Tag: history

Book: Eva Mozes Kor “The Twins of Auschwitz”

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Josef Mengele is one of the Nazis whose name is synonymous with the atrocities of the Hitler regime. He was not only personally responsible for sorting prisoners at Auschwitz but also conducted horrifying experiments in his camp clinic.

One of his “projects” was an attempt to understand the nature of twins. Because of this, twins had a slightly higher chance of survival—not being sent directly to their deaths—even if they were unfit for labor in the camp. However, Mengele never considered them human and subjected both adults and tiny children to monstrous experiments. To him, they were nothing more than test subjects.

Eva Mozes Kor was one such twin, destined to die so that Mengele could observe how it would affect her sister. But against all odds, Eva survived. After the war, she wrote her memoirs about her time in that hell.

Eva lived with her family in Transylvania when the war arrived. Her father wanted to escape to Palestine, where Jews were beginning to build their own state, but her mother couldn’t bring herself to leave everything behind and take the children into the unknown. Because of this, their once well-off family was among the first to experience the hatred and cruelty of their former neighbors. And when they finally decided to flee, it was already too late.

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Book: Art Spiegelman “Maus”

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A comic book about the genocide of Jews? Sounds unusual, but why not? The important thing is to convey knowledge, and the method is secondary. Some people read books, some only watch movies, and some consume information exclusively through comics. And it’s long been foolish to think that comics are just for kids or the unintelligent. As the history of manga shows (see my review of Frederik L. Schodt’s “Manga! Manga!: The World of Japanese Comics”), sometimes comics can convey more knowledge than a specialized encyclopedia.

So the existence of such a comic didn’t surprise me at all. What did make me slightly wary, though, was the prestigious award it received. I have this odd quirk—I tend not to trust overly hyped or award-winning works. It seems to me that these awards often follow their own internal logic, which doesn’t always correlate with actual quality.

Maus by Art Spiegelman is “the only comic book to win a Pulitzer Prize,” as proudly stated on the cover. And it tells the story of a Polish Jew, Vladek Spiegelman, who struggled to survive after Nazi has occupied Poland but ultimately ended up in a concentration camp with his wife.

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Book: Ben Elton “Two Brothers”

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I haven’t written in my blog for a long time, but I’m returning with a book that has unexpectedly become highly symbolic of current events—when one country, under the pretext of “brotherly help,” wages war against another. And a third, also supposedly “brotherly,” sometimes helps the first, sometimes tries to stay on the sidelines. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus.

Since childhood, I was taught that we must never allow the return of Nazism. I was psychologically crushed when, at around 12 years old, I saw the film “Triumph Over Violence“ (in Russian its title literally means ‘An Ordinary Fascism‘) on TV (I even felt physically sick from what I saw). For many years, I’ve continued reading and reflecting on how the dehumanization of entire nations and the transformation of people into monsters become possible. Documentaries, memoirs, and historical works are often far more terrifying than any fiction because with fiction, you can always think: “Well, this is just made up—things couldn’t have been that bad.” Even though you know they could. And they were. And now we see just how easy it is to “repeat it”—ironically, by those who, on a genetic level, should have carried an unshakable aversion to repeating it.

But sometimes, there are brilliant books on this very subject, and “Two Brothers” by Ben Elton is one of them. Perhaps because it is based on the real-life story of the author’s own family.

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Book: Boris Akunin “After a Long and Severe Illness”

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And so, Boris Akunin’s nine-volume History of the Russian State has come to an end—a project that took him nearly ten years to complete. Beginning from the very origins, he concluded his narrative with the reign of Nicholas II and the year 1917. Of course, Russia’s history did not end there, but from that point on, it largely became a completely different country, transforming into the USSR for the next 70 years. One could argue that even in its earlier stages, it wasn’t quite Russia as we understand it today—after all, Kievan Rus’ was the cradle of several nations. Unfortunately, at the time I am writing these lines, even this topic is being used to justify war. That’s why I viewed this series as a history of the Eastern Slavs, with a focus on the people of modern-day Russia.

The closer the author got to modern history, the more eagerly I anticipated his take on events that we studied in detail at school—albeit in a rather one-sided way. From Boris Akunin, I expected a more impartial perspective on these events, delivered in his distinctive style.

The final stage of the Russian Empire’s life is the reign of its last emperor, Nicholas II, a figure who evokes highly polarized opinions—either as a completely inept autocrat or as a near-saint. Above all, he was a man placed in circumstances for which he was, evidently, not well suited.

This time, focusing on a period of history well known to many, Boris Akunin chose a new approach to his storytelling. He divided the book into two parts. In the first, titled “A Bouquet of Illnesses,” he examines the condition of the empire during this era, portraying the vast country as a sick patient suffering from numerous chronic diseases. He identifies many of the same issues he has repeatedly highlighted in earlier volumes: the conflict between the sacralized autocratic power and an increasingly self-aware society, the imperial obsession with expansion and the inability to manage it, national tensions (Jews, Poles, Finns, and others), and more. He also lays out how all these problems—along with the personality of the emperor himself—became entangled in a knot from which there was almost no way out.

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Book: Boris Akunin “The Road to Kitezh”

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The History of the Russian State series by Boris Akunin recently concluded with its final book on the reign of Nicholas II. However, the last part of the accompanying fiction cycle has yet to be released. The Road to Kitezh is the penultimate novel in this fictional series, which serves as “additional material” to the main historical narrative.

