Category history

Marx the prophet

Schumpeter was not the first to classify Marx as a (false) prophet of a new world and the founder of a new religion. The Russian religious philosopher (to use a common Russian term) Sergei Bulgakov published an article titled Karl…

Marx the apologist for capitalism

Theodore Dalrymple in an interview: <…> in some ways Mrs Thatcher was a mirror-image Marxist. Everything that Marx abhorred she thought was good, and she thought (or she appeared to think—I’m not sure she gave enough attention to it) that…

The Soviet proles

In case you didn’t know, the word Proletariat was nearly a swearword in Soviet Russia in the 1970s–1980s. The well-off and the educated so labeled the drink-loving, foul-mouthed, good-for-nothing working classes. Well, not exactly good for nothing — when it…

A minor character’s complaint

It looks like Russia’s birth rate is still dwindling, but it is hardly the case in Moscow. And there is immigration – from the Caucasus, China, Ukraine, Vietnam, Africa, etc. Not that I’m worried “we” might lose our identity –…

Zhivago mini

Colby Cosh, watching the new Doctor Zhivago mini, admits, “I have zero familiarity with the book or the legendary film”. Well, I have some familiarity with the book, having read it at the age of 15 or 16 and taken…

The language of K-19

K-19 is being shown on Russian Channel 1 right now. Dubbed. I’ve seen pieces of it before; Harrison Ford adopting a Russian accent and all that. Just fifteen minutes ago or so, I watched Liam Neeson as sub commander being…

Other people’s wars

American bloggers find it easy to talk and make jokes about other countries’ wars. Perhaps it’s because Americans haven’t fought a “tragical” war since a long time ago. By a “tragical” war I mean one fought on one’s own land…

London 2003, Moscow 1990

A million people marching through London. Impressive. Even at the peak of the reform movement in Russia, in the late 1980s, the largest gatherings in Moscow totaled 500,000 [up to a million probably – added in July 2017] people or…

Who saved whom from what?

Drezner on “we saved their cheese-eating asses”. (I stumbled on the link at vpostrel.com.) Here’s my two cents: It’s simply incorrect to say that the US “saved France from Hitler” without mentioning the Allied war effort in general. Suppose an…

Not a scourge of Moscow

As a side note, Ghengis Khan did not invade Kievan Rus (although three Russian princes lost a battle with his generals on the river Kalka); his posterity did, though. As for Moscow, it was a town of limited significance at that…