Tag: history

The Two Prosecutors Novella

At first, I thought it would be difficult to find books by Georgiy Demidov, but it turned out that most of his works were published a while ago, have audio editions, and are available for free courtesy of the now-dissolved Memorial society. I could not find the Two Prosecutors right away because this work was included in a larger collection of stories, so I downloaded several of his books and started listening. Immediately, I realized that I had already read some of Demidov’s stories; it’s just that his name didn’t stick. Moreover, I remembered that I was not very impressed, and, looking at what I learned about him and his fundamental disagreement with Varlam Shalamov, I realized that I was in agreement with the latter and didn’t like the same aspects of Demidov’s works.

Still, I wanted to find and read Two Prosecutors, since the movie was so powerful and left such an impact on me. When I finally found it and listened, I was shocked and disappointed. The film was so much better! More precise, more expressive, more powerful.

Now I am wondering how Sergey Loznitsa managed to see such potential in this story, and now I admire his work even more!

Two Prosecutors: Sergei Loznitsa’s Movie

I didn’t plan to go to any movies this week, but once again, that one was impossible to skip, so I ended up making time.

The film is based on a novel by Georgiy Demidov and tells the story of a recent law school graduate who learns about torture in Stalin’s prisons, and, believing that this is a plot against the Soviet state, tries to bring the case to the General Prosecutor, only to be arrested for this attempt (more details here). I didn’t do any research on the film before watching it, so I didn’t know who Georgiy Demidov was, which is why I was a little bit puzzled about the “target audience.” The movie is impeccably produced, the cinematography is brilliant, and no matter how much you know about the topic, you can’t take your eyes away from the screen. The story itself, however, was one of the thousands I’ve heard, so I wondered what was a reason yet another movie on this well explored and recently unpopular subject was produced.

Since the name Georgiy Demidov didn’t ring a bell for me, I looked him up. What I learned about him explained a lot, and everything started to make sense. He was one of these writers, who started to write after he became a prisoner of the Stalin’s regime, similar to Varlam Shalamov (with whom they were friends for some time). Then I realized that the movie is a time capsule projecting the view on what happened 90 years ago not from our current perspective, but from the perspective of people who were there at that time.

It doesn’t look like it’s easy to find books by Georgiy Demidov, but I keep looking.

Mr. Nobody Against Putin

Just watched it at the Siskel Center – the theater was packed, and a significant part of the audience was not Russian-speaking. The English subtitles were OK – some nuances were definitely missing, but still quite accurate. They should have run the subtitles in the end, when they play a recording of “Broad and vast is our mighty country” – it’s not like every English speaker knows this song, and I think it’s important that during the time of a tightening oppressive regime they play “where man is gloriously free.”

The documentary is unimaginably depressing. Not only because of what exactly it shows, not only because the audience physically feels the pressure of the Russian propaganda machine, but also because of how Pasha chooses to be blind even after he left Russia: everything was fine before February 2022, and then all of a sudden…

As always, I didn’t read any reviews before watching, and now I see some interviews with Pasha, and I am oging to try to watch at least some of them (I have no idea when I find time, but…)

Why The Soviet Union Didn’t Annex Austria?

During our Vienna walks, we came across this monument (which was not recommended to us as a point of interest by any app), and stared at it, puzzled, trying to make sense out of it. It’s not like you won’t expect a wartime cemetery in Vienna, but what shocked us was the monument’s size. Somehow, I didn’t even hear about this monument, not exactly the size of Berlin’s Treptow memorial, but still massive. We were even more shocked after we read the sign saying the monument was erected in August 1945, when, as we already knew, the whole of Vienna was in ruins. We couldn’t imagine how anybody would invest that much resources in a monument at such a moment.

When we visited the Albertina museum, we learned that Austrian independence was only declared in 1955, and we realized that we didn’t know anything about that part of history, and why Austria was not made a socialist country after WWII. Somehow, we assumed that Austria was “in the western territory” and didn’t realize that, actually, there were Soviet troops that were there, and they were there for a while.

Since the House of Austrian History was closed on Tuesday when we tried to attend, I did some reading on the topic. From what I read, it seems like it was almost by accident. Yes, there was a Moscow Treaty of 1943, which technically didn’t allow the Annexation of Austria, but we all are aware of multiple cases when no treaty would stop Stalin. I also read that, since Austria (and Vienna) was divided into four parts, similar to Germany itself and Berlin, the Soviet Union couldn’t pursue direct annexation. In addition, the “Soviet” part of Austria didn’t have any significant economic value, and the Communist Party barely existed. So my understanding is that it was simply not the top priority for Stalin, so it remained in the “undefined” status until Khruschev was preparing for the XX Communist Party Congress.

In any case, lucky Austrians!

Last Day In Vienna And Beating The Cold Again

Tuesday, January 20, was a very cold day in Vienna, largely due to the Chicago-style wind chill. I was dressed warmly enough, but my face was hurting all the time, and most of the time, I couldn’t make myself take pictures, because I needed to take off at least one glove, at least for a minute.

