–1919 ) amounted to a “ continuous spree ” of rape and robbery , though they were “ careful to spare fellow Jews.
” [ 7 ] For some reason , Pipes left out mention of horrific torture and murder , but I ’ ll fill in those details .
[ 8 ] A major element of revenge has always been humiliation of the target group and rape of its women , and the Red Terror @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of vengeance , for the truly dedicated , is torture and murder : the infliction of terrible suffering directly on the object of hatred , flaunting one ’ s dominance , then the total destruction of the victim .
The frenzied nature of the excesses of the Red Terror resulted from a combination of factors , including an atmosphere of brutalization brought on by revolution and civil war and a perverse ideology , but an ethnic factor was also clearly present .
A recent historian of Stalin ’ s executioners affirms the Jews @ @ @ @ @ @ @ century ’ s pogroms.
” [ 9 ] Another states that “ the “ ranks of the Cheka were filled with social elements anxious for revenge.
” [ 10 ] A historian of the Russian Civil War states , “ Always anxious to use national and racial hatreds to advantage , Dzerzhinskii placed Jews in seven of the Cheka ’ s top ten positions .
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.
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The victims of centuries of anti-Semitic abuse , the Jews of the Ukraine now had a chance to take revenge.
” [ 11 ] The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their action , assaulted women on a mass scale .
There is plenty of evidence for this .
“ Convicted criminals and certified psychopaths appointed themselves officers of the Cheka and terrorized , raped , and murdered whom they liked.
” [ 12 ] “ Rapes of female prisoners by Cheka guards and interrogators were so commonplace that they occasioned comment from superiors only if performed in some particularly brutal or perverted fashion.
” [ 13 ] Rape of Russian women by Cheka men “ took on gigantic proportions , particularly in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regions of the Crimea in 1920.
” [ 14 ] Sergey Melgounov wrote the classic account of early Bolshevik rule , The Red Terror .
On page 136 he describes Cheka “ food detachments ” that plundered the food in the countryside to feed the cities , the base of Bolshevik power : “ Whenever an expedition that was collecting the grain tax in the Khvalinsky district reached a village the peasants were commanded to surrender their best-looking girls to the officials.
” [ 15 ] A story from Ekaterinodar in the Caucasus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ a witness testified before the Denikin Commission [ an investigative body set up by the White Armies ] that licentious orgies had been carried out systematically by the Che-Ka and tribunal of Nikolaev , and included even women who had come to beg for relatives ’ release , with that inclusion as the price of their relatives ’ freedom.
” [ 17 ] Some local Chekas were so atrocious that even Bolsheviks were outraged .
One—a Serafina Gopner—complained to Lenin about the Cheka in Ekaterinoslav in Ukraine : Virtually all of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a great many of the rapists were revenge-minded Jews .
I imagine that Jews , with their strong sense of respect for their martyred ancestors , would wish us , too , to “ never forget ” these victims .
As for cocaine , it was used very widely in the decades before and after 1900 .
The coca plant grows only in South America , but its properties became known in Europe by the early 1800s .
The chemical was isolated from the leaf by a German chemist in 1860 , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anesthetic quickly spread .
An early booster of the drug was Sigmund Freud , who wrote a glowing report of its effects and pushed it on his friends and patients .
( His addiction lasted twelve years . )
By the 1880s , pharmaceutical companies were producing hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly , and Parke-Davis in the U.S. was actually marketing a little kit with cocaine and a syringe and needle for convenient use , although it could also be snorted as a powder .
The drug was one ingredient of early @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when there began a reaction against it because of its addictive and harmful properties .
There were an estimated 200,000 addicts in the U.S. at the turn of the century .
In addition , Americans became alarmed at the prospect of Blacks committing violent crimes under its influence .
One authority maintained that “ most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain.
” In 1914 the government placed it under federal control , which did not , of course , eradicate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ available in Russia .
The following passages show that Cheka men used it commonly , even maniacally .
Some of them claimed that the constant bloodshed and strain necessitated a resort to drugs , but it probably fueled some of the atrocities as well .
Whatever the case may be , it was clear that many Cheka men were out of their minds with drugs and sadism .
The combination led to mental breakdowns among Cheka agents .
A number of them were committed to psychiatric wards .
[ 19 ] From a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ The Cheka are looting and arresting everyone indiscriminately .
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.
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They have transformed the Cheka headquarters into a huge brothel where they take all the bourgeois women .
Drunkenness is rife .
Cocaine is being used quite widely among the supervisors.
” [ 20 ] The White Armies freed Kiev from Cheka rule for a brief period in 1919 .
One of the resulting reports stated , “ In almost every cupboard and , for that matter , in almost every drawer , we found empty cocaine bottles in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ placed their men in all Red Army units .
Here is a report from a supervisor on certain of these units : “ No administrative norm is being respected by these people .
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.
.
Orgies and drunkenness are daily occurrences .
Almost all the personnel of the Cheka are heavy cocaine users .
They say that this helps them deal with the sight of so much blood on a daily basis.
” The man who composed this report , Rozental , concluded that although these units needed tighter control and were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” they nevertheless “ are doing their duty.
” [ 22 ] Well , that ’ s a relief .
Maks Deich , a Jew , was the head of the Odessa Cheka in 1920–1922 .
There “ he earned [ a ] reputation for extreme cruelty , and suffered a neurosis and addiction to cocaine.
” [ 23 ] What harrowing atrocities could have earned him notoriety for “ extreme cruelty ” in this milieu ?
A Cheka officer in Georgia named Schulmann , very likely a Jew , also earned notice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
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especially at the hands of a certain Schulmann , who was addicted to morphine and cocaine.
” [ 24 ] As for “ dank abattoirs , ” here is what the White Armies found in Kiev in late August 1919 , after they drove out the Bolsheviks : This happened in Kiev , where , you remember , three-quarters of the Cheka staff were Jews .
The Cheka rampage continued for decades .
The Terror would reach crescendos , such as “ The Great Terror ” of 1937–1938 , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death of Stalin in 1953 .
Robert Conquest , speaking of early 1937 , used this chilling description : “ Russians who had thought that the country was already in the grip of terrorists were now to see what terror really meant.
” [ 26 ] When I first read that sentence twenty-five years ago , I had a palpable sensation of horror , and profound sadness for the Russian people .
The German invasion of Russia in June 1941 lifted the curtain on later Bolshevik atrocities .
[ 27 ] Nearly a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quenched the Bolshevik/Jewish bloodthirst .
The retreating Bolsheviks massacred their prisoners in the frontier prisons rather than transport them to the east , and the incoming Germans carefully preserved the evidence .
They didn ’ t simply kill them , however .
One witness , a German doctor , gives the following testimony concerning the scene in Lvov : Other witnesses also stated that many of the dead were naked , which naturally leads to the question whether they were raped .
[ 29 ] The Ukrainian Red Cross estimated that 4,000 people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 ] Another source says the victims numbered 10,000 .
[ 31 ] When the local Ukrainian and Polish population saw the terrible scenes , they “ immediately started to drag the Jews out of their homes and to abuse them in the streets.
” [ 32 ] Thousands were killed .
The locals pinned the atrocities upon the Jews , so deep-set was the impression that Bolsheviks = Jews .
I have not found information on Cheka agents in Lvov for this period , but Jews composed thirty percent of the population @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The top-ranks of NKVD officials by this time had a much-reduced Jewish contingent , but that doesn ’ t mean the middle and lower ranks were reduced in the same proportion .
Arkady Vaksberg writes , “ But the NKVD was not free of Jews , despite the .
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purges .
Among the sadists who came to fill the emptied slots , including very high ones , were “ more of the same.
” [ 34 ] One source states that there were almost 600 Jewish officers in the Ukrainian NKVD @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Certainly there would have been many more in June 1941 .
When I wrote the sentence that introduced this short essay , I was predicting what a Weatherman takeover in America would look like .
The communists in Weatherman had important similarities with the Bolsheviks : a smug and fanatical superiority complex , a messianic ideology , slavering hatred of Whites/Christians , and plans for “ re-education ” camps .
The Weathermen have mostly passed away , but the spirit that produced them is far stronger than it was in the 1960s ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hatred that propelled the Bolsheviks .
A powerful desire to avenge the evils of the old social order .
The Weathermen were not alone on the Jewish left with fantasies of hatred and revenge .
For many Jewish New Leftists “ the revolution promises to avenge the sufferings and to right the wrongs which have , for so long , been inflicted on Jews with the permission or encouragement , or even at the command of , the authorities in prerevolutionary societies ” ( Cohen , P. S. ( 1980 ) .
Jewish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Academic Press.
, 208 ; here , p. 85 ) .
Interviews with New Left Jewish radicals revealed that many had destructive fantasies in which the revolution would result in “ humiliation , dispossession , imprisonment or execution of the oppressors ” combined with the belief in their own omnipotence and their ability to create a non-oppressive social order ( Ibid. )
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These findings are also entirely consistent with Kevin MacDonald ’ s personal experience among Jewish New Left activists at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s ( here , p. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ body of this essay is a glimpse at a state of affairs that hovers over the horizon like a vast terrifying storm .
No revolutionary overthrow will be needed at this point , for the levers of power are already in the hands of our enemies , awaiting only a situation where they can seize absolute power comparable to their power in the post-revolutionary USSR .
Time is short ; the great question of this generation is this : does the spirit of our ancestors , the warriors of the steppe , merely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it in fact dead ?
I ’ m not sure I want to know the answer to that question .
[ 2 ] Paul Gregory , Terror by Quota : State Security from Lenin to Stalin ( An Archival Study ) ( Yale University Press , 2009 ) , p. 63 .
[ 3 ] Terry Martin , The Affirmative Action Empire : Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union , 1923-1939 ( Cornell University Press , 2001 ) , p. 425 .
See also here , p. 1028 .
[ 4 ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : A Saga of the Russian Revolution ( Princeton University Press , 2017 ) , p. 152 [ 5 ] W. Bruce Lincoln , Red Victory : A History of the Russian Civil War ( Simon and Schuster , 1989 ) , p. 386 .
[ 6 ] Donald Rayfield , Stalin and His Hangmen : The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him ( Random House , 2004 ) , p. 69 .
[ 8 ] I am aware that Pipes is Jewish .
[ 10 ] S. Courtois , N. Werth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ K. Bartosek and J.-L. Margolin ( eds ) , The Black Book of Communism : Crimes , Terror , Repression ( Harvard University Press , 1999 ) , p. 102 .
[ 19 ] George Leggett , The Cheka : Lenin ’ s Political Police ( Oxford University Press , 1981 ) , p. 271 .
Donald Rayfield tells of a Hungarian female Chekist who had to be confined to a psych ward after she began shooting witnesses of crimes .
Rayfield , p. 83 .
[ 27 ] An even later account @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perpetrators , appears in An Eye For An Eye : The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945 ( Basic Books , 1993 ) by John Sack .
It is the story of Jewish secret police in the Polish Communist regime after World War Two rounding up Germans in concentration camps for even more rape , torture , and murder .
[ 33 ] Dov Levin , The Lesser of Two Evils : Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule , 1939-1941 ( The Jewish Publication Society , 1995 ) , p. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stalin Against the Jews ( Alfred Knopf , 1994 ) , p. 101 .
The reaction of the local population is also telling ; they had no doubt that Jews were to blame .
[ 35 ] Amir Weiner , Making Sense of War : The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution ( Princeton University Press , 2002 ) , p. 269 .

