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Stalin considered his son Jacob a “traitor” for becoming a prisoner of war. Why such disrespect for prisoners of war, by Stalin and more recently?

#foodandlit #readingasia2021 #Russia @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB @Butterfinger @Catsandbooks

I‘m loving reading about Stalin‘s daughter‘s first impressions of America. No ceremony or manners here! #foodandlit #Russia #readingasia2021 @Catsandbooks @Butterfinger @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB

And, women owning cars! Unheard of! Only a few famous female actors in Russia owned cars!

Making headway in the tagged book. In a very long chapter now about all the people she cared about that she left behind after defecting. Tonight‘s pierogis (as my Russian meal) got me in the mood to read more. I‘m really ready to finish it but still quite a ways to go. #foodandlit #Russia #readingasia2021

“By Moscow standards a separate two room apartment for a single woman was the height of luxury, even if that woman happened to be an actress famous throughout the land. Only her sister [moving back to Russia from France] was horrified by this. Fanny herself was totally indifferent to the fact that she had no servants, not even a fine dress. She was above such things.”

#Russia #foodandlit @Butterfinger @Catsandbooks

He was arrested more than once, for he was always protesting against injustice. But since the charges were never grave enough for a prison sentence, he was more often locked up in a psychiatric hospital. There were a few of these run specially by the police. If the man thus caught happened to be perfectly sane and ... no reason to detain him in such an institution, they would render a diagnosis that sounded something like “subjective idealism.” ⬇️

Stalin‘s daughter meeting Americans for the first time:

“Why did Americans smile so often? Was it out of politeness or because of a gay disposition? Whatever it was, I for one had never been spoiled with smiles. I found it very pleasant!”

People in communist Russia, she tells us a bit later on, really had very little to smile about.

Stalin‘s daughter was close friends with innocent people imprisoned in Soviet concentration camps for being foreign, or Jewish, or expressing opinions against the Party. She tried to speak out on behalf of writers who‘d been imprisoned. And she was silenced again and again and told she was just “politically immature.” She was watched like a hawk and forced to pay dues and join the Party. I‘m so glad she escaped to tell her story.

Stalin‘s daughter, the author of the tagged memoir, turned to Christianity, which when it “entered my heart, the shreds of Marxism-Leninism taught me since childhood vanished like smoke. Now I knew that no matter how much sinful, cruel man might strengthen his power on earth, sooner or later Truth would triumph and the past glory would turn to dust.” Her condemnation of communism and socialism is fierce.

Let there be no doubt how Stalin‘s daughter felt about the USSR, and this just after he died.

#readingasia2021 #foodandlit #Russia @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB @Butterfinger @Catsandbooks

Good gosh, the Netflix movie The Death of Stalin was accurate! Has anyone else seen it yet?

I‘m starting this one tonight for #readingasia2021 and also for June‘s #foodandlit for #Russia. It‘s long and I anticipate it will take some time to get through it. @Librarybelle @BarbaraBB @Butterfinger @Catsandbooks

This looks good, especially if you don‘t have your book on #Russia for #ReadingEurope2020.

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