From: aps@sonia.math.ucla.edu (Alexei Stolboushkin)
Subject: Re: Shafarevich
Organization: UCLA Mathematics Department
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 05:25:37 GMT

In article <88227@netnews.upenn.edu> sergei@upenn5.hep.upenn.edu (Sergei Borodin) writes:
>
>
>
>muh@physics.Berkeley.EDU (Yury M. Mukharsky) writes:
>
>>In article <1992Sep7.040218.24040@math.ucla.edu> aps@sonia.math.ucla.edu
>> (Alexei Stolboushkin) writes:
>>>
>>>Do you really mean that before the perestrojka it was not possible to
>>>publish all this stuff? It seems to me that Belov's ``Vse vperedi'' was
>>>published in millions of copies long before the perestrojka. Also,
>>>let me remind you all these ``Litso sionizma'' etc. This is not to
>>>mention all the ``samizdat'' published in SOAN (Novosibirsk akademgorodok)
>>>and spread all over the country in these years with the obvios support of
>>>the ``KPGB''.
>>>
>
>>I never red none of this bullshit,
>
>  But you're sure that's a bullshit, aren't you?  I personally don't give
> a damn for "Litso..", but what, again, have people found antisemitic in
> Belov's book?  Yury, at least honestly said he didn't read the book,
> however, put it in a bullshit category. I would understand if some 
> oversensitive Jewish guy call Belov an antisemite (although, this 
> understanding would be reffered to this oversensetivity, but not to
> Belov's behaviour). I'm curious, what had Mr. Stolboushkin found offencive
> to Jews in "Vse vperedi"????

why? Do oversensitive Jewish guys have a monopole right to express their
views? What opinions am I entitled to have? Please advise...

Quite a Soviet argument, I should say. Remember Zhvanetskij: ``Kakoe
suzhdenie ob arkhitekture mozhet vyskazat' muzhchina bez propiski?''
Do you expect me to follow the same level of arguments (like, e.g.,
``these defenders of Belov should first learn how to spell the word
``offensive'', and only then participate in the discussion about
Academy of SCIENCE'')?

>  Will you, guys, provide some prove for your words?  It's getting rediculous.

I definitely can provide some proof that ``all this stuff was published
before the perestrojka'', including ``Vse vperedi'', etc. Is it what you need?
Also, the argument was to demonstrate that it had been possible to publish
antisemitic texts long ago, and you are seemingly agree with the claim.

As for ``Vse vperedi'', I read the book once, and got a definite impression
that it is antisemitic: it is clear, that the author do not like people of
the Jewish ethnicity, and feels them responsible for everything bad happening
to Russia and Russians. It is antisemitic in the same sense the book ``Tlja''
by Shevtsov is anti-culture; it is also worth to mention that the two
books are of a similar artistic merit. Of course these author's beliefs are
expressed through his attitude to specific personages.

If you are seriously interested in the topic, I would suggest you read
some books of professionals, like ``Krasnoe i korichnevoe'' by Semen
Reznik. Its annotation deserves to be reproduced here (seems to me it
is exactly what you are looking for):

``Pervuju knigu o sovremennom sovetskom natsizme otkryvaet glava "Istoki:
  delo Bejlisa". V ostal'nykh devjati glavakh povestvuetsja o natsizme
  e`pokhi glasnosti, o liderakh pamjati i ikh idejnykh nastavnikakh.
  Proslezhivaetsja pererozhdenie bol'shevizma v natsizm. Raskryvaetsya
  tajnaja svjaz' "Pamjati" s partapparatom i KGB. Dany literaturnye
  portrety Dmitrija Vasil'eva, Igorja Sycheva, Valerija Emel'janova,
  Vladimira Beguna, Aleksandra Romanenko, Igorja Shafarevicha,
  Valentina Rasputina, Stanislava Kunjaeva i drugikh liderov
  sovremennogo natsizma.
     Kniga napisana na osnove bol'shogo dokumental'nogo materiala i
  lichnykh vpechatlenij avtora.''

  Izd-vo "Vyzov", Washington, 328 s. (s ill'ustr.). Tsena $14.-

More generally, is it really necessary to read all the nazist books
to blame them (cf. ``Master i Margarita'' - ``...chto ja, drugikh ne
chital? Ili ja oshibajus'...'')? We do somehow have an opinion about
``Mein Kampf'' or Rozenberg's books without reading them. Do you insist
that we should read ``Main Kampf'' to call Hitler a nazi? Please
explain.


--Alexei