̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Stalin

How Churchill Waged War

sjr81 — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 09:24:05 +0000

A newly-published book by Churchill Archives Centre Director Allen Packwood illuminates the agonising decisions faced by the Prime Minister during some of the darkest and most uncertain moments of the Second World War.

Imperial War Museum

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Churchill Papers added to UNESCO’s list of the world’s greatest cultural treasures

sjr81 — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 01:00:01 +0000

Held at Cambridge ̽��ֱ��’s Churchill College, the Churchill Papers contain a priceless collection of more than one million documents written by or belonging to the former British Prime Minister, who was born 141 years ago today.

̽��ֱ��Churchill Papers now joins treasures such as the UK’s Magna Carta, France’s Bayeux Tapestry and Iran’s Persian epic poem, the Shahnameh in being added to the Memory of the World Register.

̽��ֱ��Memory of the World Project is an international initiative to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia, neglect, the ravages of time and climatic conditions, and wilful and deliberate destruction. It calls for the preservation of valuable archive, library and private collections all over the world, as well as the reconstitution of dispersed or displaced documentary heritage, and the increased accessibility to and dissemination of these items.

Sir Winston Churchill has become a global icon and his stand against fascism in 1940 is widely seen as a critical moment in 20th century history. ̽��ֱ��archive in Cambridge contains a wealth of unique drafts, letters and papers that are not duplicated elsewhere.

Allen Packwood, Director of the Churchill Archives Centre, said: “ ̽��ֱ��archive of Sir Winston Churchill is unique and irreplaceable. It is the evidence that underpins the story of one of the most remarkable leaders of the modern era, whose stand against fascism in 1940 helped shape the world of today.

“It includes his original annotated notes for his famous international broadcasts and correspondence with the great politicians, military leaders, authors, scientists and thinkers of his age.”

Churchill’s post-1945 papers were passed to Churchill College in 1969 by his widow Clementine Churchill. ̽��ֱ��college built and opened the Churchill Archives Centre in 1973 and Sir Winston’s pre-1945 papers were transferred to the Centre from Oxford’s Bodleian Library in 1974-75.

̽��ֱ��archive allows unrivalled access into the life, times and mind of Churchill; from his early correspondence with his family, right through to letters from the 1950s where he called for a summit with the Soviet Union.

But it is the material related to his stand against Hitler and fascism that represents the heart of the collection. Among the notes and drafts for his many great speeches are his annotated copies of his ‘finest hour’ speech in June 1940.

Packwood said: “ ̽��ֱ��page is covered with his handwritten annotations in red and blue ink. It highlights how much care and attention Churchill put into this speech. He knew how much was riding on this. ̽��ֱ��country was facing a huge national crisis. France had capitulated and Britain was facing the prospect of attack and invasion.

“As you move from first draft to finished speaking notes the speech undergoes a transformation. ̽��ֱ��final note is set out in a blank verse format, set out like the Book of Psalms. It looks like poetry, it brings it to life, it gives him, I think, the rhythm, it enables that great Churchill oratory. Nowhere is that more evident in this speech than in the very final page, that great crescendo.”

All images are reproduced with the permission of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust. Images of the speech and childhood letter are also copyright of the Estate of Winston S Churchill courtesy of Curtis Brown, London.

Other treasures of the archive include his speeches on the rise of Nazism and Munich in 1938, his opposition of communist domination of Eastern Europe in 1946 – including the speech where he coined the term ‘iron curtain’ – and letters where he wrestled with the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb.

̽��ֱ��Churchill Papers also contain material relating to political reform and social change in Britain, British policy in India, the shaping of the Middle East and Europe and the rise of the United States as a global power.

As well as his letters to US Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower, the archive holds letters to Charles De Gaulle, Stalin, six British Prime Ministers, Gandhi, Nehru and writers, painters and actors such as HG Wells, Walter Sickert and Laurence Olivier.

Dr Alice Prochaska, Chair of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust, which owns the papers for the nation, said: “It is a fantastic privilege and a very great pleasure to see the Sir Winston Churchill Archive inscribed at as part of the Memory of the World. This amazing documentary resource brings benefit to scholars, schools and citizens: a legacy to future generations from one of the world’s greatest leaders; and a source of endless fascination and inspiration for students and citizens in every nation.”

