Cited by Black Book of Communism Author

After reaching over 100 verified citations of my published works in scholary books and journals I stopped making blog posts on them. But, the other day I found one by somebody so prominent that the citations deserve recognition. Nicolas Werth cites both of my books in his article "Crimes de mass et politiques genocidaires sovietiques" in Barbara Lefebvre and Sophie Ferhadjian, eds., Comprendre les genocides du xxe siecle comprarer-enseigner (Paris: Breal, 2007). Among other accomplishments, Werth wrote the chapter on the Soviet Union in The Black Book of Communism.

Going Home

This morning I purchased a plane ticket to fly back to the US. I will be arriving in Los Angeles at 6:15 pm on Sunday, 21 December 2008. I will be leaving the US to return to Bishkek on Friday, 9 January 2009 at 3:50 pm. If anybody in Southern California or Southern Arizona other than family wants to see me between these times please send me an e-mail.

Book Review Coming Soon

Finally, after a very long delay I have started reading Dr. Ruth Derksen Siemens, ed., Remember Us Letters from Stalin's Gulag (1930-37) Volume One: The Regehr Family. I received the book in the summer, but have not found the time until now to seriously start reading it. The other night I got through the first 158 pages. I will post a proper review of this book when I finish reading the entire thing. But, I will note now that this collection of translated letters from a Mennonite family exiled from Ukraine to a special settlement in the northern Urals in 1931 is extremely powerful. The physical suffering in the special settlement villages due to hunger, disease and inhumane work comes through very clearly in these letters.

New Website on Sudeten Germans

My friend, Dr. Rudolf Pueschel has a new website dedicated to the plight of the Sudeten Germans at the end of World War II.

New Publications Out Now

I have two new book chapters in print now. The first one is “Suffering in a Province of Asia: The Russian-German Diaspora in Kazakhstan,” in Mathias Schulze, James M. Skidmore, David G. John, Grit Liebscher, and Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach, eds., Germanic Diasporic Experiences: Identity, Migration, and Loss (Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008). A description of the book is here. Here is the table of contents. Look under chapter 32. The other publication is “Loss, Retention, and Reacquisition of Social Capital by Special Settlers in the USSR, 1941-1961” in Cynthia Buckley, Blair Ruble, and Erin Trouth Hofmann, eds., Migration, Homeland and Belonging in Eurasia (Washington DC: Woodrow Wilson Center and Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins University Press, 2008). My contribution is chapter seven. The two chapters both deal with Stalin's ethnic cleansing during World War II.

Fall Break in the Dark

We now have Fall Break and I do not have to teach any classes for a week. I am going to use this time to catch up on some other projects. I hope to finish my encyclopedia article in the next couple of days. Right now I have a little over half of it written. Next semester, I am not going to take on so much work.

The power cuts have become regular now. We only have power 16 hours a day. But, it is not the same 16 hours each day. It is also not the same 16 hours everywhere in the city. I noticed the post listing the power schedule for my apartment building this morning. I was on my way to work because there was no power in my building. We have no power on Sunday mornings from 6:00 am until 2:00 pm. One thing that is not readily apparent until you start living without power is that certain things like ground beef become dangerous to eat. So I am going to be avoiding certain foods that spoil rapidly without refrigeration from now on.

Recent Progress

I have now finished the revisions to the book manuscript and one of the journal articles. I now have one journal article and one encyclopedia article to finish writing. My recent writing seems to be focused on the history of the Russian-Germans. While I have written on a number of different nationalities in the past, all four of the pieces listed above deal specifically with the Russian-Germans. Of course, I still have five classes to teach and 45 written assignments to grade this week. Tomorrow, I only have one class to teach so I am going spend most of the day grading papers.

Current Projects

Currently, I have one book manuscript to finish editing, one encyclopedia article to finish writing, and two journal articles to finish. This is in addition to teaching five classes, serving on a university wide committee, and other academic work. Needless to say this leaves little time for blogging right now. I should have some of these projects wrapped up by November. Until then I will not be writing anything too long or serious here.

