100 Years Ago - Russian crisis and Vimy Ridge

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/us-fighting-units-in-france-wfpgp8w58

may 26, 1917

US fighting units in France

From the camp where they have been training, the first American combatant unit started yesterday for the position which they are to occupy on the front.
American ambulances are, of course, to be seen everywhere in France, and the American airmen attached to the French Army have done splendid work for the cause of the Allies. But this fine body of young men, mainly drawn from the University Corps of Cornell, Yale, Harvard, Chicago, and other well-known colleges in the United States, were something different. They were, in effect, though they actually came to France for ambulance work, the fighting vanguard of the Army which our new Ally will send across the Atlantic.
As soon as it was decided that their country would enter the war, these young men, many of whom are engineers by profession, gave up their design of serving with the Red Cross in order to join a fighting unit, and besides the contingent which went to the front yesterday several others are now being trained as soldiers in the same district, some according to American, some according to French, methods, under French and American instructors, one of them the captain of the Yale football team in 1910. Captain Tinkham, the officer commanding the detachment which started yesterday, has already won the Military Cross while serving with the French at Verdun.
The men were dressed in khaki, to all intents the same as the uniform of the British Army. As the motor field service convoy left the camp, where the Stars and Stripes and the Tricolor were floating side by side, the men were loudly cheered by their fellow-countrymen still going through their training, who will soon follow them to the front as an earnest of America’s resolve to range herself on the side of right and liberty in the war of nations.

American loans to Allies
Late war news, Washington, May 25.
Another loan of $75,000,000 (£15,000,000) has been made to Great Britain by the United States, bringing up the total loan to Great Britain to £80,000,000.

A payment of £15,000,000 has been made to Italy as part of the £20,000,000 loan which was recently announced. Italy had previously received £5,000,000.

100 Years Ago - Wounded

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mending-the-broken-soldier-l287twcsc?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1894077

Mending the broken soldier

Some of the most cruel wounds are those in the jaw. The disfigurement is often horrible. Speech and mastication are equally impossible

August 12, 1916

By invitation of Sir Alfred Keogh, Director-General of the Army Medical Service, a representative of The Times has visited half-a-dozen of the great London military hospitals. The impression left by such a tour upon the layman’s mind is that the public have an utterly inadequate idea of the debt they owe to modern surgery at a time like this. Day by day the surgeons are giving the nation new men for old. They are doing more than would have been credible 20 years ago to rob war of its ultimate horror.
Out of hundreds of wonderful cases it is only possible to describe a few that may be taken as typical of this trade of mending soldiers. Take first the new nerve surgery. Here is a man with a bullet-hole near his collarbone which severed the nerve controlling the muscles of his wrist. The result was wrist-drop, and a hand which, until quite recently, would have been regarded as incurably useless. The two ends of the severed nerve have been freed from what had already become no more than a scar, they have been reunited, and there is every prospect that in less than a twelvemonth the hand will be almost as good as ever. “As simple as tying up the two ends of a cut telephone wire,” says the surgeon who operated. There are more remarkable nerve cases still. A man had part of the fleshy part of his arm shot away, carrying with it four inches of the nerve necessary to control the hand movements. The surgeon rang up several hospitals on the telephone till he heard of what he wanted - the amputation that afternoon of a healthy limb. The limb happened to be a leg, and it was amputated at 3.30 in the afternoon. No sooner was it off than four or five inches of practically living nerve were removed from the calf, placed in a saline bath, and rushed by taxicab to the other hospital. Here the patient was already under an anaesthetic. The wound in his arm was opened with the lancet, the ends of the indispensable nerve quickly found, and the circuit re-established, as it were, by means of the first patients four inches of filament. Today the man is in a fair way to regaining the full use of his hand.
Some of the most cruel wounds are those in the jaw. The disfigurement is often horrible. Speech and mastication are equally impossible. So the surgeons have found a means (involving the wearing for many weeks of what looks like a strange double net of false teeth) of gradually pressing back the remains of the jaw into their natural position, of restoring motion and flexibility to the lips, and of smoothing out the most ghastly of the scars. Where the injury is to the upper part of the face, resulting in, say, the removal of the nose and one eye, magical results are being achieved in a south-western district hospital by the provision of masks perfectly counterfeiting the lost section of the physiognomy. Lieutenant Derwent Wood, ARA, is the inventor of the plan. With the help of photographs of what a patient was like before being wounded, he will make a false nose of silvered copper, artistically painted to match the surrounding complexion, which will so far defy detection as to enable the owner to go out into the world again without shrinking, and play his old part in the affairs of men. To do that is to create value for the nation in the truest sense.
In this war the variety of sepsis that has claimed more victims than any other is that known in doctor’s slang as “gas gangrene”. Gas gangrene is caused by the presence in a wound of certain types of bacilli classed as “anaerobic”, ie, bacilli which cannot live in air, the vital principle of which is oxygen. They exist (like the tetanus bacillus) in cultivated soil, and it is because the war is being fought in France among the peasants’ fields that they are introduced so constantly by ricocheting bullets, or scraps of earth-stained clothing, into the wounds of our soldiers. Once there they set about producing tiny gas bubbles among the tissues, hence the name “gas gangrene”. But the gas they cannot endure is oxygen, and the obvious way to destroy them is to introduce oxygen into the innermost recesses of the wound. This is secured by various methods according to the nature of the injury. A hole right through the shoulder will be sterilized by the use of a wick drawing peroxide of hydrogen from a small tank above the bed. Another kind of wound will be sprayed with ozone, and a third more conveniently dealt with by means of a perforated tube fed with oxygen gas from a cylinder.
It would be possible to write of many other marvels - of the man who had a piece of shrapnel three-quarters of an inch square taken out of the back of his heart, while it lay beating in the surgeon’s hand; of the new anaesthetic which is so harmless that a patient can remain under it for two hours, yet smoke a cigarette in comfort within a quarter of an hour of regaining consciousness; or of the electrical treatment by which shrunken muscles are coaxed back to health and strength.