After everything we saw in the museums during the previous two days, we realized that we do not know enough about the post-WWII Austrian History, and decided to alter our plans and go to the House of Austrian History, which is located in the Hofburg Palace (and saw the Changing of the Guard on the way):

Unfortunately, when we got there, we found the museum closed on that day due to whatever repairs. We were crushed, so we went to the Sisi Museum since we were already at the Hofburg.

This museum has a very different mood compared to Schonbrunn (if you can say that about a museum). Also, I watched the movie “Sisi and I” last year, and did more Sisi-related reading, and that might have influenced how I perceived the exhibit.

It was very dark inside (Boris lost me, and we didn’t reunite until the exit :)), but they were giving everyone an audioguide, which helped.

The imperial rooms had normal light, so I took some pictures there

Franz Joseph’s audience room
His cabinet
A dining room for “non-formal” dinners. The most impressive thing we learned was that there were from nine to thirteen courses served, and each course was promptly removed when the next course started, and the whole dinner didn’t last more than 45 minutes. I don’t know how they did it!

The next several pictures show Sisi’s rooms.

Note the gymnastic rings in the doorway

We left Hofburg and went to St. Stephen’s Cathedral.

We planned to explore it, to climb up the tower and to walk around the neighborhood, but once again, the bitter cold altered all our plans.

So we just stayed inside the Cathedral, saw all we could see, and went for a pre-booked lunch, and then moved from one coffee shop to another until it was time to go to the airport 🙂

Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire

OMG, that was something! I knew this documentary would be interesting, but it was so powerful and thought-provoking that I found it challenging to participate in the Q&A immediately after: I felt I needed to process everything I had seen before asking any questions.

Wiesel’s “Night” is a classic; it’s part of most high schools’ curricula. It’s one of these rare books that “almost everyone read.” Still, so many things we do not know; at least, I didn’t know. Most importantly, I never saw any footage of Elie Wiesel’s public speaking. And the whole documentary is just that: his own voice. The film producer/editor Michael Chomet, who spoke with the audience after the screening, said the film was commissioned by the family, but the artistic direction was his, and the family didn’t see the movie until it was finished.

The parts which impressed me most were:

  • The footage of Wiesel talking with Ronald Reagan before receiving the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, when he explains to the President how his planned visit to the German cemetery will be perceived, and what he should do, and how, later, when speaking at the public ceremony where he receives this medal, he repeats the same speech. The way Reagan reacts and responds. (As I said, it’s hard to believe we had such an intelligent and sensible Republican President)
  • His Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, when he says he understands Palestinians but disapproves of their methods
  • His urge to speak up, not to be silent
  • The footage of 13-year-old high schoolers from a New Jersey magnet school, when they discuss “Night” (Rudavsky told us that they made a separate short documentary based on this footage)
  • Said multiple times, both by Wiesel and his former student: suffering is not a badge of honor; suffering is not something that defines you, it’s something that informs you. I can’t stress enough how much I agree with this statement.

I can talk at length about this documentary, but I still won’t be able to convey everything I felt while watching. Five-star rating.

RIFENSTAHL

I just exited the Siskel Center after watching “RIFENSTAHL.” I missed the first screening (with director-in-person) last week, because I hosted the Prairie Postgres User Group at the same time. Today was my only chance to see it, because I am leaving tomorrow and the last screening will be on September 26, before I return. Well, there will be more screenings later, but I will be travelling again, and also – I didn’t want to wait!

I just saw the movie. For the past several months, I was reading my friend’s blog about Riefenstahl’s memoirs, and I wanted to know more, so I queued a couple of books about her in my future reading list. But let me tell you that: it’s one thing to read what she says about herself, and a different thing to hear it, in her own words, with her facial expressions, with her intonations. To see the immense pleasure on her face when she watched the “Triumph of the Will,” conducting the screen music.

Starting with her cynical phrase: The movie was commissioned by Hitler. If Roosevelt were to commission a movie, I would also try my best. If Stalin were to ask me to make a movie for him, I would do my best as well. And all her screams: no, it’s a lie! What people disappear?! There were no such people around me! We didn’t know! No, I didn’t see! And: I would never make a movie about cripples! And isn’t it in all cultures that we admire beautiful bodies?

Oh, and there is footage of how she was making these pictures of Nuba! How she treated them like animals. I will never buy her albums.

Evil, evil, evil. No shades. No “buts”.

Reifenstahl – And I Can’t Make It

It’s just so not fair: Reifenstahl member-only preview is exactly at the time when I host my Postgres meetup! And the regular run is exactly when I will be out of the country!

I hope they will add more screenings later!

Tallinn: The City Museum

I love that more and more city towers are being restored and used as exhibition spaces. We had already visited many of these new museums, and the next one on our list was the one opened in the Kiek-in-de-Kok (Peek into the kitchen) tower. Museum information can be found here.

There are tons of kids’/family activities offered in this museum, and the museum itself is way more than a fortification museum, although a large portion of it is about war and weapons.

Continue reading “Tallinn: The City Museum” →

Overheard On The CTA Bus On January 16

— My son told me yesterday: I want to study Islam. I said: You want to study something six thousand years old? Do you know what day it is today? Go and find out what happened in 1968 and figure out who you are!

From a man carrying all his possessions in a rolling cart talking to another passenger.