Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad

 Kobo offers a wonderful opportunity to read worthy books, but I was in a hurry and needed to grab some library books and had no time for a long waiting list.  I stumbled on "Symphony for a Dead City."  It is a partial biography of Dmitri Shostakovich focused around the Leningrad Siege of World War II, and using that event as a platform.

Dmitri Shostakovich was a name I had heard of even had a few tunes in a music collection, but did not think of him as key music composer.  Born in Leningrad he became recognized as a musical talent at an early age.  Despite his talent he was criticized by Stalin and was lucky his reputation helped him avoid execution.  He was closely watched.  Like other celebrities he might be allowed foreign travel, but only if his family would be used as hostages.

 He wrote film music and quartets and even an opera.  Symphonies are mostly how he is remembered.  He wrote six symphonies that earned international recognition before the Germans attacked Russia and Leningrad.  A terrible mistake was made by Leningrad authorities that assured there would be very little access to food.  The Germans decided it would be more efficient to starve the city.  The longest siege in modern history resulted and many did die and some others escaped.  Heroic efforts and more commonly desperate measures.  Many books were eaten or burned for heat.  More seriously dead bodies (cats, dogs and humans) for food.  A distinction was made between eating a discovered dead body and murdering a live human being for food.    

Shostakovich volunteered for a fire brigade, but had little encounter with real danger.  He started writing his Seventh Symphony and shaped it to reflect the Nazi invasion.  He was deemed important enough to get him out of the city to finish in a safer location.  He always liked to use a big orchestra, but made a bigger effort to include more musicians as a way of protecting them.  Several international orchestras were anxious to get the complete scores and it was hailed a critical success as well as a morale booster.

Stalin was a ruthless leader who had his opposition killed.  The generals were afraid to give him bad news.  Ironically he believed Hitler and made excuses when promises were broken.  An awful shock when he realized he had been betrayed.  After a period of adjustment he applied his ruthlessness to the Germans.  Americans and Brits were supportive, but Stalin always wanted more, most notably a second front.  Without the sacrifices made by Russian soldiers and civilians the war would have lasted much longer.  More Russians died than their allies.

Hitler looked down about the Slavic races and felt the land they occupied would be used for German expansion.  In fact many people in subjugated Russian areas rose up against Stalin, but they were quickly abused and most turned around and fought against the Nazi intruders.

Shostakovich was still not appreciated by Stalin and he was denounced with his works forbidden in 1948.  Nonetheless he composed another three symphonies in his life.  He was a devoted family man who enjoyed soccer.

Nikita Kruschev denounced Stalin when it was safe to do so--after his death.

What compelled me to write a blog about this random selection was the author Matthew Tobin Anderson's historical points.  He felt the war with Stalin and Hitler brought out the worst in man, but humans do learn to co-operate.  Stalin and Hitler were both tyrants who harmed their countrymen, but were overcome.

Dmitri Shostakovich is one of a string of fine Russian composers that we can all enjoy.

Hamilton Reads selection '"Nothing the same, Everyting Haunted"

"Hamilton Reads is program put on by my local library each year to high lite  a book for the whole community often with a local connection.  "Nothing the Same, Everything Haunted" (1921) is a book of black humor.  The hero survives the Nazi era.  There is an tie in to the indigenous who have also been oppressed.  The link is Karl May.

Karl May was a German author who although never traveling to North America wrote a series of popular books about "cowboys and Indians."  Surprisingly these books were popular with Adolf Hitler.  The protagonist is Motl, a Lituanian Jew, like ancestors of the author Gary Barwin.

We are introduced to Motl who had visited Switzerland where on a mountain top he lost his testicles that were frozen and buried in the snow.  We next encounter him years later back in Lithuania when the Nazis are attacking.  Motl had led a lackadaisical life, immersed in reading about the cowboys.  He is really a pretend cowboy, but when he meets up with Esther he takes a different view of life and wants to retrieve his testicles.  As the author explained with all the destruction around him he wanted to create life making the retrieval his quest.  The two encounter all sorts of obstacles and along the way teaming up with an indigenous man. 

