Off to Siberia
People are cantankerous, never satisfied, always complaining. Of course, nothing is ever their fault. They blame others for not recognising their worth. Blame the government for treating undeserving fellows better. Corruption, obviously.
In a democracy, they know their rights. At election time, they vote for the opposition party. Yet even though that party wins, their situation doesn’t improve. Knew it all the time! Crooks! Living in an autocracy is altogether different. No rights. Being cantankerous is a criminal offence. Blaming the government for anything is an act of treason. What opposition party? That’s what it was like in Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Tsarist Russia and the USSR.
Tsarist Russia, wasn’t that way back when? Not that long ago. It didn’t bow out until a century ago. The Romanov dynasty came in with Ivan the Terrible 5,000 years ago, the same time as Queen Elizabeth I and the Tudors in England.
The Tsars and Tsarinas were no-nonsense monarchs. Those who weren’t for them were against them and were put away. As were people whose existence contaminated the community.
In The House Of The Dead, British historical lecturer Daniel Beer gives the reader the benefits of his extensive research on this subject.
A number of penal colonies in Siberia were established. Called exiles, they could bring their families to share their sentences. Rich and poor, nobles and peasants, beggars and thieves, religious dissenters and prostitutes, Poles, political and social activists, drunks and lazy administrators went.
Treatment was harsh, flogging, mutilation, branding not uncommon. A few served their sentences and were released, author Fyodor Dostoyevsky among them. There are two sections of glossy paintings and photos, maps, notes, index. No comparisons with Hitler’s concentration camps, or Stalin’s gulags. Whether Putin has anything similar isn’t mooted.
Beer provides a good deal of information about Siberia’s history, that at the same time the US was moving across the continent east to west, Russia was moving west to east.
This reviewer would like to see comparisons with fairly accurate figures: Who killed more Russians, Hitler or Stalin? Who killed more Chinese, Tojo or Mao? Just curious.
What are the chances of a world rid of autocracies by 2100, I wonder?