In “Ted Gold and the Jews of Weatherman” (September 2017 in TOO), I wrote, in describing a envisioned takeover of the United States by the Jewish radical group Weatherman, “Cue the return of leather-jacketed coke-snorting Jewish secret police rounding up the gentiles for rape, torture and murder in dank abattoirs. It happened, look it up.” This somewhat jarring historical reference left one commenter, “Jim,” nonplussed. He wrote, whether ironically or seriously (but amusingly), “Where can I find info on coke snorting Jews raping people.” Somewhat belatedly, I thought I would review some of the evidence for the separate elements of my statement: leather jackets, cocaine, and torture, rape and murder in “dank abattoirs.” And, of course, Jewish Cheka agents.
The Cheka
When the Bolsheviks seized the power that was so famously “lying in the streets” in early November 1917, they didn’t disguise the fact that they meant to rule by force and terror. Within weeks they established the coercive arm of their permanent revolution, the “Extraordinary Commission for Combating Counterrevolution and Sabotage,” Ve-Cheka for short or Cheka for shorter. Lenin placed the fanatical Pole Felix Dzerzhinsky in charge of it, and he in turn recruited a cohort of Latvians, Jews, and renegade Russians to help him devastate the Russian nation. The Cheka almost immediately launched into one of the most horrifying orgies of mass murder ever recorded, and men of Jewish blood, who like other Jewish leftists, retained their Jewish identity, played a very prominent role in it.
It is very well-attested that Jews were, for the first twenty years of its history, vastly over-represented in the ranks of the Cheka in proportion to their numbers in the population of the Soviet Union. A few citations will suffice. The historian Richard Pipes quotes a member of the early Kiev Cheka to the effect that three-quarters of its personnel were Jewish.[1] Another source shows that 37 of the top 96 NKVD (later nomenclature for the Cheka) officials in 1934 were Jews, an astounding number considering they made up only 1.7 percent of the population.[2] The Jews actually outnumbered ethnic Russians in these top positions all the way up to early 1937, when Stalin began purging them. The Soviet-born Israeli journalist Sever Plocker writes, “Many Jews sold their soul to the devil of the Communist revolution and have blood on their hands for eternity”—at a time, incidentally, when celebrating the Bolshevik Revolution was entirely mainstream in the Jewish diaspora community in the West. At the same time, Jews were underrepresented in the population of the Gulag, by roughly twenty-five percent.[3]
Within months of the institution of the Cheka, provincial Chekas were sprouting up throughout the territory controlled by the beleaguered Bolshevik dictatorship. Because the central Cheka was essentially an extra-legal body, and had for some time little bureaucratic control over the provincial Chekas, the latter often amounted to little more than local strong-arm groups, composed of criminals and Jews, whose motives were plunder and revenge. Central authorities did eventually succeed in bringing their Cheka franchises under discipline, but the murder, torture, and plunder continued, the only change being central direction and a better paper trail.
The prestige and élan that surrounded the early Cheka and its personnel is strange to evoke at this point in time, but it was significant, at least among some circles. The organization had no problem recruiting. They affected a hard-edged style that featured leather jackets or trench coats. Yakov Sverdlov, an important early Jewish Bolshevik commissar—Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and thus de jure head of state—apparently spread the vogue for leather jackets and even leather trousers.[4]Here he is, to the right of Lenin:
The Jewish functionary and terrorist Rozalia Zemliachka, best known for butchering 50,000 people in the Crimea after the Civil War, was also well-known for her fondness for leather jackets and a hardline persona: “In her forties when the Civil War began, Zemliachka dressed in the stereotypical garb of a Bolshevik commissar and killed with a vengeance.”[5] Another source relates that Dzerzhinsky commandeered a shipment of leather coats meant for air force pilots, and outfitted his men in them.[6]In the early days, every self-respecting Bolshevik commissar and Cheka officer sported leather jackets.
The Jews who flocked into the ranks of the secret police were burning for revenge on their Christian neighbors, and nobody nurses a grievance quite like the Jews—the pogroms, despite their exaggeration by Jewish activists at the time and since, were certainly a component of Jewish hatred toward the Russian Empire. A variety of sources confirm a sense of revenge as a motive. Yuri Slezkine reviews some of the works of early Soviet Jewish writers that illustrate the revenge theme. For example, the amorous advances of the Jewish protagonist of Eduard Bagritsky’s poem “February” are rebuffed by a Russian girl, but their positions are changed after the Revolution when he becomes a deputy commissar. Seeing the girl in a brothel, he has sex with her without taking off his boots, his gun, or his trench coat—an act of aggression and revenge:
I am taking you because so timid
Have I always been, and to take vengeance
For the shame of my exiled forefathers
And the twitter of an unknown fledgling!
I am taking you to wreak my vengeance
On the world I could not get away from!
Igor Shafarevich, a mathematician and member of the prestigious U. S. National Academy of Sciences reviewed Jewish literary works during the Soviet and post-Soviet period, finding a prominent theme of Jewish hatred mixed with a powerful desire for revenge toward pre-revolutionary Russia and its culture. But Shafarevich also suggests that the Jewish “Russophobia” that prompted the mass murder is not a unique phenomenon, but results from traditional Jewish hostility toward the non-Jewish world, considered tref (unclean), and toward non-Jews themselves, considered sub-human and as worthy of destruction—a very reasonable interpretation given traditional Jewish ethics in which non-Jews have no moral standing. People with such beliefs have no moral compunctions about the torture, rape, and murder of their perceived enemies. Hatred toward the peoples and cultures of non-Jews and the image of enslaved ancestors as victims of anti-Semitism have been the Jewish norm throughout history—much commented on, from Tacitus to the present.
Finally, the Jewish hatred and desire for revenge was not confined to the USSR. Jewish members of the internal security force in post-World War Poland often appear to have been motivated by personal rage and a desire for revenge related to their Jewish identity:
Their families had been murdered and the anti-Communist underground was, in their perception, a continuation of essentially the same anti-Semitic and anti-Communist tradition. They hated those who had collaborated with the Nazis and those who opposed the new order with almost the same intensity and knew that as Communists, or as both Communists and Jews, they were hated at least in the same way. In their eyes, the enemy was essentially the same. The old evil deeds had to be punished and new ones prevented and a merciless struggle was necessary before a better world could be built. (Schatz, J. (1991). The Generation: The Rise and Fall of the Jewish Communists of Poland, 226)
“A ‘Continuous Spree’of Rape and Robbery.” And Torture and Murder
The Cheka official quoted by Pipes above said the early days in Kiev (1918–1919) amounted to a “continuous spree” of rape and robbery, though they were “careful to spare fellow Jews.”[7] For some reason, Pipes left out mention of horrific torture and murder, but I’ll fill in those details.[8] A major element of revenge has always been humiliation of the target group and rape of its women, and the Red Terror had plenty of both. The acme of vengeance, for the truly dedicated, is torture and murder: the infliction of terrible suffering directly on the object of hatred, flaunting one’s dominance, then the total destruction of the victim. The frenzied nature of the excesses of the Red Terror resulted from a combination of factors, including an atmosphere of brutalization brought on by revolution and civil war and a perverse ideology, but an ethnic factor was also clearly present.
A recent historian of Stalin’s executioners affirms the Jews “ruthlessly avenged the victims of a century’s pogroms.”[9] Another states that “the “ranks of the Cheka were filled with social elements anxious for revenge.”[10] A historian of the Russian Civil War states, “Always anxious to use national and racial hatreds to advantage, Dzerzhinskii placed Jews in seven of the Cheka’s top ten positions. . . . The victims of centuries of anti-Semitic abuse, the Jews of the Ukraine now had a chance to take revenge.”[11]
The Cheka officers, with literally nothing hindering their action, assaulted women on a mass scale. There is plenty of evidence for this.
“Convicted criminals and certified psychopaths appointed themselves officers of the Cheka and terrorized, raped, and murdered whom they liked.”[12] “Rapes of female prisoners by Cheka guards and interrogators were so commonplace that they occasioned comment from superiors only if performed in some particularly brutal or perverted fashion.”[13] Rape of Russian women by Cheka men “took on gigantic proportions, particularly in the second reconquest of Ukraine and the Cossack regions of the Crimea in 1920.”[14]
Sergey Melgounov wrote the classic account of early Bolshevik rule, The Red Terror. On page 136 he describes Cheka “food detachments” that plundered the food in the countryside to feed the cities, the base of Bolshevik power: “Whenever an expedition that was collecting the grain tax in the Khvalinsky district reached a village the peasants were commanded to surrender their best-looking girls to the officials.”[15]
A story from Ekaterinodar in the Caucasus, c. 1919:
Madame Dombrovskaya, an ex-school teacher, was tortured in her solitary confinement cell . . . . The Che-Ka had been informed that she had . . . jewelery . . . in her keeping: wherefore . . . she was ordered to be tortured until she should reveal where the jewelery might be. For a beginning she was raped and outraged generally—the raping taking place in order of seniority of torturers, with a man called Friedmann raping her first, and the others in regular sequence. And, that done, she was questioned further as to the whereabouts of the jewelery, and further tortured by having incisions made into her body, and her finger tips nipped with pliers and pincers. Until at last, in her agony, with the blood pouring from her wounds, she confessed that the jewels were hidden in an outbuilding of her house. The same evening (the date being November 6) she was shot.[16]
From southern Ukraine: “a witness testified before the Denikin Commission [an investigative body set up by the White Armies] that licentious orgies had been carried out systematically by the Che-Ka and tribunal of Nikolaev, and included even women who had come to beg for relatives’ release, with that inclusion as the price of their relatives’ freedom.”[17]
Some local Chekas were so atrocious that even Bolsheviks were outraged. One—a Serafina Gopner—complained to Lenin about the Cheka in Ekaterinoslav in Ukraine:
This organization is rotten to the core: the canker of criminality, violence, and totally arbitrary decisions abounds, and it is filled with . . . the dregs of society, men armed to the teeth who simply execute anyone they don’t like. They steal, loot, rape, and throw anyone into prison, forge documents, practice extortion and blackmail, and will let anyone go in exchange for huge sums of money.[18]
Virtually all of these poor women were Christian Russians; a great many of the rapists were revenge-minded Jews. I imagine that Jews, with their strong sense of respect for their martyred ancestors, would wish us, too, to “never forget” these victims.
As for cocaine, it was used very widely in the decades before and after 1900. The coca plant grows only in South America, but its properties became known in Europe by the early 1800s. The chemical was isolated from the leaf by a German chemist in 1860, and its use as a stimulant and local anesthetic quickly spread. An early booster of the drug was Sigmund Freud, who wrote a glowing report of its effects and pushed it on his friends and patients. (His addiction lasted twelve years.) By the 1880s, pharmaceutical companies were producing hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly, and Parke-Davis in the U.S. was actually marketing a little kit with cocaine and a syringe and needle for convenient use, although it could also be snorted as a powder. The drug was one ingredient of early Coca-Cola, at least until 1903, when there began a reaction against it because of its addictive and harmful properties. There were an estimated 200,000 addicts in the U.S. at the turn of the century. In addition, Americans became alarmed at the prospect of Blacks committing violent crimes under its influence. One authority maintained that “most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain.” In 1914 the government placed it under federal control, which did not, of course, eradicate its availability.
