Voices: Russia paid price

Opinion

Discussion

February 6, 2010

Anonymous The Joplin Globe Sat Feb 06, 2010, 08:39 AM CST

I am writing this letter in reply to a letter titled “Ungrateful Russia” by Clovis Steele (Jan. 19, 2010). First, I commend Steele for knowing something about Russian history. Due to word limitation, I can only rebut some of his comments.

First, it is true the steel mill at Magnitogorsk and the Ford truck plant at Gorky were built with many American designs and machinery. However, they were not a gift to Russia. The Soviet Union paid for them on a cash basis. Gold, mined on the Kolyma River, paid for these factories; a million slave laborers went up the Kolyma and never returned. In the Ukraine, the grain harvest was sold to pay for industrialization; 6 million perished for that. Grateful? That it wasn’t 10 million?

World War II, a great victory but at a staggering cost to the Soviet Union; a total loss of 28 million dead — one in seven citizens died driving the Nazis out. Eighty percent of all German casualties were in the Eastern Front.

It is undeniable that America sent almost 50,000 trucks to the Soviets; would you rather have kept the trucks and fought Germans instead? The United States lost 400,000 dead in the war; the Battle of Stalingrad (4 months long) cost 973,000 lives. Is gratitude measured in blood or trucks?

Americans gasp watching the beach assault in “Saving Private Ryan.” Russians made the same assault on the Volga at Stalingrad, but every day — for six weeks!

If you wish to see the greatest generation, go to Eastern Europe; that’s where they are buried. The American army came home after the war and fathered a baby boom; not so in Russia, the men never came home. Gratitude. Yes, that’s an interesting question.

Tell me, you have a street named for Langston Hughes in your city named for a man who watched a great crime in Soviet Russia, and remained silent. Are you ashamed for that?

Aida Zamilova Judah

Springfield, Mo.

Text Only

Opinion

Our View: Santorum's Achilles' ear
Rick Santorum knocked everyone for a loop this week, not just with his victory in Missouri but with the landslide size of the thing.

February 10, 2012 1 Photo
Our View: Are school loans next 'debt bomb'?
The late American middle class struggled for decades to keep pace with an American dream slipping from its grasp.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Our View: A better way of limit terms
A Missouri House committee on Tuesday endorsed a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow lawmakers to serve 16 years in the state Legislature, either the House or the Senate.

February 8, 2012 1 Photo
Your View: Is it our fault?
When did coveting things and money take over character? What happened?

February 8, 2012
Your View: No way to run a school
All throughout the state of Missouri, you’ll hear much discussion about teacher tenure and the indefinite contracts that go along with that. Most — if not nearly all — jobs in the private and public sectors have no such career protection.

February 8, 2012
Your View: Prime suspects
If it’s too cool in the house, you can turn up the heat if you think you can afford it.

February 8, 2012
Our View: Worldwide concern
There is growing concern worldwide that Israel might launch an attack on Iranian nuclear plants.

February 7, 2012 1 Photo
Other Views: FAA deal up in air five years
The Federal Aviation Administration bill was delayed 23 times, but the agency finally has a law giving it $63 billion and full operating authority for the next four years.

February 6, 2012 1 Photo
Don Ray, columnist: Obama's pipeline excuse an election-year cop-out
On Jan. 18, President Barack Obama announced he was rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline project — a project that had its beginnings some 40 months ago (September 2008).

February 6, 2012
James Whitford, guest columnist: Broken people or broken system?
Are the people broken or is the system broken? If you walk into Watered Gardens, our rescue mission, it may seem the people are broken. But it’s a rescue mission. It just feels that way. And sometimes, it just looks that way.

February 4, 2012
More Opinion Headlines

Water company cites reconnections

Opinion

Search Results

Discussion

Voices: Russia paid price

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr wants the city to distribute weather radios to all Joplin homes that don’t have one. That’s 11,000 radios. Do you think that’s a good use of $300,440?

Site Map

Contact Us