Leaving out a lot of details many years later he ends up in Toronto with a side trip to visit indigenous sites and friends.  Many of the details reflect a black humor and the twisted mind of a pretend cowboy.  Obviously the Nazi era was one of mankind's most horrifying and shameful passages of history, but one of the best weapons against such things is humor.

The local branch offered a presentation from Gary that was a little different than expected.  For one thing Gary is a musician and brought along a friend known as  Tiny Bill Cody.  First we heard a Jewish song played on a sort of clarinet/saxophone instrument.  Later Tiny Bill Cody played a song written for the book called "The Ballad of Motl."  He also sang a yodeling song which ties into a Switzerland section.  He sings impressively  "I will Survive" which fits the theme of the book.

To the left Gary Barwin with musician Tiny Bill Cody.

Gary read some passages of the book and explained he had the idea from talking to relatives with a Lithuanian Jewish connection, but as he started researching he changed some details and added others.

In real life one of Gary's heroes used a poem's rhythm to navigate through a mine field and he used the idea for one of the adventures.

Gary has written 25 books that range from poetry, fiction and children's books  He has won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.  Has also had poems and articles published in such magazines as Reader's Digest and The Walrus.  He has also earned a Ph. D in music composition.  He has also taught creative writing at colleges and universities.  He lives in Hamilton Ontario.

Slouching Towards Utopia

 J. Bradford DeLong is a economics historian trying to explain how society got to its present stage.  After looking at events and statistics he concluded that our real wealth growth revolves around 1870 to 2010.  He makes a strong case.  There was lots happening before 1870.  We went from hunter gatherers, to manufacturers, developed a variety of complex cultures.  As a civilization we did make progress, but the author points the average person in terms of wealth, income, nutrition, longevity made only marginal progress.  However by 1870 many events have piled on top of one another and the average person does gain a share in an increase of global wealth.  Technology developed in fits and starts, but the population grew faster than wealth until 1870.

Slouching refers to the fact that much progress is diverted away from the idea of utopia.  Global wealth grows, but is not fairly distributed.

 Robert Malthus espoused the theory that mankind would breed so fast that we would annihilate ourselves with overpopulation.  In practicatl terms he noted that although mankind discovered or developed things that made human lives better our uncontrolled desires assured that there would be a diminishing amount of resources to sustain us.  Up until about 1870 that was true.  The Industrial Revolution started in England about 1770 and did boost the living standards of the rich and was part of the leadup to the greatest global economic growth period labeled the longest century.

A number of factors combined to lift more of mankind above sustenance.  Innovations in many fields were not only reinforcing one another, but research laboratories were assuring more innovations.  The  world was globalizing on many fronts including trans Atlantic transportation and underwater cable connections  Immigration and trade increased dramatically.   

Education was recognized at least in America and the British Empire as critical and suffrage gradually occurred around the world.  There was resistance, partly fueled by a misused Darwinian concept of "survival of the fittest" that seemed to justify increasing inequality.  Slavery had been reduced in Britain and America, but acceptance had a long way to go.  

Several European powers colonized huge parts of the world, Africa, Asia, Central and South America.  One country that escaped colonial efforts was Japan because they were able to initially resist contact with the outside world, but developed literacy and urbanization by adopting many westernizing methods.   They were able to send selected citizens to study in Europe or America.

An example of nationalization was the Boer War.  South Africa had a huge settlement of Dutch people.  They ran up against British ambitions and a war resulted in 1899.  Britain sent 250,000 military people and had so many prisoners they set up what came to be known as "concentration camps."  With a lot of brutal tactics the Brits won with the strong support of the British voters.  As a young boy I came across a book in our family home lauding the British effort in the Boer War.

Nationalism was on the rise.  When the heir to the Austrian Hapsburg throne was assassinated it was an effort to remove Serbia and Croatia from the grasp of the Austrian Hapsburg Empire.  It untangled alliances involving England, France, Russia, Romania and Germany resulting in World War I.  Otto von Bismarck was quoted "It is not by speeches and debates that the great issues of the day will be decided, but by blood and iron."

Despite  Woodrow Wilson proposing the League of Nations, the American reaction to the war was isolationism.  The Republicans forced the U.S. to withdraw from the League of Nations.  Heavy restrictions were imposed for immigration.  

