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The
text was written in 1913 during a rather critical time in the
development of the Russian economy, so some of the facts in the work
are obviously rather dated, to say the least. It is a sure sign
of the times when Lenin quotes statistics of his day regarding oil
production: “In 1900 Russia and America together produced over
nine-tenths of the world’s oil and in 1910 they produced over
eight-tenths.” Compare this to the figures
regarding the top oil producers for 2004 and you’ll find that Russia is
presently still in the position of the second-largest producer behind
Saudi Arabia, although it is important to note that prior to its
disintegration, the USSR was consistently the number one producer for
an extended period. The United States ranked third in annual production in 2004. (source)
But while the facts of Lenin's text may be somewhat dated, the key concepts and rhetoric of the piece deserve a closer look.
In
Lenin’s piece, he notes, “America now extracts three times more
oil...(than Russia)” but he also stresses that it was Russia who
felt the pinch of the “‘world-wide’ phenomenon of price increase” much
more so than the United States. The U.S. was still the largest
consumer of oil in 2004 (for non-OPEC countries), using 20.5 million
barrels per day. Russia was ranked fifth, behind China, Japan and
Germany. The difference in daily consumption between the U.S. and
Russia was a difference of almost 19 million barrels per day. (source)
There
is, of course, a new worldwide phenomenon of price increase and each
record high oil price is somewhat of a predictable surprise, so to
speak. But the imbalance of the market remains the same – The US
produces less, uses more and pays less than much of the rest of the
world. And while the US feeds its ravenous “oil hunger,” developing
nations survive on crumbs to curb their own pangs of hunger.
Although
Lenin’s work was written almost a century ago, certain passages still
accurately describe the current global superstructure which guides and
shapes world petroleum production and supply. Consider Lenin’s
mirror-image “portrait” of the Duma’s Markov the Second, drawn from the
very image of the Russia’s oil tycoons and millionaires. He
describes the tension between the two sides as “a quarrel between two
plunderers of the people’s property.” How similar is this image
to the scene earlier this year when the heads of US oil companies were
before a government inquiry to explain their record profits? And
what, exactly, was the explanation that was provided by the
magnates? Does anybody remember? The mantra of the day for the US oil companies back in
March 2006 was that a significant proportion of their profit went back
into “research and development.” Very clever.
That’s
all good and well for the American companies (if you really
believe
it), but evidently, research and development is does not extend to oil
industry infrastructure for British-owned BP. BP’s decision to
close the Prudhoe pipeline is purportedly necessary due to extensive
corrosion...caused by years of neglect and disrepair, to be more
precise. BP claims that the poor timing of this issue is simply
an unfortunate coincidence (with respect to recent surges in oil prices
due to wars and the 2005 hurricane season) and that the necessity of
the closure is
somewhat of a surprise. But perhaps Lenin’s words from 1913 still
ring true, both for the American oil companies and BP:
What lies at the bottom of the oil question?
First
of all it is the shameless inflation of oil prices by the oil kings
accompanied by the artificial curtailment of oil-well and refinery
productivity by these “knights” of capitalist profit.
A
few weekends ago, I was going through an old footlocker full of various
magazines I have collected over the years. I had quite a bit of stuff in
there, including a lot of sci-fi & horror magazines, many issues of
Mad, Cracked and Crazy, music-related magazines and the like. Included
in the mix were about three issues of an old magazine called Future:
The Magazine of Science Adventure. All of the issues were from the
late 1970's and I figure I must have bought these magazines about 10
years ago at a Half Price Books or some other secondhand shop. As I
inspected the issues for the first time in several years, the one issue
that especially caught my eye was the May 1978 issue that had a small
white and red wraparound ad that screamed: TOP SECRET: The Truth About
ORBITING SOVIET BOMBS! See page 16." It certainly looked like good
reading, so I set the magazine aside and once I had thumbed through and
organized the other magazines, I had a look at the "Top Secret" report.
The article was
a very short story entitled "Cosmos-954: A Glimpse of Space Disaster"
which chronicled the January 24, 1978 crash of a nuclear-powered Soviet
satellite in Northwest Territories, Canada. The article is a
classic mixture of science fiction and Cold War hype:
The
newspaper headlines were straight out of a fifties science-fiction
film: KILLER SATELLITE CRASHES IN CANADA! Only this time the story was
real. The crash-landing of the Soviet nuclear- powered satellite,
Cosmos-954, north of the American border was a nightmare come true. The
effects of the event were felt immediately. Politicians started talking
in scientific jargon while many scientists issued distinctly political
statements. An interest in space law was (belatedly) revitalized.
