Re: Death of Zoya Krakhmalnikova, Russian Christian writer jailed

Marko Amnell wrote:

>
>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:
>  
>

Prior to the 80s, Shafarevic (and I am going by memory here) was a part 
of the samizdat and the resurgence of Orthodoxy in Russia.  There were 
kind of two schools of though, one school that said to throw out all the 
communist (especially NKVD / KGB) collaborators and one school that 
suggested that only within what was left of the Church could the the 
people be in a position to come back to it.  Shafarevic was in both 
camps and also among those that felt that Marx, Trotsky and others had 
created some kind of uniquely dangerous socialist thought out of 
Zionism.  You will recall the completely negatively light, also, that 
Zionism held in the Soviet Union after 1923 and the fact that the Soviet 
Union was for a time allied with Hitler.  Unfortunately, Shafarevic fell 
prey to some of this manufactured antisemitic propaganda which is also 
an unfortunate feature of the incipient Pamjat political movement.. 

>  "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.
>  
>
The new Russia is western and has a rising standard of living and is 
tolerant of other peoples and faiths, but sometimes has missteps on the 
road back to their European roots.  You cannot so generalize, I don't 
think. However, as for Shafarevic himself, he doesn't seem to have 
retracted some of his worst statements, only tried to recast them.  He 
is quoted by the worst:  He was given the equivalent of a lifetime 
achievement award for matematics, which he deserves, by Putin.  Perhaps 
he has spent too much time contemplating Gallois and not enough time 
contemplating the Orthodox concept that every single individual on earth 
present or past was created in the image of God?

http://christianparty.net/russia.htm

The above, a fascist party, typically misuses and therefore abuses 
Christianity for its purposes.

I understand how difficult it is for you to consider someone who was a 
great dissident with Solzhenitzen falling prey to this incredible 
nationalist tripe in his dotage, like Sozhenitzen but worse.  In fact, 
Sozhenitzen's ideas may have played a part in those of the less 
compellingly well written Shafarevic.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1568/is_1_36/ai_n6006323


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