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The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

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Re: The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

#21

Post by dimitar »

secstate wrote: post #3

Best part of the whole story was Piotr Grabowski's comment at the bottom. Seems the most illuminating aspect of this story is how disconnected American's are from European history. I don't mean this in a dismissive way. I mysefl, being American, am hoplessly unaware of large parts of European history. But the origin of the author's last name along is actually really easy to understand if one is actually familiar with…

That comment has a serious nationalistic bias so take it with a grain of salt. Pro-tip when learning about Eastern Europe or the Balkans - there are a lot of conflicting versions of historiography. Every nation, regime or even political faction builds their own narrative that often contradict each other.

Re: The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

#22

Post by dimitar »

Found the news reel that was mentioned in the article, it has a blooper when one of the "civilian" girls cheerfully greeting the liberators wears Red Army boots: https://youtu.be/7XsXSOSOtq4?t=438

Overall really sad moment in the history of the town, it had seen a a huge amount of violence - the almost total destruction of the Jewish population of the town, but also Nazi attacks on Ukrainian and Polish civilians. The total death toll caused by the Nazis in Stanislaviv/Ivano-Frankivs was 100 thousand people with at least 20 thousand of them Jews. Many people were also forcibly deported to Germany to work in factories (this is unrelated to the millions of Jews in concentration and extermination plants, where conditions were worse).

The mood was actually deeply sombre and the news reel fails to hide it (although keep in mind the music was added by the person adding the video to YouTube). The reason wasn't only the Nazi crimes - the population of the city remembered 1939 when the Soviets took over the city from Poland and 1941 when right before they evacuated the city they killed everyone in the prison (many of them political prisoners) and other people suspecting to aid the German advance. On the day they captured the city another round of repressions began.

Re: The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

#23

Post by fit2rule »

dimitar wrote: post #22

Found the news reel that was mentioned in the article, it has a blooper when one of the "civilian" girls cheerfully greeting the liberators wears Red Army boots: https://youtu.be/7XsXSOSOtq4?t=438 Overall really sad moment in the history of the town, it had seen a a huge amount of violence - the almost total destruction of the Jewish population of the town, but also Nazi attacks on Ukrainian and Polish civilians. The…

Those boots are hardly evidence of membership in the Red Army, come on ..

Re: The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

#24

Post by dimitar »

fit2rule wrote: post #23
dimitar wrote: post #22

Found the news reel that was mentioned in the article, it has a blooper when one of the "civilian" girls cheerfully greeting the liberators wears Red Army boots: https://youtu.be/7XsXSOSOtq4?t=438 Overall really sad moment in the history of the town, it had seen a a huge amount of violence - the almost total destruction of the Jewish population of the town, but also Nazi attacks on Ukrainian and Polish civilians. The…

Those boots are hardly evidence of membership in the Red Army, come on ..

It just happens that she wears the exact type of boots as the army on parade? In WWII where even food was hard to come by?

Well it is a rather bizarre fashion statement for the 40s, no civilian woman would wear it the era: https://militaryreview.su/uploads/2013/soviet_army1943-1945/...

Re: The Wolves of Stanislav: An Improbably True Parable for the Pandemic Age

#25

Post by fit2rule »

dimitar wrote: post #24
fit2rule wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those boots are hardly evidence of membership in the Red Army, come on ..

It just happens that she wears the exact type of boots as the army on parade? In WWII where even food was hard to come by? Well it is a rather bizarre fashion statement for the 40s, no civilian woman would wear it the era: https://militaryreview.su/uploads/2013/soviet_army1943-1945/...

Its not inconceivable. Those boots were commonly worn by civilians before the war, and are still used by horse-riders all over the world - its an indicator of wealth, not membership in the Russian Red Army, if anything else.
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