The Pete Quiñones Show - Reading Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together' w/ Dr Matthew Raphael Johnson - Part 103

Episode Date: January 17, 2026

47 MinutesPG-13Dr. Matthew Raphael Johnson is a researcher, writer, and former professor of history and political science, specializing in Russian history and political ideology.Pete and Dr. Johnson continue a project in which Pete reads Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's '200 Years Together," and Dr' Johnson provides commentary.Borhy Splacheni Krovyu: The Foundations and Causes of the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022-2025Communist Misrule in Soviet Kazakhstan: The Ideological and Ethnic Nature of the Goloshchyokin Genocide (1930-1933)‘Crushing the Resistance’ – Joseph Stalin’s Ukrainian Genocide RevisitedStalin the Eternal Philosemite: Soviet-American Joint Support for Zionism in the 1940sDr Johnson's PatreonDr Johnson's CashApp - $Raphael71RusJournal.orgTHE ORTHODOX NATIONALISTDr. Johnson's Radio Albion PageDr. Johnson's Books on AmazonDr. Johnson's Pogroms ArticleThe Unmentionable Genocide: New Khazaria, the Russian Revolutions and Soviet Legality in the 1920s by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonWith Friends Like These. . . Patriarch St. Tikhon, General Anton Denikin and the Defeat of the White Armies, 1917-1922 by Dr. Matthew Raphael JohnsonThe Orthodox Nationalist: Karl Marx “On the Jewish Question” (1844)Pete and Thomas777 'At the Movies'Support Pete on His WebsitePete's PatreonPete's SubstackPete's SubscribestarPete's GUMROADPete's VenmoPete's Buy Me a CoffeePete on FacebookPete on TwitterBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-pete-quinones-show--6071361/support.

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It's all because of you. And, yeah, I mean, I'll never be able to thank you enough. So thank you. The Pekingona Show.com. Everything's there. I want to welcome everyone back to our reading of 200 years together by Alexander Solzhenyson. This is episode number 103. Dr. Johnson, how are you doing?

You know, when you have several special needs animals, nine total feeding time is is a lot of work it's a huge amount of work but now i think i've recovered everyone's happy and i'm ready to go well i mean your special needs yourself so i mean that's uh as as my mother would say yes she she used to say i had she said i had Tourette's syndrome undiagnosed Tourette syndrome yeah no that just means you grew up in the in the new york city tric state area which means that you use curses like a comma yeah you know we threw pennies at cars that we didn't like on the on the on the parkway the chip the paint that's anti-semitic you know that that was that was normal you know i'm surprised my driving instructor didn't teach me that that was normal

to me i learned how to drive in manhattan in a limousine no less as as a as a 16-year-old my father believed in throwing people into the into the, you don't know how to swim, you get thrown into the ocean. That was fun. So, yeah, there is something wrong with me, no doubt. All right, picking up where we left off last time. So then, were the people's impressions of the war really prompted by anti-Semitic prejudice? Of course, by the beginning of the war, a certain part of the older and middle-aged population

still bore scars from the 1920s and 1930s. But a huge part of the soldiers were young men who were born at the turn of the revolution or after it. Their perception of the world differed from that of their elders dramatically. Compare. During the First World War, in spite of the spy mania of the military authorities in 2015 against the Jews who resided near the front lines, there was no evidence of anti-Semitism in the Russian army.

In 1914, out of 5 million Russian Jews, by the beginning of World War I, about 400,000 Jews were inducted into the Russian Imperial Army, and by the end of the war in 1917, this number reached 500,000. This means that at the outbreak of the war, every 12th Russian Jew fought in the war, while by the end, one out of ten, and in World War II, every eighth or seventh. Well, that, you know, that goes for everybody, given the sheer signs that I'm talking about after World War I, World War II, the Soviet Army was so humonger. I think at this point

we're talking about 10 million it was 6 million during that suicide mission invasion and it grew much larger than that as time went on as we saw actually last week with some of the numbers and it just kept growing but I think what he means by the scars of the 1920s and 30s by scars I think he's talking about

you know it's not anti-Semitic prejudice at all they saw people die from you know Jewish commissars all over the place especially in the 1920s upper management and middle management and I think that's what he's referring to there but it is true that soldiers once you're born you know around the time that revolution are after all you know is Soviet propaganda so it's going to be a very different story So I think, but these numbers, these numbers aren't particularly impressive. But, and they're not impressive, especially given the size of the Soviet Army in World War II.

