russia-insider--2020-10-02--Western Media and Elites Supported the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War - the Ugly Truth Emerges

`` There is no farce more saddening than the history being written for pay in American universities . ''
This article from our archives was first published on RI in October 2018 The author is a well-known academic historian of Russia and Ukraine , which he approaches from a Christian ( Russian Orthodox ) and nationalist perspective , arguing that nationalism and Christian Orthodoxy are inseparable .
He also writes widely on current affairs .
Rare for contemporary Western historians of Russia , he sources original materials in Russian , pulling back the veil on much misunderstanding , ranging from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very beginnings in the Middle Ages .
His latest book , Ukrainian Nationalism ( 2019 ) , ( Amazon ) , is the definitive treatment of this topic and is essential reading to understand the current political turmoil in Ukraine .
It argues that Ukrainian nationalism is real and legitimate , but need n't be Anti-Russian , and that Russia and Ukraine are in fact natural allies .
Here is his article on Russia Insider explaining some of the ideas in the book .
There is no other scholar writing today about Russia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of historical detail and meaning .
Johnson is a national treasure , and his works are highly recommended .
For a fascinating audio podcast discussion of the book by Johnson and Andrew Carrington Hitchcock , see here .
If you are so inclined , please rate the book on Amazon , as this increases sales greatly .
It is a great way to support the author and help spread the ideas in the book .
If Amazon blocks you from leaving a review , please let us know in the comments section below @ @ @ @ @ @ @ email protected ] The White armies in the Russian Civil War received not a cent from the west .
Not a shell , not a rifle reached any faction of the White forces from the west .
The west was not anti-Bolshevik .
Furthermore , the western powers actively supported the Red forces during and after the Civil War .
While the western financial and technical support for the building of socialism has been treated in another paper , it begins with the subject of this one : the western backing of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sole and exclusive reason for western intervention is to ensure that no aid would ever be given to Germany from Russia and that assets owned by western powers not fall into the hands of Germany .
The Elites in Favor of the Reds General William Graves was a firm backer of the Red cause .
In an excellent article on the subject , Kerry Bolton states that Graves and many others actively sought to destroy the White movement .
He refused to deliver 14,000 rifles ordered and paid for by Kolchak .
Another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cossack forces by this same General .
Most of all , Graves , in full communication with the economic elite in the US , had the Japanese stand down from their attacks on Red forces in the east .
In November of 1918 , the Allies signed an agreement with the Reds for full support in exchange for financial concessions .
While the Allies initially sought only Russia ’ s continual action in the war , their attention soon wandered .
Once the Treaty of Brest-Litivosk was signed , the west permitted the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ open Russia to world grain markets and , as the treaty stipulated , hand over the more industrialized parts of Russia ’ s west .
Kolchak countered by also accepting old debts , initiating a Constituent Assembly and guaranteed the independence of Poland .
It was rejected .
That Denikin refused to sell off Russia in exchange for aid sealed his defeat ( Foglesong , 2011 ) .1 Both Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George recognized Trotsky as the “ legitimate ” Russian government .
Since the Red was the only alternative to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recognized .
George stated that a unified Russia would be the “ greatest threat ” to the British empire .
Gen. Denikin states in his memoirs that their sole source of supplies were those taken after Red defeats .
Red officers had regular salaries and a full staff , strongly suggesting western aid ( Gardner , 1976 ) .
The mission of William Bullitt led to an agreement with Lenin and , as always , a total rejection of the Whites .
The memorandum asked for the lifting of all embargoes on the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Full free trade with the Soviets was also demanded , with the final and most important proviso that all debts to the west be paid ( Thompson , 1966 ) Western newspapers spoke harshly of the whites , equating them with landlords and “ reactionaries ” something coming from Bolshevik propaganda .
Great Britain sank the Black Sea Fleet while the French , in the memoirs of Kolchak , fought the Volunteer Army .
Yet , even with their shortages of ammunition and basic supplies , the White armies fought the Reds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the Spring of 1919 .
However , the west had made up its mind .
Kolchak had to go ( Bolton , 2011 ) .
The White armies during the Civil war confuse many .
The common myths are that they were royalist , and served the “ landlord ” class .
Few royalists were part of the White forces and the “ landlord ” class were the peasants themselves , who by the start of the war owned almost 95 % of all Russian land .
A false conservative-radical dichotomy is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Kerensky and the Assembly .
They were hostile to Cossack autonomy and Ukrainian separatism .
The “ unified Great Russia ” was one of the few slogans they all agreed upon .
General Graves was a spokesman for the American ruling class .
His work on the situation at the time shows not only his support of Bolshevism , but that of the US government .
Few had any idea what “ Bolshevism ” was .
About as many knew what “ Marxism ” was .
Today , educated people have a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then , it was just as dark and void as the rest of Russian life .
Graves writes in his memoirs about what he wrote to the State Department about Admiral Kolchak : None of this was true and Graves knew it at the time .
Immediately upon reading this one is struck by the fact that insisting on the restoration of monarchy was sufficient to destroy the moral nature of Kolchak ’ s cause in Washington .
Second , that this alleged desire is only “ in secret , ” so it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since there is no evidence of such a desire anywhere , the need to impute it to him begs the question .
The Ineffectiveness of the White Armies In 1918 , there were three centers of battle : The problem was that these three centers were commanded by generals of different political opinions and strategies .
There was no overarching command in the way Trotsky centralized control over the Red forces .
Egos , ideology and attitudes towards the monarchy all created fissures in the white movement of such severity that it can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all .
In the Russian language work of Valery Shambarov , the condition of the White armies is made clearer .
Just prior to the beginning of the Civil war , the Reds emptied the prisons , promising them freedom in exchange for terrorizing the white and local peoples .
Crime had been very low under Nicholas II , but soon shot up 500 % by 1917 .
Contrary to myth , very few of the White officers came from the old nobility and almost all had no landed property .
About 15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ties or acquired property of any kind .
Once Brest was signed , this meant that the Reds were de facto allied with Berlin .
Britain sought a White-Red alliance to continue the war .
When the Whites refused , Britain abandoned them , calling them “ extremists ” and the worst of all , “ nationalists.
” In July of 1918 , MA Morav ’ yev defected from the Red camp and brought 10,000 men with him .
Yekaterinburg fell to the Czechs .
Panicked , the Reds sacrificed the tsar and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of victory from infernal powers .
Kappel ’ s men penetrated as far as Kazan , where he captured Russia ’ s gold reserve worth 50 million rubles .
Unfortunately , nothing was for sale .
With this immense fortune , the west was unwilling to sell weapons to the Whites .
Food aid and weapons , not to mention tremendous “ loans ” from The Schiff clan in New York poured in for the Reds ( Shambarov , 1999 , original text in Russian ) .
The Whites never developed a firm @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Cossacks had no interest in integrating with regular white structures .
Denikin estimated that , at a minimum , 1 rubles were needed for a single month of operations .
Kornilov sought the possibility of a military government , earning him the eternal hatred of the west .
More than anything else , the west rejected the idea of a strong , unified Russia .
Anyone promoting this was rejected without consideration .
The White governments had little real power .
The staff of the high command was almost non-existent .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ with 600 offices .
Because of the total lack of western aid , they were forced to live at the expense of the local population .
The lack of any real identity or ideology of the White movement was one of the essential flaws in it and a major cause for its defeat .
Part of this was made possible by the dogmatic belief that a “ Constituent Assembly ” will be called upon the defeat of the Reds and all pressing social problems will then be addressed .
In the meantime , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ urban wealthy were almost to a man , dedicated to the Social Democrats and Kerensky .
This included the oligarchs Lv ’ iv , Guchkov , Ryanbushinsky , Konovalov and Tereshchenko and , once Kornilov rejected Kerensky , these elites rejected the White Armies .
The west blocked all White radio transmissions to the public and the Red forces had miraculous recoveries after each defeat .
Both Kolchak and Denikin realized that any aid form the west meant the sale of Russia and the plundering of her natural resources .
Trotsky was willing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his banking contacts .
The whites would not .
The result was the comment of William Bullitt , head of US intelligence in St. Petersburg , that Trotsky was “ our man ” in Russia .
The French assistant military attache in Russia , Captain Jaques Sadoul , was firmly in Trotsky ’ s camp ( Munholland , 1981 ) .
He was also a founder of the International and a communist .
Eventually , he tired of this intellectual fad and abandoned the ideology in 1919 .
Herbert Hoover saved the fledgling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ companies developed the first five year plan for the Soviet Union .
In 1917 , declassified papers from the US Department of State clearly demand that American media outlets stop referring to the Reds as “ enemies.
” In Ukraine , the sole hope for stability was the Cossack Chieftain Pavel Skoropadsky ( 1873-1945 ) .
Universally rejected by western historians , his record was impressive .
Though ruling only from April to November of 1918 , the Reds feared him and Petliura , a high level occultist and a member of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to fight him .
Skoropadsky was pro-Russian but dd not believe in being a part of the empire .
In his short reign he reformed the armed services , limited land ownership , clipped the landlord class and lowered taxes .