100 Years Ago - Kerensky

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/loss-of-british-troopship-6ptb23ls8

May 19, 1917

Loss of British troopship

Chief Carpenter Gibb, of the Cameronia, describing the torpedoing of the vessel, said that every life that could be saved was saved. The liner left on Friday, April 13, having on board a crew of 250 and troops. The latter were largely made up of men from a regiment identified with the Midlands. The ship was “plugged” on Sunday evening. Carpenter Gibb had just finished tea, and was filling his pipe when the ship was struck. The sea was calm and the weather fine. Excellent discipline prevailed, the crew going immediately to their boat stations. “I knew from the tremendous concussion,” said Carpenter Gibb, “that the ship was doomed. There was a great rush of soldiers on decks, and I had much difficulty in getting to my boat station. The first boat was smartly launched, but unfortunately it got smashed, and many lives were lost. There was confusion at first, but quickly military discipline ruled and calmness prevailed. The officers and men were drawn up on the decks, and under the superintendence of the crew, were placed in lifeboats.
“Forty minutes elapsed from the ‘plugging’ of the vessel till she went under. The total loss was 218, including crew. This large number was undoubtedly due the torpedo striking the vessel where it did.
“In order to accelerate the removal of the soldiers the destroyers came alongside on starboard and port sides one at a time. Immediately a destroyer got into position — and it was done just like a train drawing into a station — the soldiers were told to jump aboard. The orders were that they must stop when told to do so. This prevented overloading and the chances of men being lost in jumping from one vessel to the other. On board the destroyers the military were stowed away in every available place. Many men were picked out of the water who had been clinging to rafts and other supports, and they were succoured by the Jack Tars, who provided them with articles of clothing they could spare.” One soldier missed his leap and fell into the water between the ships. First Officer McBurnie at once leapt into the water to save him. The sailors got hold of the soldier, but McBurnie went under, and before he could be rescued it was found that the soldier was dead, having been crushed between the two ships.

100 Years Ago - Greece II

MEMBERS Of THE VENIZELIST GOVERNMENT TAKING THE OATH OF FIDELITY 

 

KING ALEXANDER READING HIS SPEECH FROM THE THRONE AFTER TAKING THE OATH

 

FRENCH TROOPS OUTSIDE ATHENS, DECEMBER 1916

 

KING CONSTANTINE AND PRINCE (AFTERWARDS KING) ALEXANDER

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/plain-words-to-king-constantine-n9lxdbmtx?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1871716

Plain Words to King Constantine

King Constantine has temporized too often, and has more than once acquiesced in principles which he never had the smallest intention of putting into effect