People began looking to the heavens with increased anxiety. The spectre
of a Russian- spawned war in space hovered over the globe. "Perhaps
Chicken Little was right," some joked in reference to the unexpected
appearance of the stray spacecraft. But Cosmos-954's appearance was no
joke.
[...]
The
killer satellite seems best suited for a sneak attack on U.S. command
and control, and early-warning satellites in 24-hour orbits. The FOBS
(Fractional Orbital Bombardment System) orbital H-bombs seem to be a
useful way to approach the U.S. in low orbits, eluding radar detection
until the last minute. The nuclear-power naval watchers would mainly be
useful in plotting at- tacks on aircraft carriers and nuclear missile
subs prior to the start of a war from space.
The real story
of Cosmos-954 — the post Cold War version, anyway, — is much less
fantastic. It is now known that Cosmos-954 was a Soviet Radar
Ocean Reconnaissance Satellite (RORSAT) that was powered by a nuclear
reactor. The web site UFO Phenomenon in the North provides a bit more
information on the ultimate demise of the mission:
Previous
Soviet missions using such technology would split the reactor from the
parent body of the spacecraft and boost the radioactive material into a
higher orbit where the reactor would remain for 300-1000 years once the
short lifetime of the satellite was over (which was well beyond the
life of the radioactive material). Cosmos 954 had a special problem
however - it went out of control and the technicians were unable to
separate the reactor from the spacecraft's parent body.
The Future
article implicitly condemns the USSR for failing to notify anyone prior
to the crash of Cosmos-954, but more recent accounts of the tale offer
information that the USSR did send out a warning regarding the
impending calamity, thus allowing NORAD to track the satellite until
the crash. Moreover, some accounts note that the orbit of Cosmos-954
had become unstable as far back as September 18, 1977 and that its
movements were monitored on a regular basis up until its demise.
A report from CBC Radio (dated Jan. 28, 1978 ) indicates that U.S.
President Jimmy Carter contacted the Canadian Prime Minister by phone
to advise him of the issue shortly before the satellite’s crash.
(click here for audio of the original CBC radio broadcast — It's actually a pretty interesting report!).
According to the CBC report, in the wake of the crash Canadian
officials expressed disdain over the American delay in sharing information
regarding the impending crash of Cosmos-954.
When Cosmos-954
finally did crash, it fell in the Great Slave Lake area of the
Northwest Territories in Canada (near Yellowknife), spreading
radioactive material across an area as large as 124,000 km² (some
sources suggest the area was around 80,000 km²). The total
amount of radioactive material that reached the ground was around 25%
of the estimated 68 pounds of Uranium 235 that was originally aboard
Cosmos-954. The remaining 75% of the U 235 burned up during re-entry. No
human deaths were reports as a result of the crash and it seems that
information regarding the long-term environmental effects of
contamination is rather few and far between.
Interestingly
enough, the USSR eventually agreed to pay Canada a total of $15 million
(US) for cleanup efforts, but they ultimately paid somewhere around
half of the total bill (click here to view the terms of the 1981 settlment). By March 1978, most debris from the
satellite had been collected through joint U.S.-Canadian recovery
efforts.
In terms of
nuclear accidents, Cosmos-954 was certainly an intriguing story back in
1978. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s a drop in the bucket
compared to some of the other nuclear accidents which have come to
light in the past few decades. If you really want to read
something that will curl your hair, check out the Greenpeace roster of
nuclear weapons accidents from 1950-1993.
I
have yet another addition to the growing collection of “Socialist
Realism” art that graces the walls and shelves of my home library
room. A few months ago, I landed another vintage Soviet-era
propaganda poster from eBay. This poster depicts a group of
Soviet-era Young Pioneers standing before the memorial statue of Soviet
heroine Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya which stands in St. Petersburg (formerly
Leningrad). The Russian caption reads “Let's be worthy of
the heroes' glory!” According to the seller of the item, the
poster was printed in 1969 and it was obtained legally from Archives of
the Pribaltic Military District at the time of the collapse of the
USSR. The poster itself is in great shape with some minor wear on
the edges. I had the item framed by the good people at Hobby
Lobby.
I am now officially out of wall space (for big stuff, anyway...)
Those
of you who have visited my home library probably realize that I have
developed somewhat of a penchant for art that is from the "Soviet Realism"
tradition (or along that general line). Over the course of past few years, I have accumulated a
small collection of Soviet-themed statuettes, postcards and
posters. Most of these acquisitions came to me by way of
eBay. My most current eBay find is a replica of the Soviet
monument known as “Mother Russia”
or “Mother Motherland is Calling.” I have been searching for replica of
this monument for some time and this acquisition is both a new favorite
of mine and a great addition to my fledgeling collection. The
statuette is solid iron and it stands about 10 inches high. It’s
lacking in detail in some areas, but key points such as the figure’s
pose and facial expression are surprisingly accurate.
