The Great Terrors : Sofia Petrovna And Stalin's Great Purges

In the book Sofia Petrovna, the author Lydia Chukovskaya writes about Sofia Petrovna and her dreadful experiences as a widowed mother during the Russian Stalinist Terror of the 1930s. There were four basic results of the Russian Stalinist Terror: first, it was a way of keeping people in order; second, it kept Stalin in power and stopped revolutions from forming, made people work harder to increase the output of the economy, and separated families as well as caused deaths of many innocent people due to false charges.

In the spring of 1934, Osip Mandelshtam was arrested for his satirical poem, the “Stalin Epigram”. After his incarceration, he was forced to write another poem, “Ode to Stalin”, this time praising the dictator. These two poems provide contrast between his natural and forced writing. In the poem that provoked Mandelshtam’s arrest, he writes that Stalin, “toys with the tributes of half-men. // One whistles, another meows, a third snivels.“ (“Stalin Epigram”) In this section of Mandelshtam’s uninhibited poem, he describes the cowardice encompassing Stalin’s followers. The poem, far too critical of Stalin for the author to escape unscathed, led to Mandelshtam’s arrest and eventual death in the camps. Though he was aware that this publication was a death wish, the resulting work survives to this day as a source of insight into the knowledge of the artists living under Stalin’s regime. His “Ode to Stalin” is another primary example of Mandelshtam’s defiance, in

Deathless is not a historical fiction book, if that was what you were looking for. Following the Russian Revolution, it glimpses upon the country’s adaption to the Soviet Union. But alas, communism is not what Deathless is about. Instead Catherynne M. Valente writes about the deconstruction of the heroine, Marya Morevna, in a magical Russia, where Slavic myth and real life coexist. Marya falls in love with Koschei the Deathless and Ivan Nikolayevich – contradictory foils in Slavic mythology: Koschei as the villain and Ivan as the hero – but the novel never boils to who Marya chooses, rather it is about Marya’s choice itself. Deathless is not just about love, but the power that comes from being loved.

Survival and preservation of humanity are among two important themes in Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. Through the main protagonist, Ivan Denisovich Shukhov, the audience is transported into the reality of Stalinist repression. Throughout the novel, Solzhenitsyn makes it clear that freedom is not a cut and dry issue. Rather, when one is focused on survival and maintaining their dignity, some element(s) of freedom are still possible even during the most oppressive times.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich explores the man’s struggle to survive in the trying circumstances of a Soviet Gulag. Though the novel leads the reader through the horrific conditions in one of the work camps, it does not focus on the lack of hope that the men feel but it focuses on the perseverance and resilience of the prisoners. Shukhov’s character shines through as a prominent example of the courage of the souls in the work camps. Further, Alyoshka proves to never give up in the face of extreme conditions and is always around to help his gang. Finally, Tyurin’s undying devotion to leadership provides a refreshing look into the resilience of the prisoners. Solzhenitsyn expertly constructs intricate layers

There have been many violations of Human Rights throughout history. There have been many different reasons for this lots of times it was simply for a world leader to stay in control of his country, to get rid of a type of people someone doesn't like, or simply for someone to make easy money. No matter the reason these violations are unacceptable and can bring harm to many people.

Criminal charges should and will be brought against the former leader of the Soviet Union, Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili (also known as Joseph Stalin), born on December 18, 1879, in the Russian peasant village of Gori, Georgia, the son of Besarion Jughashvili, a cobbler, and Ketevan Geladze, a washerwoman. () Joseph Stalin will be charged with the following eight crimes: Genocide - the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation,() Politicide - a gradual but systematic attempt to exterminate an independent political entity,() Democide - the murder of any person or people by their government, () Crimes against Humanity - are particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or a grave humiliation or degradation of human beings, () Classicide - is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of a social class through persecution and violence, () Terror - intense, sharp, overmastering fear, () and Mass Killings - is the act of murdering many people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time.() Similar charges will files and handed down to four of Joseph Stalin’s key henchman, Vyacheslav Molotov, Lazar Kaganovich, Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda, and Nikolai Yezhov, during the Ukraine Famine of 1932-1933. In this essay we will be looking in to Joseph Stalin policies, why he developed these policies and how his four top henchmen helped plan

Upon its emergence, ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ was characterised by a so-called renaissance of GDR Heimat feeling, as presented by Daphne Berdahl, writing on late 1990s trend of recuperation and reproduction of Ostalgic GDR products, which she argues revealed complex relations between personal histories, disadvantage, dispossession and the betrayal of promises. Whereas these complexities are echoed in the film, one could argue that it has a more expanded function as well as could be perceived in a globally charged context. ‘Good Bye, Lenin!’ is set in the East Germany, around the time of the fall of Berlin Wall and circles around the Kerner family, comprising of a twenty-year-old Alex, his older sister Ariane and their mother Christiana. One night,

As an allegorical commentary, the book supersedes the previous assumptions made upon superficial analysis of the book as solely a prison novel and now becomes a question of “How does one survive in Stalinist Russia, which is like a gulag?” rather than “How does one stay alive in a prison camp?” By assuming that Solzhenitsyn intended the book to be interpreted in this way, the book is seen as more of political attack on the Soviet Union during the Stalin era.

When reading the novel, the use of Big Brother and the constant angst created from the malicious yet mysterious organization, INGSOC, it provided me the philosophy and interpretation as to what the Russian government was comparable to during the war times of the 1950’s and administering fiction for what it felt like to work and live in those threatening and treacherous living conditions.

The work of Anna Akhmatova (1889-1966) has given me the opportunity to see the effort that people go through to endure and resist evil, especially taking into account the context which was 20th century Stalinist Russia. Discussing Akhmatova’s work has allowed me to understand the reasoning behind her work and the dangers she went through to share her struggles to the world.

The Soviet gulag system was notorious for the highly unethical procedures that took place within them and the obscure sentences that prisoners faced. The novel One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich gives readers a first-person view of the bleak daily events of the prisoners and even shares some of the absurd “crimes” they have committed. Some of the crimes include Shukhov, who was imprisoned on the idea that he was a spy representing the Germans and Buynovsky, a Navy captain that is imprisoned for befriending an English Admiral and receiving a gift from him. These sentences fit into the existential framework through the themes of absurdity and existence precedes essence; the prisoners are searching for answers to questions about why and

Many young thinkers and artists also perished as a result of the Soviet regime. Les Kurbas and Mykola Kulish were executed, along with many others, in the “Executed Renaissance”. Many literary geniuses from Ukraine were censored and killed as part of Stalin’s programs, which began in 1920, repressing Ukrainian creativity and development in other spheres of literature, not just theater (Executed Renaissance 2011, Studio 1+1).

Millions of people died in the 1950’s under Joseph Stalin’s rule. Although it is ethically wrong, Stalin sent innocent people to the gulags for “free labor” he benefited from. In One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn primarily uses setting along with characterization and imagery to contribute to major themes including the injustice of the Soviet Union, man versus nature, and the struggle to maintain dignity.

The author focuses on a group of revolutionaries in nineteenth century Russia. The main character Stavrogin dominates the text with his looks and charisma. His personality influences his mother, tutor, and followers. His tutor’s son named Pyotr causes mischief through the town and ultimately kills one of the followers. Stavrogin is a man that has no direction and loses his faith in God. Once his faith is lost, he commits many crimes and ultimately hangs himself. This Novel represents nineteenth century Russia that is possessed by revolutionaries.