December 16, 1916

The Entente Powers have at last, after far too much hesitation, taken the only possible course with King Constantine of Greece. On Thursday Sir Francis Elliot, on behalf of the ministers of the Allies, handed to the Greece’s Foreign Minister a Note framed in the most firm and peremptory terms. The Greek Government were given twenty-four hours, which expired yesterday, to begin to move their troops in a direction indicated, and were told that failure to comply would be looked upon as “an act of hostility”.
We could ask for nothing more drastic than the contents of the Note. It began by declaring that recent events in Athens had “proved in a conclusivo manner” that neither the King nor the Greek Government were. in possession of sufficient authority over the Greek Army to prevent it from becoming a menace to the Allied Armies in Macedonia. The Allied Governments therefore demanded the immediate “displacement” of the Greek troops and war material, and they specified the directions in which they were to be sent. It is understood that the entire Greek force was to be withdrawn from Thessaly, where it is far too near General Sarrail’s line of communications; and a portion of the Army was to be sent south to the Peloponnesus. The Greek Government were to begin the removal within twenty-four hours, and were to complete the movements as rapidly as possible. Failing unqualified acceptance by the Greek Government within twenty-four hours, the Allied Ministers and their Staffs were to leave Greece at once; but the blockade would bo continued until full reparation had been made for the unprovoked attack upon the Allied troops in Athens.
The Note is in effect an ultimatum, and our only regret is that some such step was not taken long ago. It is said that yesterday there were indications that King Constantine and his advisers were inclined to accept “in principle” the Allied demands. At this stage no acceptance “in principle” can be entertained for a moment unless it is instantly accompanied by action. King Constantine has temporized too often, and has more than once acquiesced in principles which he never had the smallest intention of putting into effect. We have repeatedly pointed out that his obvious intention is to play for time. He expects succour from the north, and meanwhile he is prepared to discuss principles at interminable length. The Allies have at last taken the measure of his aims.
We are confident that the new War Cabinets of Great Britain and Franco will not repeat the unfortunate mistake of Admiral du Fournet. The public in both countries will look to them not to place themselves in the humiliating position of formulating demands which they cannot enforce should action become necessary. Admiral du Fournet made the error of risking a small force which was quite unable to ensure fulfilment of the wishes of the Allies. There must be no repetition of that deplorablo occurrence. We are steadily moving towards a very critical situation in Greece and in Macedonia. It can still be saved, but only by immediate and adequate reparation, which we hope is in progress, against possible developments.
The four great Allied Powers cannot conceivably have called upon King Constantine to do their bidding without being ready to apply compulsion should the necessity arise. We fear it may arise, for the increasing hostility of the Greek Monarch is hardly veiled. We shall never feel safe about Greece, we shall never be in a position to pursue our projects in Macedonia, until the Greek Royalist Army and its pro-German leaders have been removed to areas where they cannot affect the military situation. The true remedy for Greece, in their present unhappy and divided condition, is to keep her sword sheathed and to place the country under the control of M Venizelos. This remedy is advocated in the important letter we publish today, signed by Lord Cromer, Dr Burrows, Sir Arthur Evans, Sir James Frazer, and other prominent scholars and friends of Greece. They urge that the Protecting Powers - a timely designation of great significance - should insist upon the recall of M Venizelos in the general direction of affairs.

We agree, but such a course is not possible in the presence of a hostile King and an over-excited Army. The first necessity is to eliminate the Greek Army. The Allies have propounded their plan. If it is rejected, they must undertake the task themselves.

Микола Рябчук писав п'ять років тому...

http://www1.ku-eichstaett.de/ZIMOS/forum/docs/forumruss18/10Rjabchuk.pdf

Микола Рябчук

Русский Робинзон и украинский Пятница: особенности «асимметричных» отношений*

Канадский премьер-министр Пьер Трюдо сравнил как-то континентальное сосед-

ство своей страны с Соединенными Штатами Америки с пребыванием в одной

кровати со слоном. «Kаким бы сдержанным и дружественным ни было животное, – сказал он в 1969 году в Вашингтонском пресс-клубе, – невозможно не почувствовать каждого его вздоха и шевеления»1.

Украинцам досталось еще более трудное соседство, поскольку тот «слон», с которым они делят континентальное ложе, никогда не отличался особой сдержанностью, да и, собственно, дружественными чувствами к ним как отдельной, отличной от русских, нации. Многие русские, скорее всего, с этим не согласятся и скажут, что испытывают искреннюю любовь к Украине, часто ссылаясь при этом на собственные украинские связи и корни, и могут даже при случае затянуть какую-нибудь украинскую песню – в подтверждение своей компетентности и благорасположения – по крайней мере на уровне этнографии. В этом смысле они, казалось бы, кардинально отличаются от западных украинских соседей – поляков, которые никакой особой любви к украинцам на личном уровне не демонстрируют, скорее наоборот – часто и охотно высказывают различные претензии, главным образом исторические, а в социологических опросах, выясняющих их отношение к различным народам, ставят украинцев далеко в нижнюю часть предложенного списка2.

