ESCAPING THE HOTEL USSR

[onjig]

 

Despite the abundance of internet memes ridiculing New York Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s questionable grasp of economics, the self-proclaimed Democratic Socialist’s rising star confirms what disturbing recent polls are showing: that socialism has a burgeoning appeal for millennial Americans. As historian Bruce Thorntonhas written for FrontPage Mag, trying to reason young people out of supporting socialist policies is likely a doomed strategy, so how can they be made to see the light about what many call “the gateway drug to communism”? The most effective way may be through the compelling personal experiences of those who have escaped its confinement, and there is arguably no better current record of that than Oleg Atbashian’s just-published memoir titled Hotel USSR.

A writer and graphic artist from Ukraine, disillusioned Soviet propagandist Atbashian emigrated to the United States in 1994 and created the hilarious The People’s Cube, a Communist-themed satirical website that brilliantly captures the tone and perspective of the totalitarian left. Rush Limbaugh has accurately called it “a Stalinist version of The Onion.” Atbashian is also the author of Shakedown Socialism, an illustrated study of why that economic system cannot work. David Horowitz has said of it, “I hope everyone reads this book.”

Hotel USSR, Atbashian’s second book, is the riveting, darkly comic, and poignant story of his coming of age in a totalitarian state, a real-life “Hotel California” (in homage to The Eagles song) that one could never leave – at least until it collapsed. The book follows his tragicomic adventures from childhood through his stages as a worker in Siberian oil fields, an army conscript, an inmate at a forensic psychiatry facility, a visual propaganda artist, a Soviet dissident, and finally an immigrant to America. It is illustrated with many examples of Atbashian’s own colorful, perceptive artwork which includes portraits of himself, loved ones and strangers, and landscapes both real and fantastical – all of which help immerse the reader in the artist’s own perspective of his world.

Read more:https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272148/escaping-hotel-ussr-mark-tapson

[onjig]

“People have often asked me what growing up in the USSR felt like,” Atbashian writes. “This book is my answer... Rather than debating Marxism directly, I demonstrate how it fails in practice and what absurdities ensue when the entire state lives in denial of its failures, forcing people not to trust their own eyes.”

Like other children under communism, the young Atbashian was propagandized about the glorious promises of abundance and freedom to be found in a collectivist paradise. He dreamed of a future as an artist, but his ambitions quickly met with resistance because art supplies, and art itself, were reserved for state-approved artists and restricted to propaganda. “I thought I could beat the system and continued to paint,” he writes. “My youthful enthusiasm lasted for several years, until I realized that I’d been beating my head against an impenetrable wall made of regulations that governed our existence within the state.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/272148/escaping-hotel-ussr-mark-tapson

Edited February 9, 2019 by onjig

[Yervant1]

It's been a while now that the education system in North America is indoctrinating and brainwashing the millennials into believing that socialism is the best thing that happened since the slice of bread. Only people who witnessed life in socialist countries understand it, whereas for the millennials it's a dream of utopia. I think I said enough!!!!!!!

[onjig]

Exactly ~ there is an Orthodox Christian site ~ or one claims to be ~ the site is moderated heavily by those who want to remake the Church to reflect the liberal homo socialist agenda ~ and police the forum in favor of enemies of the Church and American (western) form of government ```

 

 

Remember that fat Soviet that said: "We will marry you"

Edited February 9, 2019 by onjig