Angelic Visions

Mata Hari: Wife, Mother, Dancer....Was she really a spy?

      Her story easily could be told many times in the 20^th century. We would have recognized the story as it was common, except the part where she became a spy during WWI, was tried and executed by a firing squad. It started out as more ordinary. Something like that happened to my own mother. Young woman gets involved with an older man, is treated poorly because of alcohol, drugs, he could be abusive or behave in a myriad of ways with which she cannot live. She gets married, pregnant, and then is trapped in an unbearable situation.

 Photo one

      As young woman named Gertha Zelle got involved with a man through a lonely-hearts ad in the local paper, my own mother married her second husband through a situation exactly like this. Gretha was 18 years old, and his name was Rudolph “John” MacLeod. He was a Dutch Colonial Army Captain living in Indonesia (Dutch West Indies). MacLeod was 21 years older than his bride and an abusive alcoholic. One of her relatives said, “She passed from the hands of a caddish father to the hands of a caddish husband.” (Wheelwright, 2016) She had a little girl with MacLeod and finally left him.

     She was born Margarethe Geertruida von Zelle on August 7, 1876, in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Gretha would become the most famous female spy of all time known as Mata Hari. She was born to an affluent family but at the age of 13 her father abandoned the family for another woman. They struggled for the next couple of years and her mother died when she was 15 years old. Gertha went to live with her Godfather.

       Gretha was an exotic dark-skinned beauty who drew the attention of men at an early age. This fact was why she was taken out of school where she was training to be a kindergarten teacher. Her godfather removed her because of the flirtations she received at the hands of her headmaster. She then fled to her uncle’s house in the Hague. (Noe, 2015) It was there she started to communicate with John MacLeod.

     She married MacLeod and moved to Indonesia. It was there that Gretha took the name Mata Hari (meaning Sun in the Malay language). She also learned the culture and style of dancing that would make her famous in Europe. She had two children with MacLeod named Jeanne, and Norman. Both children got syphilis (MacLeod was openly promiscuous) Her two-year-old son Norman died due to an accidental overdose of mercury (the only treatment at the time) but Jeanne survived. When Mata Hari finally left MacLeod, she faced the dilemma most women do, how was she going to earn enough money to care for Jeanne?

       Not only did she get syphilis from MacLeod but because of her life with him Mata Hari could speak German, French, Italian, Spanish and Malay. She could also dance. She moved to Paris in 1903 and began her work in the entertainment industry as a horse rider in the circus. She also posed as an artist’s model. It was in the first year after moving to Paris she became an exotic dancer using the skills and style she learned in the Dutch West Indies. She was open with her body and flirtatious which made her extremely popular.

 Photo two

      She reinvented herself as a Javanese princess of priestly Hindu birth and began a long-term relationship with a wealthy industrialist named Emile Etienne Guimet. She debuted her act at the Musee Guimet in 1905 and became an overnight success. She was sought after and photographed often during this period. Her acted included stripping down to her bra, which she never took off due to her self-consciousness around her small breasts. Her act garnered a more respectable imagine for exotic dancers and she found remarkable success around Europe. A French journalist wrote in a Paris newspaper that Mata Hari was "so feline, extremely feminine, majestically tragic, the thousand curves and movements of her body trembling in a thousand rhythms.” (Staff, 2016)

     It was during WWI when Mata Hari became useful as a traveling artist. The Netherlands was neutral which allowed her to cross country borders easily. She began a very intense relationship with a Russian pilot serving in the French military named Captain Vadim Maslov. He was wounded in the war and the only way she was allowed to visit him was to agree to spy for France. (Polmer et al, 1998)

      In 1916 Mata Hari was traveling to Madrid for the French government. Mata Hari promised a German Major Arnold Kalle that she would provide him with information if he introduced her to the crown prince. She never really provided Germany with anything but rumor, and information they could get from the paper. The Germans paid her, so they became angry with her when they realized she had been deceiving them. According to CIA records “French military files, supposedly sealed in 1917 for 100 years, reveal that Mata Hari was not a German spy but a free-lance agent who committed espionage only once-for the French.” (CIA Staff, 2011)

       That one time was in Madrid, the only act of espionage Mata Hari participated in. The French were doing poorly during the war that they blamed her for losing 20-50k soldiers’ lives in the war. The French and Germans set her up as a scapegoat. Her purpose for taking the bait in a sting operation was to care for her blinded Russian pilot boyfriend. She was arrested and went to trial.