Cocaine was also readily available in Russia. The following passages show that Cheka men used it commonly, even maniacally. Some of them claimed that the constant bloodshed and strain necessitated a resort to drugs, but it probably fueled some of the atrocities as well. Whatever the case may be, it was clear that many Cheka men were out of their minds with drugs and sadism. The combination led to mental breakdowns among Cheka agents. A number of them were committed to psychiatric wards.[19]
From a 1919 report on the Cheka in Yaroslavl: “The Cheka are looting and arresting everyone indiscriminately. . . . They have transformed the Cheka headquarters into a huge brothel where they take all the bourgeois women. Drunkenness is rife. Cocaine is being used quite widely among the supervisors.”[20]
The White Armies freed Kiev from Cheka rule for a brief period in 1919. One of the resulting reports stated, “In almost every cupboard and, for that matter, in almost every drawer, we found empty cocaine bottles in piles.”[21]
The Cheka placed their men in all Red Army units. Here is a report from a supervisor on certain of these units: “No administrative norm is being respected by these people. . . . Orgies and drunkenness are daily occurrences. Almost all the personnel of the Cheka are heavy cocaine users. They say that this helps them deal with the sight of so much blood on a daily basis.” The man who composed this report, Rozental, concluded that although these units needed tighter control and were “drunk with blood and violence,” they nevertheless “are doing their duty.”[22] Well, that’s a relief.
Maks Deich, a Jew, was the head of the Odessa Cheka in 1920–1922. There “he earned [a] reputation for extreme cruelty, and suffered a neurosis and addiction to cocaine.”[23] What harrowing atrocities could have earned him notoriety for “extreme cruelty” in this milieu? A Cheka officer in Georgia named Schulmann, very likely a Jew, also earned notice. A prisoner witnessed “brutal executions . . . especially at the hands of a certain Schulmann, who was addicted to morphine and cocaine.”[24]
As for “dank abattoirs,” here is what the White Armies found in Kiev in late August 1919, after they drove out the Bolsheviks:
The place had formerly been a garage, and then the provincial Che-Ka’s main slaughter-house. And the whole of it was coated with blood—blood ankle deep, coagulated with the heat of the atmosphere, and horribly mixed with human brains, chips of skullbone, wisps of hair, and the like. Even the walls were bespattered with blood and similar fragments of brain and scalp, as well as riddled with thousands of bullet holes. In the centre was a drain about a quarter of a metre deep and wide, and about ten metres long. This led to the sanitary system of the neighbouring house, but was choked to the brim with blood. The horrible den contained 127 corpses, but the victims of the previous massacre had been hurriedly buried in the adjacent garden. What struck us most about the corpses was the shattering of their skulls, or the complete flattening out of those skulls, as though the victims had been brained with some such instrument as a heavy block. … And in every case the corpses were naked … [a grave in the courtyard] contained eighty bodies which in every instance bore almost unimaginably horrible wounds and mutilations. In this grave we found corpses with, variously, entrails ripped out, no limbs remaining (as though the bodies had literally been chopped up), eyes gouged out, and heads and necks and faces and trunks all studded with stab wounds. Again, we found a body which had had a pointed stake driven through its chest, whilst in several cases the tongue was missing.[25]
This happened in Kiev, where, you remember, three-quarters of the Cheka staff were Jews.
The Cheka rampage continued for decades. The Terror would reach crescendos, such as “The Great Terror” of 1937–1938, but it never died down until after the death of Stalin in 1953. Robert Conquest, speaking of early 1937, used this chilling description: “Russians who had thought that the country was already in the grip of terrorists were now to see what terror really meant.”[26] When I first read that sentence twenty-five years ago, I had a palpable sensation of horror, and profound sadness for the Russian people.
The German invasion of Russia in June 1941 lifted the curtain on later Bolshevik atrocities.[27] Nearly a quarter century of bloody vengeance had not quenched the Bolshevik/Jewish bloodthirst. The retreating Bolsheviks massacred their prisoners in the frontier prisons rather than transport them to the east, and the incoming Germans carefully preserved the evidence. They didn’t simply kill them, however. One witness, a German doctor, gives the following testimony concerning the scene in Lvov:
I ordered that the cellars [of Brygidky prison] should be immediately cleared, and in the course of the next three days 423 corpses were brought out . . . Among the bodies there were young boys aged 10, 12, and 14 and young women aged 18, 20, and 22, besides old women. . . . [At] the military prison in the northern part of the town . . . the stench of decomposition was so strong and there was so much blood under the mountain of corpses that we had to wear a Polish gas mask in order to enter the cellar. . . . Young women, men, and older women were piled up layer upon layer all the way to the ceiling. . . . The third and fourth cellars were only about three-quarters full. Over 460 corpses were taken out of these cellars. Many of the bodies showed evidence of serious torture, mutilations of arms and legs, and shackling.[28]
Another witness saw
a large space, filled from top to bottom with corpses. . . . The bottom ones were still warm. The victims . . . laid in various poses, with open eyes and masks of terror on their faces. Among them were many women. On the left wall, three men were crucified, barely covered by clothing from their shoulders, with severed male organs. Underneath them on the floor in half-sitting, leaning positions – two nuns with those organs in their mouths. The victims of the NKVD’s sadism were killed with a shot in the mouth or the back of the head. But most were stabbed in the stomach with a bayonet. Some were naked or almost naked . . .
Citizens of Lvov searching for relatives among the victims of the NKVD
More victims. It looks like they endured severe beatings, and the man in the foreground is partially undressed. Both of the above photos are from https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1153801.
Other witnesses also stated that many of the dead were naked, which naturally leads to the question whether they were raped.[29] The Ukrainian Red Cross estimated that 4,000 people had perished in Lvov alone.[30] Another source says the victims numbered 10,000.[31]
When the local Ukrainian and Polish population saw the terrible scenes, they “immediately started to drag the Jews out of their homes and to abuse them in the streets.”[32] Thousands were killed. The locals pinned the atrocities upon the Jews, so deep-set was the impression that Bolsheviks = Jews. I have not found information on Cheka agents in Lvov for this period, but Jews composed thirty percent of the population of the city.[33] The top-ranks of NKVD officials by this time had a much-reduced Jewish contingent, but that doesn’t mean the middle and lower ranks were reduced in the same proportion. Arkady Vaksberg writes, “But the NKVD was not free of Jews, despite the . . . purges. Among the sadists who came to fill the emptied slots, including very high ones, were “more of the same.”[34] One source states that there were almost 600 Jewish officers in the Ukrainian NKVD in January 1945.[35]Certainly there would have been many more in June 1941.
When I wrote the sentence that introduced this short essay, I was predicting what a Weatherman takeover in America would look like. The communists in Weatherman had important similarities with the Bolsheviks: a smug and fanatical superiority complex, a messianic ideology, slavering hatred of Whites/Christians, and plans for “re-education” camps. The Weathermen have mostly passed away, but the spirit that produced them is far stronger than it was in the 1960s; it is the same ancient and murderous hatred that propelled the Bolsheviks. A powerful desire to avenge the evils of the old social order. The Weathermen were not alone on the Jewish left with fantasies of hatred and revenge.
For many Jewish New Leftists “the revolution promises to avenge the sufferings and to right the wrongs which have, for so long, been inflicted on Jews with the permission or encouragement, or even at the command of, the authorities in prerevolutionary societies” (Cohen, P. S. (1980). Jewish Radicals and Radical Jews. London: Academic Press., 208; here, p. 85). Interviews with New Left Jewish radicals revealed that many had destructive fantasies in which the revolution would result in “humiliation, dispossession, imprisonment or execution of the oppressors” combined with the belief in their own omnipotence and their ability to create a non-oppressive social order (Ibid.). These findings are also entirely consistent with Kevin MacDonald’s personal experience among Jewish New Left activists at the University of Wisconsin in the 1960s (here, p. 103, note 13).
The body of this essay is a glimpse at a state of affairs that hovers over the horizon like a vast terrifying storm. No revolutionary overthrow will be needed at this point, for the levers of power are already in the hands of our enemies, awaiting only a situation where they can seize absolute power comparable to their power in the post-revolutionary USSR. Time is short; the great question of this generation is this: does the spirit of our ancestors, the warriors of the steppe, merely slumber in our countrymen? Or is it in fact dead? I’m not sure I want to know the answer to that question.
Notes
[1] Richard Pipes, The Russian Revolution (Vintage Books, 1991), p. 824.
[2] Paul Gregory, Terror by Quota: State Security from Lenin to Stalin (An Archival Study) (Yale University Press, 2009), p. 63.
[3] Terry Martin, The Affirmative Action Empire: Nations and Nationalism in the Soviet Union, 1923-1939 (Cornell University Press, 2001), p. 425. See also here, p. 1028.
[4] Yuri Slezkine, The House of Government: A Saga of the Russian Revolution(Princeton University Press, 2017), p. 152
[5] W. Bruce Lincoln, Red Victory: A History of the Russian Civil War (Simon and Schuster, 1989), p. 386.
[6] Donald Rayfield, Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him (Random House, 2004), p. 69.
[7] Pipes, p. 824.
[8] I am aware that Pipes is Jewish.
[9] Rayfield, p. 75.
[10] S. Courtois, N. Werth, J.-L. Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, K. Bartosek and J.-L. Margolin (eds), The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression (Harvard University Press, 1999), p. 102.
[11] W. Bruce Lincoln, p. 314
[12] Rayfield, p. 83.
[13] W. Bruce Lincoln, p. 383.
[14] S. Courtois et. al., p. 105.
[15] Sergey Melgounov, The Red Terror in Russia (Hyperion Press, 1976), p. 136.
[16] Melgounov, p. 163.
[17] Melgounov, p. 218.
[18] Courtois et. al., p. 103.
[19] George Leggett, The Cheka: Lenin’s Political Police (Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 271. Donald Rayfield tells of a Hungarian female Chekist who had to be confined to a psych ward after she began shooting witnesses of crimes. Rayfield, p. 83.
[20] Courtois et. al., p. 103.
[21] Melgounov, p. 201.
[22] Courtois et. al., p. 103-04.
[23] Leggett, p. 447.
[24] Amy Knight, Beria: Stalin’s First Lieutenant (Princeton University Press, 1996), p. 236 note 12.
[25] Megounov, p. 176
[26] Robert Conquest, The Great Terror: A Reassessment (Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 181.
[27] An even later account, and more directly tied to Jewish perpetrators, appears in An Eye For An Eye: The Untold Story of Jewish Revenge Against Germans in 1945(Basic Books, 1993) by John Sack. It is the story of Jewish secret police in the Polish Communist regime after World War Two rounding up Germans in concentration camps for even more rape, torture, and murder.
[28] Alfred M. de Zayas, The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939-1945 (University of Nebraska Press, 1995), p. 216.
[29] De Zayas, p. 220.
[30] De Zayas, p. 221.
[31] Courtois, et. al., p. 225.
[32] De Zayas, p. 223.
[33] Dov Levin, The Lesser of Two Evils: Eastern European Jewry Under Soviet Rule, 1939-1941 (The Jewish Publication Society, 1995), p. 54
[34] Arkady Vaksberg, Stalin Against the Jews (Alfred Knopf, 1994), p. 101. The reaction of the local population is also telling; they had no doubt that Jews were to blame.
[35] Amir Weiner, Making Sense of War: The Second World War and the Fate of the Bolshevik Revolution (Princeton University Press, 2002), p. 269.


