[HN Gopher] My Friend, Stalin's Daughter (2014)
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My Friend, Stalin's Daughter (2014)
Author : samdung
Score : 102 points
Date : 2023-02-25 14:38 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.newyorker.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.newyorker.com)
| ClapperHeid wrote:
| [flagged]
| pabs3 wrote:
| Works without JS/CSS/cookies. Also try the paywall bypass
| plugin.
|
| https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
| blowski wrote:
| HN FAQs:
|
| > It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have
| workarounds.
|
| > In comments, it's ok to ask how to read an article and to
| help other users do so. But please don't post complaints about
| paywalls. Those are off topic. More here.
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178989
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?query=paywalls%20by:dang&dateRange=a...
| LinuxBender wrote:
| Here is an archive of it from 3 years ago. [1] Unsure if it's
| still up to date.
|
| [1] - https://archive.ph/NIArx
| therealdrag0 wrote:
| Writers need paid. Do you prefer paywalls or ads? There doesn't
| seem to be consensus ;)
| avhception wrote:
| If there was a simple "pay 10c to read" button, I'd click
| that. If there was a subscription that I could have that
| would give me ad-free access to all the random news articles
| that get shared with me, I'd buy that (at a reasonable price,
| that is).
|
| But there isn't. Subscribing to 283894 newspapers isn't an
| option. Dear Newspapers, please accept the new reality. The
| days of people subscribing to exactly one newspaper died with
| the paper editions. Stop blaming your failure to offer a
| reasonable product on "Internet freeloaders".
| usrusr wrote:
| Exactly my thoughts, going back to the paper-age pattern of
| reading only that one publication or two that you subscribe
| to isn't a customer experience that feels like money well
| spent now that we have been spoilt by two decades of
| everything available via ads.
|
| We absolutely _should_ find a way of returning to paying
| about as much of our income for news as we did before (and
| not indirectly via ads), but those big fat one-publication
| subscriptions aren 't the way. Even less when they get
| peddled with that "first 3 months only x" lure that's
| essentially a promise that they'll make unsubscribe harder
| than a fitness studio.
|
| What I'd love to see instead isn't a "Spotify for news"
| (with all the power imbalance that would come with that)
| but a "federated subscription" where being a subscriber at
| your "home publication" would give you some form of guest
| access at "cooperating competitors", with a fixed part of
| the fee passed on based on tracked cross-publication usage.
| The organization running the thing would ideally be a non-
| profit cooperative, enforcing uniform rules about what
| exactly would be included in "guest access" (perhaps 24h
| latency + ads?). The biggest issue I see with this would be
| that it would kind of rule out pricing competition, but we
| already see a very limited amount of price variation
| amongst consumer online subscriptions anyways. (for some
| reason they are almost universally just marginally lower or
| higher than "one Netflix", no matter what's offered).
| ClapperHeid wrote:
| >Writers need paid...
|
| The thing is that so little of what you read in various
| online news sources was actually "written" by reporters
| in the classical sense of the man in the beige raincoat
| with a "Press" ticket in his hat-band, frntically
| scribbling shorthand in a notebook, before phoning in his
| story.
|
| The vast, vast majority of news articles concerning
| national and international news are pretty much
| copy/pasted from news agencies like Reuters [0] or AP [1]
|
| [0] https://www.reuters.com/
|
| [1] https://www.ap.org/en/
|
| So, yes, writers deserve to get paid. And, through news
| agency licensing fees, the original writers of such
| articles are. But how much does the person who bascially
| copy/pastes that into another site deserve to get paid?
|
| Ironically, where the stereotype reporter, actually
| writing original content [that I portrayed above] does
| still exist, it tends to be in very local news gathering
| where the likes of a news agency has no interest. For
| example; your local village flower show, or the traffic
| congestion on the high street. And yet those very local
| news outlets are almost exclusively non-paywalled.
| usrusr wrote:
| And those seem to be the ones struggling the hardest with
| ad-funding, at least that's what my sample suggests: full
| of bottom-level outbrain-level shit because their
| "natural" ad market (local stuff) is all gobbled up by
| map platforms (well, usually exactly one map platform)
| and the occasional "still advertises on Facebook". If
| being a subscriber to the local publication would take
| care of transparent microtransaction guest access to most
| of the stuff you find linked I the wide web it would be a
| no-brainer to subscribe.
| therealdrag0 wrote:
| I sympathize with that. Reminds me of Braves "attention
| token" wasn't it trying to solve a similar problem in a
| similar way as you suggest?