Achieving recognition from the Vatican , Austria , Denmark , and more than 30 states , Ukrainian independence had finally become the norm worldwide .
Suspiciously , the “ Ukrainian nationalist ” movement fought him ( cf Sagaydak , 2011 ) .
The Hetman was supported by Bishop Nikodemus , labor and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy of Emperor Alexander III , he chartered the peasant land bank , making it easier to buy or reclaim land .
Each peasant family was assured a minimum of 25 hectares that no debt could remove .
Grain prices were fixed so as to avoid market fluctuations .
Domestic demand was given priority and hard currency was earned with about 35 % of all grain exported .
Yet this miracle , an independent Ukraine in close union with Russia , was intolerable .
Skoropadsky is the unsung hero of the White idea @ @ @ @ @ @ @ western historians , he proved himself a political genius under the worst of circumstances .
Liberal constitutionalism was a suicide pact under the unsettled conditions of war , moral degeneracy and foreign occupation .
As Pavel was a distant relative of the Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky ( 1646-1722 ) , it is fair to say that the Hetmanate had been legitimately restored with his accession .
With almost no money , he succeeded in creating eight army corps of competent fighting strength .
Strangely , the Rada state failed to even begin this process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fairness of the Hetman ’ s land policy ( even in theory ) launched a war against him .
This same group that refused to create a military force under the Rada suddenly had the ability to field an army against the Hetman ( Kaganets , 2007 ) .
Within Austria-Hungary , the Hetman had multinational and multi-confessional support .
The German army was in negotiations with the moderate left as the Hetman took over and had no interest in supporting Skoropadsky .
At the time , his enemies said that England @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His opponents approached Germany to fight the Hetman , not support him .
His land reform was to benefit small landholders , a group he considered to be essential to rebuilding .
He was in the process of putting together a representative ruling council at the time of his absurd dethroning ( Kalynchuk , 2013 ) .
The artificial and forced nature of the socialist and “ nationalist ” opposition to Skoropadsky was such as to bring them to levels of absurdity .
He advocated gradual Ukrainiaization of the military and government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His cabinet contained such luminaries as Doroshenko , Kistakovsky , Naumenko , and Stebnytska , but all of this was deemed insufficiently Ukrainian ( as Petliura made an alliance with Poland ) .
During his short reign , his moderate pro-Ukrainian stance converted many Russians nationals living on the territory .
Ukrainian independence , achieved both de facto and de jure by Skoropadsky , was permanently destroyed upon his overthrow .
Vasyl Lypkivsky and the Hetman were allies , and he successfully mediated a reconciliation of the UAOC and the ROC on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church with its own patriarch .
His successes were so sudden and so significant that he even received Uniat support , given that he was the best hope for stability in the region in Vienna ’ s opinion .
Living in Germany after the war , Skoropadsky refused all offers to cooperate with Hitler ’ s government .
He was a man of rare principle in a violent and unsettled age .
There is no excuse for the awful treatment this man has received from historians , and the attacks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should strongly place his support for Ukrainian independence in doubt.2 It goes without saying that , in the west , all myths created by the Red forces about the Hetman were believed without criticism .
Without regard to any facts , he was referred to as a German partisan and hence totally impossible for the Allies to support .
A strong Ukraine , anticommunist , yet independently pro-Russian , would have been an immense help to the anticommunist cause .
A comprehensive bibliography of the Hetman can be found here : The west @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Red takeover of Russia .
It had its tentacles into the major banking houses in New York thanks to Trotsky .
It was an atheist and thus materialist movement that saw men as nothing more than matter in motion , hence , mass killing had no clear or obvious sanction against it .
The Red armies were falling apart in 1918 , Skoropadsky was creating a prosperous Ukrainian government in Kiev , and Kappel had a fortune that could maintain the White forces indefinitely .
None of this assisted the Whites ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ financial community demanded a centralized , materialist and Jewish Russia and this they received .
Today , Vladimir Putin is threatened with World War III on a daily basis .
Sanctions seek to strangle the Russian economy .
This is because Putin is a nationalist .
Noting like this was ever imposed on the USSR .
Nationalism , especially the nationalism of a country as large as Russia , was the primary enemy of the banking elite then and now .
This is the sole reason the Reds won the Civil War and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in power once it was granted to them .
There is no farce more saddening than the history being written for pay in American universities .

"There is no farce more saddening than the history being written for pay in American universities."
This article from our archives was first published on RI in October 2018
The author is a well-known academic historian of Russia and Ukraine, which he approaches from a Christian (Russian Orthodox) and nationalist perspective, arguing that nationalism and Christian Orthodoxy are inseparable. He also writes widely on current affairs. Rare for contemporary Western historians of Russia, he sources original materials in Russian, pulling back the veil on much misunderstanding, ranging from modern history back to Russia’s very beginnings in the Middle Ages.
His latest book, Ukrainian Nationalism (2019), (Amazon), is the definitive treatment of this topic and is essential reading to understand the current political turmoil in Ukraine. It argues that Ukrainian nationalism is real and legitimate, but needn't be Anti-Russian, and that Russia and Ukraine are in fact natural allies. Here is his article on Russia Insider explaining some of the ideas in the book. There is no other scholar writing today about Russia and the Ukraine with this extraordinary command of historical detail and meaning. Johnson is a national treasure, and his works are highly recommended. For a fascinating audio podcast discussion of the book by Johnson and Andrew Carrington Hitchcock, see here.
If you are so inclined, please rate the book on Amazon, as this increases sales greatly. It is a great way to support the author and help spread the ideas in the book. If Amazon blocks you from leaving a review, please let us know in the comments section below, and/or send an email to dave@russia-insider.com.
The White armies in the Russian Civil War received not a cent from the west. Not a shell, not a rifle reached any faction of the White forces from the west. The west was not anti-Bolshevik. Furthermore, the western powers actively supported the Red forces during and after the Civil War.
While the western financial and technical support for the building of socialism has been treated in another paper, it begins with the subject of this one: the western backing of the Red forces consistently from 1918-1921.
New York Jewish banker Jacob Schiff, the George Soros of his day
The sole and exclusive reason for western intervention is to ensure that no aid would ever be given to Germany from Russia and that assets owned by western powers not fall into the hands of Germany.
The Elites in Favor of the Reds
Famously, Colonel Edward House, the main adviser to Woodrow Wilson, wrote:
That day Colonel House asked me to call upon him. I found him worried both by my criticism of any recognition of the Bolshevists and by the certainty, which he had not previously realized, that if the President were to recognize the Bolshevists in return for commercial concessions his whole “idealism” would be hopelessly compromised as commercialism in disguise. I pointed out to him that not only would Wilson be utterly discredited but that the League of Nations would go by the board, because all the small peoples and many of the big peoples of Europe would be unable to resist the Bolshevism which Wilson would have accredited (Quoted from Bolton, 2010).
General William Graves was a firm backer of the Red cause. In an excellent article on the subject, Kerry Bolton states that Graves and many others actively sought to destroy the White movement. He refused to deliver 14,000 rifles ordered and paid for by Kolchak. Another 15,000 rifles were blocked from the White Cossack forces by this same General. Most of all, Graves, in full communication with the economic elite in the US, had the Japanese stand down from their attacks on Red forces in the east.
In November of 1918, the Allies signed an agreement with the Reds for full support in exchange for financial concessions. While the Allies initially sought only Russia’s continual action in the war, their attention soon wandered. Once the Treaty of Brest-Litivosk was signed, the west permitted the Reds to re-organized old Russian debts, open Russia to world grain markets and, as the treaty stipulated, hand over the more industrialized parts of Russia’s west.
Kolchak countered by also accepting old debts, initiating a Constituent Assembly and guaranteed the independence of Poland. It was rejected. That Denikin refused to sell off Russia in exchange for aid sealed his defeat (Foglesong, 2011).1
Both Woodrow Wilson and Lloyd George recognized Trotsky as the “legitimate” Russian government. Since the Red was the only alternative to the “tsarist whites,” they were recognized. George stated that a unified Russia would be the “greatest threat” to the British empire. Gen. Denikin states in his memoirs that their sole source of supplies were those taken after Red defeats. Red officers had regular salaries and a full staff, strongly suggesting western aid (Gardner, 1976).
The mission of William Bullitt led to an agreement with Lenin and, as always, a total rejection of the Whites. The memorandum asked for the lifting of all embargoes on the Soviet government and for its immediate recognition. Full free trade with the Soviets was also demanded, with the final and most important proviso that all debts to the west be paid (Thompson, 1966)
Western newspapers spoke harshly of the whites, equating them with landlords and “reactionaries” something coming from Bolshevik propaganda. Great Britain sank the Black Sea Fleet while the French, in the memoirs of Kolchak, fought the Volunteer Army. Yet, even with their shortages of ammunition and basic supplies, the White armies fought the Reds to a standstill and began routing them by the Spring of 1919. However, the west had made up its mind. Kolchak had to go (Bolton, 2011).
