The disintegration of the USSR is inextricably entwined and intimately related to the life and times, failures and accomplishments, paradoxes and contradictions of the courageous Russian who is the subject of this book — a man with tenacious clarity of purpose and the steely determination to carry on through and accomplish his goal at any price.

Stalin — Breaker of Nations by Robert Conquest  (1991) covers the life of Joseph Stalin, from his childhood in Gori to his death at his Nearer dacha (Kuntsevo) near Moscow on March 5, 1953. This book is 346 pages, including bibliographical notes and index. The book is easy to read, well-organized, and ideal for the beginning student of Soviet history and Stalinism.

Young Stalin by Simon Montefiore is a well-researched, well-written, absorbing, and authoritative biography of Joseph Stalin's early years. Following the usual formalities, the book begins with a tantalizing "Prologue," the audacious robbery and bloody bombing at the festive Yerevan Square in the center of the town of Tiflis (now Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia).

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States.

— Noah Webster, An Examination of the Leading Principles
of the Federal Constitution, 1787

DATELINE: Warsaw, Poland, 1943

The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease.
The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)

On Managed Care And Cutting-Edge Technology

All the information that has come to light regarding the deliberations, inappropriate and shocking revelations, of the secret Health Care Task Force of President Bill and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton thanks to the lawsuit, AAPS v.

But what events have led us to this deplorable state of affairs with American medicine headed inexorably in the wrong direction—down the path of welfarism, collectivism, and corporatism? To answer this loaded and troublesome question, perhaps one should ponder the words of the politician par excellence, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who once admitted, “Nothing just happens in politics. If something happens, you can be sure it was planned that way.”  So, in our search for answers, let us glean and ponder the changes ushered in the 1960s by the Great Society of President Lyndon B.

The Sale of Indulgences

For weeks, Joseph Stalin had been plagued with dizzy spells and high blood pressure. His personal physician, Professor V. N. Vinogradov had advised that Stalin step down as head of the government for health reasons. That was not what Stalin wanted to hear from the good doctor. Soon the Professor would pay for this temerity and indiscretion with his arrest and alleged involvement in the infamous Doctor's Plot (dyelo vrachey).

The Encyclopedia of Revolutions and Revolutionaries — From Anarchism to Zhou Enlai by Martin van Creveld is an essential reference book for those interested in researching the history of revolutions and revolutionaries. The main drawback is the liberal, left-of-center academic bias that one has come to expect in most of these types of books.

Robert B. Farquhar, an anti-nuclear activist from Georgia, who has written a book on the subject entitled Duck and Cover, asserts that, "In 1946 the U.S. had about 7 atomic bombs, none completely assembled; by 1956, 5,000, all assembled; Russia had about 150." (1)

The study of the nature of reality leads to the Medieval argument (conflict) between Realists and Nominalists. I will defer further discussion on that controversy for now, and instead, deal with more contemporary philosophies.

Pragmatism or Idealism

Operation Barbarossa — A Re-Enactment 70 Years Later

SPECIAL BULLETIN  — from Radio Berlin a Special Report!
June 22, 2011   7:00 AM

We are sorry to interrupt your programming. It is the German Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, speaking:

"...At this moment a march is taking place that for its extent, compares with the greatest the world has ever seen. I have decided again to place the fate and future of the Reich and our people in the hands of the soldiers..."

Fortunately for the United States, the Japanese strategic plan for World War II was flawed in that the Japanese High Command decided to take on a sleeping giant in order to gain control of the Pacific basin, rather than attack the USSR. There was no way for the Japanese to beat the U.S., even with their alliance and the support of Italy and Germany. On the other hand, if the German grand strategy had been followed and carried out by Germany AND Japan, we could, very possibly, have lost the war, and today be speaking German on the East coast and Japanese on the West coast!

"One death is a tragedy; a million is a statistic," said Joseph Stalin (1879-1953). It is estimated that between 20 to 40 million people, mostly Russians, were killed by Stalin during his dictatorship (1924-1953). Stalin, the Soviet dictator, not only exterminated purported "enemies of the peoples" but also liquidated almost the entire slate of communist Bolshevik leaders, who had been his and Lenin's friends during the Russian Revolution of 1917.

From 1876 onward, after the North recovered its fortunes and the South was unburdened by the end of Reconstruction, the nation was ruled by laissez-faire capitalism, and freedom flourished for most (not all) of the nations' citizens. The rapid pace of the Industrial Revolution brought about an exemplary standard of living but also new problems for the rapidly developing nation, and socialistic or progressive "reforms" appeared in this country for the first time.