So what was the matter? It can be assumed that the new disparities inside the army played their role with their influences growing stronger and sharper as one moved closer to the deadly front line. In 1874, Jews were granted equal rights with other Russian subjects regarding universal conscription. Yet during World War I until the February Revolution, Zarlazander II's law, which stipulated that Jews could not advance above the rank of petty officer, though it did not apply to military medics, was still enforced. Under the Bolsheviks, the situation had changed radically and during the World War II, as the Israeli Encyclopedia summarizes, quote,

compared to other nationalities of the Soviet Union, Jews were disproportionately represented, among the senior officers, mainly because of the higher percentage of college graduates among them, end quote. According to Arad's at valuation, quote, the number of Jew commissars and political officers in various units during the war was relatively higher than the number of Jews on other army positions. At the very least, a percentage, at the very least, a percentage of Jews in the political leadership of the army was three times higher than the overall.

percentage of Jews among the population of the USSR during that period. End quote. In addition, of course, Jews were, quote, among the head professionals and military medicine, among the heads of health departments on several fronts, 26 Jewish generals of the medical corps and nine generals of the veterinary corps were listed in the Red Army, end quote. 33 Jewish generals served in the Engineer Corps. Of course, Jewish doctors and military engineers occupied not only high offices, among the military medical staff, there were many Jews, doctors, nurses, orderlies.

Let us recall that in 1926, the proportion of Jews among military doctors was 18.6%, while their proportion in the male population was 1.7%. And this percentage could only increase during the war because of the large number of female Jewish military doctors. Quote, traditionally, a high percentage of Jews in Soviet medicine and engineering professions naturally contributed to their large number in the military units. I like what he does here. The paragraph prior to this,

he talks about the large number of Jews serving in the army. We're talking about World War II in this case. And then he goes on to say, well, they weren't exactly on the front line. In fact, very few of them were. You know, they had, the Soviets had generals for everything. And these Jews, well, the political commissars, of course, and they were eliminated by the Germans very quickly whenever there was a way to do it. But they were in everything but frontline, you know, grunt fighting.

I'm sure there were a few. So he starts off saying, well, these are impressive numbers. and then it goes out to say, well, not really, because they were doing other important things, but other things. They were not, they were not on the front line. They were not getting their limbs blown off. They were doing, they were still in the professions, although in this time completely mobilized under Stalin. So I love that.

It sounds like he's being, you know, philosemitic here, and then he totally negates it. It's funny. However undeniably important and necessary for final victory these services were, what mattered is that not everybody could survive to see it. Meanwhile, an ordinary soldier, glancing back from the front line, saw all too clearly that even the second and third echelons behind the front were also considered participants in the war. All those deep rear headquarters, suppliers,

the whole medical corps from a medical battalion to higher levels, numerous behind the lines, technical units, and of course, all kinds of service personnel there. And in addition, the entire army propaganda machine, including touring ensembles, entertainment troops, they were all considered war veterans. And indeed, it was apparent to everyone that the concentration of Jews was much higher there than at the front lines. I fought in the war. Some write that amongst Leningrad's veteran writers, the Jews' comprised by most cautious and perhaps understated assessment, 31%. That is, probably more.