The White armies during the Civil war confuse many. The common myths are that they were royalist, and served the “landlord” class. Few royalists were part of the White forces and the “landlord” class were the peasants themselves, who by the start of the war owned almost 95% of all Russian land. A false conservative-radical dichotomy is drawn. The Whites were largely loyal to Kerensky and the Assembly. They were hostile to Cossack autonomy and Ukrainian separatism. The “unified Great Russia” was one of the few slogans they all agreed upon.
General Graves was a spokesman for the American ruling class. His work on the situation at the time shows not only his support of Bolshevism, but that of the US government. Few had any idea what “Bolshevism” was. About as many knew what “Marxism” was. Today, educated people have a vague idea of these concepts. Back then, it was just as dark and void as the rest of Russian life. Graves writes in his memoirs about what he wrote to the State Department about Admiral Kolchak:
The Kolchak Government cannot possibly stand and if the Allies support him they will make the greatest mistake in history. The Government is divided into two distinct parts, one issues proclamation and propaganda for foreign consumption stating that the Government favors and works for a constituent assembly, other part secretly plans and plots a restoration of monarchy. This is perceptible only to those who are part of the Government. It is a hypocritical government which attempts to convince the peasants that their cause is being fostered and yet looks for the psychological moment to restore monarchy. Kolchak has surrounded himself with old regime officers whose only salvation for future existence depends on restoration of monarchy (Graves, 1941).
None of this was true and Graves knew it at the time. Immediately upon reading this one is struck by the fact that insisting on the restoration of monarchy was sufficient to destroy the moral nature of Kolchak’s cause in Washington. Second, that this alleged desire is only “in secret,” so it cannot be verified. Finally, since there is no evidence of such a desire anywhere, the need to impute it to him begs the question.
The Ineffectiveness of the White Armies
In 1918, there were three centers of battle:
First, the southwest where the Volunteer army worked with the Cossacks against the purely urban, Jewish red forces. The newly formed Polish army, Ukrainian Rada militia and the Makhno organization made this the most complex theater of the war. The Polish forces were quite effective, and at a crucial moment where the Red forces would have been destroyed, Pidsulsky turns against the Volunteers and saves Trotsky from destruction. The key moment was the massive war between Wrangel’s 350,000 men and Trotsky’s 200,000. As Denikin had abandoned the cause and left Russia, the confusion in the high command and the use of Makhno from the rear caused a major white loss. A massive force of 150,000 Whites escaped to the west
from Crimea.
Second, the Siberian republic. This was a successful political unit from 1917 to 1922 under the command of Kolchak. The press, often portrayed as state-controlled, was highly critical of the Whites. Its economic growth was impressive and local governments were active. His military forces was equally impressive, consisting of 35,000 Cossacks and 80,00 Japanese. The total fore was over 400,000.
Third, the Northwest under General Yudenich, including an Estonian army of 10,000. Britain promised him some aid only under the condition that Estonia be declared independent. Britain, however, became the primary enemy of Yudenich’s army as it threatened St. Petersburg. The Red government, threatened for the first time, saw total inaction from the British troops at Arkhangelsk.
The problem was that these three centers were commanded by generals of different political opinions and strategies. There was no overarching command in the way Trotsky centralized control over the Red forces. Egos, ideology and attitudes towards the monarchy all created fissures in the white movement of such severity that it can hardly be called a single movement at all.
In the Russian language work of Valery Shambarov, the condition of the White armies is made clearer. Just prior to the beginning of the Civil war, the Reds emptied the prisons, promising them freedom in exchange for terrorizing the white and local peoples. Crime had been very low under Nicholas II, but soon shot up 500% by 1917.
Contrary to myth, very few of the White officers came from the old nobility and almost all had no landed property. About 15% of the total had some noble ties or acquired property of any kind. Once Brest was signed, this meant that the Reds were de facto allied with Berlin.
Britain sought a White-Red alliance to continue the war. When the Whites refused, Britain abandoned them, calling them “extremists” and the worst of all, “nationalists.” In July of 1918, MA Morav’yev defected from the Red camp and brought 10,000 men with him. Yekaterinburg fell to the Czechs. Panicked, the Reds sacrificed the tsar and his family in exchange for the promise of victory from infernal powers. Kappel’s men penetrated as far as
Kazan, where he captured Russia’s gold reserve worth 50 million rubles. Unfortunately, nothing was for sale. With this immense fortune, the west was unwilling to sell weapons to the Whites.
Food aid and weapons, not to mention tremendous “loans” from The Schiff clan in New York poured in for the Reds (Shambarov, 1999, original text in Russian).
The Whites never developed a firm chain of command and, even worse, the Cossacks had no interest in integrating with regular white structures. Denikin estimated that, at a minimum, 1 rubles were needed for a single month of operations. Kornilov sought the possibility of a military government, earning him the eternal hatred of the west. More than anything else, the west rejected the idea of a strong, unified Russia. Anyone promoting this was rejected without consideration.
The White governments had little real power. The staff of the high command was almost non-existent. The Northern Army had roughly 25,000 men with 600 offices. Because of the total lack of western aid, they were forced to live at the expense of the local population.
The lack of any real identity or ideology of the White movement was one of the essential flaws in it and a major cause for its defeat. Part of this was made possible by the dogmatic belief that a “Constituent Assembly” will be called upon the defeat of the Reds and all pressing social problems will then be addressed. In the meantime, only the military situation mattered.
The urban wealthy were almost to a man, dedicated to the Social Democrats and Kerensky. This included the oligarchs Lv’iv, Guchkov, Ryanbushinsky, Konovalov and Tereshchenko and, once Kornilov rejected Kerensky, these elites rejected the White Armies. The west blocked all White radio transmissions to the public and the Red forces had miraculous recoveries after each defeat.
Both Kolchak and Denikin realized that any aid form the west meant the sale of Russia and the plundering of her natural resources. Trotsky was willing to do this at the behest of his banking contacts. The whites would not. The result was the comment of William Bullitt, head of US intelligence in St. Petersburg, that Trotsky was “our man” in Russia. The French assistant military attache in Russia, Captain Jaques Sadoul, was firmly in Trotsky’s camp (Munholland, 1981). He was also a founder of the International and a communist.
Eventually, he tired of this intellectual fad and abandoned the ideology in 1919.
Herbert Hoover saved the fledgling USSR with generous food aid while American companies developed the first five year plan for the Soviet Union. In 1917, declassified papers from the US Department of State clearly demand that American media outlets stop referring to the Reds as “enemies.”
The Last Hope: Hetman Skoropadsky
In Ukraine, the sole hope for stability was the Cossack Chieftain Pavel Skoropadsky (1873-1945). Universally rejected by western historians, his record was impressive. Though ruling only from April to November of 1918, the Reds feared him and Petliura, a high level occultist and a member of the same lodge as Trotsky, was mobilized to fight him. Skoropadsky was pro-Russian but dd not believe in being a part of the empire. In his short reign he reformed the armed services, limited land ownership, clipped the landlord class and lowered taxes.
Achieving recognition from the Vatican, Austria, Denmark, and more than 30 states, Ukrainian independence had finally become the norm worldwide. Suspiciously, the “Ukrainian nationalist” movement fought him (cf Sagaydak, 2011).
The Hetman was supported by Bishop Nikodemus, labor and the peasantry in general. Imitating the policy of Emperor Alexander III, he chartered the peasant land bank, making it easier to buy or reclaim land. Each peasant family was assured a minimum of 25 hectares that no debt could remove. Grain prices were fixed so as to avoid market fluctuations. Domestic demand was given priority and hard currency was earned with about 35% of all grain exported. Yet this miracle, an independent Ukraine in close union with Russia, was intolerable.
Skoropadsky is the unsung hero of the White idea. Dismissed with almost no consideration by western historians, he proved himself a political genius under the worst of circumstances. Liberal constitutionalism was a suicide pact under the unsettled conditions of war, moral degeneracy and foreign occupation. As Pavel was a distant relative of the Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky (1646-1722), it is fair to say that the Hetmanate had been legitimately restored with his accession.
With almost no money, he succeeded in creating eight army corps of competent fighting strength. Strangely, the Rada state failed to even begin this process. The socialists, not even approaching the fairness of the Hetman’s land policy (even in theory) launched a war against him.
This same group that refused to create a military force under the Rada suddenly had the ability to field an army against the Hetman (Kaganets, 2007).
Within Austria-Hungary, the Hetman had multinational and multi-confessional support. The German army was in negotiations with the moderate left as the Hetman took over and had no interest in supporting Skoropadsky. At the time, his enemies said that England, not Germany, was his sponsor. His opponents approached Germany to fight the Hetman, not support him. His land reform was to benefit small landholders, a group he considered to be essential to rebuilding. He was in the process of putting together a representative ruling council at the time of his absurd dethroning (Kalynchuk, 2013).
The artificial and forced nature of the socialist and “nationalist” opposition to Skoropadsky was such as to bring them to levels of absurdity. He advocated gradual Ukrainiaization of the military and government services. This was ignored by Petliura. His cabinet contained such luminaries as Doroshenko, Kistakovsky, Naumenko, and Stebnytska, but all of this was deemed insufficiently Ukrainian (as Petliura made an alliance with Poland).
