Memoriam: Soviet Troops Crush Berlin Uprising

Edit: this day in history, from the History Channel, which is usually inaccurate, but it is easier than to translate an article at this point.  After the death of Stalin, there was a brief period of time known as the "thaw" when, typical of oriental despotisms throughout history, the death of the tyrant brought about uprisings of their oppressed subjects throughout their far flung empires. 1953 was an opportunity for many Germans. Down with the Soviets!

[History] The Soviet Union orders an entire armored division of its troops into East Berlin to crush a rebellion by East German workers and antigovernment protesters. The Soviet assault set a precedent for later interventions into Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968.

The riots in East Berlin began among construction workers, who took to the streets on June 16, 1953, to protest an increase in work schedules by the communist government of East Germany. By the next day, the crowd of disgruntled workers and other antigovernment dissidents had grown to between 30,000 and 50,000. Leaders of the protest issued a call for a general strike, the resignation of the communist East German government, and free elections. Soviet forces struck quickly and without warning. Troops, supported by tanks and other armored vehicles, crashed through the crowd of protesters. Some protesters tried to fight back, but most fled before the onslaught. Red Cross officials in West Berlin (where many of the wounded protesters fled) estimated the death toll at between 15 and 20, and the number of wounded at more than 100. The Soviet military commanders declared martial law, and by the evening of June 17, the protests had been shattered and relative calm was restored.

In Washington, President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared that the brutal Soviet action contradicted Russian propaganda that the people of East Germany were happy with their communist government. He noted that the smashing of the protests was "a good lesson on the meaning of communism." America's propaganda outlet in Europe, the Voice of America radio station, claimed, "The workers of East Berlin have already written a glorious page in postwar history. They have once and for all times exposed the fraudulent nature of communist regimes." These criticisms had little effect on the Soviet control of East Germany, which remained a communist stronghold until the government fell in 1989.

Link to History...Link to image German....

Anniversary of the Hungarian Uprising of 1956

Edit: from 23 October until 10 November 1956 the brave Hungarian people stood up to the Soviet Union.

Rome: Letter of Protest Written in 1930 by Priest -- Found by Jesuit at Archive

White Sea. Solovetskie islands ( Solovki ). Golgofa-hill. 
Golgotha and the Crucifixion (Golgotho-Raspyatsky) 
hermitage

Imprisoned priests wrote the Central Committee of the Communist Party in 1930 -- Jesuit found document in the archive of the Papal Oriental Institute.


Rome (kath.net/KAP) A till now unknown document about the persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union during the Second World War was recently discovered in the archive of the Papal Oriental Institute in Rome. The periodical "Pro Oriente" reported this on Saturday, which appeared in an article by "Osservatore Romano" (Friday Edition). The uncovered Russian language document was by a Polish Priest Eugeniusz Senko, who was a researcher from 1917 for years in the Papal Oriental Institute, about the Communist Church persecution.

The document dealt with information resulting from a letter of protest by a Catholic Priest Adolf Filipp to the Central Committee of the Party, dated from 29 June 1930. Filipp was incarcerated with 31 other priests on the island of Anzerskij -- a Solovki Island. How the document came to Rome, may not be reconstructed, it is said.

Before the October Revolution, one of the largest Orthodox monastic cities was located on the Solovki islands. Following the Bolshevik seizure of power it was used for holding, and then established as a work camp for political prisoners, above all, Christians of all confessions. The camp on the Solovki islands formed the foundation of the so-called "Gulag". On the island Anzerskij, on which the Catholic priests were imprisoned, a dungeon was constructed in the consecrated Church of the Trinity.

Adolf Filipp's letter of protest was, according to information by P. Senkos, clearly written by hand originally and then typed on a machine -- the errors in writing the names of the priests incarcerated with Filipp were explained, it said in the broadcast.

The priest described "illegal methods" of the " "Gossudarstwennoje Polititscheskoje Uprawlenije" (GPU), the former Secret Service of the Soviet Union. These were said to have made constant infringements against the codes of the Soviet Constitution regarding freedom of conscience. Filipp stressed that the incarcerated priests, in view of the "enormity of the constitutional infringements" by the GPU could not remain silent any longer, because even such silence could be constituted as a "crime". The priest also described the unbearable conditions in the camp.

He wrote, describing information about the Communist Party promoted campaign of atheism, for example, the mass closing of churches, extreme taxation of churches and their members, as well as the imprisonment and deportation of clergy and their followers and the oppressive activities ascribed to the organizations founded by J.M. Jaroslawksij  or "Societies of Godless Militants".

P Senko published the protest letter in the Italian language which included footnotes, to make the background more clear. Till now it is not known if the letter of protest actual reached the Central Committee and what consequences the letter of complaint against State Atheism and the activities of the GPU had for the author, it read.

Link to kath.net...

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