Yet how many of them were editorial staff? As a rule, editorial offices were situated 10 to 15 kilometers behind the front line, and even if a correspondent happened to be at the front during hostilities, nobody would have forced him to hold the position. He could leave immediately, which is a completely different psychology. Many trumpeted their status as frontliners, but writers and journalists are guilty of it the most. Stories of prominent ones deserve a separate, dedicated analysis. Yet how many others, not prominent and not famous, frontliners settled in various newspaper publishing offices at all levels, at fronts, armies, corps, and divisions.

Here is one episode. After graduating from the Machine Gun School, second lieutenant Alexander Gerskovitz was sent to the front. But after a spell at the hospital, while catching up with his unit at a minor railroad station, he sensed a familiar smell of printing ink, followed it, and arrived at the office of the division level newspaper, which serendipitously... I think he's being a little funny there. Was in need of a frontline correspondent, and his fate had changed. But what about catching up with his infantry unit?

Quote, in this new position, he traveled thousands of kilometers of the war roads. Of course, military journalists perished in the war as well. So not only were they really not in the... the fighting corps, but they were later on claiming to be. Now, the medical corps, medics were, that's legitimate frontline stuff. You know, you're not supposed to shoot them, you know, if they're well marked, but given the nature of that war, I don't know. Correspondence was a totally different story. It wasn't like it was in full metal jacket, you know. They, they, that had a very different, you know, they could leave.

Now, I also like the notion, glancing back from the front line, the second and third echelons behind the front, participants in the war, you know, I reread, there's several sections in Yoakim Hoffman's Stalin's War of Extermination on those rear echelon. He goes so far as to say that the majority of the Soviet casualties, or maybe 50% came from them. You had so many of these young draftees fighting for Stalin, which was iffy by itself,

not allowed to retreat because as I said last time, there's no such thing as defense in Soviet military doctrine. It's just nothing but offense. It's like the early 80s San Diego Chargers with Dan Fouts, no defense, everything into the offense. That's how it was.

and the constant move forward. I mean, they wasted so many men, but clearly, you know, terror gripped these, especially these young kids, Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and if they did anything but do that, they got, they were, they were shot, they were murdered, essentially. And those men who did a killing of their own men, they were going around calling themselves combat veterans, you know, I want a pension, got medals, even though they were, they were, they were murderers. They were there to enforce

Stalin's orders as it came down the chain of command to the Jewish commissars. And second and third echelons, in the words, there was more than one. And they were heavily armed and they were not necessarily, they were in danger of artillery attack,

but not necessarily direct combat. Only the medics were. And that's legitimate, of course. They do get shot at. I hate the idea. People call themselves veterans because they were in the Army for a couple of years when there was a war going on. They never left Missouri. But, you know, they call themselves veterans.

I vehemently disliked that. I grew up with the idea that a veteran by definition is a combat veteran. You weren't a veteran. You were just in the Army. And there's something like that going on here where, even these very distasteful positions, the rear echelons were going on later on, you know, claiming a pension and claiming to be

combat vets and everything else. But yeah, they were in combat a right against their own people. And then, of course, the funny use of the, oh, I small printer ink, you know, and it just didn't matter. And of course, they'd go right into journalism, which is, you know, a huge, strong suit of theirs. And I guess to some extent, you know, it wasn't entirely their country. It wasn't like Israel is now, but it was very close to being their country,

which is why they wanted special regions, you know, like Crimea or Birrubisdan or something like that. It wasn't Jewish enough. And so, again, fighting for Stalin was okay, far better than fighting for Zara Nicholas for anyone else. So I think that's what he's talking about here. And it looks like the Jews had a lot more freedom to go where they pleased than you're typically. The war was fought by Russians and Ukrainians. They were the ones doing the dying. They were the ones doing the shooting, period.

