.
On Documentary Addict site the other night, I watched a doco about Nazino
How did I get through 89 years without ever hearing about Nazino ? Has anyone here heard about Nazino ?
Well, whatever --- we all need to hear about Nazino if only to pay a minute's respect to those who perished there
It occurred in the very early 1930s. Stalin was engineering socialism. 'Intractables' and other flies in the ointment were to be removed
Accordingly, internal passports were issued to those in Moscow and Leningrad, etc.
The equivalent of parking-cops were required to fill quotas. They went out and grabbed anyone. A pregnant woman passing through Moscow, for example, was grabbed at a railway station and shipped off to Nazino
A man who'd nipped out to buy something down the road was grabbed. He hadn't had his passport. Removed to Nazino
Six thousand people of all ages and circumstances were loaded like cattle and transported to Tomsk. From there, they were conveyed in old boats usually used to transport logs. It was standing room only. Some died en route
The officials in Tomsk had been told by Moscow that the people being transported to the sticks were dangerous criminal elements
The Tomsk officials didn't want to unload these wrongly-described and vilified innocents near towns and villages. So they selected an island, now known locally as Cannibal Isle
The island was twice the size of Central Park New York, approx. It was flat and flooded at high tide. There were no buildings, no people -- just millions of mosquitos and biting flies
The victims were unloaded on the island. Moscow had provided no buildings, no shelters at all. No food. No sanitation. No medical. No clothing. Nothing. Just dumped 6000 people approx. on a flat, infested island
As guards, the Tomsk officials had picked up vagrants from Tomsk and given them a uniform and guns
A few tons of flour was unloaded straight onto the muddy shore of the island
The guards gave a handful each of the flour to the victims. No cooking facilities. The victims were starving. They mixed the tiny amount of flour with infected river water. Many died. Others suffered sicknesses
The guards were bullies and shot the victims for sport
There were only a couple of hundred women and thousands of men
The cannibalism began early
Some tried to escape
Years later, Moscow admitted it had failed to provide even the bare basics
A small library is dedicated to the victims
Over the years, thousands more were grabbed from Russian towns and streets and sent to the same place
The few who survived were not allowed to return to their homes and families
At the end of the doco, a man said today, Russians claim they want a return to communism, to the organisation, the order, etc.
' What organisation, what order ? ' he asks. The Nazino tragedy illustrates there was no order or organisation
It's a well made documentary which will leave an impression on most who see it
How thin is the veneer of civilisation ?
Some behaved nobly
Others behaved like savages
Most who learn about Nazino will be forced to wonder where they'd lie on the spectrum under similar circumstances
