Re: The Soviet Union
Posted: Fri May 06, 2022 2:31 pm
Valaam Home for the Invalids and liberal falsifications
May 5, 21:35
Valaam Home for the Invalids and liberal falsifications
“It happened almost overnight. All of a sudden, all the lone invalids were gone. The cities were cleared of these people. What kind of action was it, who performed it - the police, social workers? To our inquiries to the archives of the FSB at Liteiny and Lubyanka, we received answers: "There are no such documents." But there was such an action, there was! And someone gave instructions to fulfill it. Lonely, brave and recalcitrant disabled people were cynically taken out of the cities. By the autumn of 1953 they were no longer in Moscow and Leningrad.
These words are heard in the “documentary” film by Zinaida Kurbatova “Boarding School. Betrayed and forgotten." And here is an excerpt from a conversation between two liberals in a 2009 broadcast on Ekho Moskvy:
“Boltyanskaya: Comment on the monstrous fact when, by order of Stalin, after the Great Patriotic War, disabled people were forcibly exiled to Valaam, to Solovki, so that they, armless, legless heroes, would not spoil the victory holiday with their appearance. Why is there so little talk about it now? Why are they not called by name? After all, it was these people who paid for the victory with their blood and wounds. Or are they now also not to be mentioned?
Daniel: Well, why comment on this fact? This fact is known, monstrous. It is completely understandable why Stalin and the Stalinist leadership expelled veterans from the cities.
Indeed, why comment on a fact that simply did not exist in nature! But which, thanks to a number of false media, has become a very tenacious anti-Soviet myth that distorts the truth about veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Every year, on Victory Day, another witness of the “terrible truth” about the “Stalinist concentration camp” on Valaam necessarily pops up. In recent years, this myth, for obvious reasons, has been very popular in the Ukrainian blogosphere.
A typical example of liberal propaganda
Therefore, let us once again recall what kind of institution it was.
· The House of the Invalids on Valaam was founded in 1950 by decree of the Supreme Council of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. Only. That is, it was not even the decision of the central leadership of the country. Iosif Vissarionovich, who had enough other concerns in those years, most likely simply did not know about his existence.
· Everyone who has been to Valaam should be well aware that even ten thousand people cannot simply be accommodated on the island, much less regularly supplied there. And there were much more war invalids in the USSR. From the comprehension of this fact alone, it follows that the creators of the myth of Valaam, where they allegedly gathered all the invalids of the war, from the very beginning carried obvious nonsense. That clearly shows the level of their intellectual development. In fact, it is known from archival documents that the average number of disabled people who were on Valaam was about one thousand people.
· Why was the home for the disabled placed here? Apparently, the main reason was the presence of empty buildings of the former monastery. As you know, after the war, there were serious problems with the housing stock in the country, but here it was possible to use solid monastic buildings of 2-3 floors. That is, the task was not to isolate and hide the unfortunate invalids of the war from human eyes, but to find the most economical option for their accommodation.
· Is the Valaam archipelago located on Lake Ladoga a “terrible” place to live in? Well, anti-Soviet citizens, in fact, the Valaam archipelago, by the standards of our North, is almost a resort. A very picturesque place, with a special microclimate, with unique natural conditions. It is not for nothing that the modern Russian Orthodox Church has done everything to turn Valaam into its fiefdom. By the way, a few years ago, local guides liked, in passing, to show the guests of Valaam government houses for the rest of important people, including You Know Who!
Houses on Valaam. 2015 Photo of the author.
· Regarding the assertion that all armless and legless invalids were caught and forcibly sent to Valaam. At one time, Vitaly Rystov, a local historian and publisher of the Serdobol almanac (an interesting conversation with him can be found here), published a special issue of the almanac dedicated to the history of Valaam. In it, with references to archival documents, it was proved that it was an ordinary social institution, all the expenses for the maintenance of which were assumed by the state. I'll just quote:
“Contrary to the legend, no one was forcibly driven to Valaam and no passports were taken away ... On the contrary, one had to try to get here. A typical situation - a soldier returns from the war without legs, no relatives; or there are old parents who themselves need help. Then he makes a statement: “I ask you to send me to a nursing home.” After that, representatives of the local city (if the case is in the city) or village Soviet (if in the village) administration inspect the living conditions. And then confirm (or not) the petition of the disabled person. And only after that the veteran went to Valaam.”