russia-insider--2020-03-13--The Putin Stimulus: $30 Oil Will Be Great for the Global Economy

The world should be mailing thank-you letters to Moscow right about now .
$ 30 dollar oil will be great for the global economy ( and in turn , a good global economy is good for oil ) .
At a time when the global economy is visibly losing steam , when we ’ re overdue for another business cycle recession , and when nobody seems to have an answer , Moscow delivered what nobody else could — a massive economic boost for the whole world .
Sure there will be losers , chief among them US shale and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make their budgets work .
But then as a whole , the US shale has always been a loss-making enterprise for America .
The scaling-down of shale is not bearish for the US at all .
It ’ s bullish .
If Putin can make Americans stop throwing more good money down the shale pit that ’ s not a bad thing , that ’ s a giant favor to the US and the health of its economy right there .
To say nothing of the effect of cheap energy itself .
Personally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 30 oil will be enough to avert a crash but if anything could , it would be that .
Similar story with the Saudis , if they have less money to throw around backing Salafists and bribing Washington , that ’ s not a bad thing .
That ’ s a great thing for the world .
Some of Russia ’ s friends like Venezuela and Iran will be hurt as well , but ironically the fact the US has already cut down their imports to a fraction of their capacity means they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It certainly will kill the Trump administration ’ s fantasy of the US displacing Russia as the energy supplier to Europe .
Finally , unlike money printing , Putin ’ s cheap oil stimulus is not redistributive and is not inflationary .
And unlike a low-interest rate stimulus , it doesn ’ t throw economic calculation off balance by falsifying the price of credit and conjuring up a false abundance of real-world capital .
For three years Russia went along with OPECE energy price-fixing because it represented the quickest way to replenish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now been rebuilt .
In the meantime , Russia developed a number of new oil fields but couldn ’ t move on with exploiting them which made its effort rather pointless .
This is a classical win-win .
Rather than looking to squeeze every last dime from the consumers in the short term , the oil producers will be helping them to thrive which in turn will make sure the demand keeps growing .