Winston Churchill’s vast archive – including his wartime speeches, letters to Stalin and three US Presidents – has been added to UNESCO’s International Memory of the World Register.

̽��ֱ��archive of Sir Winston Churchill is unique and irreplaceable.

Allen Packwood

reproduced with the permission of the Sir Winston Churchill Archive Trust

Sir Winston Churchill, 1945

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Totalitarianism, violence and the silent majority

sjr81 — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 15:07:52 +0000

Her lecture ‘True Believers: Collaboration and Opposition under Totalitarian Regimes’ takes place at the Umney Theatre, Robinson College, tonight at 5pm.

Applebaum won the Pulitzer Prize for her 2004 book Gulag: A History, and is also the author of Between East and West: Across the Borderlands of Europe, and Gulag Voices: An Anthology. Her most recent book is Iron Curtain: ̽��ֱ��Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956.

She said: “ ̽��ֱ��horrifying genius of Soviet communism - as conceived in the 1920s, perfected in the 1930s and then spread by force to Soviet-occupied Europe was the system's ability to get the silent majority in so many countries to play along without much protest.

“A small proportion of people protested and small proportion collaborated. But carefully targeted violence, propaganda and state's monopoly on economic and civic institutions persuaded the rest to go along. These techniques were used to great effect in Eastern Europe after 1945.”

Applebaum, who is currently Philip Roman Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics, a columnist for the Washington Post and Slate, is also a former Editor of ̽��ֱ��Economist, where she provided in-depth coverage of Eastern Europe before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Dr Rachel Polonsky, a lecturer at the Department of Slavonic Studies and organiser of tonight’s event, said: “We are proud to be hosting Anne Applebaum, whose work and life centre on the areas we study in the Department.

“As a historian of the twentieth century, Anne reminds us how intricately interwoven the political destinies and cultures of Russia, Ukraine and Poland have been, and how important it is to study them together. She is one of a series of high-profile lecturers (including the Polish intellectual Adam Michnik and the British historian Norman Davies) whose visits to Cambridge demonstrate the commitment of the ̽��ֱ�� to securing a future for Polish studies within the Slavonic Department, and the hope that this commitment will resonate outward to a wider public, both within and beyond the ̽��ֱ��.”

Head of Slavonic Studies, Dr Emma Widdis, said: “Our research and teaching in Ukrainian, Russian and in future, as we hope, Polish, reflect our sense of the importance of understanding this complex European 'neighbourhood', in which historical legacies remain politically contested. We are all very much looking forward to Anne’s talk this evening.”

Tonight’s talk at Robinson College is part of the CamCREES 2013 public lecture series, which also runs alongside a series of public lectures on Resistance in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Upcoming events in this series include:

'Resistance and Rights' on Thursday 7 March 2013, given by Professor Benjamins Nathans, ̽��ֱ�� of Pennsylvania
How and with what effects was the rhetoric of rights - the lingua franca of liberalism - deployed in an avowedly illiberal society like the Soviet Union? How do activists invoke rights in today's Russia? This lecture will analyse continuities and ruptures in the career of civil and human rights as a mode of resistance from the period of "developed socialism" to the Putin era.

'Resistance and Performance' on Thursday 25 April 2013, given by Dr John Freedman (writer, translator, critic, and scholar of Russian theatre)
Political resistance and social commentary are deeply ingrained in the Russian theatre tradition. Rarely, however, have they been as open and obvious as in recent years. Throughout the Soviet period (and Imperial era) theatre artists "spoke the truth" by way of metaphor and implication. This tended to remain true even after the collapse of the Soviet Union, when artists, who achieved new freedoms, were more intent on creating new kinds of art than on speaking about social ills. But in one of the biggest breaks with tradition in the history of Russian theatre, some writers, directors and actors are currently becoming extremely outspoken in their works. This discussion will focus on current developments, putting them into a historical context.

'Resistance and Gender' on Thursday 2 May 2013, given by Dr Olesya Khomeychuk, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge

̽��ֱ��‘horrifying genius’ of Soviet totalitarianism and its ability to control and quell protest will be examined tonight by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anne Applebaum.

̽��ֱ��horrifying genius of Soviet communism - as conceived in the 1920s, perfected in the 1930s and then spread by force to Soviet-occupied Europe was the system's ability to get the silent majority in so many countries to play along without much protest.

Anne Applebaum

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Russian Poster 38

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