And that's what he seems to be saying here. Musician Michael Goldstein, who got the white ticket not fit, because of poor vision, writes of himself, quote, I always strive to be at the front where I gave thousands of concerts, where I wrote a number of military songs and where I often dug trenches. Often, really, a visiting musician and with a shovel in his hands? As a war veteran, I say an absolutely incredible picture. Or here is another amazing biography. Eugenie Gershuni in the summer of 1941 volunteered for a militia unit,

where he soon organized a small pop ensemble. Those who know about these unarmed and even non-uniform columns marching to certain death would be chilled. Ensemble indeed. In September 1941, Gershouni, with his group of artists from the militia, was posted to Leningrad's Red Army Palace, where he organized and headed a troop entertainment circus. The story ends on May 1945 when Gershune's circus threw a show on the steps of the Reichstag in Berlin. Oh my God. I mean, this that's just, this is just macabre at this point. Yeah, shovel in this hand, yeah, I don't think so.

Now, I'm not, I'm not taking away from the necessity of morale builders like this. They did it in Vietnam all the time. My father was a Marine in Korea, first Marine division. He never mentioned, he didn't talk about it much, but he talked about it only to me. He never mentioned any, like, you know, Marilyn Monroe coming over. But that has its place. It's important. But you can't go around claiming to be a veteran and certainly a combat veteran after that.

Now the significance of Leningrad is, of course, it was under siege for most of the war, from the invasion almost to the end. And I've done a lengthy paper on that where, you know, Soviet propaganda made it out to be that they were starving to death, even though the Germans made sure to allow a path for people, for civilians to leave, children to leave. And once, you know, this started a lot of trouble later on, there were tons of food, lots of, lots of food that was only for the handful of of party elite. That was not discovered and was not mentioned until Khrushchev's era. Now, I was raised to believe that they were being starved to death by the German invasion by this German juggernaut.

They couldn't take it. They couldn't take the city. But it's actually a fascinating story because they weren't entirely surrounded and it was on purpose. And, you know, the Germans realized that weren't going to kill children. No one killed children on purpose anyway. And so there was a lifeline and people could leave. And but the supplies that were available when, you know, the war was that people found all of this sitting there when they were claiming to be starving to death was extraordinary. And it's interesting because so many of the big scientific institutes of, in Atlanta, St. Petersburg, of course.

So it's the Northern Army Army. it'll be Army Group A, I think, at the time, he had many scientific institutes there. So they were coming up with all kinds of different ways to feed the population. And it was actually very interesting to read about it. It wasn't nearly as nasty as it later propaganda showed it. But it would have been much better had that small group of people. party elites would have, you know, let their stores open. They had all kinds of booze and all kinds of Western made chocolates and anything they wanted, which was not known until after just a bit

after Stalin's death. So that's what he's talking. That's why he's talking about Leningrad. And I'm not so sure if he was in Leningrad, he would have been trapped there. You would think. So his story doesn't seem to be adding up here, and I think that's that's his, that's Solzhenitin's point. Of course, the Jews fought in the infantry and on the front line. In the middle of the 1970s, the Soviet source provides data on the ethnic composition of 200 infantry divisions between January 1st, 1943 and January 1st, 1944, and compares it to the population share of each nationality within the pre-September 1939 borders of the USSR. During that period, Jews comprised respectively 1.5% and 1.2.8% in those divisions, while their proportion to the population in 1939 was 1.78%. Only by the middle of 1944, when mobilization began in the liberated areas, did the percentage of Jews fall to 1.14%

because almost all Jews in those areas were exterminated. It should be noted here that some audacious Jews took an even more fruitful and energetic part in the world, outside of the front. For example, the famous red orchestra of Trepper and Gurevich spied on Hitler's regime from within until the fall of 1942, passing to the Soviets' extremely important strategic and tactical information. Both spies were arrested and held by the Gestapo until the end of the war. Then, after liberation, they were arrested and imprisoned in the USSR. Treper for 10 years, and Gerevich for 15 years. Here is another example. A Soviet spy Lev M. Manovich was ex-commander of a special detachment during the Civil War and later a long-term spy in

Germany, Austria, and Italy. In 1936, he was arrested in Italy, but he managed to communicate with Soviet intelligence, even from the prison. In 1943, while imprisoned the Nazi camps under the name of Colonel Sarastin, he participated in the anti-fascist underground. In 1945, he was liberated by the Americans, but died before returning to the USSR, where he could have easily faced imprisonment. Only 20 years later in 1965, where he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously, one can also find very strange biographies such as Mikhail Scheinemann's. Since the 1920s, he served as a provincial secretary of the Komsomal. During the most rampant years of the Union of Militant Atheists, he was employed at its headquarters.