· Many disabled people had relatives with whom they corresponded. That is, no “secret” was made of the existence of a home for the disabled. Documents preserved in the personal files of disabled people testify that very often they were natives of Karelia, and few were sent to Valaam from big cities. Of course, there was another, specific category of disabled people, who after the war gradually became an inveterate drunkard and degraded. Alas, everything happens to people in life, such people also ended up in a boarding school. But what alternative would anti-Soviet citizens offer for them? Only one thing - to leave these people on the street so that they finally become drunk and die quickly. Just such a liberal approach, the most inhuman and cannibalistic, we could observe relatively recently. But in the USSR, the state considered it necessary to take care of everyone.
What did disabled people do on Valaam? Whoever could, worked in the garden, picked berries and mushrooms, fished in Ladoga. From archival documents it is known that milk and part of the products came to the home for the disabled from their subsidiary farm. The island had three baths, a laundry, an office, an outpatient clinic, a hairdresser's, a pantry, a library and a reading room, a red corner, a shoe shop, two sewing workshops, four kitchens and dining rooms.
Why were there workshops? As archival documents show, one of the tasks of the homes for the disabled was to give the provided a profession accessible to them. From Valaam, they sent accountants and shoemakers to courses, that is, they tried, if possible, to give a person the opportunity to work. And that means returning to normal life.
More about security from the article in the almanac "Serdobol":“We bought clothes: a winter coat - 200 pieces (x500 rubles), a winter short coat. men's - 200 pcs. (x300 rubles), autumn coat - 200 pcs. (300 rubles), jackets for men. - 100 (x450 rubles), knitted sweaters - 300 pcs. (x50 rubles), felt boots - 500 pieces (x160 rubles), cotton suits - 500 pieces (x140 rubles) ... "A total of 35 items for the amount of 495 thousand rubles."
The leisure of the disabled included the screening of films, lectures and concerts, including even guest tours of artists. The latter visited the boarding school infrequently, only 3 times a year.
Of course, all this could not make life easier for people who have lost their health forever. Their fate is tragic. Surely not everything was good, there could be some shortcomings and even abuses in the boarding school, manifestations of indifference and rudeness towards former front-line soldiers. Everything, as always and everywhere. But one way or another, the meaning of creating a home for war invalids on Valaam is completely different than the liberal myth claims. I needed to do something to help these people. Give them a roof over their heads, food, clothing and basic medical care. After all, in each department of the home for the disabled there was a doctor and qualified nurses. Of course, the level of medicine of that time did not allow many to really help. On the other hand, even modern medicine is very often powerless with those injuries and concussions
It can be argued that the funds were allocated little. Probably so. However, our country was also not rich, while its income did not then go to billions of dollars in foreign offshore accounts, 150-meter yachts and the education of elite children in prestigious English universities.
P.S. Still, I will tell a terrible story connected with this boarding school.
The Valaam boarding school, as an institution with a long history, still exists. Back in the 80s, he was moved to Vidlitsa, this is my native Olonets region. In a new, purpose-built building. I know from the words of eyewitnesses that many of its then old-timers did not want to go to the “mainland”, they liked living on the island more.
Since the 80s, the provided contingent of the institution has gradually changed. Participants in the war were dying and completely different people began to enter the boarding house. In the 90s, these were lonely grandmothers who were abandoned by children who went to the “market”. In other cases, their sons simply drank themselves in that glorious time of freedom and democracy. Someone killed them altogether, and again there was no one to look after the elderly. And on the other hand, the grandfathers, who spent most of their lives in the zone, were on the provision of the Vidlitsky boarding school. It is clear that such characters were also not really needed by relatives.
This last category was shaking money from the old women for themselves a drink, fighting among themselves, it seems that someone was even cut. The author of these lines in the late 90s was a correspondent for a regional newspaper and could read daily criminal reports on the region in the Olonetsky District Department of Internal Affairs. There was a period when the Vidlitsky orphanage appeared in them with frightening regularity. But not everything got into the police reports! Now imagine the feelings of a simple village grandmother, a hard worker, who found herself lonely in her old age and in a similar environment. "Holy 90s". That's what it would be nice to once again remind!
