The Process of Writing

I corrected my proofs for the article this morning. Now I need to mail them. They did a really good job on the proofs. Alot of academic journals create far more errors in the proofs than existed in the original draft. The published articles then end up with still even more errors. But, the editor at Human Rights Review has been very good.

Catherine's Grandchildren is now up to 125 pages. It is going to turn out to be a little bit longer than I originally anticipated. I found some new materials and have been incorporating them. Recently I have been writing about the feeding of Volga Germans by the American Relief Administration in the early 1920s, the fate of Volga German orphans during the same years and the incredible decline in the education level of Russian-Germans relative to other Soviet nationalities between 1926 and 1989. In regards to this last topic the Russian-Germans fell from number two, second only to Jews, to number 18 and below Uzbeks, Tajiks, Chechens, Mordvins, Kalmyks and 12 other nationalities. In Kazakhstan less than 6% of Russian-Germans in 1989 had ever attended post-secondary educational institutes. More so than almost any other nationality in the USSR, the Russian-Germans suffered from severe discrimination in the realm of education from 1941 on.

Speaking of Russian-Germans, not all is bad news. This Friday the German family in Walla Walla will be celebrating the one year anniversary of winning their political asylum appeal. I am very glad to hear that Vladimir, Katya, Pavel and Oksana have had a very good year since that victory. I hope they have many more great years here in the US. I will have a special post dedicated to the German family on Friday.