Then he graduated from the Institute of Red Professors and worked in the press department of the Central Committee of the VKPD. In 1941, he was captured by the Germans and survived the entire war in captivity, a Jew and a high-level commissar at that. And despite categorical evidence of his culpability from Smirsch's, frontline counterintelligence organization literally death to spies, point of view, how could he possibly survive if he was not a traitor? Others were in prison for a long time for lesser crimes,

yet nothing happened. And in 1946, he was already safely employed in the museum of the history of religion and then in the Institute of History at the Academy of Science. I know this is only anecdotal. I know that. But you can't help but smile. I mean, you know, despite all the death and the slaughter and the misery, it's absolutely, it is so absurd here.

You know, I'm not sure how you can pass information. in the German camp. The Gestapo, as many of us know, we were a fairly small organization. I think the largest it ever became was 5,000, 6,000 men unarmed. More likely it was military police that took care of it. And he created an anti-fascarist underground

within the camps, suggesting that the camps were you know, decentralized at best. And I know in many, many camps, it was, the camps certainly existed. They were run by very powerful, you know, Jewish mafia. There's no doubt about that anymore. And that's been demonstrated in a million different ways.

Now, I know we've had this before, but any contact with the Germans, especially if you were from the Western regions, imprisoned by them, that means that you were subject to their propaganda, which means you can't be trusted, which means you're going to go to prison and hear our propaganda for 10 years. Which is what happened to Shultzanesean at first. So, and so he's talking about,

he's talking about things that are highly implausible that these guys are saying, despite the fact that, you know, they're clearly exaggerating things. But since, you know, he talked about the number of Jews, the impressive numbers in the military, Soviet military, for the rest of this, since then, he has completely debunked that, not the numbers, but what exactly they were doing the whole time. Yeah, such anecdotal evidence cannot make up a convincing argument for either side, and there no reliable and specific statistics, nor are they likely to surface in the future.

Recently, an Israeli periodical had published some interesting testimony. When a certain Jonas Degin decided to volunteer for a Kamsumal prison at the beginning of the war, another Jewish youth, Shulam Dane, whom Jonas invited to come and join him, replied that it would not be really fortunate if the Jews could just watch the battle from afar, since this is not their war, though namely this war may inspire Jews and help them to rebuild Israel. When I am conscripted to the army,

I'll go to war, but to volunteer, not a chance. Wow. And Dane was not the only one with thoughts like this. In particular, older and more experienced Jews may have had similar thoughts. And this attitude, especially among the Jews,

devoted to the eternal idea of Israel, is fully understandable. And yet it is baffling because the advancing army was the arch enemy of the Jews seeking above all else to annihilate them. How could Dane and like-minded individuals remain neutral? Did they think the Russians had no other choice but to fight for their land anyway?

Yeah, they're thinking, you know, there's Zionists. A minority still, that changed after the war, especially in northern Europe, central Europe. But, you know, saying it's not their war, I could picture that. Again, we've already mentioned. It's far better than fighting for Tsar Nicholas, but, or, you know, Orthodox Russia in general.

But it's certainly better. And so the only place I want to go, the only place I would actually farm the land, the only place I would fight for is rebuilding Israel and Palestine. time. And I don't think that was a majority opinion at the time. And it also goes to show the news that they were getting about German intentions was all over the place, too. Zionists and Hitler had an alliance at first. And it for a very good reason. They're both nationalists. They both wanted a solution to a problem. And it would have been peaceful and everything else. So, you know, I could completely understand this.

