65 Years Since the Ethnic Cleansing of the Kalmyks

It has been 65 years since the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet ordered the deportation of the Kalmyks from their homeland to Siberia. I do not have time to write a new post this year, but here are some of my previous posts on the subject.

Back to the Arivacan Homeland

Yesterday, I arrived in Arivaca, Arizona. The weather here is cold and rainy. But, the people are as friendly as ever. At 2:00 pm on Tuesday, 30 December 2008, I will be giving a talk on daily life in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The talk will take place at the Arivaca library.

Arrived in the USA

My first flight out of Bishkek was cancelled. So I ended up being delayed for a day. But, I am in California now.

Catherine's Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans under Soviet Rule

My first book written for a general audience is now in print. The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia has published Catherine's Grandchildren: A Short History of the Russian-Germans under Soviet Rule. I will be donating a copy to the Arivaca Library.

Winning the War on Plagiarism

This semester out of 69 research papers from International and Comparative Politics students I only found one case of plagiarism. In percentage terms this is less than one tenth of what I found last semester. This is most likely because I have been conducting the War Against Plagiarism in International and Comparative Politics for almost a year now. It seems to be having results.

I am now done with the semester

This semester I taught five classes with ninety nine students. I just finished grading the last research papers and calculating final grades. I also finished writing one book manuscript, two journal articles and one encyclopedia article this semester. Now I have a few free weeks before work starts again. Next Sunday I am flying back to the US for a short break.

Fifty Final Research Papers Graded So Far

In the last two days I have graded fifty final research papers. I still have a big stack left to grade. According to my calculations I have forty left to grade. I hope to finish most of them before Monday.

Who exactly reads this blog?

This blog is definitely writer rather than audience driven. But, it would be interesting to know if there are any regular readers out there that I do not know about. So consider this an invitation to post a comment if you are a reader that has never done so before.

Lessons Learned this Semester (fall 2008)

The first lesson is not to teach five courses on top of writing books, journal articles and encyclopedia articles. This is not to mention other types of work. Next semester I am only teaching three courses. Then I will not have to work seventy hours a week.

The second lesson is to not teach any more eight am courses. It is still dark in Bishkek at that time in the morning and there is no lighting on the street at seven am. I have already witnessed one pedestrian killed by a bus during my morning walk to work this academic year. I do not intend to share his fate.

Russian-Germans from Kyrgyzstan in the Labor Army

Russian-German men living east of the Urals before 1941 became subject to service in the labor army as a result of GKO Order No. 1281 ss of 14 February 1942. The Russian-German men inducted into the labor army due to this decree living in Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian republics of the USSR as well as the Bashkir ASSR and Cheliabinsk Oblast found themselves building the South-Ural Railroad. The NKVD moved these forced labor conscripts to Cheliabinsk Station where they began construction. From February through April 1942, the Stalin regime mobilized nearly 40,900 Russian-German men living in the Urals, Central Asia, Siberia, the Soviet Far East and other regions into labor army detachments for railway construction and other physically demanding work.

Source:

A.A. German, "Mobilizovannye sovetskie nemtsy v lageriakh NKVD i na khoziaistvennykh ob'ektakh drugikh narkomatov v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny," in Stranitsy Velikoi Otechestvennoi Voiny (k-60-letiu pobedy): Doklady Akademii Nauk, No. 3, 2008 (15), pp. 171-172.