      Gertha Zelle attempted to defend herself stating the only connections she had were from dancing across Europe. One of the worst parts of the trial is when her blinded Russian boyfriend refused to testify on her behalf. She was made an example of because of her ‘loose morals’ so Gertha Zelle, Mata Hari was convicted. A firing squad (12 French soldiers) executed her just before dawn on October 15^th, 1917. She was 41 years old. Though she was convicted of espionage during WWI by France and executed, many believed she was innocent. Because of the records obtained by the C.I.A. that is the truth….

1. Noe, Denise, (2015), Mata Hari, the Wayback Machine, crimelibrary.com,
2. "Biography of Mata Hari". The Biography Channel. May 2016.
3. Polmer, Norman & Allen, Thomas the Spy Book, New York: Random House, 1998 p. 357.
4. CIA Staff, (2011), Mata Hari was Framed, Files show, CIA reading room, https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/print/1896393
5. Rennell, Tony, (2007), Mata Hari was interested in only one thing and it wasn’t espionage, Daily Mail, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-474631/Mata-Hari-interested-thing--wasnt-espionage.html
6. Staff, (2019), Mata Hari-Dancer, Lover, Spy, Biographics, You Tube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tu3Cb0nDr8g
7. Wheelwright, Julie, (2016) Mother, Dancer, Wife, Spy: The Real Mata Hari https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/05/the-real-mata-hari-executed-abused-woman

Photo 1-https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/05/the-real-mata-hari-executed-abused-woman

Photo 2- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-474631/Mata-Hari-interested-thing--wasnt-espionage.html

Ukraine: The story of Tanya

 

Photo 1 Kyiv before war

 

I am getting ready to go to work. I have to share this story with you, because I am not sure why it is bad. There was a young woman in Mariupol, Ukraine, she was killed in the fighting. She left an 8 (some sources say 6) year old daughter. The locals don't know her name, they call her Tanya. "In the last minutes of her life she was alone, exhausted, frightened and terribly thirsty. This is just one of the many stories of Mariupol, which has been surviving a blockade for eight days," Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on the city's Telegram channel. (1)

 

I don't know if you are aware but Mariupol has been cut off from food, water, electricity, heat everything by Russian troops. It is the city Russia keeps promising to open a way out for. The first time they shelled as people tried to leave, and then the put land mines there so they couldn't leave. So people are trapped. Today the people are still trapped in Mariupol.....

 The little girl died alone from dehydration, in the winter in Ukraine...If you wonder why I am obsessed it is stories like these. She haunted me with sadness, I am hoping telling her story will help her...She will not be forgotten..

 

In AA we share our stories to help stay sober, but to remind others we are in a common journey through life.... So when you go the gas pump and pay an extra $10 for a fill up, remember the monster who did this to her, and why we are not getting oil and gas from Russia.

 

At least now she is safe and with her mother. I hate war. If you wonder why I don't share other stories from Yemen, Kashmir, Syria...It is only because I don't know them...Also I have an affinity for Ukraine, they are tough...

 

Photo 1 Photo 1  Independence square before the war (Kiev, Ukraine), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOAZMqT-t0o

Photo 2 Mariupol after shelling, https://www.the-sun.com/news/4848575/ukraine-girl-8-dies-dehydration-russia-mariupol/

 

1. Staff, 2022, Mariupol Mayor: Ukrainian Girl dies of thirst under the rubble of her home, Straits Times, https://www.nst.com.my/world/world/2022/03/778171/mariupol-mayor-ukrainian-girl-dies-thirst-under-rubble-home

 

 

 

NST.COM.MY

Mariupol mayor: Ukrainian girl dies of thirst under rubble of home | New Straits Times

DNIPRO: A 6-year-old girl has died from dehydration under the rubble of her destroyed home in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city council said Tuesday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Russia and the Ukraine: Holodomor

     This week on the BBC were clips of the reactions of people to the invasion of the Ukraine. The reactions ranged from random Russian people on the street to Ukrainians that have family members in Russia. The reactions startled me. The reactions of the Russians were from nonbelief that Ukrainians were invaded (some believed they bombed themselves) to supporting Putin and everything in between. Ukrainians felt not believed and often abandoned by family in Russia. It was remarkable how many just believed their government. There is a reason I was shocked, I had always seen the Russian people as strong, hardworking, and disciplined. As I said in a previous blog, I was first introduced to them through the Olympics as a child. They were the U.S.’s biggest competitor, and they were fierce competitors at the time. Because I was young, I equated their strength with independent thinking. Didn’t they have that revolution in 1917 to shake off the tyranny of the Tsar Nicholas?