John Maynard Keynes felt it was a big mistake to make Germany suffer which in turn was a grievance latched onto by Adolf Hitler.  

The Roaring Twenties ended with the start of one of the most serious global Depression.  Lots of action laying with the gold standard and interest rates.  Ironically Adolf Hitler understood better than Americans the importance of full employment and they came out of the troubled times better.  

Japan had become an industrial power, but were dependent on oil.  America blocked them from getting oil and the resentment led to Pearl Harbor.  After the brutality of WWII, the U.S. took on the role of a hegemon for the rest of the world.  Hegemon refers to a leadership role due to dominance.

United States, to placate returning military offered a GI bill that amongst others things encouraged  them to seek further education which not only raised standards, but gave the labor market time to sort itself out.  The Marshall plan helped to restore Europe to previous status.  President Eisenhower pushed for a greatly expanded highway system.

As racial minorities and females rose in stature there was resentment.  In 1964 the Civil Rights Act solidified rights.  Quoting the author, "Productivity depends on the division of labor...if you invite more people into your tent, your division can be finer and more productive".  Admittedly not everyone saw it that way.

From the 1990"s the Global South increased their real income faster than the Global North.  Information technology spurted ahead starting from the 1980's.  Another  factor was containerization meaning goods could be transported for lower income areas to areas of high consumption. 

In 2008 the world suffered a significant recession.  The author admitted he was wrong in his prescription (he actually started this book just before this new crisis and changed his outlook), but added most of the world did not handle it properly.  One exception was the Chinese who adopted the principle that the priority (remember Hitler) was to have full employment.  

Now we come to 2010, the author's designated end of the long century.  The world is going in different directions.  One alarming trend is the relative ignoring of climate change which will have life changing global impact.  Donald Trump was an indicator of a new economy.  He took advantage of people's natural desire to blame someone for their personal dissatisfaction.  His main policies were tax cuts and deregulation to support the already very rich.  The author thought that cruelty was also part of his legacy.  And he bungled the Covid crisis that negatively affected billions of us.  Not to mention stirring up a number of divisions of Americans.

One of those memorable passages for me was when the author paraphrased Abraham Lincoln.  "You only had the right to eat what you had earned by the work of your hands.  That was part of your rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  To keep others from taking the bread that you had earned was the point of government.  Moreover, any such government was legitimate only through your consent." 

The author seems to be an admirer of John Maynard Keynes, suggesting his wisdom should have and still should be paid attention to.    http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2012/04/book-on-john-maynard-keynes.htm

There is much to ponder in this heavy book well worth reading to better understand how the world got this way.  We are still only "slouching towards utopia".  The average global inhabitant is much better off than they were in 1870, but there is still serious inequality.  Some have more freedom, but there are still a lot of restrictions limiting the enjoyment of most of the world.  I would like to close with a quote from John Maynard Keynes who felt the most permanent problem is "how to live wisely and agreeably and well."

the U.S. and the Holocaust

History is full of events and opinions that do not reflect our better nature.  Canadians cannot be exempted from these black spots including ones brought to light by Ken Burns. 

 Hypocrisy has always been in good supply.  We look with horror at the Holocaust and have great difficulty imagining how it was even possible.  Americans can take solace in that they accepted more Jewish refugees than any other nation and were instrumental in militarily stopping Adolf Hitler, but there is another side to the story with parallels in the present.

 "Americans" have been welcoming European workers while pushing out the indigenous and bringing in Africans to be slaves.  Before the Civil War most immigrants came from northern Europe.  Afterwards those from the south and east of Europe came in greater numbers and at first met with resentment.  Chinese were brought in to build railroads, but also inspired an exclusion act.

Jews at one time made up almost a quarter of the population of New York City becoming the largest concentration of Jews in the world.   Problems were attributed to Jews such as crime.  Eugenics, financed by wealthy and powerful reared its ugly head.  Sterilization became legal in most American states.  

Henry Ford was a prominent anti-Semite publishing in different languages including German.  Jews were restricted in university admissions, jobs  Politicians could get elected with anti immigrant policies.  Immigration laws were enacted that favored northern Europeans.  Asian immigrants were illegal.  South Americans allowed in for labor only.

