Tuesday 28 February 2017

Historian Antony Beevor Could Face Russian Jail

LAST week, the historian  Antony Beevor told  Kirsty Young on Desert Island Discs last week that he may face five years in a Russian prison for his account of the rape of millions of German women by Stalin’s armies at the end of World War Two.
His account, which stated that two million German women were raped, could land him behind bars after Russia made it illegal to criticise the Red Army. 
Interviewed on Desert Island Discs, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 today, Sir Beevor said: 'Technically, I am liable to five years’ imprisonment if I go back. 
'The ambassador explained that the (Russian) victory was scared and obviously the appalling accounts of the rapes undermined the sacred element of the victory.' 
The military historian, 70, incurred the wrath of the Russian government by writing in his 2002 book, 'Berlin: The Downfall 1945', about the mass rape committed by Red Army troops in a defeated Germany. 
The historian, who failed A-level English and history at Winchester College, chose Blondie song Union City Blue and Vivaldi’s Concerto in C Major as two of his discs and Fathers And Sons by Ivan Turgenev as his book.

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