"David Kane" <davidekane@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:Od6dnQFokeb-XIvVnZ2dnUVZ_quhnZ2d@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "help bot" <nomorechess@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>
news:9d0ee65b-2e07-4502-aab2-40f88e5ea4c4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Mr. Kane's point was that (he says) the Soviets'
>> *routine practice* was to deny such emigration
>> requests as those by family members of defector
>> Victor Kortchnoi. Now, while I don't know about
>> such things, I do know that Mr. Parr studiously
>> avoided addressing that issue, instead doing
>> another of his ad hominem dances, with both feet
>> flying this way and that. It must be concluded then
>> that Mr. Kane struck a nerve.
>>
>
> The bigger point really was that no rational person
> could expect a chessplayer to influence the
> emigration policies of the Soviet government.
No rational person would credit any objective sense whatever to Soviet
Government.
We wanted the best, but it turned out as always.
- Viktor Chernomyrdin,
- Russian prime minister, 1992-1998.
But David Kane might appreciate the particular sensitivity displayed by
all
totalitarian regimes to the // appearance // of things, in
contradistinction
to the difficulty of re****ting what actually goes on in closed societies,
which is to contrast the appearance with the practice. If Mr. Parr's
commentary related to either individual pressure put on chess players, or
to
other individuals whose intelligence and ability was valued by the Soviet
State, then his is /not/ an exceptional point of view.
In chess one would only have to read Boris Gulko's testimony to understand
that specifically; not only was the Russian champion duffed-up by KGB but
his wife was also beaten.
It is getting that news out of the country which is the difficult bit -
not
just the anecdote, but records establi****ng its extent and probity.
Therefore while it is unusual to have then found such samizdat in the
West,
almost all such records as Gulko's, each made independently of each other,
and necessarily without knowledge of each other; these records all accord
with each other.
I think to perhaps innocently blame the re****ter for inventiveness, or
some
such thing, is an attitude that is relieved by knowledge after even a
little
study.
> The Evans and Parrs of this world are simply
> not capable of dealing with facts which get
> in the way of their simplistic stories.
JUST ANOTHER MASSACRE
The stories are simple. They are often brutal, so brutal that it is hard
to
believe that, for example, even in the post-Soviet era one's own head of
state will appear on camera smiling and shaking hands with the
perpetrators
of repression, and make 'simplistic' statements expressing their feelings
they could 'do business' with them.
On February 5, 2000, the mass murder of civilians took place during a
pass****t inspection by sub-units of the Ministry of Defence and the
Ministry
of the Interior of the Russian Federation in the village of Novye Aldy,
Zavodskoi District, Grozny. This was re****ted by;
- T. A. Murdalov
- Investigator for Especially Im****tant Matters,
- Office of the North Caucasus Prosecutor General of the Russian
Federation.
Those refer to OMON units. The issue was not further investigated because
of
jurisdictional 'problems' of troops from Petersburg and Ryazan, and in
2002
"it came quietly to rest." says Andrew Meier, who continued his re****t in
Black Earth with...
...Not long after the dead in Aldy were reburied for the final time,
Yuri Dyomin, Russia's chief military prosecutor, told an audience of
Western
human rights advocates in Moscow that he regretted "the time I have
wasted"
investigating re****ts of abuses "based on disinformation." He went on to
accuse Chechen refugees of spreading // skazki //, fairy tales.
This ended the affair for catch-phrase Western apologists of the Regime in
the post-Soviet era, since it was just another [unexplained] massacre,
despite contravening Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, on internal
conflicts.
And that Mr. Kane, I suggest to you is <emphasis> //post// Soviet era.
Those who re****ted things even earlier gained less attention in the West,
since for many people, such behaviors by a state were literally
'unbelievable.'
Phil Innes
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