World War II and Occupied France On May 10, 1940, German forces attacked the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. By June 9, the Germans had crossed the Somme River and effectively destroyed any hopes of French retaliation. In an attempt to appease the Germans and end the destruction they caused, Henri Philippe Petain (an eighty-four-year-old Marshal…
Tag: Russia
That in Aleppo Once by Vladimir Nabokov: Literary Devices
Setting Nabokov presents the narrator’s struggles with his wife against the background of the German occupation of France during World War II. Thus, domestic horror is likened to national horror; the bureaucratic problems the narrator has with the “consuls and commissaires” in obtaining the necessary papers to leave France are likened to the marital problems…
That in Aleppo Once by Vladimir Nabokov: Themes
Communication and Miscommunication Nabokov’s France is a place where attempts at communication routinely break down. For example, when the narrator and his wife write to her uncle in New York, they receive no reply. After finding his wife (and the train) gone at Faugeres, the narrator engages in a “nightmare struggle with the telephone” trying…
That in Aleppo Once by Vladimir Nabokov: Characters
Gleb Alexandrovich Gekko An acquaintance of both the narrator and V. who has also emigrated to the United States, Gekko supplies the narrator with V.’s address. Holmes Holmes is the “plain-clothes man” from the Nice police who assists the narrator in the search for his wife. Unlike his namesake, the infallible detective Sherlock Holmes, he…
That in Aleppo Once by Vladimir Nabokov: Summary
Nabokov’s story is written in the form of a letter from an unnamed narrator to V., his Russian expatriate friend living as a novelist in the United States. The narrator begins by telling V. that he has arrived in America. While in New York City, he fortuitously met a mutual friend of theirs (Gleb Alexandrovich…
Against Marx and Engels’ criticism of private ownership
One of the cornerstones of Marxist economic theory is the abolition of private property and in its stead have common communal rights. This is a noble and idealistic idea but one suffering from lack of applicability. It has been proven true on many occasions that people are motivated to work hard when they are offered…
The Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente
Geopolitical equations toward the end of the 19th century were as complex as it was fragile. The two broad groupings were the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. These two distinct groupings came into existence in 1882 and lasted till the First World War. But even among alliance partners, there were conflicts of interest and…
Oil as a determinant of social, political and economic history of the United States from 1981 to the present
American military intervention in world affairs has risen drastically since the end of the Second World War. The period following the Second World War saw America assume the role of a superpower that headed the western coalition in what was then a bipolar world. Since the collapse of Soviet Union in the late 80’s, America…
Op-Ed response to ‘Move Over OPEC – Here We Come’ by Ed Morse
The Op-Ed article titled Move Over, OPEC—Here We Come is compactly written with suitable supporting evidence. The author Ed Morse having had experience in both the government (former State Department Official) and the corporate world (presently holding high office in Citigroup) has the requisite credentials for foraying into the topic in question. And his command…
The portrayal of Communism in Ayn Rand’s We the Living
‘We The Living’ is the first published work of Ayn Rand. The novel deals with Communism and its various drawbacks. Having escaped from Communist Russia into the United States during her late teens, the novel thus represents a first-hand view of her experiences in Russia. In this sense, the novel can be considered part autobiographical…