During his short reign, his moderate pro-Ukrainian stance converted many Russians nationals living on the territory. Ukrainian independence, achieved both de facto and de jure by Skoropadsky, was permanently destroyed upon his overthrow.
Vasyl Lypkivsky and the Hetman were allies, and he successfully mediated a reconciliation of the UAOC and the ROC on his territory. He sought a fully autocephalous Ukrainian Orthodox church with its own patriarch. His successes were so sudden and so significant that he even received Uniat support, given that he was the best hope for stability in the region in Vienna’s opinion. Living in Germany after the war, Skoropadsky refused all offers to cooperate with Hitler’s government. He was a man of rare principle in a violent and unsettled age. There is no excuse for the awful treatment this man has received from historians, and the attacks on him from Petliura and the Poles should strongly place his support for Ukrainian independence in doubt.2
It goes without saying that, in the west, all myths created by the Red forces about the Hetman were believed without criticism. Without regard to any facts, he was referred to as a German partisan and hence totally impossible for the Allies to support. A strong Ukraine, anticommunist, yet independently pro-Russian, would have been an immense help to the anticommunist cause.
A comprehensive bibliography of the Hetman can be found here:
http://msmb.org.ua/biblioresursi/bibliografiya/osobistosti/skoropadsykiy-pavlo-petrovich-ostanniy-getymanukraini/
Conclusion
The west did everything in its power to ensure the Red takeover of Russia. It had its tentacles into the major banking houses in New York thanks to Trotsky. It was an atheist and thus materialist movement that saw men as nothing more than matter in motion, hence, mass killing had no clear or obvious sanction against it. The Red armies were falling apart in 1918, Skoropadsky was creating a prosperous Ukrainian government in Kiev, and Kappel had a fortune that could maintain the White forces indefinitely. None of this assisted the Whites (Bunyan, 1976).
The American financial community demanded a centralized, materialist and Jewish Russia and this they received. Today, Vladimir Putin is threatened with World War III on a daily basis. Sanctions seek to strangle the Russian economy. This is because Putin is a nationalist.
Noting like this was ever imposed on the USSR. Nationalism, especially the nationalism of a country as large as Russia, was the primary enemy of the banking elite then and now. This is the sole reason the Reds won the Civil War and had the liquidity and investment to continue in power once it was granted to them.
There is no farce more saddening than the history being written for pay in American universities.


russia-insider--2020-10-03--WATCH: Very Funny Video Ridiculing the Assange Travesty

This article from our archives was first published on RI in April 2019 Two more years of this sort of @ @ @ @ @ long just the UK stage of Assange 's legal battle will likely last , and @ @ @ @ @ done for good .
The Assange arrest might just be the best thing to happen @ @ @ @ @ and justice in a long time .
Very well done .
Enjoy .
The videos @ @ @ @ @ man and wife team , and the story of how they got started in the @ @ @ @ @ .
They have 1600 donors on Patreon , and that number seems to be growing @ @ @ @ @ if you can with $ 1 per month , we need more of this !

× Disabling adblock
Disabling adblock for a specific site just takes a couple of clicks.
Usually it is as simple as clicking on the adblock icon in your browser, and choosing the ‘disable on this page or domain’ option.
If that doesn’t work this wikihow article gives more detail: https://www.wikihow.com/Disable-AdBlock
Thank you for your support!


russia-insider--2020-10-04--The REAL Holocaust: The 1915 Armenian Genocide and its Russophobic Origins

`` As a result of the Jewish lobby 's recommendations , the Young Turks government removed Armenians from Anatolia in 1915 .
Hence , the economy of the country was left in the hands of Jewish capital . ''
- Ekrem Buğra Ekinci of The Daily Sabah Turkish newspaper , October 13th 2017 .
This article from our archives was first published on RI in March 2018 On May 30th 1915 Talaat Pasha issued the Tehcir Act , which on paper was a security measure the Turks put forth to prevent a Russian-Armenian revolt by forcibly relocating the nationals of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was the story the Young Turks told the world to avoid and minimize any public disapproval or foreign resistance .
The relocations involved disarmed Armenians being forcibly marched to camps in the inner deserts of Anatolia and Syria , and these camps were not stocked with necessary supplies for survival .
The properties of these people were confiscated and sold to new arrivals , the men were often singled out to be killed first , and the women were often enslaved and raped en masse .
The accusation of Russian-aligned rebellion was used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Henry Morgenthau frantically remarked ; A confession is considered as valuable only if it contains some true and verifiable details of the crime the investigator did not know of .
This rule of criminal investigation was observed in the controversial telegram transcriptions written in The memoirs of Naim Bey .
What events led to these horrific genocide and near destruction of the Armenian people , and why are the Armenian people important for European history ?
The Holocaust of the Armenian people wasn ’ t simply stopped at the borders of Turkey ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had also invaded Persia .
During this invasion Christian Armenians and Assyrians alike were slaughtered .
In fact , approximately half of Persia ’ s Christian Assyrians alongside about four-fifths of the Christian Assyrian leadership were killing during this time by Turkish and Kurdish invaders .
Two months after the ( largely Jewish led ) Bolshevik revolution the new Russian government began withdrawing Russian troops from the Caucasus .
This withdrew the only ally the Armenians had and put their remaining people at risk of extinction .
At this time the last refuge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unconquered land of historic Armenia centered around Mount Ararat .
Mount Ararat is traditionally the Christian-accepted location of Noah ’ s Ark in the Book of Genesis .
Armenia was the first Christian country in the world .
The Armenian language is the most ancestral , oldest Indo-European Language left since the extinctions of its Indo-European predecessors Anatolian and Tocharian .
It ’ s hard to overstate the ethnocultural significance in this event threatening complete extermination of the most ancestral Indo-European speakers and also the most ancestral Christians .
Much of the Armenian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ renamed “ Eastern Anatolia ” by the invaders .
With the survivors and refugees concentrated in Caucausia the impending invasion threatened complete annihilation .
The Christian leader Catholicos Gevorg V ordered Church Bells to peal for six days as all classes of Armenian people were called to take up arms with the women and children readying supplies and the entire survivors of the nation prepared for total war .
The President of the Armenian assembly stated “ If we are to perish , let us perish with honor.
” In the battles of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the outnumbered Armenians managed to defy the odds and fight off the Turkish invaders .
Historian Christopher Walker remarked that with a loss at Sardarabad `` it is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term . ''
The Destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire resulted by most estimates with 1.5 million of the 2 million Ottoman Armenians being exterminated .
The history of Armenia is intertwined with that of Europe and Russia especially .
Russia had generally had an Armenian presence through its history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russia annexed parts of the historical Armenian nation .
Since that time Russia has generally defended the rights of Christian minorities in the Ottoman lands .
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is perhaps the most visible example of a Russian Armenian given that he was born to an Armenian father .
But the Armenians had , for the most part , been very well integrated in the empire as well .
Armenians were formerly dubbed the `` loyal millet '' .
The Armenians opportunities in the region arguably increased with the transition from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Armenian villages traditionally had a high degree of autonomy as well .
Any sort of separatist nationalism would seem unviable , and the main Armenian conflicts with the Ottoman Muslims were based about regional autonomy and protection from bandits .
The primary Armenian political organizations with public protests were advocates pushing for autonomy such as the 1890 ’ s Kum Kapu demonstration .
These requests were quite reasonable as the Armenians had suffered various attacks and murders from Muslim Kurds and other bandits who , by the Ottoman empires laws , held legal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Sultan Abdul Hamid II attempted to shed the “ sick man of Europe ” label his failing Ottoman Empire had by encouraging a modernization of the Empire , which required a stronger and more centralized government role in citizens affairs .
Abdul Hamid II was attacked in the British press as the “ Red Sultan ” for various atrocities committed against minorities such as Armenians and for all intents and purposes was the perfect archetype of a Tyrant .
The Young Turks who sought to overthrow him by contrast were revolutionaries .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Musavat , Uhuvvet ” inspired from the French “ Liberté , égalité , fraternité ” meaning “ Liberty , Equality , Fraternity ” .
Turkish ethnicity is often described as a `` melting pot '' of all Anatolian people ranging from the gene pools of the Balkans , Anatolia , and parts of Asia . ''
The Young Turks were also rationalists following a materialist ideologies like positivism which they prioritized over religion ; The Islamic authorities the Ulama even denounced them as `` trying to change Islam into another form and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Islam '' .
The Ottoman Empire was historically a place where Jews could live without fear of persecution according to one of the Erdogan aligned newspaper the Daily Sabah .
Indeed this tolerance extended into the post-Sultan era of the Young Turks , as the Encyclopedia Judaica noted that various Zionist groups were hopeful in 1908 for opportunities to press their interests ; “ the absence of antisemitism in Turkey made the idea [ Jewish settlement in Palestine ] possible ” .
Talaat specifically was very open to these ideas ; Knowing this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alongside the progressive and secular motto of the new government and its noted tolerance of Jewish minorities , one has to ask how a genocide could have even been possible .