In these novels, Boris Akunin traces the life of a single family from pre-Varangian times—presumably up until the 1917 Revolution—while weaving in the historical events of each respective era around them. Sometimes it’s engaging, sometimes not so much. But in this particular book, The Road to Kitezh, the central figure of the titular dynasty, Adrian Lartsev, though portrayed as a highly unconventional individual with a deep passion for railroad construction that runs throughout the novel, is actually a secondary character this time. The true protagonist here is the State itself. Everything the characters do is for the benefit of this very State and its people. The entire struggle is fought for a better future, which different forces interpret in their own way.

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Book: Rosalie Gilbert “The Very Secret Sex Lives of Medieval Women”

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What does the average person know about the Middle Ages? That there were knights with their ladies, they went on several crusades to fight the infidels, the noble English king Richard the Lionheart (who was actually quite a scoundrel), the Knights of the Round Table (not from here), dragons and a talking donkey (also not from here), the right of the first night, Robin Hood and his men in tights, Teutonic knights on ice, and chastity belts. Probably something else too, but I can’t recall off the top of my head.

In her book, Rosalie Gilbert set out to examine some of these so-called “facts” that we know thanks to movies and books, focusing on a particular adult theme—intimate matters. Were people really all that virtuous? Was there even a sex life at all? (Obviously, there was, since people had to reproduce somehow.) And how did they guard against spousal infidelity, or, conversely, try to ignite passion in their partners?

It took me just a few pages to decide I wanted to read the book because the author jumps right in, debunking myths and revealing just how difficult it was to remain a virgin in those times. After all, male virginity wasn’t much of a concern back then, and women, in general, were considered the embodiment of sin (we all remember Eve and the apple in Eden, right?), whom men simply had to tolerate for the sake of the survival of the family line.

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Cypriot Languages

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When I wrote about the IT industry in Cyprus, I briefly touched on the topic of languages on the island. However, I’ve now decided to delve deeper into the subject because it’s not as straightforward as it seems, and it’s a fascinating topic.

I believe Cypriots themselves are well aware of the languages spoken on their island, but if you ask an immigrant who arrived a few years ago and generally feels like a “local,” they will confidently tell you that the island has three official languages: Greek, Turkish, and English. The more informed ones might even show you a residence permit or a birth certificate (like the one illustrated in this post), where all terms are presented in these three languages. However, this statement is incorrect.

Before I explain why it’s incorrect, it’s worth exploring the historical background by going back centuries.

Originally, some population lived on Cyprus, but during the time of the Trojan War, when the Greeks were returning victorious, some of them settled on the island. This marked the beginning of the assimilation of the local population, and Cyprus essentially became part of Achaean culture (since there was no unified country of Greece at the time, and the Greek city-states were constantly at war with each other, except when they united against the Trojans, for example).

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Book: Alina Nahornaja “404 Language Not Found”

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The book “404 Language Not Found” is about how difficult it is to use the Belarusian language in modern Belarus.

Let me start with a bit of background, with the history of my relationship with the Belarusian language. To be honest, Russian was always the native language in my family, although older generations occasionally mixed in either Belarusian words or dialects (the so-called “trasianka”) or some words from Yiddish. However, the Belarusian language surrounded me from childhood, and I understood it almost as if it were my native tongue. In the 1980s, I once visited Kyiv for a programming competition and was struck by how extensively Ukrainians used the Ukrainian language in daily life. In the Byelorussian SSR, in Minsk, Belarusian was not used as actively. On the second day of this “trip,” I decided to speak only Belarusian in Kyiv. The locals gave me slightly curious looks but generally understood me perfectly.

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Cyprus: The Church

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What else could one write about on Christmas Eve if not the church? I’ve never been a religious person myself, but I do love history, including the history of the church. So today, instead of just a short note about churches in Cyprus, as a true armchair historian, I’ll start from afar.

As is well known, Christianity derives its name from Jesus Christ, who was a Jew and preached his teachings in his native lands, which at the time were part of the vast Roman Empire. Opinions about Jesus himself and who he really was as a person may vary (for more on this, I highly recommend the book Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth). However, it is well documented that Christianity was initially intended exclusively for Jews. No other nations or pagans were deemed worthy of it.

Moreover, when one of the apostles began introducing non-Jews to Christianity, he was initially almost ostracized, criticized for his actions. And yet, Christianity would never have become a global religion had it remained exclusively Jewish.

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Book: Shimun Vrochek “My Soviet Childhood”

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Recently, Shimun Vrochek wrote a book about his Soviet childhood. Since his childhood and mine happened during the same years (he was born on November 1, 1976, and I was born three months later, on January 28, 1977), I was very curious to see how someone from my “generation” experienced it, but in a different part of the Soviet Union. He was born in Kungur, in the Urals, and grew up in Nizhnevartovsk, while I spent my entire childhood in Minsk.

I even had the same school uniform as the one he wears in the photo, though it wasn’t so easy to find in Minsk—my father brought it from Moscow.

The book originated from notes that Shimun wrote in his blog (at least some of which could be read individually). Eventually, those notes were compiled into this book. That’s why it isn’t a sequential narrative but rather a collection of short memories about various things, with no clear structure or connection between chapters. Sometimes, this approach works very well (just think of The Un-Chekhovian Intelligentsia or The Life of Remarkable People and Animals by Boris Akunin).

Even though there was a great distance between me and the author, many of the feelings and experiences resonate, making the book truly transport me back to my childhood. Like Shimun, I believed I was living in the best country in the world, where everything was wonderful, and a bright communist future lay ahead—a future of fairness, with no poverty, and so on.

For bringing me back to those years, I am truly grateful to the author.

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