#stalinism — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #stalinism, aggregated by home.social.
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As an impecunious teenager in the UK years ago, I was delighted to pick up this recording of the 5th Symphony of Shostakovitch for 50p at W. H. Smith.
I had already heard and been delighted by the 1st Symphony, so I spent my money on the strength of the composer's name alone.
It's a very different work, of course -- dramatic, bleak at times, but also lyrical and perhaps ironic too. I've never tired of it.
I've listened to some of the other symphonies since then (not the 2nd or 3rd) but come back to the 1st and the 5th as my favourites.
It might not be obvious from the garish album cover that this recording is in fact a reissue of....
#ClassicalMusic #Shostakovitch #5thSymphony #RussianMusic #SovietMusic #20thCenturyMusic #Symphonic #1930s #Stalinism
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Donald Trump and his defense secretary Pete Hegseth are mounting an aggressive push to #politicise the top ranks of the US #military
– a push that smacks of #Stalinism and could take years to repair,
the former infantry chief who trained troops to invade Iraq has warned.Maj Gen Paul #Eaton has sounded the alarm, saying in an interview with the Guardian that the effort to bend the higher echelons of the military to the US president’s will was unparalleled in recent history
and could have long-term dire consequences.He warned that both the reputation and efficiency of the world’s most powerful fighting force was in the balance.
“There is an active effort to ❌politicise the armed forces,” Eaton said.
“Once you infect the body, the cure may be very difficult and painful for presidents downstream.”He added that the actions of Trump and his chosen head of the Pentagon were putting the standing of the military as an independent entity, free from party politics, at risk.
“As the phrase goes, reputation is built a drop at a time and emptied in buckets.”