How could such a progressive government proceed to horrifically genocide many of the states indigenous Christian populations ?
If we take a closer look at the killings we come across many disturbing disparities in the treatment of these minority groups .
After all in the Great fire of Smyrna catastrophe of 1922 the Christian Armenian and Christian Greek sections of the city @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sections were not .
In 1918 , three years after the passing of the Tehcir law , Talaat Pasha made a Turkish Balfour declaration equivalent expressing support for the establishment of Jewish Palestine .
Clearly it is a strange sort of nationalism the Western world is unfamiliar with when the Jewish minorities are spared .
The Armenian Holocaust was not only unexpected by the victims but in fact it is still to this day denied by the perpetrator state Turkey .
And until recently , the execution of the genocide itself was only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state of Turkey claiming the genocide was really just a civil war .
The only direct evidence of intentional genocide were in translated telegrams written in the 1921 published The Memoirs of Naim Bey which lost much of the source material telegrams .
In October 2016 however Prof. Taner Akçam found archived Ottoman telegrams confirming the legitimacy of various events from The Memoirs of Naim Bey and confirming that they were not mere fabrications for propaganda .
This legitimacy was confirmed further when the “ smoking gun ” of April 2017 was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the murder of Armenians .
The official Young Turks government telegram asks directly if the deported Armenians are being killed or “ merely sent off and deported ” .
This is a telegram with an Ottoman letterhead and with the Ottoman coding system acquired by an Armenian Catholic priest , Krikor Guerguerian .
He held the evidence in a private archive wherein it was secured by his nephew .
The issue being re-raised has re-opened conflicts between Turkey and the international community .
During the Western progressive-leftist worlds drama over President Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ million ” , an angry and emotional response from the Jewish Telegraph Agency made some very interesting admissions on the Jewish Holocausts history .
With the newly opened international drama of the Armenian Holocaust denying Turkish government , we can find some interesting admissions of the origins of the Young Turks revolution .
The Young Turks Revolution broke out in Salonica .
Salonica was the largest Jewish city in the world at this time with Jewish people constituting over half the population .
According to a prominent Turkish Newspaper in a very recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allegations of the Armenian Holocaust denying Erdogan-aligned newspaper are very important and need to be explored in depth , as these allegations may help to uncover background historical interactions between Jewish groups and European/Christian groups in a multicultural environment .
In his book Banality of Indifference , Yair Auron alleges that the Jewish citizens of Turkey during this time were apathetic to the murdered Armenians .
Regarding the attitude of the Jews towards the Armenians , he wrote : During the 1922 great fire of Smyrna , in which the Greek and Armenian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while the Turkish and Jewish sections were spared , the accounts of Jewish teachers alleged that either the Greeks or Armenians started the fire themselves .
This apathetic and dismissive attitude has even been shown in the Jewish “ Anti-defamation league ” which as recently as 2007 campaigned against the American governments recognition of the Armenian Holocaust .
It needs to be noted here that the American ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau was himself a Jew , and quickly became of the fiercest advocates for recognition of this genocide , and even demanded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But of course exceptions don ’ t break the rule .
The post-WW2 world has served to served to center all discussions of prejudice on nomadic minority ethnic groups .
The topic is very well studied with any and all possible ethnic and political roots examined .
By contrast , prejudice and oppression of Indo-European nationalities and their culture or religious practices are not widely discussed .
While these events are minimized in the social/academic spheres of the Western world , Christophobia and Europhobia have not only happened historically but continue to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for this sort of prejudice is very problematic for the modern “ multicultural world ” especially as anti-European/Christian prejudices are increasingly apparent and ignored by the mainstream media/academia .
This lack of study needs to be adequately addressed .
The future and survival of European Christendom is depending on it .
Avedian , Vahagn ( 21 May 2008 ) .
`` The Armenian Genocide 1915 : From a Neutral Small State 's Perspective : Sweden '' ( PDF ) .
Uppsala University .
Retrieved 17 June 2016 .
Mikaberidze , Alexander ( 2015 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In Whitehorn , Alan .
The Armenian Genocide : The Essential Reference Guide .
ABC-CLIO .
ISBN 1610696883 .
Naim Bey.
, .
( 1920 ) .
The memoirs of Naim Bey : Turkish official documents relating to the deportations and massacres of Armenians .
London : Hodder and Stoughton .
Baumer , Church of the East , at 263 .
The Church of the East : An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity , Christoph Baumer , I.B .
Tauris , 2006 .
Bobelian , Michael ( 2009 ) .
Children of Armenia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Struggle for Justice .
New York : Simon & Schuster .
p. 34 .
ISBN 1-4165-5725-3 .
Akçam , T. ( 2006 ) .
A shameful act : The Armenian genocide and the question of Turkish responsibility .
Macmillan .
Walker , Christopher J .
( 1990 ) .
Armenia The Survival of a Nation , 2nd ed .
New York : St. Martin 's Press .
pp .
254–255 .
ISBN 0-7099-0210-7 .
Dadrian , Vahakn N. The History of the Armenian Genocide : Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1995 , p. 192 .
ISBN 1-57181-666-6 '' Fighting In Constantinople .
; The Armenian Patriarch Mobbed – Soldiers And Rioters Killed '' .
New York Times .
29 July 1890 .
The Ottoman Peoples and The End of Empire by Justin McCarthy ( 2007 ) , p. 200-205 Hanioğlu , M. Şükrü , The Political Ideas of the Young Turks .
E. Karsh , Empires of the Sand : The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East , 1789-1923 .
Ya'ir Oron , The Banality of Indifference : Zionism and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 2002 , p.126 .

"As a result of the Jewish lobby's recommendations, the Young Turks government removed Armenians from Anatolia in 1915. Hence, the economy of the country was left in the hands of Jewish capital." - Ekrem Buğra Ekinci of The Daily Sabah Turkish newspaper, October 13th 2017.
This article from our archives was first published on RI in March 2018
Johann von Bernstorff (German ambassador); "The way the Armenian problem was solved was hair-raising. I can still see in front of me Talaat's cynical expression, when he emphasized that the Armenian question was solved."
Einar af Wirsén (Swedish Diplomat) "When I kept on pestering him about the Armenian question, he once said with a smile: 'What on earth do you want? The question is settled, there are no more Armenians'".
Henry Morgenthau (American Ambassador (He was Jewish)); "Whatever crimes the most perverted instincts of the human mind can devise, and whatever refinements of persecution and injustice the most debased imagination can conceive, became the daily misfortunes of this devoted people. I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915."
On May 30th 1915 Talaat Pasha issued the Tehcir Act, which on paper was a security measure the Turks put forth to prevent a Russian-Armenian revolt by forcibly relocating the nationals of Armenia to Mesopotamia and Syria. This was the story the Young Turks told the world to avoid and minimize any public disapproval or foreign resistance. The relocations involved disarmed Armenians being forcibly marched to camps in the inner deserts of Anatolia and Syria, and these camps were not stocked with necessary supplies for survival. The properties of these people were confiscated and sold to new arrivals, the men were often singled out to be killed first, and the women were often enslaved and raped en masse.
The accusation of Russian-aligned rebellion was used as justification and cover. American Ambassador Henry Morgenthau frantically remarked;
"Have you received my 841? Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion. Protests as well as threats are unavailing and probably incite the Ottoman government to more drastic measures as they are determined to disclaim responsibility for their absolute disregard of capitulations and I believe nothing short of actual force which obviously United States are not in a position to exert would adequately meet the situation."
A confession is considered as valuable only if it contains some true and verifiable details of the crime the investigator did not know of. This rule of criminal investigation was observed in the controversial telegram transcriptions written in The memoirs of Naim Bey.
On March 25, 1915, Talaat states: "It is the duty of all of us to effect on the broadest lines the realisation of the noble project of wiping out the existence of the Armenians who have for centuries been constituting a barrier to the Empire's progress in civilization."
What events led to these horrific genocide and near destruction of the Armenian people, and why are the Armenian people important for European history?
Did it happen, or didn't it, and who was behind it?
Armenians are an ethno-linguistic-religious group distinct from their surrounding neighbors. They have their own church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, which was founded in the 1st century CE, and became in 301 CE the first branch of Christianity to become a state religion. They have also their own alphabet and language which is classified as an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The historical homeland of the Armenians sits north of the Fertile Crescent, a region of substantial importance to modern human evolution. Genetic and archaeological data suggest farmers expanding from this region during the Neolithic populated Europe and interacted/admixed with pre-existing hunter-gatherer populations. Furthermore, Armenia’s location may have been important for the spread of Indo-European languages, since it is believed to encompass or be close to the Proto-Indo-European homeland (Anatolia or Pontic Steppe) from which the Indo-Europeans and their culture spread to Western Europe, Central Asia and India.
The Holocaust of the Armenian people wasn’t simply stopped at the borders of Turkey; Ottoman troops by the Young Turks insistence had also invaded Persia. During this invasion Christian Armenians and Assyrians alike were slaughtered. In fact, approximately half of Persia’s Christian Assyrians alongside about four-fifths of the Christian Assyrian leadership were killing during this time by Turkish and Kurdish invaders.