The CIS is in Town

The Commonwealth of Independent States will be having its annual summit in Bishkek this year. The actual meeting is on the tenth. The president of Russia, Medvedev, has already arrived in town. There are lots of signs, uniformed police and official vehicles appearing out of nowhere. I expect traffic in the center of town will be even worse than when the Shainghai Cooperation Organization held its meeting here in 2007.

I am still alive

Despite the paucity of blogging recently, I am still alive. I just have a lot of work to do. I hope to be able to finish some of it this week.

Genocide

Next semester I will be teaching a course on genocide. The current emphasis on "intent" or even worse "specific intent" in both international law and scholarship on genocide seems to me to be misplaced. Instead, I think the consequences of state policies are far more important. Whether Stalin intended to kill off a portion of the deported nationalities by his actions is really not important. Rather, what is important is the fact that his regime deliberately deported entire nationalities to barren wastelands and as a result large numbers of them perished. The inevitable consequences of this action differed only from shooting or gassing a fifth of the deported peoples in only one real sense. Those that died in the special settlements from exposure, malnutrition, typhus, malaria and other diseases had much more agonizing deaths than direct execution would have entailed. Yet, revisionists like Stephen G. Wheatcroft and others claim that these deaths caused by Stalin were not only not genocide, but not even murder, but merely manslaughter. Of course they would never claim that Jews that died of typhus in ghettos and concentration camps under the Nazis were not victims of genocide, but merely of manslaughter. Because that would be Holocaust denial.

Two for Two

I have now graded two assignments for two different classes. In both classes I have found one case of blatant word for word plagiarism from internet sites. I do not know why students do not think I am serious when I tell them I will fail them if I catch them plagiarizing.

Accordion Player Sighted Again

Today I saw the Russian accordion player again for the first time in many months. I was on my way to pay my electric bill and I saw him across the street from where I last saw him. He did not look as well as he did the last time I saw him. I hope he is not seriously ill. I gave him 10 som and continued on my way.

We have coffee now

The university recently acquired a coffee bar. I purchased a mocha from there on my birthday. It was OK, but at 60 som quite expensive.

Recent Happenings

I am pretty swamped with teaching right now. But, the next couple of weeks will be easier. In my Politics of the Middle East class the other professor will be lecturing during the next two weeks instead of me. In my Politics of Nationalism, Ethnicity and Race course the students will be giving oral reports instead of me lecturing. Unfortunately, this week has been less productive than I hoped due to becoming infected with some sort of flu virus. So I will be using the spare time in the next two weeks to catch up.

The War On Plagiarism Continues

The very first paper I graded this semester contained a massive amount of blatant word for word plagiarism. The entire first page consisted of two long paragraphs copied verbatim from an Internet site without any attribution. I am failing the student for the course and recommending to my department chairman that he be expelled from the program. I hope that this action has a deterrent effect upon other students.

The problem with course reading packets

I am still pretty busy. I still have students registering for classes. By now they have missed the first three weeks of class. Getting extra reading material photocopied for these students is becoming a major hassle. It seems that no matter how many readers I get made there are still students in my classes that did not get one. In the future I am going to only assign journal articles available on JSTOR and other databases for which the university has a subscription. I did this for one class this semester and it has saved me a lot of grief.

Buried in Work

Between teaching, writing and other work related projects I have been very busy recently. I should have a slightly lighter load in October when some of the writing and other projects are finished. Until then I do not have a lot of free time.

Classes Taught this Semester

This semester I am teaching five courses. I have listed them below. You should be able to find syllabi for all of them in the archives.

American Society

Democratization

Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism

Political Culture

Politics of the Middle East

Food Prices Increase and the Dollar Drops

Inflation is galloping along here in Bishkek. I have noticed a sharp increase in food prices recently. The price of a Bii Burger has jumped from 55 som to 60 som in the last week. Meanwhile wages remain frozen. To make matters worse the value of the dollar has dropped. It is now hovering permanently below 35 som. When I first came here a little over a year ago it was 38 som to the dollar.