    What I realized is that they as citizens are docile, passive almost sheep like. I don’t want to label all of Russians, because many thousands are out there protesting fully knowing they will go to jail, a Russian jail. The others almost resemble concentration camp victims…. subdued, passive, defending the leaders on faith or fear alone. Then I started thinking about their last 100 years of rulers, Lenin, Stalin and now Putin. I started to see them differently and I wanted to talk about one of the periods in their history that is an example of this, Holodomor. I personally did not know about this event until the last 10 years. Truth is though I love 20^th Century history, I don’t know that much about Russian history. So, I did some research and remember this is a blog, not a book. Here is what I learned….

      The Holodomor or moryty holodom means simply to ‘kill by starvation.’ It is also known as the ‘Terror Famine’. (1)  During the great depression of the 1930s the Soviet Union was not as affected as the rest of western civilization because it had changed its economy to communism and was more separate. Also, they were not as industrially developed, so they were more isolated.

      Before the Holodomor, in 1928 there was a short of 2 million tons of grain from the farmers. Stalin was rising to power and told the country the farmers (Kulaks) were hoarding the crops. To the farmers he pretended to be on their side while seizing crops and farms. The state then set a goal for 2.5 million tons of grain to meet short fall. In a system that was to help the workers, it took their land, had them work it and sell their crops to the state for very low prices. It turned them into peasants and was considered the second serfdom.

    The Holodomor (starvation) began in 1932 when the harvest came in. The previous year the harvest had yielded 7.2 tons of supplies. In 1932 it yielded only 4.3 tons…significantly less food supplies. and killed millions of Ukrainians. (2) It also affected Moldova and was the larger part of mass starvation in the USSR.

      There was a policy in the integrating communism into the lives of the people of the Soviet Union. Starting in about1928 they introduced collectivism into the farming sector. The Soviet Union had a 5-year plan to blend individually owned farms with the collective state-run farms…The point was to rid the country of individual farms and go to a more state controlled and run farm system. When the grain crop failed in 1932, they did not reach out to other countries for help. They denied there was a problem and any aid they had they gave to the collective farmers. Ukraine seemed to be hardest hit as far as poor crops that year. They were hit with several policies that exacerbated the problems for them.

Policies:

The law of spikelets-It decrees if you steal from a state-owned farm or any property including railways and water facilities, you are an enemy of the state. When people are hungry, they will steal food. When people are poor, they often steal, some people were put to death. (3)

Blacklisting-A blacklisted collective farm, village, or raion (district) had its monetary loans and grain advances called in, stores closed, grain supplies, livestock, and food confiscated as a "penalty", and was cut off from trade. The farm could be confiscated and cordoned off from the rest of society…It was formalized in 1932 as people began starving so “peasants would not just migrate from one area to the other”. The reasons were arbitrary, one village Mazurivka was punished because a Ukrainian general was born there. The Ukraine had many politicians and officials exterminated during and after the revolution. It is relevant today because Russia has invaded Ukraine trying once again to gain control of it, alienating themselves from the rest of the world.

Passport system-USSR purified the cities of people who did not have jobs there or reasons to be there. There were passports for Urban dwellers and 82% of Soviets lived in rural areas. The rural citizens were not issued passports so they could not go into the cities without permission. It was overseen by the collective farms or councils. Some historians feel it sealed the Ukrainian border. When starvation became an issue, the peasants left farms to find work in the cities this system stopped it.     

     There were also standards for the farms. They were given quotas for production which became so unrealistic the farmers could not meet them. At that point the state took over the private farms and they became part of the “Collective farm” system. The state promised the farmers, better equipment and could not deliver as Russia was so far behind on industrializing their manufacturing. At this point they also closed rural churches, so the people lost their land and their churches. Churches have always been a place of respite, spiritual enrichment, and socialization.

      The collectivism of farming, a few seasons of bad harvests resulted in starvation in the countryside in 1932 and 1933. The pressure from the totalitarianism of the government created a severe famine in Russia, a large part being in the Ukraine. If you could not meet unrealistic quota, it was increased 5 times. Farmers that could not meet quotas were exiled to Siberia, and Kazakhstan. Many people died on the way to labor camps. 5 million people were sent to labor camps. (4) It is said that 4 million Ukrainians died in the Holodomor. (5) Stalin confided to Winston Churchill that 10 million people died because of collective farming (6) One source said they were so hungry they would follow anyone who fed them.