Two months after the (largely Jewish led) Bolshevik revolution the new Russian government began withdrawing Russian troops from the Caucasus. This withdrew the only ally the Armenians had and put their remaining people at risk of extinction. At this time the last refuge for these people was the small remaining unconquered land of historic Armenia centered around Mount Ararat.
Mount Ararat is traditionally the Christian-accepted location of Noah’s Ark in the Book of Genesis. Armenia was the first Christian country in the world. The Armenian language is the most ancestral, oldest Indo-European Language left since the extinctions of its Indo-European predecessors Anatolian and Tocharian. It’s hard to overstate the ethnocultural significance in this event threatening complete extermination of the most ancestral Indo-European speakers and also the most ancestral Christians. Much of the Armenian highlands were lost; Western Armenia was renamed “Eastern Anatolia” by the invaders. With the survivors and refugees concentrated in Caucausia the impending invasion threatened complete annihilation.
The Christian leader Catholicos Gevorg V ordered Church Bells to peal for six days as all classes of Armenian people were called to take up arms with the women and children readying supplies and the entire survivors of the nation prepared for total war. The President of the Armenian assembly stated “If we are to perish, let us perish with honor.”
In the battles of Sardarabad, alongside Abaran and Karakilisa, the outnumbered Armenians managed to defy the odds and fight off the Turkish invaders. Historian Christopher Walker remarked that with a loss at Sardarabad "it is perfectly possible that the word Armenia would have henceforth denoted only an antique geographical term."
The Destruction of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire resulted by most estimates with 1.5 million of the 2 million Ottoman Armenians being exterminated.
The history of Armenia is intertwined with that of Europe and Russia especially. Russia had generally had an Armenian presence through its history but after the Russo-Persian wars in 1828 Russia annexed parts of the historical Armenian nation. Since that time Russia has generally defended the rights of Christian minorities in the Ottoman lands. Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov is perhaps the most visible example of a Russian Armenian given that he was born to an Armenian father.
But the Armenians had, for the most part, been very well integrated in the empire as well. Armenians were formerly dubbed the "loyal millet". The Armenians opportunities in the region arguably increased with the transition from Greek Byzantine rule to Ottoman rule. Armenian villages traditionally had a high degree of autonomy as well. Any sort of separatist nationalism would seem unviable, and the main Armenian conflicts with the Ottoman Muslims were based about regional autonomy and protection from bandits. The primary Armenian political organizations with public protests were advocates pushing for autonomy such as the 1890’s Kum Kapu demonstration. These requests were quite reasonable as the Armenians had suffered various attacks and murders from Muslim Kurds and other bandits who, by the Ottoman empires laws, held legal superiority in court.
During this time the Sultan Abdul Hamid II attempted to shed the “sick man of Europe” label his failing Ottoman Empire had by encouraging a modernization of the Empire, which required a stronger and more centralized government role in citizens affairs. Abdul Hamid II was attacked in the British press as the “Red Sultan” for various atrocities committed against minorities such as Armenians and for all intents and purposes was the perfect archetype of a Tyrant.
The Young Turks who sought to overthrow him by contrast were revolutionaries. They shouted their slogans of “Hürriyet, Musavat , Uhuvvet” inspired from the French “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” meaning “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”. Turkish ethnicity is often described as a "melting pot" of all Anatolian people ranging from the gene pools of the Balkans, Anatolia, and parts of Asia." The Young Turks were also rationalists following a materialist ideologies like positivism which they prioritized over religion; The Islamic authorities the Ulama even denounced them as "trying to change Islam into another form and create a new religion while calling it Islam".
The Ottoman Empire was historically a place where Jews could live without fear of persecution according to one of the Erdogan aligned newspaper the Daily Sabah. Indeed this tolerance extended into the post-Sultan era of the Young Turks, as the Encyclopedia Judaica noted that various Zionist groups were hopeful in 1908 for opportunities to press their interests; “the absence of antisemitism in Turkey made the idea [Jewish settlement in Palestine] possible”. Talaat specifically was very open to these ideas;
"Four years later Talaat even propagated the fantastic idea of a 'Muslim-Jewish Alliance.' The Balkan wars had plunged the Ottoman Empire into financial ruin and Talaat, who became a key member of the CUP's ruling triumvirate following the military coup of January 1913, expected the Zionists to link the empire with the fabulous wealth of 'world Jewry.'"
Knowing this background of the states historical pluralism, alongside the progressive and secular motto of the new government and its noted tolerance of Jewish minorities, one has to ask how a genocide could have even been possible. How could such a progressive government proceed to horrifically genocide many of the states indigenous Christian populations?
If we take a closer look at the killings we come across many disturbing disparities in the treatment of these minority groups. After all in the Great fire of Smyrna catastrophe of 1922 the Christian Armenian and Christian Greek sections of the city were destroyed while the Jewish and Turkish sections were not. In 1918, three years after the passing of the Tehcir law, Talaat Pasha made a Turkish Balfour declaration equivalent expressing support for the establishment of Jewish Palestine. Clearly it is a strange sort of nationalism the Western world is unfamiliar with when the Jewish minorities are spared.
The Armenian Holocaust was not only unexpected by the victims but in fact it is still to this day denied by the perpetrator state Turkey. And until recently, the execution of the genocide itself was only known by third party observers, with the state of Turkey claiming the genocide was really just a civil war. The only direct evidence of intentional genocide were in translated telegrams written in the 1921 published The Memoirs of Naim Bey which lost much of the source material telegrams.
In October 2016 however Prof. Taner Akçam found archived Ottoman telegrams confirming the legitimacy of various events from The Memoirs of Naim Bey and confirming that they were not mere fabrications for propaganda.
This legitimacy was confirmed further when the “smoking gun” of April 2017 was discovered, an original telegram directly inquiring over the murder of Armenians. The official Young Turks government telegram asks directly if the deported Armenians are being killed or “merely sent off and deported”.
“Are the Armenians who were deported from there being liquidated? Are the troublesome individuals whom you have reported as having been exiled and expelled been eliminated or merely sent off and deported? Please report honestly.”
This is a telegram with an Ottoman letterhead and with the Ottoman coding system acquired by an Armenian Catholic priest, Krikor Guerguerian. He held the evidence in a private archive wherein it was secured by his nephew. The issue being re-raised has re-opened conflicts between Turkey and the international community. During the Western progressive-leftist worlds drama over President Donald Trumps Holocaust remembrance statement of “11 million”, an angry and emotional response from the Jewish Telegraph Agency made some very interesting admissions on the Jewish Holocausts history.
The “5 million” has driven Holocaust historians to distraction ever since Wiesenthal started to peddle it in the 1970s. Wiesenthal told the Washington Post in 1979, “I have sought with Jewish leaders not to talk about 6 million Jewish dead, but rather about 11 million civilians dead, including 6 million Jews…”
“I said to him, ‘Simon, you are telling a lie,’” Bauer recalled in an interview Tuesday. “He said, ‘Sometimes you need to do that to get the results for things you think are essential.’”
Bauer and other historians who knew Wiesenthal said the Nazi hunter told them that he chose the 5 million number carefully: He wanted a number large enough to attract the attention of non-Jews who might not otherwise care about Jewish suffering, but not larger than the actual number of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, 6 million.
With the newly opened international drama of the Armenian Holocaust denying Turkish government, we can find some interesting admissions of the origins of the Young Turks revolution. The Young Turks Revolution broke out in Salonica. Salonica was the largest Jewish city in the world at this time with Jewish people constituting over half the population. According to a prominent Turkish Newspaper in a very recent article on October 13th 2017;
“The most prominent financier and mentor of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), which seized the government in 1908, was a Jewish banker of Italian origin from Salonica, Emmanuel Carasso. When Greeks, who had held a privileged status up until then, fell into disfavor after the Constantinople massacre of 1821 targeting Greeks, Jews were hoping for a second chance. However, with their art facilities scattered around Anatolia, Armenians came in first thanks to their capital surplus. As a result of the Jewish lobby's recommendations, the Young Turks government removed Armenians from Anatolia in 1915. Hence, the economy of the country was left in the hands of Jewish capital. Carasso, who was a part of the committee that informed Abdülhamid II of his dethronement, was the closest confidant of Talat Pasha, the figure responsible for the deportation law. In fact, when Talat Pasha escaped abroad in 1918, he entrusted his entire estate to Carasso. To take an active role in the foundation of the Ankara government, Carasso returned to his homeland before his death.”
The allegations of the Armenian Holocaust denying Erdogan-aligned newspaper are very important and need to be explored in depth, as these allegations may help to uncover background historical interactions between Jewish groups and European/Christian groups in a multicultural environment.
In his book Banality of Indifference, Yair Auron alleges that the Jewish citizens of Turkey during this time were apathetic to the murdered Armenians. Regarding the attitude of the Jews towards the Armenians, he wrote:
"A slight grimace on their lips, a short heartfelt sigh, and nothing more. The Armenians are not Jews, and according to folk tradition the Armenians are nothing more than Amaleks! Amaleks? We would give them help? To whom? To Amaleks? Heaven forbid!"
