Tuesday, December 25, 2007
And don't forget the philatelists
Having been extremely busy, I am not quite finished Niall Furgeson's innovative history of violence in the 20th century, The War of the World
Anyway, Ferguson devotes a chapter to the sacking of Poland during the period of the Hitler-Stalin non-aggression pact. The Nazis sorted, segregated, and slaughtered the western population according to their twisted racialist classifications, and the Soviets crushed the east in the bizarrely paranoid Stalinist style. How bizarre?
From Stalin's point of view, the Nazi vision of a Germanized western Poland, denuded of its social elites, seemed not menacing but completely familiar. Stalin had, after all, been waging war against the ethnic minorities of the Soviet Union for far longer and on a far larger scale than anything thus far attempted by Hitler. And he regarded few minorities with more suspicion than the Poles. Even before the outbreak of war, 10,000 ethnic Polish families living in the western border region of the Soviet Union had been deported. Now the entire Polish population of the Soviet-occupied zone was at Stalin's mercy. Beginning on the right of February 10, 1940, the NKVD unleashed a campaign of terror against suspected "anti-Soviet" elements. The targets identified in a set of instructions subsequently issued in November of the same year were "those frequently travelling abroad, involved in overseas correspondence or coming into contact with representatives of foreign states; Esperantists; philatelists; those working with the Red Cross; refugees; smugglers; those expelled from the Communist Party; priests and active members of religious congregations; the nobility, landowners, wealthy merchants, bankers, industrialists, hotel [owners] and restaurant owners". Like Hitler, in other words, Stalin wished to decapitate Polish society.
I can at least understand Stalin's fear of those other dangerous subversives, but philatelists? As a numismatist, I do not know whether to be relieved that coin collectors were not also killed, or offended that the Commies held them in so little regard that they were not rounded up with the stamp guys and the Esperantists.
9 Comments:
By 
Steve M. Galbraith, at
Tue Dec 25, 07:33:00 PM:
Recall that the Khmer Rouge killed or imprisoned anyone that appeared to have been "Westernized" or to have succumbed to Western influences.
This included those wearing glasses.
By TigerHawk, at
Tue Dec 25, 07:42:00 PM:
I think this is different -- the cultural gap between Russians and Poles is not exactly yawning, however offended both Russians and Poles might be by that statement. Stalin was after people who might lead a resistance or subvert Soviet rule.
By Steve M. Galbraith, at
Tue Dec 25, 07:58:00 PM:
I think this is different
Hmm, I don't see much difference actually.
Both Stalin and Pol Pot wanted to eradicate an entire "class" (economic) of people that represented a "threat" to them.
Just like the kulaks - those having a single goat or piece of land - represented a class threat to Stalin, and thus were eliminated, the philatelists/glass wearers were "of a class" that were viewed as similar threats.
Glass wearers/philatelists as synecdoches, if you will, for "westerners" "rich" et cetera.
SMG
By AmPowerBlog, at
Tue Dec 25, 10:56:00 PM:
I'm a philatelist. My dad and I used to do the first-day-of-issue thing.
Stalin's coming for us.
By Mystery Meat, at
Wed Dec 26, 12:43:00 AM:
I share your esteem for professor Ferguson.
You might consider reading a book he edited, "Virtual History." One chapter is "What if Nazi Germany had defeated the Soviet Union" by Michael Burleigh.
The Nazis had well-documented plans for Poland and Russia following their anticipated victory. The population would be turned into helots to serve German-owned farms and factories. Health and hygiene were to be things of the past. They were not to be allowed to use soap or have vaccinations. But they would be allowed to have all the tobacco and liquor they wanted.
Schools would teach children to read road signs, do simple arithmetic, sign their names, and learn they must serve their German masters.
Himmler proposed "the retraining of midwives as abortionists, deliberate under-training of pediatricians, voluntary sterilizations; and the cessation of all public health measures designed to diminish infant mortality."
Monsters in power. Bad luck for the rest of us.
By Gary Rosen, at
Wed Dec 26, 01:26:00 AM:
They came after the philatelists? This reminds me of the movie "The Best Man", where a politician's opponents spread a rumor that his wife was a thespian.
By 
, at
Wed Dec 26, 11:58:00 AM:
Is the noun form of the hobby philatio?
Just curious.
By Georg Felis, at
Wed Dec 26, 04:45:00 PM:
Does this mean that Incarceration is the sincerest form of Philatery?
By Unknown, at
Sat Nov 15, 10:47:00 AM:
Philately? Sad that one has to seek enemies among those who collect stamps. I read War of the World. Fascinating book, and enlightened me towards reading some books on alternate fiction - eg. what if Hitler had won the war, etc... What an odd world in which we live.