Как ни парадоксально, но для многих украинцев эта польськая неприязнь более приятна или, лучше сказать, приемлема, чем русская «любовь». Парадокс вполне обьясним. Поляки, даже не «любя» украинцев, признают их равными себе – по крайней мере, в том смысле, что считают их другим, отдельным народом,

пусть даже по каким-либо причинам малосимпатичным. Русские же считают украинцев, как правило, разновидностью русских и в этом смысле «любят»

самих себя. Это, как мне представляется – разновидность имперского мифа, с которым украинцы предпочли бы не иметь ничего общего. Польская «неприязнь», условно говоря, коренится в определенной реальности и таким образом может быть постепенно изменена – через нелегкий, но все же конструктивный диалог. Русская «любовь» отражает абсолютную виртуальность и никакого диалога не предполагает – лишь безоговорочное приятие.

С постколониальной точки зрения, русско-украинские отношения можно сравнить с взаимоотношениями Робинзона Крузо и Пятницы. Робинзон, безусловно, «любит» своего Пятницу – но лишь до тех пор, пока Пятница принимает предложенные ему правила игры и признает колониальную субординацию и общее превосходство Робинзона, его языка и культуры. Но стоит Пятнице взбунтоваться – провозгласить себя суверенным и равным Робинзону, а свою культуру – самоценной и самодостаточной, – как он сразу же превращается для Робинзона в самого отъявленного, ненавистного врага. Такой Пятница априорно провозглашается «ненормальным» – «буржуазно-националистическим»

предателем, которому место в тюрьме, либо «национально озабоченным» девиантом, которому место в психиатрической лечебнице. «Нормальный» Пятница – это тот, который послушно приемлет обьятия Робинзона, «ненормальный» – который считает их чрезмерными, или перверсивными, или унизительными и пытается от них освободиться. Русские искренне не понимают, почему украинцы обижаются, когда те называют их «хохлами», – точно так же, как Робинзон не понял бы Пятницу, если бы тот не захотел быть «Пятницей», а настаивал бы на каком-то своем причудливом туземном имени. Ведь «Пятница» – это так удобно (для Робинзона) и совсем не обидно!

100 Years Ago - Russia, Munitions

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/register/royal-visits-to-munition-factories-jc2bmqps7

may 15, 1917

Royal visits to munition factories

The King and Queen began today a tour of the industrial North-West. In the course of nine crowded hours their Majesties have made themselves known to tens of thousands of their people. The first visit was to a great explosives factory on the borders of Wales, which employs over 6,000 people. Some 3,000 of them are women and girls, and, perhaps because they were both more picturesque and more exuberant, the women’s welcome left the deeper impression. The King and Queen saw some of them at work in a chain of buildings devoted to the production of TNT, from the raw material to the completed and packed explosive. They watched others engaged in the conversion of cotton waste into gun-cotton, they examined the dressing rooms and the canteens, and inspected the firemen and firewomen, the latter clad in serviceable suits with oilskin coats and souwesters. But the picture which stands out most clearly is that of hundreds of trousered young women, some in brown, with brown or scarlet caps and scarlet belts, some in cream, with white caps, some in khaki, surging blithely along behind the Royal party, while men and women police with linked hands tried in vain to stem the merry rush.
The King was challenged to declare any “contraband” he carried. He surrendered a gold cigarette and match case readily, and also removed his spurs. Again, the King and Queen conformed to the rule that those who enter certain buildings should wear rubber soles. Their Majesties and suite put on rubber overshoes before inspecting the TNT and guncotton processes.
Outside the station at Birkenhead a Transport Workers’ Battalion was lined up, and the King inspected it before going on to Messrs Cammell Laird’s shipyards. Here he spent nearly two hours talking with many of the workpeople. Some of them were a little embarrassed to find themselves unexpectedly confronted with the King and Queen, but the hearty good will with which their Majesties gripped their hands, and the intimate kindly way in which they spoke made the men forget their workaday overalls, and they beamed with delight. Their Majesties, who are sleeping in the Royal train, will spend tomorrow morning in Liverpool, and in the afternoon will go to Manchester.

