6 июня – Lev Trotsky once wrote that nothing comes as a surprise to a man as old age. I verified that statement with my own body and mind as I went sixty a year ago, and be prepared Genya, the old Bolshevik was right!
I met Genya for the first time in 1998 when I together with my good colleagues, who are now on pension, Niels Erik Rosenfeldt and Bent Jensen hosted an international conference on "Mechanisms of Power" in the Soviet Union. Bordiougov presented the paper: "The Transformation of the Policy of Extraordinary Measures into a Permanent System of Government", which was later published together with other papers of excellence by Graeme Gill, Peter Huber, Vladimir Poznyakov, Valdimir Nevezhin, Kathryn Weathersby, Vojtech Mastny, Vladimir Baryshnikov, Irina Pavlova and others by Mcmillan (Mechanisms of Power in the soviet Union, Basingstoke, 2000.)
In spite of our totally different backgrounds , I was raised in the social democratic welfare state of small town Denmark and Genya in a Soviet orphanage, we very quickly became friends, and that friendship has lasted ever since. We meet very rarely, but when it happens we soon find a common language.
In 2007 Genya invited me to publish one of my books at his fine publishing house, and in 2009 the book: Narodnyj Protest v khrushchevskuju epokhu (AIRO, Moskva, 2009) was indeed published. The book brought me into contact with quite a few Russian readers which was very enriching.
My last meeting with Genya took place a couple of years ago in my hometown of Assens. Genya had kindly helped me trace Russian historians, who had been working in provincial archives on Soviet history, and who were later invited to take part in an international conference, that was hosted by the University of Southern Denmark, but took place in the town mentioned. The aim of the conference was to make a status on our knowledge of Stalinism.
Hip, Hip, Hurrah old friend and be brave!
Erik Kulavig
Lecturer, Ph.D. Department of History,
University of Southern Denmark
