The Soviet Story (Padomju stāsts, 2008)

The Soviet Story (Padomju stāsts), a 2008 Latvian documentary about Communist crimes (in English and Russian with Latvian subtitles). Includes interviews with Russian and European historians, a Finnish EU Parliament Member, a former member of KPSU Central Committee, with the Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. Very worth seeing.


Part 1: http://irc.lv/video?id=YrHosaqsKcUW

Part 2: http://irc.lv/video?id=q8Fyk1CH4vUw


The very good thing about this movie is that it underlines that roots of Soviet terror lay in Marxist ideology itself. Stalinist USSR was not a misinterpretation of Marx' Socialism - it WAS Socialism just as Socialism was supposed be.

Hitler was a National Socialist and the Soviets claimed to be "International" Socialists. There's no difference as all of them were fans of social engineering and constructed totalitarian states that should define and control all aspects of a person's life. Hitler killed people according to their ethnicity, Stalin killed people according to their social status. I'd call that difference a matter of taste.

There must be a Nuremberg Trial for Communist crimes. Not really to forbid something - but for people to get the right attitude to the USSR and to left-wing ideology. Although it's "uncool" today to be a fan of Hitler and "not very cool" to be a fan of Stalin, it is still completely acceptable to be Marxist or Maoist and even "cool" to be a fan of Che Guevara. While there's not really a big difference between them all.
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Latvia's Independence Day

Today it's the Independence Day of Latvia.



Dievs, svētī Latviju,
Mūs' dārgo tēviju,
Svētī jel Latviju,
Ak, svētī jel to!

Kur latvju meitas zied,
Kur latvju dēli dzied,
Laid mums tur laimē diet,
Mūs' Latvijā!

I'm proud to be a 1/8 Latvian (The modern English language does not distinguish anymore between Latvian and Lettish. All this bloody "political correctness":) ).

So sorry that my relation with this beautiful Fairyland will probably only shrink by the time. My Latvian relatives are very far and their younger generation, my brother and sister I never met, won't be so eager to keep contact with us "Russians". And it's such a pity that with my Russian passport I need a visa to go to almost all European countries, including Latvia, the land of my forefathers.

I've only got some good old AIESEC-friends there I can visit. And the old cementary in the village Ķuļciems, where almost all the graves have my mother's maiden name.
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