My post Russian shit stirring seems that have woken my Latvian friend Peteris Cedrins from his his work induced blogging hiatus. He has written two erudite and very illuminating pieces which rebuff the Russian view on the Baltic occupation, including the assertions that the Baltic states were pro german or that the Soviet was supported by Britain.
The two pieeces Dat Ole Time Propaganda and Dat Ole Time Propaganda II are well worth reading. They certainly added to my very limited knowledge of baltic history.
6 comments:
Peteris is an authority on Baltic history and politcs and a very talented writer to boot. His posts are definitely well worth reading.
I am glad you do. He is definitely well worth reading
Those were fine posts. I am always interested to read opinion on Baltic politics, and thank you for pointing it out!
Glad to be of service Roland! When Peteris writes it is well worth seeing what he has written.
Thanks!
Authority I am not, though -- like you, I just like to read history, and it was incredibly painful to me when I first came here (end of 1991) and encountered press reports that had nothing to do with what I experienced or what I knew of history. For example, when Latvia was admitted to the Council of Europe, we got some wine to celebrate and listened to the BBC. What we heard was a lengthy personal report by a journalist who understood nothing, with errors (not of interpretation but of fact) in everything he said. I sat down at an old typewriter (those were not rarely scary machines out of Vonnegut, having been used by different occupiers) and wrote a letter, to which I at least got an answer (not on the facts, but on "two wrongs don't make a right" -- when I didn't see what it was we were doing wrong, and still don't; this is not the former Yugoslavia in any way, so we must be doing something right...). I hate propaganda, and being from a tiny, weak country that regularly ranks as the #2 (or so) public enemy of the largest country in the world, next door (now we've been replaced on the Kremlin's hatred list by the vast land called Georgia, I guess), one has to wade through it incessantly. Most people have tuned it out by now -- being somebody who reads papers like The Guardian (okay, so maybe I'm ill), I just can't. Along the way, my interest in what exactly this nation-state is was rekindled.
Perhaps I overstate, Peteris, but I know full well when you write something it will be thoughtful, well written and damned well worth reading!
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