Thursday, October 09, 2008

Ukrainian History....WWII (6/27/08)

Ukraine site-seeing
Bob’s History Lesson after Caves Monastery (6/27)
-religion at its basic level is a way to make sense of the world
-orthodox worldview- only one person at the top – pyramid-like and top-down
-priests and aristocracy were literate…paintings so people can understand
-hence decorations…also national history
-philosophy of top-down comes from the church – get permission first and then be creative
-in Protestantism, reward creativity
-think outside the box—requires permission first
-influences public education
-faith through hearing the Word of God—requires literacy—Reformation and Sunday SCHOOL—otherwise work during the week
-public education here came in the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, then a high literacy rate
-1895 Spanish-American War- soldiers became teachers and built schools
-masses repeat what they heard from the top (so like apostolic succession?)
-influences the way society functions
-if you have relationships/connections, call the top person up
-take the time to understand the system before doing anything
-Icon curtain—Protestants have direct access to King

War Memorial… “Their actions will live forever, and the words are eternal”
Museum—you gotta FEEL it…hence music playing
-No women in first relief sculpture – everything is significant
-Water – to get across river – symbolic – Dnieper – Kiev – one of the hero cities
-Great Patriotic War against the Fascists = WWII (what it doesn’t say and does say, says a lot)
-broken Nazi eagle on the ground
-developing war machine in Germany
-onslaught came in June 1941 – destroyed homes, everything everywhere
-The Motherland is Calling!
-3 weeks to capture 11 countries (Germany said this)
-Operation Babarosa – German for Eastern front –Germans had positive outlook
-3 months just for getting Kiev – threw off plans -Germans told them they’d lose soccer game, but they won, so they eliminated the whole team
-May Day parade in Kiev 1941 – peaceful time, wonderful time
-test of what would happen to the people
-parents and grandparents would know these people – nostalgia (photos of famous people of the times)
-destruction, “We’ll be marching in Red Square by Christmas”
-Germans weren’t prepared for one of the coldest winters
-Leningrad portion = bread, sawdust, paper, whatever found
-3 years blockaded the city – never surrendered! Toughed it out
-Navy battles – perfect ship, never lost, never lost a person
-Hitler wanted to get to Caspian Sea – it had oil!
-Concentration camp sign – To each his own
-soap made from human fat, gloves made from human skin
-didn’t really bother with camps, just had a mass grave
-occupation of Kiev – renamed streets
-Hitler wanted a world order – army of murderers – doing whatever to make them submit (took everything, just destroyed)
-couldn’t make them submit and be slaves
-“Eastern workers” – sent back to work in fields – young folks
-there wasn’t safety in the back lines in occupied areas
-towns totally destroyed by fire
-French left their cannons back in the 1800s
-every hit of the hammer = a hit against the enemy
-Soviet flags upstairs now – something (Stalingrad/Volvograd) happened – 100% destroyed
-D-Day happened after that – Volga river dumps into Caspian Sea
-running Germans back, running them out – For Stalin! For Soviet! (look at faces)
-war not fair – this lady lost all 9 sons (village signed up as a group)
-this lady had all 5 sons come back
-captured German banners – battle at Reichstag, Berlin – Red army came, triumph!
-60 million died because of WWII – country breakdown
-China 8.2 million (#2 country for casualties)
-#1 country: Soviet Union lost 30 million people
-US lost 500,000 people, about 5,000 a day over the course of the war
-US and Soviet Union had about the same population (give or take a million) at the time
-everybody lost somebody, and you’d better not forget it
-one of the classes is how to shoot automatic weapon, take apart, shoot again
-better understanding of why they built an iron curtain
-keep out after losing so many – another perspective to Cold War
-wouldn’t let another become greater than them, because last time that it happened…
-they wanted to keep their land theirs, though they hate it (???)