Hitler (while in prison) was pleased to learn that many Americans were advocating for a Nordic population.  Hitler felt a duty to rid the Jewish Bolshevik leaders that corrupted different parts of the world.   Mexicans were repatriated during the Depression.  In 1932 more Americans left than came in.  

By 1933 American journalists made the public well aware of Nazi anti Jewish acts.  American Jews found themselves in a dilemma--keep quiet or protest.  Regardless German Jews would suffer while Hitler thought Jewish actions only proved his anti-Jewish rhetoric.  During the Depression , the state department under Cordell Hull wanted to increase trade.  Immigration became more difficult.  Popular right wing religious leaders were blatantly anti-Semitic.  Germans modeled anti-Semitic laws on Jim Crow laws.

By 1937 fascist countries had become aggressive--Spain, Italy and Germany.  United States did not wish to intervene.  Hitler was a very stirring speaker.  By 1938 Hitler was welcomed in Austria and amalgamated.  Americans fired Jewish employees in Germany.

The world knew of the situation, but did not want to help out.  Hitler took over Sudentenland despite defense agreements involving other countries, notably Great Britain.

Kristallnacht, the night of the  broken glass November 9 and 10th, 1938- not only in Germany, but also Sudetendland-supposedly in retaliation for assassination of a German diplomat.  Businesses were destroyed, houses burnt and for the first time the Nazis rounded up Jewish males for no other reason than being Jewish and sent them to concentration camps.  This was covered on front page of many U.S. newspapers.  FDR was the only world leader to withdraw ambassador from Berlin and allowed visiting Jews on tourism visa to stay.  BUT quotas were maintained and strictly enforced.

Britain allowed 10,000 Jewsih teenagers to immigrate, but not parents.  Eleanor Roosevelt tried to support legislation to help Jewish refugees, but was strongly opposed by prominent racist individuals and organizations, backed by public sentiment.

Events accelerated with an attack on Poland resulting in World War II on Sept 1, 1939.  Germany rapidly conquered most of Europe.  They had made a pact with Soviet Union to split Poland, but in reality Hitler disliked the Jewish influence in Russia.

FDR claimed neutrality while deploring Nazi action  Isolationalists stopped or restricted action that would have relieved Jewish anxiety.

The St. Louis ship was organized to take Jews to Cuba, but rejected by the Cubans and in turn by Canada and others.   U.S. Germans pointed out the hypocrisy while touting their own opennesss.  Finances were organized for some of the refugees to European countries.

After the war began suspicion of German spies among the Jewish refugees became overwhelming, despite total lack of evidence.   The Lend-Lease bill opposed by anti Semitic groups and Charles Lindbergh who had helped form American First that also included Henry Ford, and Avery Brundage.  Getting visas to America became much more difficult.  

British espionage efforts uncovered German atrocities, but Churchill was reluctant to publicize as would let the Germans know they knew lots of details of German war effort.  Roosevelt tried to support the British efforts, but had a lot of political opposition.  Lindbergh even identified Jews as those wanting war and even though he was castigated by many newspapers his sentiments were shared by much of the public.

American Jewish groups helped finance efforts in Europe, allowing a few to escape and others to be hidden.

After Pearl Harbor drew America into the war, Japanese internment camps even for citizens were set up.

Germans developed concentration camps, partly for labour as soldiers reduced the labour force  -Those not productive enough were sent for elimination.  Some Nazis took pride in becoming more efficient at killing Jews and others such as Jehovah's Witnesses, Romany, gays and even some P.O.W..

Awareness of atrocities from newspapers and radio broadcasters such as Edward R. Murrow--state dept was skeptical of reports and felt efforts to rescue would be diversions  Despite the support of the Roosevelts, the state dept was obstructionist.  Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary of Treasury had protested the Armenian killings and referred to them to Roosevelt.

Eisenhower commanded soldiers to witness some of the camps as he felt it needed to be believed.

After the war for awhile immigration quotas remained in effect and Britain had restricted migrants to Palestine.  Eventually restrictions were removed.  The Nuremberg Trials were the first to try genocidal legal cases.