| _emacsomancer_ wrote:
| There's a useful Grease-/Fire-/Tamper-/Violent-Monkey
| userscript for HN marking paywalled articles and providing
| alternate sources:
| https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/452024-hacker-news-anti-pa...
| ClapperHeid wrote:
| Thanks. A helpful response, instead of the just pointing out
| that paywalls are allowed!
| ornornor wrote:
| Thanks
| jonstewart wrote:
| A New Yorker subscription is well worth your money. Their own
| app is kind of crappy but you can also get it through the
| Kindle app.
| chasil wrote:
| She was very lonely as her life went on, and longed for her
| homeland.
|
| This much I know about Svetlana, many who bear that name.
| thriftwy wrote:
| I don't believe that family had any kind of homeland.
|
| What king of homeland feeling can you have if you only ever
| live in guarded mansions?
| chasil wrote:
| There was a story about Ayn Rand's sister.
|
| She came to visit in New York, and was bewildered by the vast
| array of toothpaste in a local grocery store.
|
| She was so accustomed to shortages, and expected queues, that
| she could not accept the immediacy and availability of commerce
| in the U.S.
|
| She did not stay long.
| jjtheblunt wrote:
| I'm born in the United States and had a Russian girlfriend
| for a year+ in grad school: same thing, went to modern
| supermarket and she was freaked out with choices overload. I
| understood when she described it, but it was something i had
| tuned out unknowingly since being a little kid.
| rasz wrote:
| There seems to be a common theme to those. When Ceausescu
| visited NY he and his stupid wife (huge scientific fraud
| story on its own, including lot of reputable western
| universities going along with it) were sure Macy was just a
| show stocked specifically for them. I seem to remember him
| reacting by ordering to open a store just for show to western
| dignitaries/press.
|
| https://www.nytimes.com/1970/10/22/archives/ceausescu-
| gets-9...
|
| https://paperpile.com/blog/elena-ceausescu-scientist-fraud/
|
| Similar story with Yeltsin visit to a small local grocery
| mart in Texas in 1989.
| euroderf wrote:
| I've read a longer story that that grocery visit gave
| Yeltsin quite a eureka moment.
| bee_rider wrote:
| He'd been shifting in the direction of liberal reform for
| a while. I'm sure he was happy to (over)emphasize the
| degree to which he was shocked.
|
| Not to cast doubt on his overall goal there, liberal
| economics clearly are pretty dang effective!
| Prbeek wrote:
| People who conquered space but running an economy was where
| they drew the line.
| cm2187 wrote:
| On Stalin, I recommend the HBO movie "Stalin" with a Robert
| Duvall playing a very realistic Stalin. The movie also covers his
| tortuous relationship with his daughter.
|
| https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105462/
| narrator wrote:
| Montefiore's "Young Stalin" which covers his life from birth to
| the revolution is a wild book. I like Montefiore because he has
| a real respect for the maniac genius and energy of the guy.
| What kind of person does it take to overthrow a whole society?
|
| "Court of the Red Tzar" is less fun and more of a portrait of
| him using his enormous capacity to work and execute to
| relentlessly grind out his plans to take over the world in the
| name of Marxism/Leninism and absolutely steamrolling over
| anyone or anything in the most brutal way possible that got in
| his way.
|
| One of the things that people miss about Stalin is that more
| than any leader in the past centuries, he wasn't a puppet for a
| shadowy cabal, or a front man for someone else, he was fully
| totally in charge and running the whole thing totally
| outmaneuvering Trotsky and anyone else who would attempt to
| grab power away from him. He could do this because he had a
| legendary memory for people and their personalities. He was
| able to take over the government by remembering thousands of
| people who he considered loyal to him and placing them in key
| posts throughout the government after he was appointed party
| secretary. There have been very few leaders with that sort of
| raw cognitive capability.
| akomtu wrote:
| Stalin's cognitive ability was dismal. His strength was his
| ability to connect with the infernal side of human nature.
| This made him an adept manipulator, this gave him the unusual
| energy spikes after such "connections" and this gave him a
| depressing aura that bent people's will. The price for such
| abilities is being a "puppet of the shadowy cabal", using
| your metaphor.
| narrator wrote:
| Who controlled him? Absolutely nobody. He had anyone who
| attempted to executed.
|
| He was a maniac for sure, and a total jerk, but a brilliant
| one. In "Court of the Red Tzar" after he achieves all his
| narcissistic glory by winning world war II he starts
| torturing his inner circle making them drink to the point
| of passing out on a regular basis trying to find any flaws
| in their loyalty.