The world should be mailing thank-you letters to Moscow right about now.
$30 dollar oil will be great for the global economy (and in turn, a good global economy is good for oil). At a time when the global economy is visibly losing steam, when we’re overdue for another business cycle recession, and when nobody seems to have an answer, Moscow delivered what nobody else could — a massive economic boost for the whole world.
Sure there will be losers, chief among them US shale and the Saudis who need far higher prices to make their budgets work.
But then as a whole, the US shale has always been a loss-making enterprise for America. The scaling-down of shale is not bearish for the US at all. It’s bullish. If Putin can make Americans stop throwing more good money down the shale pit that’s not a bad thing, that’s a giant favor to the US and the health of its economy right there.
To say nothing of the effect of cheap energy itself. Personally I don’t think even $30 oil will be enough to avert a crash but if anything could, it would be that.
Similar story with the Saudis, if they have less money to throw around backing Salafists and bribing Washington, that’s not a bad thing. That’s a great thing for the world.
Some of Russia’s friends like Venezuela and Iran will be hurt as well, but ironically the fact the US has already cut down their imports to a fraction of their capacity means they have a lot less left to lose.
It certainly will kill the Trump administration’s fantasy of the US displacing Russia as the energy supplier to Europe.
Finally, unlike money printing, Putin’s cheap oil stimulus is not redistributive and is not inflationary. And unlike a low-interest rate stimulus, it doesn’t throw economic calculation off balance by falsifying the price of credit and conjuring up a false abundance of real-world capital.
For three years Russia went along with OPECE energy price-fixing because it represented the quickest way to replenish its FX reserves. Those reserves have now been rebuilt. In the meantime, Russia developed a number of new oil fields but couldn’t move on with exploiting them which made its effort rather pointless.
This is a classical win-win. Rather than looking to squeeze every last dime from the consumers in the short term, the oil producers will be helping them to thrive which in turn will make sure the demand keeps growing.


