So I've just started this months bookclub book, The Bletchley Girls by Tessa Dunlop. The first chapter really irritated me the way I guess anyone who likes history can get irritated by historical inaccuracies.
In chapter one there is talk about the horrors of war and the desire not to have another world war. However, it displayed prejudice against Russia which is just part and parcel of the general anti-Russian propaganda that has been persistent in the West for some time. Prejudice that has led to war, even to the path to World War Three.
Writing about one of 'Bletchley Girls' she says;
Both [sides of the family] were part of the 2.7 million exodus west in the wake of Russian pogroms and atrocities.
Firstly, 2.7 million Jews did move to the west but the majority of these were for economic reasons.
Secondly, yes, there were pogroms and atrocities in Tsarist Russia. Unfortunately, the same can be said for all over Eastern Europe, indeed everywhere were feudal conditions still existed.
Remember, such atrocities occurred throughout all of Europe in the medieval period. If Britain's Jewish population was small at the turn of the nineteenth century it was due to mass expulsions that had occurred centuries before under the auspices of various monarchs.
Thirdly, the largest number of Jews moving west came from Poland. The second largest was Russia, followed by Romania.
The author reveals bias in attributing the move west to come from Russian pogroms and would leave anyone with the impression that 2.7m Jews moved from Russia.
Later on in the chapter she writes;
"I once asked my grandfather to teach me Russian and he said, 'I won't speak that language; horrible people, horrible people.'"
This is put in to reinforce the point she has made about 2.7 million Jews moved to escape Russian atrocities.
It annoys me not only because she has twisted the historical fact to suit her bias, but that we are now in a time period where we are at war with Russia. To speak of peace and then display prejudice against Russians I found problematic and irritating - to the point of writing this post!
When we come to discuss this book I'm not sure if I will bring anything I'm feeling now up. The book was written in 2015, so some time before the invasion of Ukraine. However, it is after the coup which was followed by the political annexation of Crime. Which most Western people have been told was an invasion. Also after the DPR and the LPR announced their decision to become independent. Which most Western people have been told are "Russian-backed separatists".
The inevitability of war was really cast in the US staged coup. To support their political aims at using Ukraine as a proxy to fight Russia, the US has financed ultra far right nationalists (including, yes, Neo-Nazis).
Unfortunately most propagandised Westerners have no knowledge of these events and given that they consider themselves the "good guys" can't even contemplate that the opposite may be true. Therefore I can't share with my fellow bookclubbers why chapter one irritated me the way it did - well not unless I give them a lecture in history - and so I'm writing this post instead. Hopefully I can go with the rest of the book now. Thanks for reading my rant!!
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