This makes perfect sense. I believe it. And so however many, whatever percentage of Jews resign us at the time probably were thinking very much like this. One modern commentator, I know him personally, he is a veteran and a former camp inmate, concludes, quote, Even among the older veterans these days, I have not come across people with such clarity of thought and depth of understanding as Shulam Dane, who perished at Stalingrad. possessed. Quote, two fascist monsters interlocked in deadly embrace. Why should we participate in that? Of course, Stalin's regime was not any better than Hitler's, but for the wartime Jews, these two monsters could not be equal. If that other monster won, what could then have happened to the Soviet

Jews? Wasn't this war the personal Jewish war? Wasn't it their own patriotic war to cross arms with the deadliest enemy in the entire Jewish history? And those Jews who perceived the war, as their own and who did not separate their fate from that of the Russians, those like Freelik, Lazaroff, and Vaynerman, whose thinking was opposite to Shulam Daines, they fought selflessly. And you see how the mirror image of that with the Slavic armies that were created, you know, really just on their own, many of them, and how the SS treated them, the Slavic forces. the Slavic forces that wanted to fight Stalin

you would think okay now here's the time and if it was just the infantry if it was just the German army it would have been wonderful I think I think the only stipulation was that these forces had to be German led had to have German officers

which is interesting they had to have a translator I would think but at least that was on paper the concept. But the misuse of these, and there were many of them, Slavic armies in Russia and in Ukraine, you know, opening the churches, that by itself, you know, made so many people happy. Destroying the Germans destroyed the collective farms and let them go back to their own land. I mean, this was, this was huge. Of course, they had every, they had every motivation to fight for them anyway.

despite all that. And yet the SS goes in, people like Eric Koch, you know, I got to send you my paper on him, or at least I know I did a lecture on him, who was ahead of Ukraine for the SS, absolutely turned the entire country against Germany, which was awful. So that seems to be too parallel.

issues, if you ask me. God forbid, I do not explain the Dane's position as Jewish cowardice. Yes, the Jews demonstrated survivalist prudence and caution throughout the entire history of the diaspora, yet it is this history that explains these qualities. And during the Six-Day War and other Israeli wars, the Jews have proven their outstanding military courage. Yeah, that's what I just said. If they're going to fight for anybody, it's going to be for a clearly Jewish state. The only exceptions of course being the ultra-Orthodox who were anti-Zionists

from the start, the Orthodox in Jerusalem who would be discussed a long time ago, who wanted nothing to do with Israel, who were there before Israel, that's where they're going to do, that's where they're going to form, that's where they're going to fight, because

it was Jewish. Any other place, even the USSR, any other place they're going to at least be iffy about. it. But when it comes to a fully Jewish state, the Jewish purpose, both ethnically and religiously, yes, they'll die for that. It's a huge, huge thing that many people don't understand. Taking all that into consideration, Dane's position can only be explained by a relaxed feeling of dual citizenship. The very same that back in 1922, Professor Solomon Lurie from

Petrograd, considered as one of the main sources of anti-Semitism and its explanation. A Jew living in a particular country belongs not only to that country, and its loyalties become inevitably split in two. The Jews have always harbored nationalist attitudes, but the object of their nationalism was Jewry, not the country in which they lived. Their interest in this country is partial. After all, they, even if many of them only unconsciously, saw a head looming in the future of their very own nation of Israel. Well, that's an obvious statement that we all know to be true, whether they're Zionists or not. But if they were going to fight for somebody, that was not a Jewish state, or a state it was not a Jewish state.

It would be something like the USSR or the U.S. in their war against similar. That would be the next best thing for them. But even there, as we've been reading, they're not exactly at their front lines. And what about the rear? Researchers are certain about the growth of anti-Semitism during the war. The curve of anti-Semitism in those years rose sharply again, and anti-Semitic manifestations by their intensity and prevalence dwarfed the anti-Semitism of the second half of the 1920s.

