Thank you!
Author: ejrhodes5
Comment on All the Lies We Cannot See: Operation Infektion and HIV/AIDS in the Soviet Union by ejrhodes5
Thanks! You’re right, understanding the fear is really important. People were just so scared when it first started, and with good reason. I imagine I would be terrified if a disease we knew almost nothing about emerged and was so deadly.
Comment on All the Lies We Cannot See: Operation Infektion and HIV/AIDS in the Soviet Union by ejrhodes5
Thanks! You’re right, understanding the fear is really important. People were just so scared when it first started, and with good reason. I imagine I would be terrified if a disease we knew almost nothing about emerged and was so deadly.
Comment on All the Lies We Cannot See: Operation Infektion and HIV/AIDS in the Soviet Union by ejrhodes5
I’m glad you liked it! It must have been interesting to see that transition happen!
Comment on I’m Not Drunk, You’re Drunk! by ejrhodes5
I really like this post! I can’t imagine what would have happened if Gorbachev had tried an even more drastic reform, like complete prohibition of alcohol. That would have made for the historical event of the century.
Comment on The lads of Liubertsy by ejrhodes5
What an interesting post! I’d never heard about this group before reading this. It’s really funny that they liked Sylvester Stallone so much, since he was a such a classic American symbol. Even if you hate America, you’ve gotta love Rocky.
Comment on AIDS and the “high-risk” group. by ejrhodes5
I also wrote about the Soviet response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. I wrote two research papers on HIV/AIDS last semester, one on its history in the U.S., and one on the present epidemic in Russia. It’s really sad that people continue to think of it as a disease that people “deserve,” and that it went ignored by most of America for the first decade of the epidemic. The stigma in Russia today is especially bad, and it’s caused their number of new cases to increase rapidly each year. Why do you think the stigma persists despite the wealth of information that disproves most of people’s concerns?
Comment on All the Lies We Cannot See: Operation Infektion and HIV/AIDS in the Soviet Union by ejrhodes5
Thank you! I was also thinking about the parallels between this disinformation campaign and the ones we hear about today – it seems like Russia is a little more blatant about today than the KGB was back then. Last semester I was researching the HIV/AIDS epidemic in contemporary Russia – it started to get really bad there in the 90s, and the epidemic persists today. A lot of the epidemic in Russia is fueled by drug addiction, and it doesn’t help that they are very close the world’s biggest producer of opium (Afghanistan). The main issue is that there is a really harsh stigma towards those with HIV/AIDS and that the government refuses to acknowledge the epidemic.
Comment on Physical Sports & Politics by ejrhodes5
This was a fascinating post! I didn’t previously know the exact reason the U.S. boycotted the Olympics that year. It’s interesting how many countries called the U.S. out on their hypocrisy. Although I guess it’s important to remember that the U.S. had a different president in 1976 than it did in 1980, so the two administrations may have had different views on the matter.
Comment on Russian Rock’n’Roll, Avoiding Mind Control? by ejrhodes5
Great post, I love seeing what different cultures do with new genres of music. It does make sense that the USSR would want to control rock n roll music, as it inspired counterculture, anti-establishment movements in the fifties and sixties (like the one in the US). I could easily see the Party worrying that a similar movement would spring up in the Soviet Union. The idea that it was a Western tool is definitely a little strange though.