La Venaria Reale - початок

Для початку - три картини про дві битви першої половини 18 ст. У першій (Турин 1706) савойське військо воювало на боці цісарців проти французів (французи обложили їхню столицю, і як назло опинилися затиснуті між мурами Турина і цісарським військом князя Євгена Савойського). А у другій (Ґвастала 1734) вже савойці воювали на боці французів проти цісарців та тимчасово захопили Мілан, за 120 років до того як (після кількох невдалих спроб) захопили його вже назавжди. До речі, війна, під час якої відбулася ця битва - це війна за Польську спадщину (1733-36), де ставкою була корона Республіки Обох Народів. І коли російська держава вперше використала гайдамаків як знаряддя своєї загарбницької зовнішньої політики О, мало не забув - про Туринську битву там ще є дерев'яний барельєф

72 years ago

100 Years Ago

http://chestnut-ah.blogspot.com/2017/05/100-years-ago-greecesalonika.html

may 11, 1917

Australians’ refusal to retire

The Australians by midday held a solid section of the Hindenburg line. The Germans attacked heavily at night and the fight surged back and forward. Yesterday they pounded the position with heavy guns, and part of it was lost for a time. But to the present moment our men are still holding almost exactly the line which they were asked to take.
The struggle was a wild one. At noon on the first day the heads of Germans were seen at various points, and presently on they came, out of the sunken road which our troops had occupied earlier, diving from shell-hole to shell-hole, two or three hundred of them together, for all the world like a school of seals. It is some new method of attack, and it was well carried out, but they say it was irresistibly funny to watch. It was wiped out by our machine-guns and rifles. The men stood breast high over the parapet, with cigarettes in their mouths and shot as they have seldom had the chance to shoot. A few brave men got within a dozen yards of them in one part. A bombing attack down the trench was made at the same time. It met with a shower of trench mortar bombs. One German was hoisted bodily 30ft into the air, turning over and over as he spun. The attack melted.
The German trench mortars kept up a most powerful bombardment, and under it the right half of the attack was gradually forced back. A Western Australian unit bombed back along the trench to the limit of the objective, and again it was driven back. At 10 o’clock at night the Germans counter-attacked again furiously down the trench. We were holding barely 500 yards of the Hindenburg line by this time.
When things seemed past praying for, the word to retire came along part of the line. The men whom it reached flung it back. “Who said so” they asked. “What officer gave that order?” The officers and men had determined that, if it came to the worst and the Germans closed entirely round them, they would cut their way back through the enemy. But it never came to that. The following afternoon the New South Welshmen bombed their way a full 600 yards up the lost ground. Though with Germans on three sides of them and counter-attacked day and night, the Australians still hold a position not paralleled in the history of this or of any other war.

100 Years Ago - Greece/Salonika

ATHENS: THE ACROPOLIS AND (on the left) THE MODERN TOWN

WITHDRAWAL OF THE GREEK TROOPS FROM SALONIKA, DECEMBER 1915

'A GREEK GUARD ON THE BULGARIAN FRONTiER


MACHINE GUNS ON THE ACROPOLIS


https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/letter-from-salonika-ftkwb2slq?CMP=TNLEmail_118918_1832901

Letter from Salonika

We want plenty of warm clothing, especially as they say the cold weather does not really begin until January, but personally I am perfectly well and fit, and much prefer it to being boxed up in a trench in Flanders