White supremacy is still a part of America as demonstrated on January 6th.   In truth  Civilization is fragile.  Donald Trump used racist rhetoric to get elected.  Many of his followers weren't overtly racist, but tolerated it as a means to get lesser taxes, or regulations or banning abortions.   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2022/09/symbiotic-relationships-drive-right-wing.html

Reaction to the film included an anti-Semitic view.  One felt the Jews were too demanding and now were adding to American guilt.  We see Muslims vilified in a similar manner.  A big ruckus has been made C.R T. where politicians feel Americans should not be made to feel guilt. over racism.

Ken Burns is a key person behind this series.  He has a long history of dealing with important people and events in depth  and comprehensively such as "The Civil War (1990), "Jazz" (2001), "Baseball" (1994 and 2010), "The Central Park Five" (2012), ""The Roosevelts:  An Intimate History" (2014) "The Vietnam War" (2017). "Hemingway" (2021), "Muhammed Ali" (2021) and "Benjamin Franklin" (2022).   Check http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2022/07/benjamin-franklin-ken-burns.html and http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2022/02/muhammad-ali-by-ken-burns.html

Peter Coyote, the regular narrator for Burns' documentaries. has a lot of experience narrating, but is perhaps better known as an actor.  He adopted the last name Coyote after meeting a Paiute-Shoshone shaman in 1967.  The only American to be directed by Spanish director Pedro Almodovar where he performed in Spanish, "Kika" (1993).  As an actor he has over 150 credits including ""E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" (1982), "Erin Brokovich" (2000) and "Le Grand Role" (2004 in French).

Some of the commentators were historians.  Others were participants as children or young adults.  One is struck that first hand information is being steadily lost

Racism is one of the major scourges of the modern world.  But we are all in this together.  More thoughts on racism:http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/03/racism.html

As usual I have bolded the first mention of films I have seen. 

Available through PBS and likely soon to your local library.

TALKING TO STRANGERS

Malcolm Gladwell has built a career on studying the mundane facts of life and demonstrating there is more to them. In reality people make assumptions to cover most everyday activities, but often these assumptions are not correct.  

I had heard a radio interview with Malcolm in which he said he was optimistic.  Hopefully more people will better understand his books and give us better reasons to be optimistic.

He draws on scientific studies and illustrates points with well known news stories.  His first story is about Sandra Bland who in a well covered story went from a run in with police officer over relatively minor traffic offense to committing suicide in jail a few days later.   Cleverly the rest of his arguments explain what happened and why. 

After that we review the history behind Britain's Neville Chamberlain misreading Adolf Hitler after a few meetings.  At the same time those who did not meet with Hitler, such as Winston Churchill read Hitler's character more accurately.  Gladwell points out that most people prefer to believe what they are told until doubt mounts past a point of acceptance.  He recounts in detail the long trail to finally confront Jerry Sandusky with years of sexual abuse.

He gives the examples of Bernie Madoff and Amanda Knox to demonstrate how easily we can misread strangers.  Sometimes the guilty appear innocent, but also that the innocent can easily appear guilty.

Another big news story was Brock Turner being convicted of rape.  The circumstances were not unusual with Gladwell claiming it is normal for university students to go to parties to get drunk and meet strangers.  To compound the fact that humans have difficulty understanding a stranger is alcohol.  Gladwell adopts a relatively new theory called myopia theory that states that alcohol narrows our our emotional and mental vision.  This distorts the issue of consent.  Aside from the fact that a drunk person is not supposed to be able to give consent is the fact that most visitors to fraternity parties fully intend to get drunk.

Coupling is a concept that attaches two ideas together.  To illustrate he retells the story of Sylvia Plath's suicide.  She was subject to depression and had often talked of suicide expressing some concern with avoiding a mess.  At the time one very easy method of suicide was to use ovens with gas.  A few years later the gas connection was ended and it had been thought that if someone really wanted to kill themselves they would try another method, however when the gas connection ended suicides declined.  The point was the idea of suicide and the idea of using gas ovens were coupled and when one was ended the idea was stopped.  The Golden Gate Bridge presented further evidence when after many years a suicide barrier was implemented suicides declined.

