If both sides reduced their long-range missiles by 50%, SDI would be an unacceptable threat to the remaining Soviet rocket forces.

If both sides reduced their long-range missiles by 50%, SDI would be an unacceptable threat to the remaining Soviet rocket forces.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

Think of the 40 years of confrontation. What is it we gained?…The old style has exposed itself: it is fruitless.

Think of the 40 years of confrontation. What is it we gained?…The old style has exposed itself: it is fruitless.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

If it is necessary we will find a quick answer and it will not be the way the United States expects it. It will be an answer that devalues the ‘Star Wars’ program.

If it is necessary we will find a quick answer and it will not be the way the United States expects it. It will be an answer that devalues the ‘Star Wars’ program.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

We are not pursuing research to develop ABM space systems. There are studies to improve systems of warning against a missile attack, communications and navigation systems and to develop ground-based ABM defences.

We are not pursuing research to develop ABM space systems. There are studies to improve systems of warning against a missile attack, communications and navigation systems and to develop ground-based ABM defences.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

One of the great Russian poets and a national heroine, Anna Akhmatova (née Gorenko) is not venerated outside Russia as a major poetic voice of the twentieth century. She seemed born to endure the great tragedy in her life and indeed was one of Stalin’s most long-suffering literary victims. Her tremendous will to survive, in her self-appointed role as witness of the Great Terror, testifies to huge inner reserves of moral strength that sustained her through years of extreme poverty and isolation, to ultimately become a latter-day nemesis of the dark days of Stalinism. … Her individualism survived the early days of foment in Soviet literature, when literary experimentation was for a short while tolerated, but her work was soon looked upon as insufficiently socialist in its concerns and was suppressed as “bourgeois” after the publication of her collection Anno Domini MCMXXI in 1922. It was the appearance of this work that prompted the eminent Soviet literary critic Boris Eichenbaum to famously deride Akhmatova as “half nun, half harlot” (an epithet later reprised by Andrey Zhdanov in the campaign against Akhmatova in the 1940s).

One of the great Russian poets and a national heroine, Anna Akhmatova (née Gorenko) is not venerated outside Russia as a major poetic voice of the twentieth century. She seemed born to endure the great tragedy in her life and indeed was one of Stalin’s most long-suffering literary victims. Her tremendous will to survive, in […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

Akhmatova was neither a woman poet in the narrow militant feminist sense in which the term is understood today, nor just a poet of Russia alone…. Her poetic involvements went beyond the domesticated lyricism of conventional feminine poetry and embraced larger questions of political and social inequity. Though essentially a poet of “the keening muse”, as Joseph Brodsky described her, Akhmatova rose above personal sorrows (too numerous to relate here) to create a disciplined yet many-layered work of haunting reverberation. … Akhmatova’s is a “poetry of witness” that defends the individual against all forms of coercion. Such poetry does not go into “holes of oblivion” as Hannah Arendt would put it, but nags our guilt of connivance with tyrants like Hitler or Stalin. It invokes religious symbolism to reinforce the language of extremity and to compensate for the fragmentation of social vision caused by the turmoil of the times. … The poetry of witness draws upon what Akhmatova calls “the invisible ink” of others to strengthen its claims to authenticity, not as a substitute for ones tattered memories but as a reminder that others have gone down the same path as oneself.

Akhmatova was neither a woman poet in the narrow militant feminist sense in which the term is understood today, nor just a poet of Russia alone…. Her poetic involvements went beyond the domesticated lyricism of conventional feminine poetry and embraced larger questions of political and social inequity. Though essentially a poet of “the keening muse”, […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova used poetry to give voice to the struggles and deepest yearnings of the Russian people, for whom she remains the greatest of literary heroines. She has lately come to symbolize for the world even beyond Russia the power of art to survive and transcend the terrors of our century.

Anna Andreevna Akhmatova used poetry to give voice to the struggles and deepest yearnings of the Russian people, for whom she remains the greatest of literary heroines. She has lately come to symbolize for the world even beyond Russia the power of art to survive and transcend the terrors of our century.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

The importance of Akhmatova’s works in the Russian poetic tradition can scarcely be exaggerated. These works also hold a place of honor in the history of artistic engagement of moral responsibility.

The importance of Akhmatova’s works in the Russian poetic tradition can scarcely be exaggerated. These works also hold a place of honor in the history of artistic engagement of moral responsibility.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

The sand as white as old bones, the pine trees strangely red where the sun comes down. I cannot say if it is our love, or the day, that is ending.

The sand as white as old bones, the pine trees strangely red where the sun comes down. I cannot say if it is our love, or the day, that is ending.

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 18, 2020 | Created on June 18, 2020

Each of our lives is a Shakespearean drama raised to the thousandth degree. Mute separations, mute black, bloody events in every family. Invisible mourning worn by mothers and wives. Now the arrested are returning, and two Russias stare each other in the eyes: the ones that put them in prison and the ones who were put in prison. A new epoch has begun. You and I will wait for it together.

Each of our lives is a Shakespearean drama raised to the thousandth degree. Mute separations, mute black, bloody events in every family. Invisible mourning worn by mothers and wives. Now the arrested are returning, and two Russias stare each other in the eyes: the ones that put them in prison and the ones who were […]

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by Suhel Ahmad | Last Updated on June 17, 2020 | Created on June 17, 2020