The
real monument (known as “Rodina Mat' Zovyot!” or simply “Rodina Mat” in
Russian) was erected in 1967 to commemorate the Soviet victory at
Stalingrad. Although many things have changed since the fierce
battle there (among them the name “Stalingrad”—now called "Volgograd,"
as well as the dissolution of the USSR itself), Rodina Mat still stands
today and it it remains an enduring symbol of national pride and
supreme sacrifice. The monument stands 160 feet high and weighs over
1,000 tons. The sword held aloft by Rodina Mat is over 70
feet long. She is truly a massive and somber tribute to an epic
struggle.
On
Friday, the new right-wing government of Poland publicized Cold War-era
plans for Soviet nuclear strikes on NATO countries. The plans
are dated around 1979 and they supposedly detail the planned Soviet
response to an attack by NATO forces.
A
series of red mushroom clouds over western Europe show that Soviet
nuclear weapons strikes would have been launched at Germany, the
Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium if Nato had struck first. Red clouds
are drawn over the then German capital, Bonn, and other key German
cities such as the financial centre of Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart,
Munich and the strategically important northern port of Hamburg.
Brussels, the political headquarters of Nato, is also targeted. Blue
mushroom clouds, representing the expected Nato nuclear strikes, are
drawn over cities in the eastern bloc, including Warsaw and the then
Czechoslovakian capital, Prague. France would have escaped attack,
possibly because it is not a member of Nato's integrated structure.
Britain, which has always been at the heart of Nato, would also have
been spared, suggesting Moscow wanted to stop at the Rhine to avoid
overstretching its forces. The exercise, entitled Seven Days to the
River Rhine, indicated Warsaw Pact forces aimed to reach the
Franco-German border within a week of a Nato attack.
[...]
Mr
Sikorski, who made a name for himself working for the rightwing
American Enterprise Institute thinktank in Washington, made clear he
was prepared for a backlash from Russia, whose president, Vladimir
Putin, has lamented the demise of the Soviet Union.
Announcing
the release of 1,700 Warsaw Pact papers from Poland's military archive,
he said: "This is crucial to educating the country on the way Poland
was an unwilling ally of the USSR in the cold war. The map shows a
classic Warsaw Pact exercise - it was a 'counter' attack to defend
itself by going all the way to the Atlantic."
Mr
Sikorski, who was appointed after the Law and Justice party won a
surprise victory in the recent elections after pledging to cleanse the
country of its communist past, believes the map shows how Moscow was
prepared to sacrifice Poland to save the Soviet Union. (full article)
The release of the documents by Sikorski and the Polish government are
somewhat of a bombshell in their own right, as they will likely create
some strain in relations between Poland and Russia.
What is now coming to light, by and through the release of these Warsaw
Pact documents, is the likelihood that Europe would have been the primary stage
for a nuclear showdown between the superpowers at the height of the
Cold War.
But is all of this that much of a surprise?
To me, this story is oddly reminiscent of another Cold War tale from
around the same time as the date on Sikorski’s Warsaw pact
documents. In early 1980, Mrs. Imelda Verrept,
a former secretary in the International Secretariat of NATO
Headquarters in Brussels, defected to the DDR with secret NATO
documents that outlined the NATO position vis-a-vis the risk of a
nuclear counter-strike. She was interviewed by ADN on DDR
television in April 1980 and at that time, she shared her knowledge of
how Europe would fare as a result of a NATO-initiated nuclear
conflagration:
ADN:
Another indication that crucial importance is attached to nuclear
weapons in NATO's military strategy and in its war preparations:
The suggested deployment of new missles alone...is evidence of their
planned function in the Pact's military strategy which is aimed at a
military attack on the socialist countries.
MRS
VERREPT: (N)uclear capability would "put NATO in a better position to
guarantee flexible response and forward defence, to engage in measured
escalation and, if necessary, resort to a full-scale nuclear war".
For "forward defence", a piece of doubletalk belonging to NATO's disinformation system, one should in fact read "aggression". There is no chance of NATO being content with the 572 new nuclear missiles. The missile decision already contains new proposals for expanding its nuclear capability in Europe.
[...]
The Pact members are expected to share not only the costs but also the risks involved in the use of the new nuclear capability and the losses and destruction in the event of a nuclear war....
I am no military expert, but the perusal of...many other NATO documents caused my suspicion that the USA was wanting to incite Western
Europe into a nuclear war against the socialist countries, without
risking the destruction of American cities, to harden into a certainty.
The missile decision makes possible a strategy advantageous to the USA.
ADN: One could call that unhitching the USA from the danger of a nuclear counter-strike which would be directed exclusively against Western Europe.
