Thank you for sharing this! I know only the very basic parts of this history, Reena, and from western sources. Your poem is very powerful, “with room to breathe but I can only sigh.” And such an amazing, and hopefully, deeply healing, recording project.
I spent the last couple of months reading accounts of women during the Soviet era. The first was a collection of journals, letters, and interviews by woman who experienced the horrors of the Soviet gulags: “Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons,” by Veronica Shapovalov. Sad, sobering, necessary reading. We cannot forget their pain.
Next, “Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets,” by Svetlana Alexievich andBela Shayevich. It’s described as an emotional history of living during the collapse of a secular faith. How does it feel when everything you were taught falls apart?
Finally, “The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of [Soviet] Women in World War II,” by Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear. How do I respond to a book that summarizes the experience of women on the frontlines of a war where they fought as snipers, sappers, tank commanders, nurses, pilots and all the other roles they volunteered for in the hellfires of war. The interviews leave one with a rollercoaster of responses from speechless, charmed, heartbroken, laughing, crying, and so very proud of the courage and fearless determination of the young women who demanded a role in the defense of their motherland. Honestly, few books have touched me like this one.
We should never forget the lives and suffering of ordinary people caught up in history’s great upheavals. There was an accounting of the horrors of the Nazis, but the 100 millions deaths under communist regimes are mostly forgotten. These books and the work you are doing is how we can honor the people who endured so much under the hands of leaders who almost always escape judgement and punishment for the evil they contrive.
I see kids wearing the ubiquitous “Che’” shirts and ask myself how ignorant must they be to wear the image of a psycho racist murderer. Lately, I see many red flags with hammers and sickles at protests and wonder if they understand how those symbols are as noxious as swastikas (although I’ve even seen those at some of the anti-Israel protests).
I fear we haven’t done a good enough job of inoculating generations who haven’t experienced these evils, because unless they truly believe these evil ideologies, they are simply ignorant and clueless, and that reflects back on how they were educated.
Word! The more elite the education the greater the indoctrination. Hence the lost generation(s). Their raging mental dysfunction is not unrelated of course.
It’s interesting, no, it’s wonderful how people with such disparate backgrounds can reach similar conclusions. It’s almost as if we all share a common humanity, although woe unto anyone who believes such a thing when so many believe absolutely no one can properly understand their “lived experience.”
Thank you for this and for your kind words, Switter. I'm honored to do this work and the testimonies I've collected from elders in my community have been humbling and amazing. Additional bonus: their blessings for this effort have been an incredible gift to me.
PS. On a separate note, your sentence "100 millions deaths under communist regimes are mostly forgotten.." is SO incredibly true. Unfortunately, I continue to meet mostly young (altho often even of my age) privileged people living in the west who claim fealty to "communism" or yearn for some silly vision of it or (the worst) praise leaders like Maduro, Castro, etc completely oblivious to the testimony of the lived experiences of the millions who perished, not to mention the millions who died trying to ESCAPE their "utopias"... No end to our delusions. How much evidence do we need for people to awaken?
Wow. This is so powerful. The people’s history book looks amazing. Is there a museum commemorating this powerful time in history? The poems by you and Auden are stunning.
Dear Carissa -- Thank you so much for reading. There are a couple of Partition museums in India (Amritsar, Delhi) and The 1947 Partition Archive is working on one as well. We learned from the holocaust example about the importance of telling these stories. The book is being launched today and is a 500-page-thick coffee table book with many stories, essays, poems and photos. More on that soon... Big thanks for your appreciation
Yes, I bet it has!
Thank you for sharing this! I know only the very basic parts of this history, Reena, and from western sources. Your poem is very powerful, “with room to breathe but I can only sigh.” And such an amazing, and hopefully, deeply healing, recording project.
Thank you Emily for reading and for your appreciation. 🙏It’s been a very meaningful journey.
Thank you, Reena. We do not have the luxury of forgetting the past, since the past is what shapes our present, both for good, and far too often, ill.
Quite true Switter. We forget that at our peril, don't we?
Thank you so much for reading my words.
I spent the last couple of months reading accounts of women during the Soviet era. The first was a collection of journals, letters, and interviews by woman who experienced the horrors of the Soviet gulags: “Remembering the Darkness: Women in Soviet Prisons,” by Veronica Shapovalov. Sad, sobering, necessary reading. We cannot forget their pain.
Next, “Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets,” by Svetlana Alexievich andBela Shayevich. It’s described as an emotional history of living during the collapse of a secular faith. How does it feel when everything you were taught falls apart?
Finally, “The Unwomanly Face of War: An Oral History of [Soviet] Women in World War II,” by Svetlana Alexievich, Richard Pevear. How do I respond to a book that summarizes the experience of women on the frontlines of a war where they fought as snipers, sappers, tank commanders, nurses, pilots and all the other roles they volunteered for in the hellfires of war. The interviews leave one with a rollercoaster of responses from speechless, charmed, heartbroken, laughing, crying, and so very proud of the courage and fearless determination of the young women who demanded a role in the defense of their motherland. Honestly, few books have touched me like this one.
We should never forget the lives and suffering of ordinary people caught up in history’s great upheavals. There was an accounting of the horrors of the Nazis, but the 100 millions deaths under communist regimes are mostly forgotten. These books and the work you are doing is how we can honor the people who endured so much under the hands of leaders who almost always escape judgement and punishment for the evil they contrive.
I see kids wearing the ubiquitous “Che’” shirts and ask myself how ignorant must they be to wear the image of a psycho racist murderer. Lately, I see many red flags with hammers and sickles at protests and wonder if they understand how those symbols are as noxious as swastikas (although I’ve even seen those at some of the anti-Israel protests).
I fear we haven’t done a good enough job of inoculating generations who haven’t experienced these evils, because unless they truly believe these evil ideologies, they are simply ignorant and clueless, and that reflects back on how they were educated.
Word! The more elite the education the greater the indoctrination. Hence the lost generation(s). Their raging mental dysfunction is not unrelated of course.
It’s interesting, no, it’s wonderful how people with such disparate backgrounds can reach similar conclusions. It’s almost as if we all share a common humanity, although woe unto anyone who believes such a thing when so many believe absolutely no one can properly understand their “lived experience.”
Thank you for this and for your kind words, Switter. I'm honored to do this work and the testimonies I've collected from elders in my community have been humbling and amazing. Additional bonus: their blessings for this effort have been an incredible gift to me.
PS. On a separate note, your sentence "100 millions deaths under communist regimes are mostly forgotten.." is SO incredibly true. Unfortunately, I continue to meet mostly young (altho often even of my age) privileged people living in the west who claim fealty to "communism" or yearn for some silly vision of it or (the worst) praise leaders like Maduro, Castro, etc completely oblivious to the testimony of the lived experiences of the millions who perished, not to mention the millions who died trying to ESCAPE their "utopias"... No end to our delusions. How much evidence do we need for people to awaken?
Wow. This is so powerful. The people’s history book looks amazing. Is there a museum commemorating this powerful time in history? The poems by you and Auden are stunning.
Dear Carissa -- Thank you so much for reading. There are a couple of Partition museums in India (Amritsar, Delhi) and The 1947 Partition Archive is working on one as well. We learned from the holocaust example about the importance of telling these stories. The book is being launched today and is a 500-page-thick coffee table book with many stories, essays, poems and photos. More on that soon... Big thanks for your appreciation
We have a large Indian population in the US. A museum is due here too.
Agree!