Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Lest we forget, this is what things were like

Back when I was in high school in the late 1970s, I purchased a copy of the international best-selling book "Gnomes."

This was written by Wil Huygen and beautifully illustrated by the incomparable artist Rien Poortvliet. The book is charming through and through.

I've kept this book all these years, but hadn't re-read it in quite a while. Recently I went through it again and was just as charmed as when I was a teen.

But one thing in particular caught my eye. Toward the back of the book, Huygen relates some legends about how gnomes helped various people at various times.

Here is the introduction to Legend #4:

"In Kharkov, people enjoy telling this story. Just outside their own lived a certain Tatjana Kirillovna Roeslanova. She was seventy years old but still had a pretty, straight nose and shining white hair which she parted in the middle. She had been exiled from Moscow by the secret police; her husband was dead and she was without resources. Nobody was allowed to employ her, so to make a livelihood she bought a cow with money from secret friends.

Then she did something that Soviet authorities prefer not to see, but tolerate through necessity. She supplied ten houses on the outskirts of the town with milk – they would, otherwise, have had to travel so far for their milk that it would no longer be fresh when they returned. Tatjana lived in a shack in the middle of a small vegetable garden and spent the days grazing her cow along the roadside.

There are hundreds of thousands of these one-cow businesses in Russia. The economic consequences of removing them would be so great that the government turns a blind eye. ..."

The text then launches into the story of how gnomes helped Tatjana during a time of particular hardship.

Keep in mind this book was written and illustrated in the late 1970s by a Dutch author and a Dutch artist, long before political correctness existed and wokeness was a factor. It was also long before the Soviet Union broke apart. As such, these European men were able to give their clear and truthful views of the reality of what life was like under communism in the Soviet Union, and how it impacted lowly peasants such as Tatjana.

Lest we forget, the Soviet Union routinely reduced otherwise middle-class citizens into lives of abject poverty for any deviation from the government-approved narrative. They additionally punished anyone who tried to help the displaced. Remember, "She had been exiled from Moscow by the secret police; her husband was dead and she was without resources. Nobody was allowed to employ her." What I infer from this is her husband was killed for his resistance to communism, and Tatjana was additionally crushed by being unemployable thanks to Soviet diktat. This is the reality of what things were like in Soviet Russia.

Interestingly, it seems "Gnomes" is due to be reissued this coming September. I'd like to point out both the author and illustrator are both deceased and therefore have no editorial control over the contents of the book. I wonder how "updated" the contents will be, and whether the legend of Tatjana Kirillovna Roeslanova will remain intact, or will be rewritten to spin communism as benign and positive.

But for now, I salute  Huygen and Poortvliet. They knew what communism was like for the peasants, and made sure this legend reflected that reality. It's a pity the younger generations are being spoon-fed propaganda and not being told the truth about the horrors of communism.

11 comments:

  1. A friend of mine fled his home in what was then Czechoslovakia in the eighties, crossing the mountains on foot at night, guiding two other less capable companions who could have turned him in at any minute. He arrived in a refugee camp in time for a small group of refugees to initiate a fight deliberately, and rob the place blind in the resulting confusion. The estate he came from has been his family home for centuries, and has several well-provisioned bunkers he knows of; he figures there are others he never discovered. "You Americans don't know what war is like," he'll say, and he has centuries of family history involving wars in his own back yard to back his claim. Now he's being persecuted by his rural western town council for alleged building permit violations, and had a hard time getting anyone to listen when he says we're in danger in the US from Communism. I expect we'll all get to learn the hard way.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's incredibly sad to watch this once-great nation being taken to her knees.
      Our only hope is in the Lord Jesus.

      Delete
  2. A new edition? Oh dear, prepare for some nonbinary or genderfluid gnomes, then.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the last book in which I would have expected to see something relevant to the war in Ukraine!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Patrice, I remember my Uncle and Aunt having this book when I was a child. I will have to see if they still have it and revisit that story.

    On the bright side, helpful to know the hulderfolk may still be around and on someone's side.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Socialism, communism, fascism all suffer from a fatal flaw and that is they give all power to the state. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. All of these political systems can never succeed simply because of that flaw. We in America (and most of the Western world) are slouching towards socialism (which is merely the step before communism) and this is happening for one reason only and that is our leaders want absolute power.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, one of the reasons is because our leaders want absolute power. The other reason is because most of the people who should be pushing back and holding the line have already caved.

      Delete
    2. I don't know that they've caved. Between false narratives given on the news, and people doing time for things they didn't do, and people not doing time that should be under the jail, who knows. We're in the dark. Sometimes the only weapon anyone has against evil is prayer.

      Delete
  6. For a thorough analysis and description of what we can expect as our country slides further into totalitarian control, read Rod Dreher's book "Live Not By Lies".

    It's a real eye opener!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, highly recommend. Also, "We Will Not Be Silenced" by Erwin Lutzer.

      Delete
  7. Rien Poortfliet also illustrated a book on the life of Christ. It was always one of my favorites. Right now on my coffee table I have his book: Van De Hak Op De Tak( obviously in dutch)

    ReplyDelete