According to the Polish national anthem, "Poland is not dead whilst we live. What others took by force, with the sword will be taken back." Both Nazi and Soviet occupiers must have taken these words to heart as they set out thoroughly to crush the Polish population between September 1939 and June 1941. In Revolution from Abroad: the Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorusssia, Jan T. Gross (New York University) draws on documents from Polish, German, Israeli, and U.S. archives to show with camera-like precision how ordinary Polish citizens at the grassroots level experienced the Soviet occupation of Poland and the mechanisms Soviet authorities used to induce their participation. U.S. citizens who have never known the horrors of foreign occupation will find this study especially sobering. Polish citizens never knew when a few Soviet soldiers might enter their houses and apartments, live there for several days or weeks, eat their food, and steal their possessions. If they resisted, they faced arrest, torture, and/or execution, often in full view of loved ones. As Soviet soldiers explained to the newly adopted Soviet citizens, "There are three categories of people in the Soviet Union: those who were in jail, those who are in jail, and those who will be in jail." (p. 230). Gross points out that, in sheer numbers, more Polish citizens suffered under Soviet occupation in the first two years of World World II (i.e. before the Nazis' mass annihilation of Jews began) than under German occupation. Whereas the Germans killed approximately 120,000 Poles, the Soviet security police (NKVD) nearly "matched that figure in just two episodes of mass execution" (viz., the mass murder of Polish prisoners of war in the spring of 1940, and the evacuation of prisons in the Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia during June and July 1941). (p. 228). However, despite the Soviets' greater victimization of Polish citizens in terms of loss of life, suffering inflicted by forced resettlement, and material losses through confiscation, Gross argues that, to the Polish and Jewish citizens, the Soviet occupiers seemed less "oppressive." They lacked the "discriminatory contempt" and "Übermensch airs" that the Nazis evinced so imperiously (p. 230). The author explains that perhaps one reason why the Soviet army seemed less oppressive at first is that it claimed to "liberate" Poland. Generally, the population was confused about Soviet intentions, and indeed, "nobody had warned the local community and the authorities that a Bolshevik invasion was possible and what to do in case it occurred" (p. 22). The deceptive slogans of national liberation soothed millions of wishful thinking Polish citizens-Jews, Ukrainians, Belorussians-who "could meet fellow ethnics" in the Red Army or the Soviet administration (p. 230). The stark contrast between soldiers in the Wehrmacht and those in the Red Army - the latter in coats of assorted lengths, with rags wrapped around their shoeless feet -- also made the Soviet occupiers seem less intimidating. Still another reason for the Red Army's cloddish image is the febrile rapaciousness with which the soldiers bought and consumed Polish goods. Expecting to hear discussions of lofty communist ideals, Poles instead saw "in the marketplace how these Soviet people ate eggs, shell and all, horseradish, beets, and other produce. Country women rolled with laughter" (p. 46). In a restaurant "a Red Army soldier might order several courses or a dozen pastries and eat them all on the spot" (p. 46). In comparison to Nazi Germany, then, the Soviet Union struck the Poles as a petty and materialistic "spoiler state."
In addition to these colorful descriptions in the first part of the book, Gross also raises a serious, but long neglected, topic in his final historiographical essay ("A Tangled Web"): Polish-Jewish relations during World War II. Why didn't more Polish citizens try to help the Polish Jews? To be sure, one faced severe penalties-torture and execution, often in front of one's family members. However, ignorance persists among Poles today about the ultimate fate of Polish Jews. Gross cites an opinion poll in which Poles were asked who suffered and died more, the Poles or Jews, during World War II? About 30% thought it was roughly equal. Almost no one realized that nearly all Polish Jews were killed. Gross also explains how anti-Semitism prevailed in Poland during the war and even after (Auschwitz) was revealed in all its horror (p . 248).
Revolution from Abroad thus makes an important contribution to a growing body of literature about the ignorance of the populations in Warsaw Pact countries of their countries' Nazi pasts. The Soviet-imposed myth about "communist heroes of resistance" enabled them for decades to avoid the painful questions faced long ago by other Western countries, West Germany in particular.

