Blissful blindness : Soviet crimes under Western eyes / Dariusz Tolczyk ; translated from Polish by Jarek Garliński. Expanded by the author.
| Author/creator | Tolczyk, Dariusz author. |
| Other author | Garlinski, Jarek, translator. |
| Format | Book |
| Publication | Bloomington, Indiana : Indiana University Press, [2023] |
| Description | 427 pages ; 24 cm |
| Subjects |
| Uniform title | Gułag w oczach Zachodu. English |
| 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? |
| Abstract | "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. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Issued in other form | Online version: Tolczyk, Dariusz. Blissful blindness Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 2023. 9780253067104 |
| Genre/form | History. |
| LCCN | 2023016974 |
| ISBN | 9780253067098 |
| ISBN | 9780253067081 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0253067081 hardcover |
| ISBN | 025306709X paperback |
| ISBN | electronic book |
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