“Of course this is a very important year 1948. In this year, in the middle of it, I’ll also become a free man. And here, there are two points, listen carefully. Those who are released after their terms inside the USSR can go home on the next train. But here, in the Far East, theContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Soviet Gulag Sentence (Vladimir Rott)”
Category Archives: literature
RKS Literature: Treacherous at the Top with Stalin (Vladimir Rott)
“The men who surrounded Stalin quickly figured out the rules of the chief’s game and started playing up to him in every way they could, sniffing out suitable “enemies” in their own midst and helping destroy them. Under such arrangement, those who witnessed and participated in the “purges” at the top could not stay aliveContinue reading “RKS Literature: Treacherous at the Top with Stalin (Vladimir Rott)”
RKS Literature: The Bolsheviks Desperation to Maintain Power (Vladimir Rott)
“Once they had seized power in Russia, the Bolsheviks began to direct all of their energy and all of the country’s wealth toward a single goal: to stay in power, to keep power in their hands. Hence the instant rise of the Great Terror, the suppression and destruction of not only actual but even potential,Continue reading “RKS Literature: The Bolsheviks Desperation to Maintain Power (Vladimir Rott)”
RKS Literature: Ignorant, Greedy and Brutal Bolsheviks (Vladimir Rott)
Russia-a wealthy country with a highly educated population, a country that had peacefully gotten rid of serfdom and was on a path of rapid, successful industrial development-was handed over to the Bolsheviks without a real struggle. The Russian intelligentsia, the nation’s brain, underestimated the danger and allowed a great country which had been drawn intoContinue reading “RKS Literature: Ignorant, Greedy and Brutal Bolsheviks (Vladimir Rott)”
RKS Literature: Avoidance of Catastrophic Thinking (Yukio Mishima)
“He believed that only a vulgar mentality was willing to acknowledge the possibility of catastrophe. He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophe. However precipitous the future might seem, he learned from the game of kemari that the ball must always come down. There was no call for consternation. Grief andContinue reading “RKS Literature: Avoidance of Catastrophic Thinking (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Meditation and Returning Back to the Garden (Yukio Mishima)
“Even though he was plunged in meditation from morning to night, he was loath to direct his immense emotional reserves toward a single conclusion. Meditation had a great deal in common with kemari, the traditional sport of the Ayakuras. No matter how high one kicked the ball, it would obviously come back to earth againContinue reading “RKS Literature: Meditation and Returning Back to the Garden (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Imagination (Yukio Mishima)
“Those who lack imagination have no choice but to base their conclusions on the reality they see around them. But on the other hand, those who are imaginative have a tendency to build fortified castles they have designed themselves, and to seal off every window in them.” Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.
RKS Literature: “The Decline of the Japanese Man” (Yukio Mishima)
“In the present day-when places called cafés are springing up everywhere, drawing thousands of idle people with money to spare, when male and female students behave so shockingly in streetcars that it has become necessary to segregate them-men have lost all trace of that fervor that drove their ancestors to accept the most frightening challenges.Continue reading “RKS Literature: “The Decline of the Japanese Man” (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Kiyaoki’s Nasty Letter to Satoko (Yukio Mishima)
“And perhaps you are smiling contemptuously, secure in the knowledge that my lust for paid women will only serve to enhance my esteem for pure ladies like yourself. No, let me disabuse you of any such notion. Since that night (enlightenment being exactly what it says) I have broken through all these standards into territoryContinue reading “RKS Literature: Kiyaoki’s Nasty Letter to Satoko (Yukio Mishima)”
RKS Literature: Marriage and a Noble Japanese Family on the Decline (Yukio Mishima)
“I wonder what’s the matter with her? Or did they think he was too much beneath her? No matter how noble a family the Ayakuras once were, their present fortunes hardly allow them to turn down a young man like that, with a bright future ahead of him with the Ministry of the Interior. TheyContinue reading “RKS Literature: Marriage and a Noble Japanese Family on the Decline (Yukio Mishima)”
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