Vasili Arkhipov (1926-1998), the man who prevented nuclear war

First posted on October 27, 2012 The decision not to start world war three was not taken in the Kremlin or the White House, but in the sweltering control room of a submarine. The launch of the B-59’s nuclear torpedo required the consent of all three senior officers aboard. Arkhipov was alone in refusing permission.. … Read More Vasili Arkhipov (1926-1998), the man who prevented nuclear war

Book review: Coffee With Hitler by Charles Spicer – polite society v the Nazis

Alexander Larman When Hitler rose to power in the early 1930s, public reaction in Britain was not that of unalloyed horror. Instead, it lay somewhere between disinterest, snobbish, if inaccurate, contempt (“the man’s a house painter!”), and, in some circles, quiet satisfaction that a vigorous reformer had shaken up his country in an apparently effective and… Read More Book review: Coffee With Hitler by Charles Spicer – polite society v the Nazis

Britain’s New Prime Minister Is Still in Thrall to the Empire

By Kojo Koram Mr. Koram is the author of “Uncommon Wealth: Britain and the Aftermath of Empire.” LONDON — “Do we confront this moment with honesty,” asked Rishi Sunak, one of the two candidates running to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister of Britain, “or do we tell ourselves comforting fairy tales?” The answer, from the Conservative… Read More Britain’s New Prime Minister Is Still in Thrall to the Empire

Delhi Police Archive on RSS activity in October-December 1947

The documents contained in the link below are a replica of Delhi Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) files on RSS activity and plans October-December 1947. They are part of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library archive; and listed as (click for access): D P Records 5th Instalment Home-47 File 138 Among other places, the files have been cited… Read More Delhi Police Archive on RSS activity in October-December 1947

Unknown Holocaust photos – found in Attics and Archives – are helping Researchers recover lost Stories and providing a Tool against Denial

By Wolf Gruner, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences The summer of 2022 marked the 80th anniversary of the first Nazi deportation of Jewish families from Germany to Auschwitz. Although the Nazis deported hundreds of thousands of Jewish men and women, for many places where those tragic events happened, no images are known to document… Read More Unknown Holocaust photos – found in Attics and Archives – are helping Researchers recover lost Stories and providing a Tool against Denial

Beginnings and Endings

We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploringWill be to arrive where we started / And to know the place for the first time. T. S. Eliot धोखा है इक फ़रेब है मंज़िल का हर ख़याल, सच पूछिए तो सारा सफ़र वापसी का है – राजेश रेड्डी NB: Sentences, books… Read More Beginnings and Endings

The edge of oblivion

First posted September 6, 2013 The edge of oblivion  – by Dilip Simeon(The Tribune Sept 6, 2013) The primitive mind is, in the fullest meaning of the word, imperishable: Sigmund Freud, 1915 The choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence: Martin Luther King, 1958 Do the tense thoughts of… Read More The edge of oblivion

Simon Leys: The art of interpreting non-existent inscriptions written in invisible ink on a blank page. Book review

History might have been very different if the original leaders of the Chinese Communist Party had not been decimated by Chiang Kai-shek’s White Terror of 1927, or expelled by their own comrades in subsequent party purges. They were civilised and sophisticated urban intellectuals, upholding humanistic values, with cosmopolitan and open minds, attuned to the modern… Read More Simon Leys: The art of interpreting non-existent inscriptions written in invisible ink on a blank page. Book review