Experimental Blog #58

Comments on "Molotov's Magic Lantern - Travels in Russian History" by Rachel Polonsky

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, who, in 1937 and 1938, signed execution lists, along with Joseph Stalin and others, that included the names of 43,569 people; party members, sometimes their wives, and others considered "wreckers"; and who also approved along with the rest of the Politburo, the massacre of the entire Polish officer corps, about 22,000 men, in the Katyn forest in March of 1940, was expelled from the central committee of the USSR Comunist Party in 1957. Nonetheless, he continued to live in a fine appartment in Moscow for another 29 years until 1986.
Molotov's real family name was Skryabin, a well known musical family, and, elsewhere, it says that he had some kind of degree in Fine Arts.
Molotov seems to have been largely overlooked in America, but this author, Rachel Polonsky, reveals the importance of his long life, he was born in 1890, and, perhaps, the importance of his intellectual interests as well. Rachel Polonsky thinks that he had a personal library of as many as 10,000 books before he was thrown out of the party leadership.
Between 1969 and 1986, Molotov was interviewed by the "Stalinist poet", Felix Chuev, who published these " 140 conversations" in 1991.
Molotov also has a grandson, Vyacheslav Nikonov, who, besides being a specialist in American history, is writing a multi-volume biography of his grandfather.
The "riddles, mysteries, and enigmas" of this vastly complicated country, Russia, and its communist history are very much illuminated and explained by this book.

Experimental Blog #57

Comments on 2 books

"Biting the Wax Tadpole" - Confessions of a Language Fanatic by Elizabeth Little

This book is filled with remarkable and intriguing language facts. Such as.
#1 Although to know 15 to 20 languages seems to be considered a very impressive number by some "authorities," the author relates that a German man named Francis Sommer was reputed to be "fluent" in 94! languages when he died in 1978.
#2 It was most interesting to learn that our verb "to be" and the words "been" and the imperative "be!" come from some kind of "official infinitive" "beon." And our words "was" and "were" come from the word "wesan," while "am" and "is" come from a Latin root word "esser." She doesn't say where "are" comes from.
#3 It is unknown why, she says, that the words for the number 9 and the word for "new" are very similar in 6 Germanic languages, 5 Latin languages, 2 Celtic languages, plus Sanskrit and Persian, but not, apparently, in any Slavic languages.
Elizabeth Little also seems to imply that whether you think that, "Ich bin ein Berliner" means "I am from Berlin," or, "I am a jelly doughnut" depends mostly on your political sympathies.


"It's All Greek to Me - From Homer to the Hippocratic Oath, How Ancient Greece Has Shaped Our World" by Charlotte Higgins

The author of this book also succeeds very well in communicating her enthusiasm for her subject, the cultural history of Ancient Greece and its impact on us. Although the chronology of her narritive is sometimes a little bit unclear, her book covers the period of time from about 776 BC, the founding of the Olympic Games, or perhaps more importantly, from about 750 BC, the beginning of the Greek alphabet, to not in much detail beyond 399 BC, the death of Socrates, or, about 335 BC, the founding of Aristotle's Lyceum in Athens. This time span is somewhat less than 450 years.
Charlotte Higgins' account of the life and death of Socrates is very provoking. He never wrote anything, but he certainly must have been quite literate, and could have done so. Her comments on Plato, "arguably the most important philosopher the West has produced," and his "Republic", "bloated, uneven, chilling, funny, exasperating, beautiful, inspiring, deadly, and confusing," are also very provoking.
When did the "Golden Age of Greece" come to an end? As early as 404 BC with the final defeat of Athens by Sparta? Or more than a century later, when all of Greece was defeated and conquered by the expanding Roman Empire?

Experimental Blog #56

Comments on "Naming Infinity" - A True Story of Religious Mysticism and Mathematical Creativity by Loren Graham and Jean-Michel Kantor

For someone whose mathematical understanding is limited this small book is not very easy to describe. Nonetheless, the story of these late 19th and early 20th century mostly French and Russian mathematicians is quite illuminating. Although the first modern mathematician who "discovered", or "invented", the mathematical theory of sets was a German, the French soon took over its further developement and elaboration.
The authors say, however, that since the French mathematicians were limited by Rene' Descartes' rationalism and Auguste Comte's positivism, they eventually came to an "intellectual abyss."
On the other hand, there existed in Russia centuries of tradition of "mysticism", that, although sometimes condemned as heretical "Name Worshipping," did not prevent the Russian mathematicians from mixing mathematics and religion.
How do these mathematical ideas exist? Are they imagined? Or are they real? Have they always been there to be discovered? Or do they become real, or come into existence, only after they are named?
The usually religious and sometimes even "Name Worshipping" Russian mathematicians naturally came under fierce attack and persecution by the materialist Marxists who eventually came into power everywhere in Russia. Many, maybe most, were imprisoned. Some were executed, or died violently, and others "converted" and promoted the aggressive, intolerant, and totalitarian ideas of the new Soviet Union.
However, in spite of these events, the Moscow School of Mathematics grew and became world famous.

Experimental Blog #55

Comments on "The Tenth Parallel" - Dispatches from the Fault Line between Christianity and Islam by Eliza Griswold

The achievements and the many products of today's science and technology continue to flood and dazzle the entire contemporary world. But, in spite of all of this production, it continues to be glaringly obvious that science and technology do not, and can not, give any meaning and purpose to human life, either individually or to a society of any size.
However, anybody can experience, or learn about, the many thousands of works and monuments of religious creativity around the world; going back thousands of years in architecture, art, sculpture, music, literature, and other works.
The awful and horrible destructiveness of people in the name of their religions is also a part of thousands of years of human history and the news and events of today anywhere in the world.
Sooner or later, somehow or other, something like a new universal worldwide religion will develope because of its necessity. Then people will find more harmonious religious meaning and purpose to their lives, and they will create new works and monuments of all kinds for worship and other religious purposes and expressions.

Experimental Blog #54

Comments on "Lost and Found in Russia" - Lives in a Post-Soviet Landscape by Susan Richards

The English lady who is the author of this book seems so fluent in Russian that she never seems to miss anything. Her ability to share her long travels in the new Russia and her Russian friends and acquaintances can hardly be described. This book is Susan Richards' 2nd book of Russian travels, and is a remarkable sequel to it.
The first book, "Epics of Everyday Life," was very much praised and was very tranquil by comparison. It was written just months before the communist Soviet Union began to fall apart, and nobody seemed to be aware of this outcome, including the author.