Re: Death of Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian Christian writer jailed by

On May 15, 8:46=A0am, Steve Hayes <hayesm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Tue, 13 May 2008 05:27:04 -0700 (PDT), Dan <dannyk1...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote=
:
> >On May 13, 3:43=A0am, Steve Hayes <hayesm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> >> Christian writer jailed for her beliefs by the Soviet
> >> authorities
>
> ><snip>
>
> >>Krakhmalnikova became an
> >> active democrat, calling on leaders of the Orthodox church
> >> to repent of its collaboration with the authorities (which
> >> they never did).
>
> >This may be why she is so little known--even to Orthodox Christians.
> >One more notch on Agent Drozdov's gun.
>
> Possibly. I first heard of her from an article she wrote in the journal
of=
 the
> Keston Institute, of which the bosser up is, or was, Michael Bourdeaux,
wh=
o
> wrote the obit.
>
> Here's an abstact:
>
> =A0 =A0 Krakhmal'nikova, Zoya, 1992. Russophobia, antisemitism and
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Christianity: some remarks on an anti-Russian idea,
in
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0Religion, State and Society, Vol. 20(1). Page 7-28.
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 I.R. Shafarevich, a Russian mathematician,
has=
 written a book
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 called Russophobia, in which he puts forward
a=
ntisemitic and
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 nationalist ideas as Christian. Ilya
Glazunov,=
 an artist who
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 exhibited in 1978, could be considered the
fat=
her of this
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 idea - his painting of the prodigal son
shows =
the son
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 returning, not to God, but to Russia, and
depi=
cts Satan with
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 what the then fa****onable priest, Fr Dmitri
Du=
dko, called an
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 'unRussian face'. These nationalist and
antise=
mitic ideas,
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 however, are not Christian, but are contrary
t=
o the Orthodox
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 tradition. It is not by imagining enemies,
but=
 by returning
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 to its Orthodox roots, including the
principle=
 of loving
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 one's enemies, that Russia will be true to
its=
elf. It is
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Shafarevic who displays the real
Russophobia, =
by inciting
> =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 hatred.

I was not familiar with Zoya Krakhmalnikova, but I think it's
worth pointing out that Igor Shafarevich is a major
internationally respected mathematician and the founder
of the im****tant Russian school of algebraic number theory.
I have two of his books on number theory. I was not familiar
with his political writings and the accusations of anti-semitism,
but here's quote from the wikipedia entry on him:

  "Antisemitism allegations
  Allegations of antisemitism started after Shafarevich wrote
  an essay titled "Russophobia"[14][15], which was written
  in 1982 and first published in Germany in 1988.[16] His
  sources were writings by Soviet emigrants of Jewish origin.[17]
  He complained that "Russophobes," who are cunning, hostile
  Jewish critics, "dream of transforming Russia into. .. a robot
  deprived of all elements of human life."[18]

  This publication led to an "unprecedented" public campaign to
  remove Shafarevich from the US NAS.[19][20] In an open letter
  to the NAS, Shafarevich denied that Russophobia is antisemitic.[21]
  Most recently Shafarevich expanded on the subject in his work
  "Three thousand year old mystery", concentrated on Jewish
  history. Among other things, Shafarevich has extensively
  written on the participation of Jews in revolutionary movements:

  "Clearly, this "Russian destruction" [during the Russian Civil War]
  was made not exclusively by Jewish efforts, but by the Communist
  government. However, this doesn't remove the problem as to why
  Jewish people were so eager to participate in this "destruction".

  [...]

  Shafarevich also blames Jews for the Kristallnacht comparing
  the preceding events to the September 11, 2001 attacks:

  "Its cause was the 1938 murder of vom Rath, 3rd secretary of the
  German embassy in Paris, by a Polish Jew Grynszpan. Actually,
  this was not the first such case. For example, in 1936 the head
  of the Foreign Section of the Nazi party in Switzerland was
  murdered by David Frankfurter. The situation resembled modern
  situation in the U.S. after September 11, 2001 attacks: the state
  had to reply to a terrorist act aimed against its citizen. Hitler's
  Germany replied with the Kristallnacht."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Shafarevich

All of this is rather disturbing and certainly makes me see
Shafarevich in a new light. His writings on number theory
are very lucid and useful.

I guess Shafarevich is a creature of the new Russia,
Putin's Russia (to borrow the title of the late Anna
Politkovskaya's book) where ultra-nationalism
and antisemitism are common.