During the war, anti-Semitism became commonplace in the domestic life in the Soviet Deep Hinterland. during evacuation, so-called domestic anti-Semitism, which had been dormant since the establishment of the Stalinist dictatorship in the early 1930s, was revived against the background of general insecurity and breakdown in other hardships and deprivations engendered by the war. This statement refers mainly to Central Asia, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, especially when the masses of wounded and disabled veterans rushed there from the front, and exactly there the masses of the evacuated Jews lived. including Polish Jews, who were torn from their traditional environment by deportation and who had no experience of Soviet Kolkos. Still can't pronounce it. Here are the testimonies of Jewish evacuees to Central Asia recorded soon after the war. Quote, the low labor productivity among evacuated Jews served in the eyes of the locals as a proof of allegedly characteristic Jewish reluctance to engage in physical labor. Yeah.

The intensification of anti-Semitic attitudes was fueled by the Polish refugees' activity on the commodity markets. Yeah, commodity markets. During the war, in the refugee camps, they were still in the commodity markets. That blows me away. Soon they realized that their regular incomes from the employment and industrial enterprises, Kolkis and cooperatives, would not save them from starvation and death. To survive, there was only one way, trading on the market or speculations. Therefore, it was a Soviet reality that drove Polish Jews to resort to market transactions whether they liked it or not.

The non-Jewish population of Tashkent was ill-disposed toward the Jewish evacuees from Ukraine. Some said, look at these Jews. They always have a lot of money. Then there were incidents of harassment and insults of Jews, threats against them, throwing them out of bread queues. Another group of Russian Jews, mostly bureaucrats with a considerable amount of cash, inspired the hostility of the locals for inflating the already high market prices. Well, I mean, we know that this is the case. Wherever they go, whatever the situation is, it tends to be that way. And why does Polish choose?

And remember, Sultan Eaton, when he got cancer, he was, well, still, you know, in prison, was sent to Central Asia. so he knows a lot of this firsthand. And we talked about the preferences given to Jews when they were evacuated at the beginning of the invasion. And although I refuse to believe that they would have simply starved, that's what they say. That's the propaganda is, oh, if you didn't do this, we'd starve to death. Well, there were plenty of other people who didn't do that who didn't starve to death, who were also removed. you know Stalin loved population transfers whether it's you know legitimate or not clearly you want to remove people from the front who can't fight but he moved so many

populations around the Koreans are just one example that the Tartars are another example and they didn't act they didn't do this kind of thing and then they get dumped on a population and with all the others who were sent let's say any any part of Central Asia which as we know and I've written on extensively, were almost annihilated by the Jewish Communist Party, particularly in Kazakhstan, where the native Kazakh population went down so far that there were then a minority in their own country by the end of the war. and to say that there weren't two dictators who did it there, it would be a lie.

They were. And we've talked about that already. So clearly there's reason for ill will. And then this. But I'm not sure why it's just the Polish, why it's just a Polish Jews, and why they would worry about being ripped from their enterprises or cooperative. You know, everyone was.

Everyone who wasn't able to fight, I guess. you know um so um to survive there's only one way speculation no speculation well they were speculating on food they're speculating on the things that were feeding everyone else around them so of course you're going to be despised there's no way around it the author proceeds confidently to explain these facts of us quote hitler's propaganda reaches even here end quote and he is not alone in reaching such conclusions. What a staggering revelation. How could Hitler's propaganda

were victoriously reach and permeate all of Central Asia when it was barely noticeable at the front with all those rare and dangerous to touch leaflets thrown from airplanes and when all private radio receiver sets were confiscated throughout the USSR? No.