     Even after the revolution of 1917 the subsequent government of USSR and now Russia has always been oppressive, manipulative, withholding on information and keeps their people in poor living standards. What was meant to make people owners of their society was replaced by a totalitarian feudal system even after the cold war ended. Again, having the top elite participating in wealth while the masses struggle to make ends meet.  A system that Europe and much of the civilized world has left behind. The Russian people are kept from information and repressed in social ways also. Where most of the world recognizes individual rights, LGBTQ, and color, Russia lags far behind in even tolerance. As the Ukraine fights for independence in a very democratic way, Russian people are being lied to and manipulated once again by a tyrannical leader. Their access to the outside world by internet blocked. Hard to accept in a world where information is at the touch of a computer mouse.

Photo 1 https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/686951/view/collective-farm-propaganda-ussr-1933

1. Andriewsky, Olga (2015-01-23). "Towards a Decentered History: The Study of the Holodomor and Ukrainian Historiography". East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies.
2. Davies, Robert W.; Wheatcroft, Stephen G. (2010). The Years of Hunger: Soviet Agriculture 1931–1933. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.
3. Iordachi, Constantin; Bauerkämper, Arnd (2014). Collectivization of Agriculture in Communist Eastern Europe: Comparison and Entanglements. Budapest, New York: Central European University Press. 
4. Fainsod, Merle (1970). How Russia is Ruled (revised ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
5. Courtois, S. (1997). The Black Book of Communism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. p. 159
6. Ibid Fainsod
7. Ruark, Michael, (2021), The Holodomor- To Kill by Starvation, Michael Ruark blog, https://michaelruark.blog/2021/05/06/the-holodomor/

The Invasion of the Ukraine

     We are witnessing a catastrophic war take place between Russia and Ukraine or really an invasion and genocide as I see it. Russia is invading Ukraine. Watching footage of the Russian people react, I was stunned. The videos were on Twitter done by the BBC news agency. The people appeared disconnected, vague, Putin supporting, even after seeing photographs brought out by the journalist. Even though both sides have relatives on the other side of Ukraine, Russian border.

      I grew up watching the Olympics as a child. The U.S.’s biggest competitor was Russia. I was impressed with their discipline and skill. I grew to respect the Russian people as I fell in love with ballet dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov. It was still the cold war; I was educated in the United States and knew they were our enemy. The Russian people seemed strong, until this week. After watching the news feeds and their reaction I realized I had completely misjudged their strength. Then I remembered their history.

       This is a nation that for 100 years has had horrible leadership. They are constantly brainwashed and controlled to the point they are docile, passive sheep. Their latest leader is in the same vein, a cruel despot that is now declaring martial law (this week), and feeding them disinformation, and massive lies about the invasion of Ukraine. The media calls it a war and I am stuck with that label. It is really an invasion of Ukraine and the genocide of people who were just living their lives.

      Putin tells his nation he is eradicating Nazis and the Ukrainians are so happy, they bring flowers to the troops. There are no Nazi’s their leader Zelensky is Jewish. He says they are building nuclear weapons, or biowarfare in Ukraine. There are no nuclear weapons, and no biowarfare. The Russian troops surrender en masse, crying for their mothers. There are Russian tanks and vehicles burning and abandoned by their soldiers across Ukraine. Putin captured a T.V. tower in a city called Keshon and will make videos to show his people the Ukrainians are happy there are there using the soldiers and people from Crimea. He annexed Crimea in 2014. All information are lies to cover his miscalculation of bringing Ukraine back into the USSR family. All this because he wants to get the band back together.

      Ukraine did not want to come back. Since the cold war ended, they have been their own sovereign nation. They wanted to remain free, so they fought back. Their president is Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who at one point in his life was an actor and a comedian refused to leave his nation and has been staying at his post in Kyiv. He has become a symbol of what a true leader and hero really is, in times of peril he is with his people still leading them. The Russian tanks and vehicles invading Ukraine in long caravans all have a white Z painted on the side for Zelenskyy. He has had 3 attempts on his life so far, and is still alive on March 4, 2022, still leading his nation. He has turned the Ukrainian people into warriors with rifles, guns, and Molotov cocktails to defend their land. People are seen shooting out their windows at the passing tanks and vehicles. Many Russian tanks and vehicles are on the side of the road or in the road, burned out by the Ukrainians...These people are defending their country with their bare hands. In fact a group of them just yesterday from the town of Zaporizhzhia formed a human shield around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. To protect it from the Russian army. It has been since seized by the Russians but not before setting it on fire with shelling. As the fire department went to put out the catastrophe of a fire, they were shot at by Russian soldiers….

