― Daniel O Mapo, Tuesday, 6 December 2005 18:03 (nineteen years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Tuesday, 6 December 2005 18:31 (nineteen years ago)
― Daniel O Mapo, Tuesday, 6 December 2005 18:40 (nineteen years ago)
― Daniel O Mapo, Wednesday, 7 December 2005 14:12 (nineteen years ago)
― M. V. (M.V.), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 16:46 (nineteen years ago)
― M. V. (M.V.), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 16:53 (nineteen years ago)
He was also an old drinking bud of Kingsley Amis
― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 17:04 (nineteen years ago)
― k/l (Ken L), Wednesday, 7 December 2005 17:09 (nineteen years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 4 February 2007 23:52 (eighteen years ago)
the Hitchens profile of Conquest captures a complex personality, like most intellectuals he's not easily labelled or pigeonholed.
I was hoping Hitch would repeat the story about Conquest's publishers requesting a new title for a reissue of The Great Terror, his magisterial study of Stalin. "How about I Told You So You Fucking Fools.
― m coleman (lovebug starski), Monday, 5 February 2007 01:18 (eighteen years ago)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 5 February 2007 01:24 (eighteen years ago)
― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Monday, 5 February 2007 04:45 (eighteen years ago)
I had a dream last night that Conquest was in court on paedophilia charges. It completely smashed his Wise Old Man aura in my mind.
― Freedom, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 12:52 (seventeen years ago)
Yeah, and The Egyptologists, which he wrote with Kingsley Amis, is a pile of wop. Some of his poems are quite good though. Not good enough to get him off those paedophilia charges, mind.
― GamalielRatsey, Wednesday, 17 September 2008 13:10 (seventeen years ago)
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/arts/international/robert-conquest-historian-who-documented-soviet-horrors-dies-at-98.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0
― Freedom, Wednesday, 5 August 2015 08:47 (ten years ago)
I was going to read The Great Terror but decided to wait for Kotkin's Vol 2 of Stalin instead.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/05/russian-region-bans-british-historians-books-from-schools
Keegan & Beevor banned in Russian schools for writing books that are "imbued with the propagandistic stereotypes of nazism", it is an absurd judgement considering how well documented Red Army atrocities are in the Russian archive.
― xelab, Thursday, 6 August 2015 07:36 (ten years ago)
Yeah, it's madness however you slice it.
― Freedom, Thursday, 6 August 2015 08:19 (ten years ago)
It fits to some extent with the broader idea of Russia reclaiming / reframing its own historical narrative in schools but looks in this case like it might be a local authority getting ahead of itself. The regional education ministries can only influence which books are made mandatory for learners and they don't have the power to get schools to remove particular works from libraries unless they contravene the law. There was a law introduced last year about 'deliberately spreading falsehoods about WWII' but there hasn't been any suggestion so far that any of the books in question fall foul of it.
The issue that probably prompted this, and which is referenced specifically in the letter, is the role of the Soros Foundation in supposedly promoting and publishing books that are aimed at undermining the authority of the state and presenting a negative image of Russia.
It's stupid either way but the main thing to keep an eye on is the state textbooks rather than the status of external narratives.
― I wear my Redditor loathing with pride (ShariVari), Thursday, 6 August 2015 08:30 (ten years ago)