(c) A.Stepanov
https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/61f99f54 ... 7799039464?&
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7598250.html
Google Translator
May 5, 21:35
Valaam Home for the Invalids and liberal falsifications
“It happened almost overnight. All of a sudden, all the lone invalids were gone. The cities were cleared of these people. What kind of action was it, who performed it - the police, social workers? To our inquiries to the archives of the FSB at Liteiny and Lubyanka, we received answers: "There are no such documents." But there was such an action, there was! And someone gave instructions to fulfill it. Lonely, brave and recalcitrant disabled people were cynically taken out of the cities. By the autumn of 1953 they were no longer in Moscow and Leningrad.
These words are heard in the “documentary” film by Zinaida Kurbatova “Boarding School. Betrayed and forgotten." And here is an excerpt from a conversation between two liberals in a 2009 broadcast on Ekho Moskvy:
“Boltyanskaya: Comment on the monstrous fact when, by order of Stalin, after the Great Patriotic War, disabled people were forcibly exiled to Valaam, to Solovki, so that they, armless, legless heroes, would not spoil the victory holiday with their appearance. Why is there so little talk about it now? Why are they not called by name? After all, it was these people who paid for the victory with their blood and wounds. Or are they now also not to be mentioned?
Daniel: Well, why comment on this fact? This fact is known, monstrous. It is completely understandable why Stalin and the Stalinist leadership expelled veterans from the cities.
Indeed, why comment on a fact that simply did not exist in nature! But which, thanks to a number of false media, has become a very tenacious anti-Soviet myth that distorts the truth about veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Every year, on Victory Day, another witness of the “terrible truth” about the “Stalinist concentration camp” on Valaam necessarily pops up. In recent years, this myth, for obvious reasons, has been very popular in the Ukrainian blogosphere.
A typical example of liberal propaganda
Therefore, let us once again recall what kind of institution it was.
· The House of the Invalids on Valaam was founded in 1950 by decree of the Supreme Council of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. Only. That is, it was not even the decision of the central leadership of the country. Iosif Vissarionovich, who had enough other concerns in those years, most likely simply did not know about his existence.
· Everyone who has been to Valaam should be well aware that even ten thousand people cannot simply be accommodated on the island, much less regularly supplied there. And there were much more war invalids in the USSR. From the comprehension of this fact alone, it follows that the creators of the myth of Valaam, where they allegedly gathered all the invalids of the war, from the very beginning carried obvious nonsense. That clearly shows the level of their intellectual development. In fact, it is known from archival documents that the average number of disabled people who were on Valaam was about one thousand people.
· Why was the home for the disabled placed here? Apparently, the main reason was the presence of empty buildings of the former monastery. As you know, after the war, there were serious problems with the housing stock in the country, but here it was possible to use solid monastic buildings of 2-3 floors. That is, the task was not to isolate and hide the unfortunate invalids of the war from human eyes, but to find the most economical option for their accommodation.
· Is the Valaam archipelago located on Lake Ladoga a “terrible” place to live in? Well, anti-Soviet citizens, in fact, the Valaam archipelago, by the standards of our North, is almost a resort. A very picturesque place, with a special microclimate, with unique natural conditions. It is not for nothing that the modern Russian Orthodox Church has done everything to turn Valaam into its fiefdom. By the way, a few years ago, local guides liked, in passing, to show the guests of Valaam government houses for the rest of important people, including You Know Who!
Houses on Valaam. 2015 Photo of the author.
· Regarding the assertion that all armless and legless invalids were caught and forcibly sent to Valaam. At one time, Vitaly Rystov, a local historian and publisher of the Serdobol almanac (an interesting conversation with him can be found here), published a special issue of the almanac dedicated to the history of Valaam. In it, with references to archival documents, it was proved that it was an ordinary social institution, all the expenses for the maintenance of which were assumed by the state. I'll just quote:
“Contrary to the legend, no one was forcibly driven to Valaam and no passports were taken away ... On the contrary, one had to try to get here. A typical situation - a soldier returns from the war without legs, no relatives; or there are old parents who themselves need help. Then he makes a statement: “I ask you to send me to a nursing home.” After that, representatives of the local city (if the case is in the city) or village Soviet (if in the village) administration inspect the living conditions. And then confirm (or not) the petition of the disabled person. And only after that the veteran went to Valaam.”
