tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259082628352435132.post8312740421485529612..comments2023-11-05T01:33:49.683-07:00Comments on from Russia with love: 27 of January-The date of lifting of Leningrad blockadelastochkahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03693705381682951810noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259082628352435132.post-58319706545133354442009-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:002009-01-27T12:55:00.000-08:00I know. One thing that drew me into becoming a his...I know. One thing that drew me into becoming a history student was that when I was young, they might mention a little bit about other cultures and nations, but only inasmuch as when they happened to have some interaction with Western Europe. <BR/><BR/>So we would be told a little about the Viking invasion of Europe, and then it seemed that Scandanavia no longer existed until they taught us a few minutes about the Hanseatic league. <BR/><BR/>Then they would teach us that there was a man called Peter the Great, who came to learn things in Western Europe, and then Russia vanishes for a few hundred years in our lessons.<BR/><BR/>I was forever asking my teachers, but what happened to them "after" that, and I would not get very satisfactory answers, so I ended up having to go to the library and find books appropriate for my age, and read about those histories myself.<BR/><BR/>In the U.S. the way the history of World War II was taught, it seemed like the U.S. fought it single handledly, but when I later read books about "The Great Patriotic War" I learned how much the Russians suffered at the hands of the Nazi regime,how many brave soldiers and brave citizens died or were displaced, and how great a part they played in the winning of that war.<BR/><BR/>But even today, not many here know about this role.<BR/><BR/>I have met veterans of that war who did happen to meet Russian soldiers in Germany at the end of the war. They said that the Russian soldiers were very good soldiers.Chernevoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164753602062259638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259082628352435132.post-16814763556235527742009-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:002009-01-27T11:29:00.000-08:00I have a feelling from my childhood if this war wa...I have a feelling from my childhood if this war was finished only yesterday.My mom told me about it (she was only 3 years old then and her family lived in Dmitrov not far from Moscow). My father was a teenager by this time he left for partisan unit in western Bellorussia (his motherland). My mother's cousin elder children were killed during the bombing in Leningrad. I met westerneres who even didn't hear about the Stalingrad battle...It's very sad for all of us.<BR/>It's the only reason why I'm here.lastochkahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03693705381682951810noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5259082628352435132.post-34761977530916315822009-01-27T10:14:00.000-08:002009-01-27T10:14:00.000-08:00Many people in the United States were not made awa...Many people in the United States were not made aware of this history for more than a quarter of a century after it occured, when Harrison Salisbury published "The 900 Days", and even this book tends to be a bit propagandistic in its tone. It is still considered the definitive work on the topic in the western world, but many in the United States are still unaware that it even occured.<BR/><BR/>I remember reading this book when I was very young, and what shocked me more than anything, was why I had never heard of it before then. We were all taught about this war in schools, but this,which is easily one of the most tragic events in the war, was something never taught to us. I think perhaps one line about a 900 day siege at Leningrad might have been in one high school text book I had, but nothing more.Chernevoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10164753602062259638noreply@blogger.com