MRS VERREPT: Various prominent individuals have addressed themselves
to this question, for instance Mr Schmückle in a newspaper interview,
Mr de Vries, Chairman of the Defence Committee in the Dutch Parliament,
and also Mr Kissinger recently in Brussels. He said there was little
likelihood of an American President being prepared to react immediately
with strategic nuclear weapons to a threat directed exclusively at
Western Europe and hence risk the destruction of American cities. One
has to read a bit between the lines here.
ADN: Is this danger recognized by people in Belgium?
MRS VERREPT: I hope that my remarks on the subject will help them
to recognize it. In NATO there is a lot of harping on the themes of
Atlantic solidarity and obligations to the alliance. No one needs any
reminding, however, that the USA has always gone it alone when it
suited its interests to do so.
(from “NATO gambles with nuclear war,” pages 10 and 11, published by Panorama DDR, c. 1980)
I attended elementary and middle school school during the Reagan era
and I remember that the topic of nuclear war came up quite often in
our social studies classes. One of the mantras that teachers used to
cap their lessons on nuclear
war was the thought-provoking phrase, “In a nuclear war, nobody
wins.” Back then, I guess I didn’t realize that when they said
"nobody wins," the words rang especially true for the people of Europe,
who lived amidst the omnipresent threat of nuclear armageddon.
(Efharisto to Antonis for sharing the Guardian Unlimited article)
During
a recent check of our site stats, I was pleasantly surprised to find
that many hits for greeklish.org occur at our site's biography page on Zoya
Kosmodemyanskaya. A fair amount of hits come from Google and people have also linked directly to the bio page from a World
War II discussion forum and from the Swedish Wikipedia entry on Zoya.
Because this section seems to generate a bit of interest, I have
expanded it a little within the last week or so. I have now added an image gallery
that contains images from several books on Zoya and I will be adding
additional images from postcards, books and other resources when
possible. Additionally, I have started transcribing "The Story of
Zoya and Shura," which is a biography of Zoya and her brother
Alexander. This work was written by their mother, Lyubov
Kosmodemyanskaya. It was originally published by Foreign
Languages Press (Moscow, 1953) and the text is public
domain. The first several chapters are now posted and once
transcription of the entire book is completed, it will be added to the
Soviet History section of the Marxists Internet Archive. My
transcription could probably use some proofreading (hint, hint...) and
I would greatly appreciate notes on typos or scanning errors.
Today
marks the first anniversary of the tragic end of the seige of Beslan School
Number One in North Ossetia. By the end of the seige, 331 people — 186 of whom were children — had been killed in a firestorm of explosions and gunfire.
The online edition ofThe Moscow Timesprovided a heartbreaking account of the day's ceremonies.
Inside
the schoolyard, the bereaved, many carrying candles, flowers and
stuffed animals, lined up to enter the burnt-out school gym, where more
than 300 of the some 1,000 hostages died.
Bells
tolled at 8:30 a.m., the time the school opened last year, and the
haunting strains of Mozart's "Requiem" then filled the air.
[...]
Flowers
and lit candles covered the gym floor and windowsills, and portraits of
the dead were hung on what remained of the walls. Pictures of the men,
most of whom were shot on the first day of the attack, Sept. 1, were
tacked to one wall, while the opposite wall was covered with pictures
of smiling teenagers. Pictures of young children filled an entire
corner of the gym. A clear Plexiglas roof stretched overhead.
Black
marble slabs with water trickling down them stood at the sides of the
gym door, symbolizing the tears shed by the victims' loved ones.
A
wing of the school was plastered with red and white banners. Children
from all over the world had signed the red banners, while the white
banners carried the names of the Beslan children who had died. The
banners were brought to Beslan by the Children as Peacemakers
Association, which was founded by U.S. citizen Patricia Montadon, said
Zhanna Tebeyeva, the association's Beslan coordinator. (full article)
In memory of the victims of the seige of Beslan, a monument called “The
Tree of Sorrow” now stands on the grounds of a nearby cemetary in
which many of the victims are buried.
The
real monument (known as “Rodina Mat' Zovyot!” or simply “Rodina Mat” in
Russian) was erected in 1967 to commemorate the Soviet victory at
Stalingrad. Although many things have changed since the fierce
battle there (among them the name “Stalingrad”—now called "Volgograd,"
as well as the dissolution of the USSR itself), Rodina Mat still stands
today and it it remains an enduring symbol of national pride and
supreme sacrifice. The monument stands 160 feet high and weighs over
1,000 tons. The sword held aloft by Rodina Mat is over 70
feet long. She is truly a massive and somber tribute to an epic
struggle.
During
a recent check of our site stats, I was pleasantly surprised to find
that many hits for greeklish.org occur at our site's 