      People are still living in Kyiv, though 1.2 million Ukrainians have fled to Poland for refuge. Poland citizens have taken them into their homes with their pets. There are many who stayed in East Ukraine. One woman revealed to her Twitter followers, her mother and father were elderly, and they had cats. She did not feel with all of that they could make it to the western border in the winter. They finally left the city, and that is all I know and will reveal. Many tweet to people like me who answer them. It is watching the war in real time while its victims tweet things, “I am scared” or “I hear the bombs.”  Some do not leave because their husbands are fighting, and they refuse to go without them. Every citizen who is able is taught to shoot, including elderly women. Disabled people make Molotov cocktails, everyone who can helps. I check each day for the ones I keep an eye out for. Since they are hours ahead of my Phoenix time, the world is different for them each time I wake up.

      Today is the 10^th day, there are rumors that Putin will continue to rachet up the strategy. Some say he will trap troops in the cities, starving them until they surrender. Putin bombs out the cities each day, Kherson in the south, where he captured the T.V. tower to send out his videos to Russia…Then there is Mariupol which is occupied with “Russian backed Separatists and the Russian Crimean Peninsula (annexed in 2014). There is fear the troops could encircle the city and take control of the Sea of Azov and industrial infrastructure.” (1)

  Photo 1  Zaporizhzhia

Photo 2 Power plant

The city of is Zaporizhzhia is where they took control of the power plant, after encountering a human shield protecting the nuclear facility. Kharkiv has suffered a massive amount of bombardment. Kyiv has also taken a massive amount of bombardment, but Zelenskyy is still the president and is still there. Chernihiv has taken heavy airstrikes in residential neighborhoods where 47 people have been killed today.

Photo 3 Chernihiv

Since February 24, 2022, 28 Ukrainian children have died, more than 60 wounded. The total Ukrainian deaths in 10 days, 5710. The total Russian deaths 9166. In an emergency meeting the United Nations voted to have Putin remove his troops from Ukraine. It was approved by the members in an unprecedented majority 141 yes to 5 no. As of March 4^th, Putin is still bombing and shelling Ukraine and has control of the nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia. This act of war was so powerful Switzerland (a neutral country since before WWII) placed sanctions against Russia, along with Sweden a more neutral nation. In 80 years, Switzerland has remained a neutral nation. Sanctions have been placed against Putin by most European nations, including a closed off-air space around Ukraine.

Ukraine has a problem, in that it is not a member of NATO, so is not entitled to closing its air space, though many are calling for exactly that. Today the 11^th day of the war, NATO released a statement saying they would not close Ukrainian air space…Which still permits Russia aircraft to shell the cities of Ukraine. Good news is the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia has be retaken by Ukraine…I am going to end this blog tonight because I want to start writing more day-to-day occurrences in this invasion on Ukraine. Also, the next blog I want to talk about Holodomor. As I have learned more about Russian citizens, there are more topics to talk about.

Photo 1 https://twitter.com/NewVoiceUkraine/status/1499048635216007170/photo/1

Photo 2 https://www.eastcountymagazine.org/russian-shelling-sets-fire-europes-largest-nuclear-power-plant-ukraine

Photo 2 https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/death-toll-russian-air-strikes-chernihiv-city-rises-47-local-authorities-say-2022-03-04/

 

1. Staff, (2022), Maps: Tracking the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/world/europe/ukraine-maps.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
2. Cooper, Helene and Schmitt, Eric, (2022), As Russia Pounds Ukraine, NATO Countries Rush In Javelins and Stingers, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/us/politics/russia-ukraine-weapons.html
3. Kossov, Igor, (2022), Russia attacks, captures Europe's largest nuclear power plant in Ukraine, Kyiv Independent, https://kyivindependent.com/national/russia-captures-europes-largest-nuclear-power-plant-in-ukraine/, 
4. Cooper, Helene and Schmitt, Eric, (2022), As Russia pounds Ukraine, NATO countries rush in Javelins and Stingers, New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/04/us/politics/russia-ukraine-weapons.html