Blissful blindness : Soviet crimes under Western eyes / Dariusz Tolczyk ; translated from Polish by Jarek Garliński. Expanded by the author.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tolczyk, Dariusz, author.

Contributor:

Garlinski, Jarek, translator.

Standardized Title:

Gułag w oczach Zachodu. English

Language:

English

Polish

Subjects (All):

Glavnoe upravlenie ispravitelʹno-trudovykh lagereĭ OGPU.

Political crimes and offenses--Soviet Union.

Political crimes and offenses.

Internment camps--Soviet Union.

Internment camps.

Political prisoners--Soviet Union.

Political prisoners.

Propaganda--Soviet Union.

Propaganda.

Soviet Union--Relations--Western countries.

Soviet Union.

Western countries--Relations--Soviet Union.

Western countries.

Soviet Union--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (427 pages)

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"The most heinous Soviet crimes - the Red Terror, brutal collectivization, the Great Famine, the Gulag, Stalin's Great Terror, mass deportations, and other atrocities - were treated in the West as a controversial topic. With the Cold War dichotomy of Western democracy versus Soviet communism deeply imprinted in our minds, we are not always aware that these crimes were very often questioned, dismissed, denied, sometimes rationalized, and even outright glorified in the Western world. Facing a choice of whom to believe -the survivors or Soviet propaganda- many Western opinion leaders chose in favor of Soviet propaganda. Even those who did not believe it behaved sometimes as if they did. Blissful Blindness explores Western reactions (and lack thereof) to Soviet crimes from the Bolshevik revolution to the collapse of Soviet communism in order to understand ideological, political, economic, cultural, personal, and other motivations behind this puzzling phenomenon of willful ignorance. But the significance of Dariusz Tolczyk's book reaches beyond its direct historical focus. Written for audiences not limited to scholars and specialists, this book not only opens one's eyes to rarely examined aspects of the twentieth century but also helps one see how astonishingly relevant this topic is in our contemporary world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Dreaming of Russia

Ex Oriente Lux

In the Soviet theater of life

Wonderland

Stalin presents

A black-and-white Western

The curtain falls, the show goes on

The passing of an illusion?

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource.

Other Format:

Print version: Tolczyk, Dariusz. Blissful blindness

ISBN:

9780253067104

9780253067111

0253067111

OCLC:

1382256009