Reading Communist
Ideology, Law and Crime in bed this morning with my tea (as one does), I
came upon a hilarious misprint. Writing of the 1970-80s in the eastern bloc,
Maria Los says:
“Sex education is practically non-existent in the Soviet Union and extremely limited in Poland where, however, the Catholic Church makes some attempt to convey, through obligatory pre-marital curses, the dignity and humanity of a sexual union.”
But perhaps
one shouldn’t laugh. I was reading last night an article in the journal Russian
Politics and Law (vol 33, 1995, page 69 for those who want to check) an
article by Lora Velikanova entitled: “Women are Being Beaten”. Professor Velikanova starts by
making an observation about the “dignity and humanity” of “sexual unions” in
Russia today which might explain a lot of what puzzles Western Europeans
about this country, for example the high number of Western men who marry
Russian women compared with the very low number of Western women who marry
Russian men.
When reading Prof. Velikanova's figures below, it should be remembered that the total of all murders in Britain
runs at about 800 per year, of which about 150 are wives murdered by their
husbands:
“Not only are they beaten but they are killed, mutilated, and maimed, and not by highway bandits, nor by sex maniacs in dark alleyways—but by husbands. According to Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) family statistics, 14,500 women were killed by their husbands last year, and 54,500 were seriously injured and incapacitated. In mentioning these not insignificant figures one must bear in mind… [that] women who run to the local police station crying, ‘Help, he’s killing me!’ usually get a flippant brush-off: ‘So? If he kills you, come and see us.’”
Perhaps if the
Catholic Church were able to deliver more “obligatory pre-marital curses” to
Russians, brides might be more wary of their grooms, and thus safer.
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