Ironic username, to say the least. Many of the current of the problems in the Rus can be traced back to stalin and his personality cult.
Rocha, if you don't care what anyone , who isnt
Russian thinks of Russia, why should anyone in the US care what anyone else thinks
of them? Honest question? Particularly in say the Trump thread?
Furthermore, going against the ideals of the west resulted in, shall we say politely, a clusterfuck?
The ideas of patriotism, family, self-determination and entrepreneurship built the USA, into the greatest and most successful experiment in human history.
That was directly attacked and undermined by the opposing ideas of the 'east' (both from soviets and a
certain german experiment) with loyalty to the PARTY, communal-ism, and honestly, classism, whereby everyone was supposedly an equal in the proletariat.
So, not sure where this 'western values' are bad thing comes from that's stuck in everyone's heads.
The idea of the ussr (or the warsaw pact) countries being a paragon of east-Orthodox conservatism and family are a complete fabrication (and a cruel) joke.
Divorce, abortion, widespread graft and alcoholism, outright theft and a cut-throat mentality were common staples of the soviet union. You didn't see it on the outside because it was a very closed and censored society. Plenty of crime happened as well.
Religion was pretty much illegal, shit xmas wasn't legal until what 1992?
All the good things that happened to Russia in the last 25 years are because they embraced more of the
traditional 'liberal western values', such as capitalism, free speech and thought and personal and property rights.
Conversely, the social problems in the west can be traced to the bullshit implanted by the communists. Class, race divisions, PC, the guilt trips how we are so bad while the rest of the world is soooo poor, etc.
How much of a philosophical difference in between obama screeching that $250k is enough far more than enough for anyone and being called a kulak?
Unfortunately, our open and free society is vulnerable to these sorts of outside cancers.
To say that putin made Russia oh so great ignores many many realities.
Gorbachov's perestroka let the place fall apart, but
without an outright civil war. The other Russian civil war was a pretty brutal affair, how do you think this one would have played out, particularly with NBC, which were a central part of the warsaw pact tactical doctrine, btw.
Yeltsin moved Russia towards democracy and freedom. But given what he inherited, can you blame him for being a drunk?
putin yearns for days when anyone cared what they thought. He is a the tsar of Russia, regardless of what anyone thinks. But one who is a lot weaker than its predecessors.
What has he done to grow the economy away from pumping oil
and selling weapons? Vapid bullshit about family values and opposing the western imperialists doesn't put the non-proverbial bread on the table.
The space program there exists mostly because idiots in the US divert money from Nasa towards stupid shit.
His territorial ambitions have generally been disasters. Chechneya was solved by making the son of the local opposition commander a khan. The invasion of Georgia only succeed via overwhelming force, and even then to save a communist redoubt. Ukraine, which btw was given a guarantee of national sovereignty by the USA in exchange for giving up nukes, is still a clusterfuck too. These aren't 1st rate military's they've engaged.
For anyone in Russia, right now, do you still need a roof (
Krysha) to run a business? (I.e pay protection money for those unfamiliar with the term).
list goes on an on.
Icarus, interesting blog. Some of it seems, vaguely familiar and very tragi-comic.
Anyways, TL;dr version.
The West rulez and is awesome and maybe one day the land of the Rus can overcome their deep societal problems from the horrors of communism and become a free, open and dignified society not ruled by ruthless czars but sadly I don't see it happening in my lifetime.
If you have any other questions, kindly ask V. Grossman.