russia-insider--2020-03-13--Russia Has Recorded ZERO Coronavirus Deaths - Early and Strict Border Control Is Working

Even as coronavirus ravages the rest of Europe , Russia , which closed its entire border back in January , still has zero recorded deaths from COVID-19 .
The latest numbers out of Russia show that just 28 people are recorded to be infected with coronavirus .
There have been zero fatalities .
Compare these numbers to other European countries .
– The UK has 590 recorded infections and 10 total deaths .
As the Moscow Times highlights , Russia closed “ most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China , ordering people returning from high-risk areas to self-quarantine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country.
” They did this back in January , while the World Health Organization was simultaneously ordering countries not to profile and not to take any border control measures that would stop the international flow of people .
Singapore , which despite its proximity to China has recorded only 189 cases of coronavirus and zero deaths , also closed its border back in January .
Compare Singapore and Russia ’ s response to a country like the UK , which despite seeing coronavirus ravage Italy and Iran is still allowing people to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran while performing zero checks on them whatsoever .

Even as coronavirus ravages the rest of Europe, Russia, which closed its entire border back in January, still has zero recorded deaths from COVID-19.
What a stunning coincidence.
The latest numbers out of Russia show that just 28 people are recorded to be infected with coronavirus. There have been zero fatalities.
Compare these numbers to other European countries.
– Italy has 15,113 recorded infections and 1,016 total deaths.
– Spain has 3,059 recorded infections and 86 total deaths.
– France has 2,281 recorded infections and 48 total deaths.
– Germany has 2,512 recorded infections and 5 total deaths.
– The UK has 590 recorded infections and 10 total deaths.
Why such a significant difference?
As the Moscow Times highlights, Russia closed “most entry points along its 4,200-kilometer border with China, ordering people returning from high-risk areas to self-quarantine and temporarily banning Chinese citizens from entering the country.”
They did this back in January, while the World Health Organization was simultaneously ordering countries not to profile and not to take any border control measures that would stop the international flow of people.
Singapore, which despite its proximity to China has recorded only 189 cases of coronavirus and zero deaths, also closed its border back in January.
Compare Singapore and Russia’s response to a country like the UK, which despite seeing coronavirus ravage Italy and Iran is still allowing people to arrive in the country from Italy and Iran while performing zero checks on them whatsoever.
Border controls work. Globalism is a vector for disease pandemics.


russia-insider--2020-03-13--'Let Her Not Demand Equality' - Russian Christianity Completely Rejects Feminism (Part 1)

Traditional Orthodox Christianity comes down firmly in favor of patriarchy on two key defining issues : upholding the Pauline headship of the husband , and having all-male Orthodox clergy .
There are also aspects of Orthodox Christianity that both glorify and exalt holy women to such a degree that distinguishes it from most other varieties of patriarchy .
• The highly exalted place of the Theotokos in the life of the Church and her theological significance • The lives of female Saints and their veneration • A developed , robust , apostolic theology of singleness which doesn ’ t erroneously @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virginity With that being said , on the questions most central to the topic , Orthodoxy certainly exemplifies traditional patriarchy .
Some of the key New Testament texts most commonly cited in the discussion are Gal .
3:28 , Eph .
5:22–33 , 1 Cor .
11:3–15 ; 14:34–35 , 1 Pet .
3:1–7 , and 1 Tim .
2:9–15 ; 3:2,12 .
Even without the witness of two millennia of undivided Christian tradition on the subject , the latter six texts are unquestionable in their rejection of a feminist or egalitarian viewpoint @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t enough to overturn such conclusions .
The key issue with reading Gal .
3:28 as a vindication of egalitarianism is Christological .
If , indeed , there exist no slaves , Jews , or males in Christ , then it would be rather difficult to account for the fact that there is now , as I type , a ( crucified , risen , and glorified ) Jewish male-slave reigning at the right hand of His Father in eternity .
Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and in His resurrection He did not shed His Jewishness or maleness or what they signify—such as his relationship to the Father as His image and Son ( not merely ‘ child ’ ) , His being the fulfillment of the old covenant in the flesh , His being the New Adam who relinquishes the curse of Eden , or the masculine character of His relation to the feminine Church ( the Bride of Christ ) .
Christ ’ s incarnation , life , death , and resurrection transfigures our entire being , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularity , elevating it to the Father ’ s right hand .
To read Gal .
3:28 as if it ’ s referring to the erasure of human distinctions or particularity—rather than to Christ healing and transfiguring those from within—is incompatible with core Christological doctrines such as the Resurrection and Christ ’ s consubstantiality with humanity .
The apostle Paul rather points to the way that our identity in Christ is the most essential feature of our being .
Other features which were once barriers to human unity are no longer such in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Chrysostom writes of this passage : “ You are all One in Christ Jesus , ” that is , you have all one form and one mould , even Christ ’ s .
What can be more awful [ read : awesome ] than these words !
He that was a Greek , or Jew , or bond-man yesterday , carries about with him the form , not of an Angel or Archangel , but of the Lord of all , yea displays in his own person the Christ .
This is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do away with differentiation , but rather is manifested in it .
Christ ’ s being is truly joined to ours in His taking the flesh of Mary .
As Christ ’ s divinity does not diminish his humanity—in all of its real dimensions , gender and ethnicity included—neither does our unity in Christ , nor our union with Him , diminish or negate our own .
For Gal .
3:28 to be a fitting , egalitarian text , it must de-incarnate Christ , which is the height of both heresy and blasphemy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cornerstone ’ feminist ’ text—upon which the entirety of a feminist , Scriptural hermeneutic either stands or falls—is accounted for within a traditional Christian perspective , there is simply no real way to fit the remaining aforementioned texts with either feminism or strict egalitarianism , while also holding to the authority of Scripture in the life of the Church .
In the next post , I will examine some of the other key texts of this debate from an Orthodox perspective , showing that the authority of God over man is imaged in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a three-part series responding to feminism .
— Part two is now available .
— Part three will be available soon .
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.