December 16, 1915

The following letter was written by an officer in an English regiment now part of the Balkan Expeditionary Force: Orders having come for us to move on, we soon packed up and entrained, and spent two days and nights travelling through France and some magnificent scenery. We were very glad to get to our train journey end, as we had not much room to stretch. We then marched straight on towards our base, and for the next two days, it being very rough, I am afraid we all wished we were safely on dry land. But after that we had glorious weather, and altogether a most enjoyable voyage, and it was hard to believe that it was near the end of November, when we were glad to take advantage of every bit of shade on deck. The time was pleasantly passed, with boxing contests, and concerts and music from our band, to say nothing of the excitement of watching for submarines.
On arriving at Salonika we marched to our camping ground, about three miles out of the town on a side of a hill. Here we soon settled in, in our tents, but I must say we found a difference in the temperature, the nights being particularly cold. The weather in fact has not been of the best, for after two or three days’ rain the whole place was a mud swamp, so much so that provisions, &c, could only be brought to us by hand-carts for the last half-mile; then snow and frost set in, so that it looks more like a Polar expedition, and the men in their sheepskin coats add to the picture.
It is extraordinary when you think that we are in a neutral country. In the town you see men of all nationalities - Greeks, Turks, Jews, Bulgars, French, and British - and all sorts and conditions of uniforms and colours; it is a wonderful sight. The Greek Army is concentrated round here, and they are a very fine set of men, dressed in khaki and well equipped. It is a strange sight to see in the same street ancient carts drawn by a pair of buffaloes or yaks (great grey brutes) and numbers of the French and English motor lorries and dispatch riders, with boys selling an English newspaper called the Balkan News, which they also bring up to camp quite early in the morning. It is quite nice to be near a town once more, where one can get really hot baths and shampoos and buy anything one may want, although naturally the shopkeepers’ motto is to “make hay while the sun shines,” and they don’t forget to make one pay. It is no good to try and argue, it is take it or leave it.
There are a music-hall and picture palaces, also good cafes and hotels where you can get a good English dinner. The dining-room of the hotel is full of people of all nations - Ambassadors with their wives and families, Turks and Germans in civilian clothes, but the majority officers of all ranks and nations. The Greek officers are very smart, with gold epaulettes and swords, also senior Serbian officers covered in medals and lace and braid - fearful nuts! With already 10 or 12 degrees of frost and snow under foot: we want plenty of warm clothing, especially as they say the cold weather does not really begin until January, when we hope we shall be more acclimatized, but personally I am perfectly well and fit, and much prefer it to being boxed up in a trench in Flanders. Of course, we do not know how long we shall be in this camp, and we may perhaps spend our Christmas in dug-outs in the Serbian mountains.

Re The Handmaid’s Tale

Нещодавно випустили нову екранізацію вищезгаданої книги, і от у NYRB рецензія
(неприхильна) на нього




А я от колись коротко згадував про власне враження, в зв'язку з тим, що книга була потрапила у перелік 25 книг, що на думку Таймс, кожен має прочитати




Останньою позицією:

25. The Handmaid’s Tale

Margaret Atwood 1985

Sci-fi meets feminism in Atwood’s revolutionary, genre-busting 1985 novel. The result is the kind of book that simply refuses to go away, lingering spookily at the back of the mind even decades after reading. It’s quite the most beautifully written piece of patriarchy-blaming ever published and the deserving winner of many prizes. Set in Gilead, a futuristic dictatorship where America has been taken over by a misogynistic cult based on the total subjugation of women through financial, social and reproductive control, this terrifying parable is told by Offred, one of the “handmaids” used only for reproduction by the military elite. Offred’s world is replete with queasy details of the way women’s bodies (not to mention babies) are co-opted by the regime, and the underlying Christian schema of the oppressors makes it all the more hideous. Not to mention controversial: the American Christian Right have been up in arms about this bombshell of a book for years, and it’s easy to see why. With the current debate over women’s right not to give Jesus-loving legislators control over their reproductive systems, Atwood’s mesmerising parable seems more vital than ever.

What to say: What do women want? Not rapey enslavement, mostly

Ну й відповідно:

Колись давно, ще як я був студіозусом у Празі, дивилися ми екранізацію цієї книги. Мені було сподобалося, і я не зрозумів, чому колєжанка висловилася в тому плані що поганий фільм (не як кіно - хоча, чесно кажучи, не шедевр, а ідеологічно). Щиро не зрозумів, і здивувався, ніби ж все правильно, "хороші побєждають"



Але через якийсь час я її зрозумів, і згодився. Зрозуміло, чому ця книга отримує високі оцінки "культурної еліти" - вона просякнута тією ж ненавистю до християнства, що й сама еліта. Відповідно, художні якості книги, емпатія, яку відчуваєш до протагоністки - лише збільшує шкоду від книги. Rot sets in - але може й зникнути, як, я сподіваюся, в моєму випадку



Взагалі бувають в житті такі епізоди, які начебто консервують назавжди власний ментальний стан, який взагалі вже пройшов, минувся. От як у цьому випадку, пам'ятаючи власну реакцію, я можу реконструювати свій тодішній світогляд, суттєво відмінний від поточного.
 

Або, скажімо, акцент: у першому класі, коли ми проходили глухі й дзвінкі приголосні, я "всьо пойняв", ну там Б - П, Ж - Ш - і страшенно здивувався, коли моя відповідь, що парна глуха до Г буде Х вчителькою (царство їй небесне, Паолі Йосипівні) була не прийнята як правильна. І я довго розмірковував, мовляв, як же так, до Г парна глуха це К... І запротоколював ментально під рубрикою "понять нєвозможно, нада запомніть"...