Finishing where he started he re visits the Sandra Bland case and recognizes the problem wasn't that the police officer did not follow procedures, but that he did.  An earlier crime study  was misunderstood.  By meticulous research it was learned that an effective way to uncover drug and gun problems was to stop suspicious vehicles in suspicious neighborhoods, even on flimsy (but legal) excuses and question the driver.  It still amounted to finding a needle in a haystack, but narrows down the prospects.  Going beyond the narrow confines widens the prospects and invites problems.  Sandra Bland was not in a suspicious neighborhood and the police officer did not really understand her circumstances.

There are many incidents and studies to make his point . Gladwell is a master at connecting apparently unconnected ideas.

The best advice given by the author amounts to:  "The right way to talk to strangers is with caution and humility." We don't know everything about the context and should be wary of misreading what we see as signals.

Acknowledgments are insightful.  He recalled certain events involving his father during his discourse to illustrate different points.  His father (along with his mother) apparently had proofed his books, but had died with Malcolm's comment, "It is a lesser book without his contribution."

FASCISM A Warning from Madeleine Albright

The former Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, Madeleine Albright has a history under fascism that she is reminded of under President Donald Trump.  The early sections on Mussolini and Hitler have many parallels to Trump.  Although she feels America can still redeem itself the warning should be taken seriously.  Her understanding, based on personal experience is well articulated.

The term Fascism has many interpretations, but includes authoritarianism and nationalism.  In modern times started by a small group in Italy after WWI who pledged to kill or die for Italy and adopted as a symbol elm rods bound together coupled with an axe called a fasces from Roman times.  Benito Mussolini a flamboyant speaker soon became their leader.

Mussolini originated the saying "drain the swamp."  To help consolidate his power he made deals with the Papacy and the monarchy.  By 1926 he was able to ban all competing political parties and even was able to control the Mafia.  Authority was emphasized over equality.  He started wars against Albania, Ethiopia ("the greatest colonial war in all history") and Libya.  In crowds he mocked foreign journalists.  He bragged about future growth, but had a poor understanding of economics.   He didn't trust advisors, instead relied on his instincts which he felt were superior

Hitler watched from afar admiring how Mussolini took control. He had been born in Austria but fought with the Bavarian army.  He was stunned by defeat and attributed it to Bolsheviks, bankers and Jews.  Hitler seized power in 1933 and required the army not to swear allegiance not to the country or to the constitution, but to him, Der Fuhrer.  He was pleased when foreigners criticized him as he visualized himself against outsiders.

Madeleine gives a little of her personal history.  She was a young girl when World War II broke out and her father was a diplomat for Czechoslovakia who fled to England to avoid the Nazis.  After the war he had been the ambassador to Yugoslavia, but her father sensed the Russian takeover in time to flee.  She explores several other parts of modern history including the Balkans, Venezuela, Turkey, Russia and Korea on a personal scale she had many of their leaders.

She had worked with the National Democratic Institute and involved herself with problems in the Philippines, Chile and South Africa.  In 2017 the United States was downgraded by the Economist's Democracy Index, not so much attributed to Donald Trump as a loss of confidence in institutions.  Too many citizens resented that the system seemed to protect the interests of the wealthy at the expense of everyone else.  Madeleine feels "in a true democracy, leaders respect the will of the majority, but also the rights of the minority.  One without the other is not enough."

Democracy is helped by model leaders.  She mentions Abraham Lincoln in the United States and Nelson Mandela in South Africa.  Both men overcame lots of obstacles, but treated everyone fairly.

Madeleine is disturbed by some of Trump's words.  America first is not offensive in itself, but he projects a competitive atmosphere when there is great need for co-operation.  NATO should not be thought of as a business as it involves sharing training, intelligence and fighting.  Trust is critical.  His remarks against Muslims, allies and poor countries open up opportunities to enemies, especially China.  As most issues are complicated would be dictators offer simplifications.  Criticizing and insulting others appeals to those who feel aggrieved.  Avoid details that leave one open to attack.
 
Fascism is as easy as billionaires controlling the media, using influence to pick judges and restrict voting, shift public education to private and so forth.  Fascism can also come from leftist thinking.  Conservatives fear if the Liberals gain control they will discard the second amendment.

In concluding the book Madeleine suggests a series of questions that should have been asked of any candidate for president.  It appears not enough people asked Donald Trump or enough who listened for the answers.  Her warning should be heeded while it still possible to do something.