Traditional Orthodox Christianity comes down firmly in favor of patriarchy on two key defining issues: upholding the Pauline headship of the husband, and having all-male Orthodox clergy.
There are also aspects of Orthodox Christianity that both glorify and exalt holy women to such a degree that distinguishes it from most other varieties of patriarchy.
For example:
The highly exalted place of the Theotokos in the life of the Church and her theological significance
The lives of female Saints and their veneration
A developed, robust, apostolic theology of singleness which doesn’t erroneously (or mercilessly) elevate marriage above virginity
With that being said, on the questions most central to the topic, Orthodoxy certainly exemplifies traditional patriarchy.
Some of the key New Testament texts most commonly cited in the discussion are Gal. 3:28, Eph. 5:22–33, 1 Cor. 11:3–15; 14:34–35, 1 Pet. 3:1–7, and 1 Tim. 2:9–15; 3:2,12. Even without the witness of two millennia of undivided Christian tradition on the subject, the latter six texts are unquestionable in their rejection of a feminist or egalitarian viewpoint, and the text from Galatians isn’t enough to overturn such conclusions.
The key issue with reading Gal. 3:28 as a vindication of egalitarianism is Christological.
If, indeed, there exist no slaves, Jews, or males in Christ, then it would be rather difficult to account for the fact that there is now, as I type, a (crucified, risen, and glorified) Jewish male-slave reigning at the right hand of His Father in eternity. Christ is the first fruits of the resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20), and in His resurrection He did not shed His Jewishness or maleness or what they signify—such as his relationship to the Father as His image and Son (not merely ‘child’), His being the fulfillment of the old covenant in the flesh, His being the New Adam who relinquishes the curse of Eden, or the masculine character of His relation to the feminine Church (the Bride of Christ).
Christ’s incarnation, life, death, and resurrection transfigures our entire being, including our mortal flesh in all its particularity, elevating it to the Father’s right hand. To read Gal. 3:28 as if it’s referring to the erasure of human distinctions or particularity—rather than to Christ healing and transfiguring those from within—is incompatible with core Christological doctrines such as the Resurrection and Christ’s consubstantiality with humanity.
The apostle Paul rather points to the way that our identity in Christ is the most essential feature of our being. Other features which were once barriers to human unity are no longer such in our union with Christ. St. John Chrysostom writes of this passage:
“You are all One in Christ Jesus,” that is, you have all one form and one mould, even Christ’s. What can be more awful [read: awesome] than these words! He that was a Greek, or Jew, or bond-man yesterday, carries about with him the form, not of an Angel or Archangel, but of the Lord of all, yea displays in his own person the Christ.
This is a oneness with Christ that doesn’t do away with differentiation, but rather is manifested in it. Christ’s being is truly joined to ours in His taking the flesh of Mary. As Christ’s divinity does not diminish his humanity—in all of its real dimensions, gender and ethnicity included—neither does our unity in Christ, nor our union with Him, diminish or negate our own. For Gal. 3:28 to be a fitting, egalitarian text, it must de-incarnate Christ, which is the height of both heresy and blasphemy for all faithful Christians.
While this cornerstone ’feminist’ text—upon which the entirety of a feminist, Scriptural hermeneutic either stands or falls—is accounted for within a traditional Christian perspective, there is simply no real way to fit the remaining aforementioned texts with either feminism or strict egalitarianism, while also holding to the authority of Scripture in the life of the Church.
In the next post, I will examine some of the other key texts of this debate from an Orthodox perspective, showing that the authority of God over man is imaged in Christian marriage.
This is the first in a three-part series responding to feminism. — Part two is now available. — Part three will be available soon . . .


russia-insider--2020-03-13--Putin Relates How Obama Explained to Him that America Is an 'Exceptional Nation' with 'Exclusive Rig

Putin Relates How Obama Explained to Him that America Is an 'Exceptional Nation' with 'Exclusive Rights Everywhere in the World' (Video)

This post first appeared on Russia Insider Needless to say , Putin was not impressed .
- So you addressed Trump as ‘ Donald ’ , in a friendly way .
- He calls me Vladimir , I call him Donald .
- I mean , you have worked with four American presidents .
Once Bush saw something in your eyes… - But things did not go well with Obama , is that correct ?
- Who was it that you felt most at ease with ?
- It is difficult for me to say now .
Indeed , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
- But it did not go well with Obama .
- Did it or didn ’ t… I had good relations with Bush .
- Did somebody put you at odds with him ?
- No , it has nothing to do with ‘ being at odds ’ .
It 's just that when a person says that… - Do you mean Barack ?
- Do you mean Barack ?
- Yes .
He already stated that the US is an exceptional nation , with special , exclusive rights to practically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ go along with that .
God created us all equal and gave us equal rights .
So , I think it is absolutely ungrounded to say that some people should have exclusive rights to anything .

This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Needless to say, Putin was not impressed.
Transcript:
- So you addressed Trump as ‘Donald’, in a friendly way.
- He calls me Vladimir, I call him Donald.
- I mean, you have worked with four American presidents. Once Bush saw something in your eyes…
- Yes…
- But things did not go well with Obama, is that correct?
- Well…
- Who was it that you felt most at ease with?
- It is difficult for me to say now. Indeed, I had fairly constructive relations with each of them.
- But it did not go well with Obama.
- Did it or didn’t… I had good relations with Bush.
- Did somebody put you at odds with him?
- No, it has nothing to do with ‘being at odds’. It's just that when a person says that…
- Do you mean Barack?
- Sorry?
- Do you mean Barack?
- Yes. He already stated that the US is an exceptional nation, with special, exclusive rights to practically the entire world, I cannot go along with that.
God created us all equal and gave us equal rights.
So, I think it is absolutely ungrounded to say that some people should have exclusive rights to anything.


russia-insider--2020-03-15--'Let Her Not Demand Equality' - Russian Christianity Completely Rejects Feminism (Part 2)

In the previous post we looked at Galatians 3:28 , a text leaned heavily upon by feminists and egalitarians , and why it doesn ’ t really support an egalitarian reading .
Let ’ s now turn to two of the other Pauline texts most central to this debate , specifically regarding headship within the family .
Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Cor .
11:3-15 both establish an undeniable hierarchy within marriage .
St. John Chrysostom , the Church ’ s greatest expositor of St. Paul—so great , in fact , that St. Paul ’ s whispering into his ear the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ John ’ s ear becoming an incorrupt relic , which exists and is on Mount Athos to this day—says this about Ephesians 5:32-33 : However not for the husband ’ s sake alone it is thus said [ that marriage is the great mystery of Christ and the Church ] , but for the wife ’ s sake also , that he cherish her as his own flesh , as Christ also the Church , and , that the wife fear her husband .
He is no longer setting down the duties of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she fear her husband .
The wife is a second authority ; let her not then demand equality , for she is under the head ; nor let him despise her as being in subjection , for she is the body ; and if the head despise the body , it will itself also perish .
But let him bring in love on his part as a counterpoise to obedience on her part .
For example , let the hands and the feet , and all the rest of the members be given @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but let the head provide for the body , seeing it contains every sense in itself .
Nothing can be better than this union .
The feminist-egalitarian vision of marriage is necessarily one of either two heads , or two bodies , or some other unholy configuration , while St. Paul ’ s vision is that of a head and a body , just as Christ is the head of His Body , the Church .
Chrysostom continues : And yet how can there ever be love , one may say , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there , I say , preeminently .
For she that fears and reverences , loves also ; and she that loves , fears and reverences him as being the head , and loves him as being a member , since the head itself is a member of the body at large .
Hence he places the one in subjection , and the other in authority , that there may be peace ; for where there is equal authority there can never be peace ; neither where a house is a democracy , nor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ruling power must of necessity be one .
Just as the good order of the κοσμος ( cosmos ) is ( or was ) maintained by humanity humbly submitting to God ’ s rule over it , so it is with the μικρόκοσμος ( microcosm ) of the family : a singular principal reigns in self-emptying love and care over the whole , and those under his authority return love in submissive gratitude , resulting in the harmonious , peaceful operation of the whole .
Echoing this point , one of the other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ St. Gregory the Theologian writes : The three most ancient opinions concerning God are Anarchia , Polyarchia , and Monarchia .
The first two are the sport of the children of Hellas , and may they continue to be so .
For Anarchy is a thing without order ; and the Rule of Many is factious , and thus anarchical , and thus disorderly .
For both these tend to the same thing , namely disorder ; and this to dissolution , for disorder is the first step to dissolution .
But Monarchy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The ‘ arche ’ of the Father is an aspect of orthodox trinitarianism , enshrined in the Nicene Creed : The Son is begotten of the Father ( and not vice versa ) and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father ( and not vice versa ) .
Thus , though all the Persons are ομοούσιος ( “ of one essence ” ) , there is a relational hierarchy within the Godhead , with the Father as the fountainhead or the Monarch of the Holy Trinity .
With this in mind , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : “ that the head of every man is Christ ; and the head of the woman is the man ; and the head of Christ is God.
” St. Paul explicitly lays out a hierarchy , and grounds it in the relationship of the Son to the Father , which—as we ’ ve just seen—is not a reciprocal relationship ( though this lack of relational symmetry in no way entails ontological inferiority ) .
And in Ephesians 5 , he links the hierarchy of husband-to-wife with the hierarchy of Christ-to-Church .
St. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ relationships as the image or blueprint of marriage , therefore the relationship of husband to wife can not be reciprocal either .
Yet , for an egalitarian ‘ equality ’ , this is precisely what the relationship must be : exactly reciprocal .
Ergo , per the Bible and the dogma of the Holy Trinity as revealed by Christ and attested to by the Church , ‘ egalitarianism ’ can not be true .
Most Christian feminists and egalitarians will attempt to obfuscate by shifting to a discussion of the culture that Paul @ @ @ @ @ @ @ household codes , the nature of headship and other irrelevancies .
But these moves should be treated as the shabby evasions that they are .
We don ’ t need to know the nature of headship or gender norms in Paul ’ s context because he grounds his teaching in eternal referents : Christ is the head of the Church ; the Father is the head of the Son .
And the reverse is not true , in either case .
Even if your tradition has—for some inexplicable reason—misplaced the apostolic teaching on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ husband in the family , the text still states unequivocally that it is something husbands have and wives do not , which is enough to take feminism and egalitarianism off the table as options .
In the next post , we will look at the subject through the lens of Christian tradition and discuss the way that the Theotokos embodies Christian femininity such that her example sets the standard for the Church ’ s response to Christ , and for women in a unique way .
This is the second in a three-part @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be available soon .
.
.
This website is how the Gleason family and the Silva family earn a living .
Maintaining this website is a full time job , and this is how they feed their families .
Both families now live in Russia , and they appreciate your support .
To keep the Russian Faith website running , a recurring donation of even $ 5 or $ 10 per month would be a huge blessing .