I apologize in advance to those here who have already assiduously learned these Medieval history lessons and find them redundant in their intellectual ordnance. If you already know about the Inquisition, the Crusades — and their historic relationship to Western civilization, please skip this post!

Recently, as if on cue, I have noticed liberal jabs at religion of a peculiar nature. It is as if, from the coldness of his tomb, Karl Marx (photo, below) was inciting these little jabs by his latter day disciples to prop up yet another aspect of his failing communist (socialist) philosophy, a philosophy that refuses to die.

Stalin’s Last Crime — The Plot Against the Jewish Doctors, 1948-1953 by Jonathan Brent and Vladimir P. Naumov is an in-depth study in psychological survival in a nightmarish police state — Stalin’s Russia, circa 1948-1953. The untangling of this Gordian knot of conspiracies and plots is the convincing achievement of the authors of this suspenseful, historical drama.

With the recent commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil War, a number of journalists in their editorials (and even a historian, David Von Drehle, in a Time magazine article) attempted to assure us that they are setting the historic record straight — namely, that the paramount reason for the War Between the States (aka “The War of Northern Aggression” in the South) was racial hatred and slavery.

This outstanding book by a black American journalist for The Washington Post recounts the emotional and spiritual awakening of the author upon his fateful visit to his ancestral home, Africa. He vividly recounts his adventurers and journalistic travails on the Dark Continent, and finds he belongs happily and unregretfully in America. He thanks Providence for the fact his ancestors were brought to America, even as slaves, so that he could be born a free man in America. One of the most poignant scenes in the book sums it up.

Mr. Epstein's books are always fascinating and enlightening. He has done this repeatedly with his tomes, Legend: The Secret World of Lee Harvey Oswald (1978) and Dossier: The Secret History of Armand Hammer (1996). He repeats his superb performance with Deception: The Invisible War Between the CIA and the KGB (1989).

This a great book for history buffs and World War II aficionados. The author, Louis C. Kilzer, a respected journalist who has twice earned a Pulitzer Prize, has written an intriguing book. I must respectfully disagree with the unfavorable Amazon book reviews that have been posted so far in this forum, and so I am adding my contrarian view's nickel's worth. This book reads like a suspense, historic novel, fast-paced and well written.

This is a great book, and once again I must disagree respectfully with the average reviewer in the case of one of Louis Kilzer's books! Incidentally, I don't know Mr. Kilzer personally, but I do know of his journalistic accomplishments and salute him for this and for writing yet another very remarkable book, Churchill's Deception: The Dark Secret That Destroyed Nazi Germany!

As head of the Institute of Military History of the USSR and General of the Soviet Army, Dmitri Volkogonov had access to secret Soviet documents not available to other historians up to the time of Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika.

According to an old Cuban proverb, "Camarón que se duerme, se lo lleva la corriente" (shrimp that sleep are swept away by the current). Some physicians may find Dr. Faria's wake-up call as welcome as a blast of Arctic wind. In his view, the current policy of most medical organizations --- "nonconfrontation and cooperation" --- could make them, in effect, accomplices of the barbarians.

Organized medicine has increasingly become legislatively proactive; however, it does not fully understand the unintended consequences of law. Thinking that the government is the answer to medicine's problem rather than the cause, a historical view of government interference is appropriate. And it comes from an unlikely source --- President Calvin Coolidge.

By cleverly using an historical microscope to focus on one area of German medicine --- the circumscribed fields of dermatology and dermatopathology --- Dr. Wolfgang Weyers helps us see how Nazi rule affected the medical profession as a whole as well as greater German Society. His intriguingly close inspection quite effectively brings this singular moment in time and history to life without the usual discussions of the most morbid aspects of that terrible era. We are enabled to "see the world in a grain of sand."(1)

As every schoolboy or girl once knew (and now few learn it ever)
In fourteen hundred ninety two
the world was changed forever.
Within few scores of years since truth of the New World was granted
Migration westward hopeful came from Europe's disenchanted.

While shredding papers one evening, an old yellowed paper caught my eye before meeting its grisly fate. It was a thirty-some year old United States history test, which I had given to my students. Question 4 was: "In a constitutional republic, what is the highest office?" I wondered if my students, thirty years later, remembered that they lived in a constitutional republic and that the highest office is that of the private "citizen?"