|
| The real hero of that book is Anastas Mikoyan. The guy
| survives Lenin, Stalin and even Khrushchev and Brezhnev
| kept him around. He keeps his dignity, plays a key role in
| defeating fascism and his brother ran a damned good
| aircraft design bureau the whole way through.
| rasz wrote:
| The Death of Stalin (2017) is great, and wont bore younger
| audience.
| cm2187 wrote:
| Agree, but highly unrealistic (and barely covers Stalin).
| IngvarLynn wrote:
| The whole point of the movie is to show that part of soviet
| union that is not covered by historical facts. So most of
| it is a fiction but a very realistic one and intentionally
| so.
| vlabakje90 wrote:
| It's obviously very unrealistic, but I read Robert
| Service's biography about Stalin and it's interesting to
| see how many details in the movie are inspired by real
| events. I recommend the biography by the way, it's
| engrossing.
| cm2187 wrote:
| And also Iannucci managed to make a comedy while
| addressing the horror and brutality of his regime which I
| didn't think was possible (though there was also
| Benigni's Life is Beautiful). It's a comedy with an
| execution every 10 minutes.
|
| The last season of the Revolutions podcast from Mike
| Duncan, mostly focuses on the Lenin era but does cover
| the ruthlessness of Stalin from way before he got even
| close to power, all the way to his accession to power.
| lapama wrote:
| Just asking: is there a possibility that this could be a cold-war
| era PR story? I ask because I feel it is all totally perfect.
| zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
| Her daughter https://nypost.com/2016/03/17/stalin-granddaughter-
| is-an-all...
| the_omegist wrote:
| ...living the American Dream...
| ozim wrote:
| Isn't it point of American dream that anyone can make it?
| hn_version_0023 wrote:
| _That 's why the call it the American Dream. Because you
| have to be asleep to believe it._ -- G. Carlin
| [deleted]
| Kokouane wrote:
| I actually live near that small town of 1600 people she resided
| in. I assure you that most locals do not know she lived here for
| most of her life.
| lapama wrote:
| Another clue that indicates that it all could be just cold War
| PR.
| ido wrote:
| Thanks for linking this article, what an incredible read.
| orgels_revenge wrote:
| [flagged]
| boppo1 wrote:
| Sounds more like he was a typical human dad with affection for
| his daughter. I've seen some pretty dangerous military guys
| behave like goofy golden retrievers in front of their daughters
| during playtime. Because, you know, kids like that.
| adzm wrote:
| That's a pretty ridiculous blanket statement.
| chmod600 wrote:
| What other evidence supports that theory? Are there
| counterexamples?
| orgels_revenge wrote:
| [flagged]
| 10u152 wrote:
| So this is just a pet theory of yours?
| duggan wrote:
| Then perhaps consider keeping your weird sexist fantasies
| to yourself.
| hutzlibu wrote:
| Facts would be enough. There are plenty of dictators and
| there are plenty of stories of them around, from their
| mistresses. So sure in some cases influence definitely
| happened, but nothing to my knowledge support the idea,
| that the evil in the dictators comes all from women.
| trissylegs wrote:
| Theres a podcast on iHeartRadio called Svetlana! Sventlana!
|
| I haven't listened to it yet. But I have heard the Ad too many
| times. (Outside the US podcast ads are mostly for other podcasts)
|
| https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-svetlana-svetlana-107693...
| andrew_mason1 wrote:
| > (Outside the US podcast ads are mostly for other podcasts)
|
| You're not missing out much these days; most ads in the US are
| for other podcasts now, too.
| mathattack wrote:
| Or for Athletic Greens. :-)
| neonate wrote:
| https://archive.ph/NIArx
| bmitc wrote:
| What an incredibly interesting read. I'm gonna have to read more
| about Wright's widow, who seems ... curious. And I'm not sure
| what to take away from this other than what a dynamic and
| complicated life. I can't imagine being married so much and
| abandoning children or a tattle tale sibling causing a partner to
| be sent off to a prison camp. She seems more complicated than her
| own family and never seemed to find a purpose or peace, captured
| by her own idiosyncrasies and the politics of her life which she
| hated so much for people to bring to her attention but what
| herself could not stop thinking about.
|
| I wish the article had pictures, and I found the author a bit
| cold. When he reduced his frequency of writing, because he had
| finished his book and gotten what he needed, this seemed a bit
| distant.
| kranke155 wrote:
| The book about her life is heartbreaking. It's clear she was
| extremely traumatized and also could hardly deal with her
| father's crimes both to the country and to her family. She was
| in a way a victim but also a troubled person. A fascinating
| crazy life.
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(page generated 2023-02-26 23:01 UTC)