Showing results by author "Anne Applebaum"

The Gulag - a vast array of Soviet concentration camps that held millions of political and criminal prisoners - was a system of repression and punishment that terrorized the entire society, embodying the worst tendencies of Soviet communism. In this magisterial and acclaimed history, Anne Applebaum offers the first fully documented portrait of the Gulag, from its origins in the Russian Revolution, through its expansion under Stalin, to its collapse in the era of glasnost.

In 1929 Stalin launched his policy of agricultural collectivization - in effect a second Russian Revolution - which forced millions of peasants off their land and onto collective farms. The result was a catastrophic famine, the most lethal in European history. At least five million people died between 1931 and 1933 in the USSR. But instead of sending relief, the Soviet state made use of the catastrophe to rid itself of a political problem.

At the end of World War II, the Soviet Union to its surprise and delight found itself in control of a huge swath of territory in Eastern Europe. Stalin and his secret police set out to convert a dozen radically different countries to Communism, a completely new political and moral system. In Iron Curtain, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anne Applebaum describes how the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe were created and what daily life was like once they were complete.

Even now, gazing back through the jaundiced lens of subsequent experience, Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign speech in Berlin still seems an extraordinary occasion.

For the United States and for Europe, the moment of reckoning has now arrived: The West as we know it is nearing the end of its life. The United States of America has just elected as president a man who not only brags about groping women and swindles his business partners but who also openly dislikes America’s traditional allies—and Europeans most of all.

In the old days, these things were done differently. There were KGB couriers, bags of cash, “Moscow gold,” secret subsidies for far-left printing presses: The Soviet Communist Party was seeking to undermine Western democracy, covertly. But it was all pretty small-scale. The U.S.S.R. was not rolling in wealth, and it was never in a position to make its supporters wealthy. Being men of ideology, they weren’t supposed to want money in any case.

"This Is How Putin Buys Influence in the West" is from the June 20, 2018 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

It’s important to acknowledge when you’ve been wrong, and I’ve probably never been so wrong as I was in an op-ed published on April 13, 2010. At the time, I was stunned by a terrible tragedy: the crash of a plane that had carried the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski.

It is remarkable, in retrospect, how many and varied were the dictatorships of the past century. Murderous regimes — states that killed large numbers of their own citizens for political reasons — arose in every possible type of society. Communist, fascist and tribal ideologies evolved in places whose cultural histories, economic status and religious traditions had nothing in common. Wealthy Germany and impoverished Rwanda. Buddhist Cambodia and Orthodox Russia.

"The Dark History Behind Trump’s Inflammatory Language" is from the June 22, 2018 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

The Northern League started out as a secessionist party, advocating the breakup of Italy and independence for the northern provinces. The Five Star Movement started out as a joke — it was invented by a comedian — and then became a social media operation. Both evolved: The Northern League turned itself into a far-right party, using aggressive language about immigrants, while the Five Star Movement adopted some classic left-wing policies, calling for a universal income and high public spending. Together, they are now set to run the Italian government.

"Watch What Happens in Rome. It Could Be Our Post-Trump Future." is from the May 18, 2018 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

"Britain's Decision to Leave the EU Is a Warning to America" is from the June 24, 2016 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Jenny Hoops.

"Brexit Referendum Transcends the Economy" is from the June 21, 2016 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

It’s not party politics that bother them: These are conservatives, by Swedish standards, and Republican presidents have suited them in the past. Trump’s tweeting and bragging don’t bother them that much either, though they find it unseemly. The real problem is deeper: Sweden’s economic and political model depends on Pax Americana, the set of American-written and American-backed rules that have governed transatlantic commerce and politics for 70 years — and they fear Trump will bring Pax Americana crashing down.

"‘What Happens to Us?’ Why Sweden Is So Worried About the Trump Administration." is from the February 08, 2017 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

The charges range widely, from relatively trivial abuses of privilege to completely unprecedented breaches of ethical laws and norms. The president and his son-in-law may be using American foreign policy to enrich themselves. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has broken rules to fly first-class. Foreign delegations routinely book rooms at Trump’s Washington hotel to please and enrich the president.

"Trump’s Abuses of Power May Not Matter" is from the March 11, 2018 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

Anti-Semitism is back. Not just as a nasty little fringe sentiment, and not just in the Breitbart comment sections. Not just in social media either, although anyone who posts or tweets and has a Jewish-sounding surname (and even many who don’t) has had to get used to the fact that social media is a perfect conduit for language that would once have been too filthy to use.

"In Britain, the specter of anti-Semitism returns" is from the February 09, 2018 Opinions section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

"Putin’s Power Plays" is from the September 29, 2015 Ideas and Controversy section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

"How Russia Could Spark a U.S. Electoral Disaster" is from the September 08, 2016 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

It is a rare opportunity. Seldom does the voting public have the chance to watch their elected politicians confront very specific false promises in real time.

"All the Worst Lies About Brexit Are About to Be Revealed" is from the September 08, 2017 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

KIEV, Ukraine — One of the reasons democracies have responded so ineptly to the flood tide of crass disinformation coming from Russia is that there is no obvious form of counter-strike, no straightforward tit-for-tat response. The Russian president lied about invading Ukraine, for example — the men in uniform crawling all over Crimea were just soldiers on vacation, he said, who might have bought their military equipment in shops. When he awarded medals to those same soldiers a few months later, what would have been an adequate, measured reaction? Blast fake news across the border? Tell lots of crazy Vladimir Putin stories, just to see which ones stick?

"Ukraine’s Government Just Faked a Journalist’s Death. Will It Be Worth the Cost?" is from the May 31, 2018 Opinion section of The Washington Post. It was written by Anne Applebaum and narrated by Sam Scholl.

"Two Ships", by Adam Gopnik; "A Mission Gone Wrong", by Mattathias Schwartz; "The Impossible Body", by Jonah Weiner; and "Home Truths", by David Denby.

"Liberal Agendas", by John Cassidy; "Farm Barge", by Mark Singer; "Street Cop", by Nicholas Lemann; "Anti-Semite and Jew", by Anne Applebaum; and "Back to the Past", by Anthony Lane.