Posted on 02/22/2018 6:10:41 PM PST by Rummyfan
In 1972, Charles Cole was a 20-something American embarking on an ideological odyssey: a tour of duty through the USSR as a Russian-speaking guide for a cultural-exchange exhibit sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency. Trained at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, Cole jumped at the chance to serve his nation abroad with his skills. These exhibits were powerful in educating Soviet citizens about the freedoms in America that their totalitarian government lied about unceasingly. As for the U.S. government’s investment in this program, William F. Buckley Jr. wrote that he couldn’t imagine a “better-leveraged” use of tax dollars.
Now in his 70s, and alarmed by the perverse sympathies toward communism and socialism he’s seeing in our new America, especially among Millennials, Cole in 2017 marked the centenary of communism by writing a memoir of his six surreal months in the USSR, in hopes of not only preserving that history but begging Americans to pay heed to the lessons of the failed communist experiment. He hopes to offer truth as an antidote to “mind-numbing propaganda,” then and still today.
Cole’s account is titled In Russian Wonderland, an engaging journey through unique remembrances of everything from Russia’s laughable but scary “Aeroflot” airlines, to the Russian people’s shocking abuse of “oceans of vodka,” to the omnipresence of state surveillance, to the grim behavior of Soviet workers from waitresses and waiters to hotel maids, to the diabolical annihilation of religion — from what the Kremlin called its approved “working churches” to the desecration and conversion of great holy places like Leningrad’s Kazan Cathedral into the Museum of the History of Religion and Atheism.
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
Why is the tune Boogie Wonderland playing in the back of my mind?
In the same year, I went to the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto. One of the exhibits was a library of books from the USSR written in English. It wasn’t really a library because all the books were for sale at prices just above free. I picked up three of them.
One was titled British Foreign Policy in WWII. It was a history of the war in Europe as seen through Soviet eyes. The interesting thing was that it was factual. I guess history is hard to lie about. What differentiated it was the implications given different battles and outcomes.
In that sense, the books I purchased were self-serving propaganda. But what a clever way to distribute it ... by selling it.
Ever wonder why the dems were focused on spying on the transition team foreign policy people. I think they were passing on (selling?) what the new Trump policies would be towards Russia, China, and most importantly Iran to those countries.
LINK NO GOOD
Thank you.
That new one works perfectly!
"…but the fact remained that this was a predatory state which the Czar and a small group of noblemen and bureaucrats ruled for their own exclusive benefit...The ruling group owned all the wealth, enjoyed all the privileges and monopolized all the political power, and it did not intend to give up any of its prerogatives. It considered the peasants to be little better than animals..."
Think of how the academics and MSM think of us conservatives.
Bkmrk.
Bookmark for later review.
I am intrigued and ordered a copy. I’ll come back in some months to let you all know how it was.
Thanks, Rummy.
Kit
An MD friend is ethnic Chinese and a former medical officer in RVN Navy...He and his family managed to escape after the fall of SVN with little more than the clothes they were wearing...
We’ve discussed Communism and the regime many times, and I have utmost respect for his experiences and knowledge of the subject; having lived it...
He’s aghast that so many American young people think they want to try it here...And just shakes his head, saying “Trust me, you won’t like it”...I believe him; know he’s right and understating his fears...Some days now, I’m glad to be old...
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