During the 1922 great fire of Smyrna, in which the Greek and Armenian portions of the city were burned down while the Turkish and Jewish sections were spared, the accounts of Jewish teachers alleged that either the Greeks or Armenians started the fire themselves.
This apathetic and dismissive attitude has even been shown in the Jewish “Anti-defamation league” which as recently as 2007 campaigned against the American governments recognition of the Armenian Holocaust.
“Foxman finally acknowledged the Armenian Genocide in his remarks. It was an encouraging development given that ADL’s only formal statement on the genocide is worded in such a way as to actually circumvent the intent required for a finding of genocide by the UN Genocide Convention.”
“That statement, issued in 2007, said that the “consequences” of the Turkish massacres of Armenians were “tantamount” to genocide, implying it was not a planned extermination. This statement was widely censured, but calls for an unambiguous confirmation were rebuffed by ADL.”
It needs to be noted here that the American ambassador to Turkey Henry Morgenthau was himself a Jew, and quickly became of the fiercest advocates for recognition of this genocide, and even demanded American intervention to protect the Armenian victims. But of course exceptions don’t break the rule.
The post-WW2 world has served to served to center all discussions of prejudice on nomadic minority ethnic groups. The topic is very well studied with any and all possible ethnic and political roots examined. By contrast, prejudice and oppression of Indo-European nationalities and their culture or religious practices are not widely discussed. While these events are minimized in the social/academic spheres of the Western world, Christophobia and Europhobia have not only happened historically but continue to happen today.
This lack of study for this sort of prejudice is very problematic for the modern “multicultural world” especially as anti-European/Christian prejudices are increasingly apparent and ignored by the mainstream media/academia.
This lack of study needs to be adequately addressed. The future and survival of European Christendom is depending on it.
A., Bernstorff (2011). Memoirs of Count Bernstorff. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-169-93525-7.
Avedian, Vahagn (21 May 2008). "The Armenian Genocide 1915: From a Neutral Small State's Perspective: Sweden" (PDF). Uppsala University. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
Henry Morgenthau, Ambassador Morgenthau's Story, Page 119, Blackmask Online
Akçam, Taner (2006). A Shameful Act. New York: Holt & Co. pp. 165, 186–187.
Mikaberidze, Alexander (2015). "Tehcir Law". In Whitehorn, Alan. The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1610696883.
http://origins.osu.edu/milestones/april-2015-armenian-genocide
https://er.anca.org/akcam-the-authenticity-of-the-naim-efendi-memoirs-and-talat-pasha-telegrams-2/
Naim Bey., . (1920). The memoirs of Naim Bey: Turkish official documents relating to the deportations and massacres of Armenians. London: Hodder and Stoughton.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/02/26/armenians-have-a-high-genetic-affinity-to-ancient-europeans-new-study-reveals/
Baumer, Church of the East, at 263. The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity, Christoph Baumer, I.B. Tauris, 2006.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/details/179324/
Bobelian, Michael (2009). Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-long Struggle for Justice. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 34. ISBN 1-4165-5725-3.
Akçam, T. (2006). A shameful act: The Armenian genocide and the question of Turkish responsibility. Macmillan.
Walker, Christopher J. (1990). Armenia The Survival of a Nation, 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 254–255. ISBN 0-7099-0210-7.
Dadrian, Vahakn N. The History of the Armenian Genocide: Ethnic Conflict from the Balkans to Anatolia to the Caucasus. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 1995, p. 192. ISBN 1-57181-666-6
"Fighting In Constantinople.; The Armenian Patriarch Mobbed – Soldiers And Rioters Killed". New York Times. 29 July 1890.
"Abdulhamid II | biography - Ottoman sultan". Retrieved 2015-09-29.
The Ottoman Peoples and The End of Empire by Justin McCarthy (2007), p. 200-205
Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü, The Political Ideas of the Young Turks.
http://archive.is/LHJkH
Roth, C. (Ed.). (1972). Encyclopaedia Judaica (Vol. 15). Encyclopaedia Judaica. P. 544
E. Karsh, Empires of the Sand: The Struggle for Mastery in the Middle East, 1789-1923.
Clogg, p. 98.
https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/2017/12/the-ottoman-balfour-declaration/
http://archive.is/8gpWZ
http://archive.is/dzIvs
http://archive.is/ZINFw
http://archive.is/LHJkH
Ya'ir Oron, The Banality of Indifference:Zionism and the Armenian Genocide, Transaction Publishers, London, 2002, p.126.
The Post Magazine and Insurance Monitor, Volume 85, Issue 2 (1924), Buckley Press, [2] p. 2153
https://archive.is/WS7eA


russia-insider--2020-10-05--Young Russian Women in Train Station Sing Beautiful Ancient Folk Song About Love (Video)

Patriotic , talented girls singing of love and the glorious past .
What can be better ?
This article from our archives was first published on RI in June 2018 This article originally appeared on a new site about the Christian renaissance in Russia , called Russian Faith .
Their introductory video is at end of this article .
We bring you another video from the all-girls folk singing group that has stolen the hearts of Russians ( and ours ) with their beautiful singing and undeniable charm .
There ’ s something haunting about such youthful , joyful voices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more glorious , traditional Russia .
The ensemble `` Beloe Zlato '' ( literally `` White Gold '' ) was started accidentally by a few girls with a love for old , traditional Russian music .
They were then studying music in the city of Norilsk , found above the Arctic circle .
It caught on like wildfire .
They now have a large following and are often invited to perform , especially at Christian , patriotic , and family events .
They sing old songs in more modern arrangements , retaining the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Let us know in the comments whether you would like to see more videos with these girls !


russia-insider--2020-10-06--Russia's Immortal Regiment Parade Is a Huge and Very Important New Phenomenon - an Overview

This article from our archives was first published on RI in May 2018 Editor 's note : The Immortal Regiment parade keeps reaching gobsmacking proportions - 1 million people in Moscow this year alone , and 10 million countrywide .
Dreamt up in Tomsk , Siberia in 2012 , it has caught on like wildfire in Russia , and for good reason .
It is brilliant political , historical , spiritual ritual and theater .
It is heartrending and moving and only the coldest of hearts could not be moved by these rivers of humanity paying homage to their ancestors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an any , one of the 10 commandments .
Now it is spreading to other countries .
Among other things , the IR is brilliant PR .
A colossal , to the point testimony to the horror of war , and the shared humanity of all those who have suffered in war .
Russia really knocked it out of the park with this one .
Here is some great footage from yesterday 's 1 million strong Moscow march .
We searched the internet for information about it , and this 2016 Christian Science @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is really very good .
Enjoy .
MOSCOW — Sofia Serbinenko was on the streets of Moscow with about 800,000 other marchers Monday , carrying a beribboned photograph of her great-grandfather , a Soviet fighter-bomber pilot who fought the Nazis in World War II .
`` Victory Day has always been very important in our family , '' says Sofia , an 8th grader .
`` I have read so many books about the war , and I think all the time about the people who died so that we could live .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ today , it is only right to declare that I will always remember , and to express my gratitude . ''
The march of the `` immortal regiment , '' in which Russians from all ages and walks of life carry pictures of ancestors who fought , was modest at its 2012 inception .
But while the war ended 71 years ago , the efforts put into annual commemorations of that titanic victory over the Nazis seem to be actually growing in Russia .
In a remarkable feat of historical memory , today @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the streets of every Russian city and has since spread to over a dozen other countries , including nine US cities this year , according to Russian media .
This year it almost eclipsed the more familiar official military parade , in which thousands of troops , armored vehicles , and intercontinental missiles rumbled past the Red Square reviewing stand , while bombers and fighter planes roared overhead .
The originator of the `` immortal '' movement , Igor Dmitriev from the Siberian city of Tomsk , has complained that his idea for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of memory has been hijacked by the Russian state and turned into a regimented spectacle that validates official views .
Some veterans also say it papers over unmet obligations of the Soviet and now Russian governments to those who fought in the war .
Yet it 's hard to deny the sheer weight of public enthusiasm on display , with whole families walking together to honor their ancestors , generating a mood that seems both somber and festive .
`` It is something for parents to do with their children , generation after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something you can ever forget' It seems a bit of a mystery why the World War II anniversary , which has faded with time almost everywhere else , appears to be a growing concern in Russia .
One answer Russians give is the immensity of Soviet sacrifice in the war , which still remains largely unknown in the West .
About 28 million Soviets died and much of the country was devastated , leaving almost no family untouched .
The numbers are mind-boggling .
About 3 million Soviet prisoners-of-war were worked to death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of starvation in the siege of Leningrad , and the fates of many millions more remain unknown to their relatives .
`` My two grandfathers died in the war .
One was missing and has no grave , even if we know approximately where he was killed , '' says Grigory Kunis , coordinator of the `` immortal '' march in St. Petersburg , formerly Leningrad .
`` This is not something you can ever forget .
