Category: history
-
A Brief Exegesis of Isaiah 14 with 1948 as the Historical Baseline for Israel’s Future
After issuing a warning concerning Babylon’s imminent and permanent destruction, Isaiah looks forward to a future time of blessing for Israel, when Yahwah brings His people out of bondage from under the Babylonian exile. In chapter 14 verse 1 of his prophecy, Isaiah declares, “Yahwah will pity Jacob and will choose Israel again and will…
-
Turkiye Attempts To Influence Azerbaijan’s Relations with Israel, early May, 2025
This post contains two articles concerning the anticipated visit in early May to Baku by Israel’s Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. The first article, written by A. Qafarli, was carried on the internet news site, modern.az, on May 2, 2025, in connection with Netanyahu’s expected arrival on May 7. Although that trip did not materialize –…
-
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Questions A Trump Presidency’s Ability To Overcome “The System”
Dmitri Medvedev, former President of Russia and current Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council, on November 6, 2024, posted a short, succinct message on Telegram, his communication conduit of choice, briefly commenting on expectations under a Trump presidency regarding the situation in Ukraine as well as relations with allies. The language in which he…
-
What Many Westerners Don’t Get About The Gaza War
The Blogs Efraim Inbar Efraim Inbar is president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security (JISS) and head of the program on Strategy, Diplomacy, and National Security at the Shalem Academic Center. This is a re-posting of a post written for the The Blogs of the internet news site, The Times of Israel, by…
-
Putin Portrays SMO as a Spiritual Endeavor in Victory Day Speech, Early May 2024
President of Russia Vladimir Putin, on May 9, 2024, once again used the occasion of the country’s Victory Day celebration as a bully pulpit to denounce the “Western elite” (i.e., the countries of the U.S.-led NATO alliance) for encouraging the former Soviet bloc countries to seek independence, in the wake of which monuments, memorials, and…
-
Conversion of Turkish Peoples Historically to Russian Orthodoxy Serves To Placate Tensions Between Russians and Turks
Russian internet site https://russtrat.ru, which serves as a propaganda organ for the Putin regime, published an article on its ‘analytics’ page addressing the commonly-held misconception that all Turks are Muslims. The Gagauz ethnic Turkic people are cited as a case in point of those who converted to [Russian] Orthodoxy. Also examined are other Turkic peoples…
-
Remembering Victims of National Socialism: 34 New Memorial Stones Laid in Magdeburg
This article was posted on June 8, 2022, to the internet version of the Magdeburg, Germany, newspaper Volkstimme [Translator note: The People’s Voice]. The original German-language article, written by Stefan Harter, describes an event sponsored by the Memorial Stones [Translator note: the word ‘stolperstein’ means literally, ‘stumbling block/stone.’ I have based my translation on the…
-
Putin Uses Victory Day Speech To Laud “Participants” in the Ukraine SMO, 9 May 2023
Russian President, Vladimir Putin, on May 9, 2023, spoke at the military parade in Moscow on Red Square to commemorate the 78th anniversary of the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany on that day in 1945. Using the May 9 celebration as a springboard, Putin in his 10-minute speech brought to the fore the “Special…
-
The Nechayev Affair: The Murder of the Student Ivanov in November 1869
This post is supplemental to my post, Dostoevsky and the [Russian Orthodox] Church, in order to add context and a partial raison d’etre for Dostoevsky’s writing the novel Demons. It is a translation of an article published by A.I. Rakitin in 2014 at ©”Загадочные преступления прошлого” (Mysterious Crimes of the Past). The translation by LOC…
-
Book Review: Russia in Search of Itself by James Billington
An American scholar with a deep interest in Russian culture, particularly as it relates to the country’s Christian heritage as expressed through Russian Orthodoxy, James Billington was perhaps the foremost chronicler of Russia and its history for over 40 years. Billington first appeared on my radar in the mid-1970s while I was studying Russian Language…
The Dragon is Slain 