The main primary source of this book is a collection of thousands of handwritten statements collected by the Polish government in exile when they interviewed the surviving Polish citizens released after the 1942 "amnesty" of those detained by the Soviets after 1939. By careful research, crosschecking and comparison with other resources Professor Gross has been able to produce a work of exceptional clarity and importance in understanding the workings of Stalinism in particular and totalitarianism in general.

He provides an outline of Soviet occupation policy and methods. The whole process seems to have been well planned out, one phase setting up the conditions to implement the second, which in turn set up the conditions for the third, all this operating within an artificial atmosphere of fear, chaos and confusion. An initial period of lawlessness, promoted by the Soviets in order for a rapid collapse of the old order accompanied by the promoting of ethic hatreds among the four main groups- Poles, Ukrainians, Belorussians and Jews, was followed by rapid consolidation of police powers by those who owed their new won power to Soviet authority alone. In the process of laying out this interesting story, Gross adds many interesting insights.

Discussion of social control, prisons and deportation, NKVD interrogation methods (including use of female interrogators) and much more provides a well rounded sketch of this particularly brutal episode of Polish history. I found his analysis of the "privatization of the public realm", "the spoiler state", "totalitarian language", and Soviet use of family networks to insure discipline and control illuminating.

Actually the only short coming of this very interesting book is that is was published in 1988 just before the end of the Soviet Union and thus produced without the use of the since partially-opened Soviet archives. He only has limited information on the Katyn massacres for instance. While this should not affect his conclusions or insights, it may give more accurate statistics than those quoted. Perhaps a new revised edition is called for. In the meantime, this book should be a welcome addition to any library on Polish history, Soviet history or the history of World War II.

Brief but captivating story with vivid illustrations. After I read the story through once to kindergarten and first grade students, some of them asked me to read it again. The children seemed to really enjoy it.

Cat and Mouse have a wonderful sense of awe and excitement when they encounter their first change of season, when the landscape has turned from green foliage to white snow. Their sense of discovery is evident and the text is wonderful to read aloud. Children will enjoy saying "whoosh" and repeating phrases like "up,up,up" and "down,down,down." After sharing the book, a great follow-up activity is to go and play in the snow of course!

This book provides a basic overview of nonlinear dynamics and chaos. It is well written, and can be understood by people even without advanced chaos theory background. The author uses simple words to illustrate and explain advanced and abstract theory. It is a very good book.

I loved this story.

I can't say too much about this because everything he writes is woven together very nicely in this story. Three friends are torn apart then brought back together. THen more secrets tare them apart!

I cried reading this book. I absolutely loved it! I hope you do too.

--Amy

Doing problems is the best way to study mathematics. The question to most authors is that: How to select problems that are nice to the students. This book did quite well. As I see, the authors gave the exact right pace to offer the students an exicting course, and give the students a thorough understanding.

If you want to master this subject in a month, or even in a shorter time, this book may be the right choice.

I wrote a longer review for the Narewka mailing list I run, if you want to joing send a blank message to narewka-subscribe@j-geek.org.

Finally this Shabbat we received the long awaited Bialystock book (Jewish Bialystok and Surroundings in Eastern Poland, by Tomasz Wisniewksi), I spent one afternoon on Succot reading it.

The book was small only 147 pages and I was able to read half of it in one afternoon. It is well written and provides a good insight into how people must have lived in the region. It also inspired my father and I to want to visit the area, perhaps in the next year.

The 'chapter' on Narewka was brief, about three pages.

This book is both a travel guide and an informative short history of the Jewish experience in and around Bialystok, Poland (near Belarus). I recently journeyed to Bialystok with it as my guidebook. If you are thinking about going on a similar journey, this book is absolutely essential as both a guide (be sure to go on the walking tour of Bialystok) and as background reading. Even if you are not planning a trip, I still recommend this book for its rich collection of old photographs and lucid historical discussions.

