Duranty was a classic example of what Lenin labeled “useful idiots.” He was fake news on steroids, and his hands were drenched in the blood of millions. He is portrayed as the villain he truly was in the chilling 2019 film, “Mr. Jones.”
it blows my mind that every student in America knows the horrors of the Holocaust but none know the story of the Holomodor. I myself only became aware several years ago. in school we were taught that the communists were censors who hated free speech, but they somehow left out the millions of dead people.
it also sheds light on the whole “the ends justify the means” thinking of radical, lefty Ideologues, that we are seeing even today.
I'm Gen X too. It was covered up. I dare say the academic bureaucrat class in charge of approving textbooks participated in excluding certain events from the history syllabus. Think about King Leopold and the Congo. But this. This is really just a narrow survey of about one aspect of the mass exterminations that took place in the Stalinist era.
Thank you so much for reading my piece and for your comment. To my mind, it's also a critique of leftist ideology and a cautionary tale for apologists of media cover ups and censorship.
https://fee.org/articles/the-hero-of-the-holodomor-who-exposed-stalin-s-horrors-and-paid-with-his-life/
Duranty was a classic example of what Lenin labeled “useful idiots.” He was fake news on steroids, and his hands were drenched in the blood of millions. He is portrayed as the villain he truly was in the chilling 2019 film, “Mr. Jones.”
Autocracy will never go away
This piece illustrates how pernicious it was then and we can see how pernicious it is still and now.
Thank you for this history lesson!
Thanks, Dawn, for reading this. It's a tragedy and a cautionary tale. Pernicious indeed.
thank you for writing about this.
it blows my mind that every student in America knows the horrors of the Holocaust but none know the story of the Holomodor. I myself only became aware several years ago. in school we were taught that the communists were censors who hated free speech, but they somehow left out the millions of dead people.
it also sheds light on the whole “the ends justify the means” thinking of radical, lefty Ideologues, that we are seeing even today.
Thanks, Hollis. I just learned about the Holodomor not even a month ago. I had to know what happened.
right? how did we never learn this in school?
(I’m Gen X)
I'm Gen X too. It was covered up. I dare say the academic bureaucrat class in charge of approving textbooks participated in excluding certain events from the history syllabus. Think about King Leopold and the Congo. But this. This is really just a narrow survey of about one aspect of the mass exterminations that took place in the Stalinist era.
"All great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice... the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce" - Karl Marx.
Dark humor is like food. Not everyone gets it.
Excellent piece of work illustrating the overall failure of autocratic rule. Over and over again.
Thank you so much for reading my piece and for your comment. To my mind, it's also a critique of leftist ideology and a cautionary tale for apologists of media cover ups and censorship.