· Many disabled people had relatives with whom they corresponded. That is, no “secret” was made of the existence of a home for the disabled. Documents preserved in the personal files of disabled people testify that very often they were natives of Karelia, and few were sent to Valaam from big cities. Of course, there was another, specific category of disabled people, who after the war gradually became an inveterate drunkard and degraded. Alas, everything happens to people in life, such people also ended up in a boarding school. But what alternative would anti-Soviet citizens offer for them? Only one thing - to leave these people on the street so that they finally become drunk and die quickly. Just such a liberal approach, the most inhuman and cannibalistic, we could observe relatively recently. But in the USSR, the state considered it necessary to take care of everyone.
What did disabled people do on Valaam? Whoever could, worked in the garden, picked berries and mushrooms, fished in Ladoga. From archival documents it is known that milk and part of the products came to the home for the disabled from their subsidiary farm. The island had three baths, a laundry, an office, an outpatient clinic, a hairdresser's, a pantry, a library and a reading room, a red corner, a shoe shop, two sewing workshops, four kitchens and dining rooms.
Why were there workshops? As archival documents show, one of the tasks of the homes for the disabled was to give the provided a profession accessible to them. From Valaam, they sent accountants and shoemakers to courses, that is, they tried, if possible, to give a person the opportunity to work. And that means returning to normal life.
More about security from the article in the almanac "Serdobol":“We bought clothes: a winter coat - 200 pieces (x500 rubles), a winter short coat. men's - 200 pcs. (x300 rubles), autumn coat - 200 pcs. (300 rubles), jackets for men. - 100 (x450 rubles), knitted sweaters - 300 pcs. (x50 rubles), felt boots - 500 pieces (x160 rubles), cotton suits - 500 pieces (x140 rubles) ... "A total of 35 items for the amount of 495 thousand rubles."
The leisure of the disabled included the screening of films, lectures and concerts, including even guest tours of artists. The latter visited the boarding school infrequently, only 3 times a year.
Of course, all this could not make life easier for people who have lost their health forever. Their fate is tragic. Surely not everything was good, there could be some shortcomings and even abuses in the boarding school, manifestations of indifference and rudeness towards former front-line soldiers. Everything, as always and everywhere. But one way or another, the meaning of creating a home for war invalids on Valaam is completely different than the liberal myth claims. I needed to do something to help these people. Give them a roof over their heads, food, clothing and basic medical care. After all, in each department of the home for the disabled there was a doctor and qualified nurses. Of course, the level of medicine of that time did not allow many to really help. On the other hand, even modern medicine is very often powerless with those injuries and concussions
It can be argued that the funds were allocated little. Probably so. However, our country was also not rich, while its income did not then go to billions of dollars in foreign offshore accounts, 150-meter yachts and the education of elite children in prestigious English universities.
P.S. Still, I will tell a terrible story connected with this boarding school.
The Valaam boarding school, as an institution with a long history, still exists. Back in the 80s, he was moved to Vidlitsa, this is my native Olonets region. In a new, purpose-built building. I know from the words of eyewitnesses that many of its then old-timers did not want to go to the “mainland”, they liked living on the island more.
Since the 80s, the provided contingent of the institution has gradually changed. Participants in the war were dying and completely different people began to enter the boarding house. In the 90s, these were lonely grandmothers who were abandoned by children who went to the “market”. In other cases, their sons simply drank themselves in that glorious time of freedom and democracy. Someone killed them altogether, and again there was no one to look after the elderly. And on the other hand, the grandfathers, who spent most of their lives in the zone, were on the provision of the Vidlitsky boarding school. It is clear that such characters were also not really needed by relatives.
This last category was shaking money from the old women for themselves a drink, fighting among themselves, it seems that someone was even cut. The author of these lines in the late 90s was a correspondent for a regional newspaper and could read daily criminal reports on the region in the Olonetsky District Department of Internal Affairs. There was a period when the Vidlitsky orphanage appeared in them with frightening regularity. But not everything got into the police reports! Now imagine the feelings of a simple village grandmother, a hard worker, who found herself lonely in her old age and in a similar environment. "Holy 90s". That's what it would be nice to once again remind!
(c) A.Stepanov
https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/61f99f54 ... 7799039464?&
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7598250.html
Google Translator