Since the Nazis so effectively erased most signs of the Jews in Poland (and the communists erased some of what remained), this book is like a treasure map. Wisniewski identifies every memorial plaque, grave, and building that was once connected to the Jewish community in Bialystok and about 30 smaller communities. Each description is accompanied by a short discussion of the relevant history. Unlike guides that only describe what is visible, in 'Jewish Bialystok,' when there is nothing left (or next to nothing), Wisniewski informs the reader what happened before, during and after WWII. My sole criticism is that the directions are often vague and the maps inadequate. These shortcomings were more than made up by the wealth of information Wisniewski provides about each town and village. The book also includes sources for additional historical and geneological information.

I can trace my roots back to the area but was unfamiliar with much of the local history, so I thoroughly enjoyed the book and will recommend it to others interested in Jewish life before the Holocaust.

Having learned Java in CS1 Algorithms and Programming course, I immediately started to look for C++ books at the end of the year. In fact, I was unable to make decision whether to go for C or C++ and actually confused among dozens of C and C++ books that have different approaches to the topic and have different assumptions about programming experience of the reader. Eventually, this book was the definite choice for me.

The book starts with an example that demonstrates a simple I/O operation just to show the structure and syntax of the language.

Other than that, the topics are generally well organized. From base to the top. Throughout the book, the author explicitly warns the reader about general mistakes, encourages to use portable code and gives several programming idioms and lists all of them at the end of the book.

Pointers are especially described in a long chapter and their common applications are demonstrated. For my part, introduction to this chapter was very valuable as it basically explains the stack and heap-based memory, the concepts that Java programmers are not familiar with.

There are some minor gaps that take the one star. I think there are some listings that need more explanation and some code fragments could have been inserted in a complete program to give sample output in order to make thing more clear, (for example while explaining the conversion from binary to text and text to binary files)

However, it doesn't change the fact that you can learn C quickly with this book. It's definitely not a reference book, but self-sufficient as stated in the introduction. "C for Java programmers" title is really specific and this book really does what it promises. It's the shortest way to learn C if you know Java.

I took that book and had worked on C intensively for 3 weeks disregarding the last chapter about module-based programming, and having taken the basics, moving onto C++ was not difficult.

Most concepts are covered well, and in a logical order. Occasionally, you are told to accept things and understand them later (like the use of pointers in text filehandles.)

Concepts not commonly used (like enumerations and unions) are covered to allow the reader to understand code they may have to read, but key concepts certainly get more page space. Special libraries are not used for things like string I/O - meaning one learns 'pure' ANSI C. In this regard, a far better text when compared to Roberts' "The Art and Science of C".

Idioms are used - the ideas are covered, and 'idioms' (frequently used code patterns) relating to the topic are provided. A complete list of these idioms, as well a common errors and portability guidelines are included in the Appendicies.

Overall, a good book which which to teach oneself C. An okay reference as well, but that's not what it's designed for.

(This review is based on a pre-publication copy used by Dr. Müldner in teaching his first-year C course at Acadia University.)

This is an autobiographical account of a man remembering a garden he created when he was a boy. He heard about an old garden that had existed before at the same place. At the same time his own son is starting his first garden. This way, the book tells about three gardens and renewal.

The illustrations by the author are in muted colors and sometimes contain labels or extra text.

My 4.5yo son and I shared this book for the first time today and both enjoyed it immensely. It is always a joy to find a book featuring a young boy engaged in innocent childhood interests combined with beautiful illustrations and rich language. This is one of those books. My son was instantly drawn to the main character with his affinity for trains and bikes. Gardening is a favorite family activity of ours, so the themes were a perfect match.

I highly recommend this book.

If you are fascinated by the strange characteristics of Chaos theory, this would be a good book to look further and to understand the Chaos by application point of view. Author has presented examples of synchronization of chaos and secure communication which are interseting. The most interesting part of the book is its collection of some fundamental work on the application and understanding of chaos. This book is bit advanced which makes it difficult to understand it first time but by reading some basic books one can really appreciate the ideas presented in the book.