In the previous post we looked at Galatians 3:28, a text leaned heavily upon by feminists and egalitarians, and why it doesn’t really support an egalitarian reading.
Let’s now turn to two of the other Pauline texts most central to this debate, specifically regarding headship within the family. Ephesians 5:22-33 and 1 Cor. 11:3-15 both establish an undeniable hierarchy within marriage.
St. John Chrysostom, the Church’s greatest expositor of St. Paul—so great, in fact, that St. Paul’s whispering into his ear the truth of his teachings resulted in St. John’s ear becoming an incorrupt relic, which exists and is on Mount Athos to this day—says this about Ephesians 5:32-33:
However not for the husband’s sake alone it is thus said [that marriage is the great mystery of Christ and the Church], but for the wife’s sake also, that he cherish her as his own flesh, as Christ also the Church, and, that the wife fear her husband. He is no longer setting down the duties of love only, but what? That she fear her husband. The wife is a second authority; let her not then demand equality, for she is under the head; nor let him despise her as being in subjection, for she is the body; and if the head despise the body, it will itself also perish. But let him bring in love on his part as a counterpoise to obedience on her part. For example, let the hands and the feet, and all the rest of the members be given up for service to the head, but let the head provide for the body, seeing it contains every sense in itself. Nothing can be better than this union.
The feminist-egalitarian vision of marriage is necessarily one of either two heads, or two bodies, or some other unholy configuration, while St. Paul’s vision is that of a head and a body, just as Christ is the head of His Body, the Church. Chrysostom continues:
And yet how can there ever be love, one may say, where there is fear? It will exist there, I say, preeminently. For she that fears and reverences, loves also; and she that loves, fears and reverences him as being the head, and loves him as being a member, since the head itself is a member of the body at large. Hence he places the one in subjection, and the other in authority, that there may be peace; for where there is equal authority there can never be peace; neither where a house is a democracy, nor where all are rulers; but the ruling power must of necessity be one.
Just as the good order of the κοσμος (cosmos) is (or was) maintained by humanity humbly submitting to God’s rule over it, so it is with the μικρόκοσμος (microcosm) of the family: a singular principal reigns in self-emptying love and care over the whole, and those under his authority return love in submissive gratitude, resulting in the harmonious, peaceful operation of the whole. Echoing this point, one of the other Three Holy Hierarchs of the 4th century St. Gregory the Theologian writes:
The three most ancient opinions concerning God are Anarchia, Polyarchia, and Monarchia. The first two are the sport of the children of Hellas, and may they continue to be so. For Anarchy is a thing without order; and the Rule of Many is factious, and thus anarchical, and thus disorderly. For both these tend to the same thing, namely disorder; and this to dissolution, for disorder is the first step to dissolution. But Monarchy is that which we hold in honour.
The ‘arche’ of the Father is an aspect of orthodox trinitarianism, enshrined in the Nicene Creed: The Son is begotten of the Father (and not vice versa) and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father (and not vice versa). Thus, though all the Persons are ομοούσιος (“of one essence”), there is a relational hierarchy within the Godhead, with the Father as the fountainhead or the Monarch of the Holy Trinity.
With this in mind, we read in 1 Cor. 11:3: “that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.” St. Paul explicitly lays out a hierarchy, and grounds it in the relationship of the Son to the Father, which—as we’ve just seen—is not a reciprocal relationship (though this lack of relational symmetry in no way entails ontological inferiority). And in Ephesians 5, he links the hierarchy of husband-to-wife with the hierarchy of Christ-to-Church.
St. Paul uses these two non-reciprocal, hierarchical relationships as the image or blueprint of marriage, therefore the relationship of husband to wife can not be reciprocal either. Yet, for an egalitarian ‘equality’, this is precisely what the relationship must be: exactly reciprocal. Ergo, per the Bible and the dogma of the Holy Trinity as revealed by Christ and attested to by the Church, ‘egalitarianism’ cannot be true.
Most Christian feminists and egalitarians will attempt to obfuscate by shifting to a discussion of the culture that Paul was writing in, 1st century Roman household codes, the nature of headship and other irrelevancies. But these moves should be treated as the shabby evasions that they are. We don’t need to know the nature of headship or gender norms in Paul’s context because he grounds his teaching in eternal referents: Christ is the head of the Church; the Father is the head of the Son. And the reverse is not true, in either case.
Even if your tradition has—for some inexplicable reason—misplaced the apostolic teaching on the nature of the headship of the husband in the family, the text still states unequivocally that it is something husbands have and wives do not, which is enough to take feminism and egalitarianism off the table as options.
In the next post, we will look at the subject through the lens of Christian tradition and discuss the way that the Theotokos embodies Christian femininity such that her example sets the standard for the Church’s response to Christ, and for women in a unique way.
This is the second in a three-part series responding to feminism — Part three will be available soon . . .
This website is how the Gleason family and the Silva family earn a living. Maintaining this website is a full time job, and this is how they feed their families. Both families now live in Russia, and they appreciate your support.
To keep the Russian Faith website running, a recurring donation of even $5 or $10 per month would be a huge blessing.