Archive for Red Army
80 years ago [cover]
Posted in Kids, pictures with tags 27 January 1945, 60th Army of the First Ukrainian Front, anniversary, Auschwitz-Birkenau, concentration camp, cover, extermination camp, Final Solution, genocide, Libé, Liberation, Nazi State, Oswiecim, Poland, Red Army, Rememberance Day, Shoah, Soviet Union, survivors, Third Reich on January 27, 2025 by xi'an
Прусские ночи [sexual war crimes]
Posted in Statistics with tags Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, mass rape, Prussian Nights, Red Army, Russian invasion, sexual violence, Solidarity with Ukraine, Soviet occupation, Ukraine, United Nations, war crimes, World War II on April 15, 2022 by xi'an
The mounting evidence of of mass rapes and sexual war crimes perpetuated by Russian soldiers in Ukraine has led the [appallingly ineffective] U.N. to call for investigation
The allegations of sexual violence raise serious questions about possible war crimes. International humanitarian and human rights law, which categorically prohibit rape and all forms of sexual violence and inhumane treatment, must be fully complied with by all parties to the conflict. Orders should be immediately issued through their respective chains of command prohibiting rape and other forms of sexual violence, with concrete, timebound preventive measures as explicitly outlined in Security Council resolutions 2106 and 2467.
and is a reminder of the systematic policy of mass rape enforced by the Red Army in its advance through East Germany in 1945. As recalled in the Prussian Nights poem of Solzhenitsyn, who witnessed these crimes as a artillery captain in the Soviet offensive towards Berlin. (He was arrested three weeks after the offensive had started and sent to a gulag.)
Дом не жжен, но трепан, граблен.
Чей-то стон стеной ослаблен :
Мать – не на смерть. На матрасе,
Рота, взвод ли побывал –
Дочь-девчонка наповал.
Сведено к словам простым :
НЕ ЗАБУДЕМ ! НЕ ПРОСТИМ !
КРОВЬ ЗА КРОВЬ и зуб за зуб !
—Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: from Prussian Nights (1974)
false value
Posted in Statistics with tags Ada Byron Lovelace, Ben Aaronovitch, book review, Charles Babbage, Deep Mind, difference engine, hitchhiker guide to the Galaxy, London, Mary Somerville, Red Army, Rivers of London, steampunk on November 23, 2020 by xi'an
A very pleasant eighth volume in the Rivers of London series after a few so-so episodes! The relentless deadpan of Peter Grant is back full shape, the plot is substantial and gripping, new and well-drawn characters abound, and the story offers an original retelling of the Difference Engine. (Not that I have reservations about Gibbson’s plus Sterling’s 1990 version!) Including mentions of Jacquard’s loom, card fed organ automates, Ada Lovelace and Mary Somerville. Plus providing great satire on Ai companies with a hardly modified “Deep Thought” pastiche. Enjoyable all along and definitely a page turner that I read within three days..! And being strongly immersed in the current era, from the passing away of David Bowie to the dearful impact of Theresa May as home secretary. Presumably missing a heap of references to geek culture and subcultures, apart from Hitchhiker Guide to the Galaxy. And too many quotes to report, but some mentions of stats (“the Red Army had done a statistical analysis with demon traps just as they had with conventional minefields. The conclusions had been the same in both cases.” (p.50) and “Beverley climbed into the bath with a second-hand copy of Statistics for Environmental Science and Management” (p.69), which is a genuine book.) As often the end is a bit murky and a bit precipitated, but not enough to whine about. Recommended (conditional on having read the earliest ones in the series)!
headlines
Posted in Books, pictures with tags Berlin, L'Humanité, May 8 1945, Red Army, Reichstag, World War II, Yevgeny Khaldei on May 8, 2015 by xi'an
snapshot from Vienna (#2)
Posted in pictures, Running, Travel with tags Austria, Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee, Red Army, Siege of Vienna, Vienna, WWII on September 23, 2014 by xi'an