The author realizes that their, quote, was yet another reason for the growth of anti-Semitic attitudes in the districts that absorbed evacuees in mass. There, the antagonism between the general mass of the provincial population and the privileged bureaucrats from the country's central cities manifested itself in a subtle form. Evacuation of organizations from these centers into the hinterland provided the local population with an opportunity to fully appreciate the depth of social contrast. But, you know, did I send you that article on Constellon?

So in the Cuff of the Barnes Review? You did not. Okay, I will. It's done it's ready to go. I love for our listeners to read it. He's not just talking about Central Asia, but elsewhere as well. And what they did to the local population is absolutely, well, it's brutal to say the very least. And there was always a contempt of cows.

against Jews no matter what. And it wasn't just Jews, though. You had people with, you know, bureaucrats who were used to a normal, you know, posh life in cities being dumped off there. You know, they couldn't fight or they were, you know, 4F or whatever. And so, yeah, it means that it is their behavior. They were driving the price of food up or whatever it was that, you know, they were essentially refugees.

at this point. And, but the only, the only army that had endless supply problems was a German one, not the, not the Soviet one, and certainly not the Soviet population. And especially when you consider, and don't forget, the American lifeline came in through Persia, came in through Iran, which is not that far away. And I don't know if there's a connection there or not. that would be an interesting question to look into. So much stuff came up through there a huge amount.

And all that debt was immediately canceled by the U.S. after the war. They just got it. You know, a billion dollar even then that there was a huge number amount of, despite the fact that the Soviets had by far the largest number of tanks in the world and infantrymen. And, you know, they were oversupplied, if anything. And Germans, of course, were struggling with ammunition, was struggling with, but you could read DeGrelle's book. You know, they didn't have any control over the air. And, yeah, it was a meat grinder for both sides.

But, you know, for the Germans, they were kind of stuck. I remember when I was a kid, I talked about those time and life books. And there was another separate book just on Stalingrad. And at the end, there was a picture of a young German guy. And the caption, Walking, I said it was in Germany. Here's this young veteran of Stalingrad walking, trying to find his house, which probably at this point doesn't exist.

So, but those were the people who were doing the fighting. and the dying at the time. And I love his sarcasm with the Hitler's propaganda reaches even here, which is inconceivable. You know, Stalin was very strict about that anyway. The commissars would have noticed any of it. Germans were not doing the leaflet thing. It was a miracle if they were able to fly in and dump supplies and then get out. That by itself, especially, you know, during.

Stalingrad, that would have been a miracle. And, of course, it was never enough. So we just didn't have this problem. And so I think Stalingrad was the epitome of human suffering from a military point of view. And I guarantee you that there were plenty of Red Army soldiers who noticed that there were all Russians there or Ukrainians there. or Kazakhs there. And I think that that was a consistent problem throughout the history of the USSR.

We talked about this going back to the many episodes ago within 1920s. That, you know, they seem to be far more privileged than we are, even though the members of the party, seem to be far wealthier than we are, despite the fact we're supposed to be fighting this kind of thing. And it just never ended. And, but again, the best is the opportunity to fully appreciate the depths of social contrast. That's the best way to put it, you know, tongue in cheek. I knew exactly what he was talking about when he wrote that. And there's no way around it.

It's perfect. I think maybe we should stop there. I think I'll start talking about the German invasion. Yeah, yeah, in Ukraine. Yeah, that works for me. Yeah. all righty um be back in a couple days please go to the show notes and donate to dr johnson's work um you have all the links there to where you can donate and also link to his new book where uh which is another

way of supporting him so um please go ahead and please go ahead and do that um you got anything to close us out with or just want to get out of you well no i i i told you i got the i showed you the book last time i got my review copies and this is the best thing I've ever written. I slaved over it. I suffered over it more than any other book, and it's noticeable. I will say right now this is the best book on the topic, and probably will remain the best book on the topic in the near future.

And I hit it from all angles. Please, this is a first-rate book. Buy it, leave a review, whatever. I'm very proud of it. Awesome. We'll be back in a couple days with episode number 104. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Thank you. See you then.