For my family , it 's an incredibly important day . ''
But as Russia drifts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and economic uncertainty , the unifying force of the anniversary is hard to ignore .
`` Victory Day is practically the only 20th century event that all Russians , from every part of the political spectrum , can agree upon , '' says Nikolai Petrov , a professor at Moscow 's Higher School of Economics .
`` Now the Kremlin is emphasizing the glorious Soviet past .
But when you examine that past , almost every episode evokes controversy .
All that we actually have is the victory over Naziism , and maybe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ space .
So , a big part of Victory Day is about official myth-building . ''
Serious historical controversy is brewing over the looming centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution , which arrives next year .
For many Russians the revolution remains a sacred event , and they regard the czarist regime it overthrew as odious .
But President Vladimir Putin signaled that tough debate and historical re-evaluation may be in the wind when he told a group of supporters recently that Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin planted `` an atomic bomb under the house @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and destroyed the state .
`` The anti-Nazi victory is a great source of pride for our people , and legitimacy for our state , at a time when there is quite a lot of uncertainty , '' says Mr. Petrov .
`` So , the idea is to take every opportunity to celebrate it . ''
Paradoxically , polls show that overall public interest in the anniversary is gradually declining , as one might expect as the event recedes in time .
Alexei Grazhdankin , deputy director of the independent Levada Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Russians said they were actively celebrating the day in 1995 , but that fell to 75 percent in 2010 , to 65 percent last year , and 63 percent today .
`` The 'immortal regiment ' has touched a public nerve , and inspired many to take part in it , '' Mr. Grazhdankin says .
`` But , overall , the interest in Victory Day celebrations is inexorably decreasing . ''
For Russia 's 3.4 million surviving war veterans , it 's a day to parade in the old medal-bedecked uniforms , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gratitude from strangers in the street .
But there is a nagging undercurrent of criticism from some veterans , and their supporters , who complain that despite the lavish public ceremonies on Victory Day , thousands of those who fought in the war have yet to receivethe housing that was promised to them 7 decades ago .
Just last month Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered local governors to urgently provide apartments to 8,350 World War II vets who are still waiting in the queue .
Another controversy concerns the millions who went missing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ whose relatives have received minimal state assistance and have little hope of closure .
`` The USSR lost 15 million military people in the war , but the general staff only recognizes the figure of 11 million to this day , '' says Mikhail Cherepanov , director of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kazan , in the Volga republic of Tatarstan .
Part of the reason for that , he alleges , is that the state does not have to pay full pensions for those who are missing-in-action to surviving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The task of locating and identifying remains of lost soldiers on Russia 's far-flung World War II battlefields also falls to private groups , with little state assistance , Mr. Cherepanov says .
`` I still go every summer with young people , who dig in the forests and steppe , to locate unburied soldiers and try to restore their identities , '' he says .
`` There are still so many of them .
What prevents our government from making these efforts ?
Apparently it has too many other things to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for . ''

This article from our archives was first published on RI in May 2018
Editor's note: The Immortal Regiment parade keeps reaching gobsmacking proportions - 1 million people in Moscow this year alone, and 10 million countrywide. Dreamt up in Tomsk, Siberia in 2012, it has caught on like wildfire in Russia, and for good reason. It is brilliant political, historical, spiritual ritual and theater. It is heartrending and moving and only the coldest of hearts could not be moved by these rivers of humanity paying homage to their ancestors, as basic a human impulse as an any, one of the 10 commandments. Now it is spreading to other countries.
Among other things, the IR is brilliant PR. A colossal, to the point testimony to the horror of war, and the shared humanity of all those who have suffered in war. Russia really knocked it out of the park with this one.
Here is some great footage from yesterday's 1 million strong Moscow march.
We searched the internet for information about it, and this 2016 Christian Science Monitor article by Fred Weir about it is really very good. Enjoy.
MOSCOW — Sofia Serbinenko was on the streets of Moscow with about 800,000 other marchers Monday, carrying a beribboned photograph of her great-grandfather, a Soviet fighter-bomber pilot who fought the Nazis in World War II.
"Victory Day has always been very important in our family," says Sofia, an 8th grader. "I have read so many books about the war, and I think all the time about the people who died so that we could live. For me, with a good life today, it is only right to declare that I will always remember, and to express my gratitude."
The march of the "immortal regiment," in which Russians from all ages and walks of life carry pictures of ancestors who fought, was modest at its 2012 inception. But while the war ended 71 years ago, the efforts put into annual commemorations of that titanic victory over the Nazis seem to be actually growing in Russia.
In a remarkable feat of historical memory, today it is a vast torrent that fills the streets of every Russian city and has since spread to over a dozen other countries, including nine US cities this year, according to Russian media. This year it almost eclipsed the more familiar official military parade, in which thousands of troops, armored vehicles, and intercontinental missiles rumbled past the Red Square reviewing stand, while bombers and fighter planes roared overhead.
The originator of the "immortal" movement, Igor Dmitriev from the Siberian city of Tomsk, has complained that his idea for spontaneous, voluntary, and non-commercial acts of memory has been hijacked by the Russian state and turned into a regimented spectacle that validates official views. Some veterans also say it papers over unmet obligations of the Soviet and now Russian governments to those who fought in the war.
Yet it's hard to deny the sheer weight of public enthusiasm on display, with whole families walking together to honor their ancestors, generating a mood that seems both somber and festive.
"It is something for parents to do with their children, generation after generation," says Sofia.
'Not something you can ever forget'
It seems a bit of a mystery why the World War II anniversary, which has faded with time almost everywhere else, appears to be a growing concern in Russia.
One answer Russians give is the immensity of Soviet sacrifice in the war, which still remains largely unknown in the West. About 28 million Soviets died and much of the country was devastated, leaving almost no family untouched.
The numbers are mind-boggling. About 3 million Soviet prisoners-of-war were worked to death in Nazi camps, 1.5 million died of starvation in the siege of Leningrad, and the fates of many millions more remain unknown to their relatives.
"My two grandfathers died in the war. One was missing and has no grave, even if we know approximately where he was killed," says Grigory Kunis, coordinator of the "immortal" march in St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad. "This is not something you can ever forget. For my family, it's an incredibly important day."
But as Russia drifts into a new era of geopolitical isolation and economic uncertainty, the unifying force of the anniversary is hard to ignore.
"Victory Day is practically the only 20th century event that all Russians, from every part of the political spectrum, can agree upon," says Nikolai Petrov, a professor at Moscow's Higher School of Economics. "Now the Kremlin is emphasizing the glorious Soviet past. But when you examine that past, almost every episode evokes controversy. All that we actually have is the victory over Naziism, and maybe Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. So, a big part of Victory Day is about official myth-building."
Historical re-evaluation?
Serious historical controversy is brewing over the looming centenary of the Bolshevik Revolution, which arrives next year.
For many Russians the revolution remains a sacred event, and they regard the czarist regime it overthrew as odious. But President Vladimir Putin signaled that tough debate and historical re-evaluation may be in the wind when he told a group of supporters recently that Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin planted "an atomic bomb under the house called Russia," which later exploded and destroyed the state.
"The anti-Nazi victory is a great source of pride for our people, and legitimacy for our state, at a time when there is quite a lot of uncertainty," says Mr. Petrov. "So, the idea is to take every opportunity to celebrate it."
Paradoxically, polls show that overall public interest in the anniversary is gradually declining, as one might expect as the event recedes in time. Alexei Grazhdankin, deputy director of the independent Levada Center in Moscow says that 82 percent of Russians said they were actively celebrating the day in 1995, but that fell to 75 percent in 2010, to 65 percent last year, and 63 percent today.
"The 'immortal regiment' has touched a public nerve, and inspired many to take part in it," Mr. Grazhdankin says. "But, overall, the interest in Victory Day celebrations is inexorably decreasing."
Promises unfulfilled
For Russia's 3.4 million surviving war veterans, it's a day to parade in the old medal-bedecked uniforms, and accept flowers, praise, and gratitude from strangers in the street.
But there is a nagging undercurrent of criticism from some veterans, and their supporters, who complain that despite the lavish public ceremonies on Victory Day, thousands of those who fought in the war have yet to receivethe housing that was promised to them 7 decades ago. Just last month Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev ordered local governors to urgently provide apartments to 8,350 World War II vets who are still waiting in the queue.
Another controversy concerns the millions who went missing, most of whom died anonymously, whose relatives have received minimal state assistance and have little hope of closure.
"The USSR lost 15 million military people in the war, but the general staff only recognizes the figure of 11 million to this day," says Mikhail Cherepanov, director of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kazan, in the Volga republic of Tatarstan. Part of the reason for that, he alleges, is that the state does not have to pay full pensions for those who are missing-in-action to surviving families, but gives much lower allowances.
The task of locating and identifying remains of lost soldiers on Russia's far-flung World War II battlefields also falls to private groups, with little state assistance, Mr. Cherepanov says.
"I still go every summer with young people, who dig in the forests and steppe, to locate unburied soldiers and try to restore their identities," he says. "There are still so many of them. What prevents our government from making these efforts? Apparently it has too many other things to do, and different expenses to pay for."