Category Politics

Khruschev the buffoon

Just stumbled upon a review of a Khruschev bio. I’ve known most of the stuff all along, but I still couldn’t help laughing at the zebra/cow gig. No wonder the Political Joke became the greatest achievement and the star genre…

History of the Truth

Pravda means (the) Truth. The best name one could come up with for the voice of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. I like those multiple genitives. Initially, though, Pravda was a minor, half-legal opposition…

The Seven in Red Square

Actually, they were more than seven. Ten or twelve or twenty… Four days after the Soviet-led ìnvasion of Czechoslovakia, on August 25, at noon, a small group of people (three women and five men, one of the women with a…

Stalin and John Wayne

Whether or not Stalin ordered John Wayne killed, it is well known that the Great Leader was a big fan of Hollywood movies. As an anecdote goes, he once asked a certain Jewish Soviet composer of popular music whether his…

[Little Odessa]

Vitali Vitaliev on Brighton Beach, or “Little Odessa”. I haven’t been to Brighton Beach myself; as I see it from afar, it is a Soviet neighborhood in New York City that speaks Russian with a slight provincial Jewish accent. Most…

[Russian bureaucracy]

I’m exhausted after being infuriated by a brief encounter with the lowest levels of the Russian bureaucratic centipede. I’d hate to go into detail; in two words, when the lowest-ranking bureaucrats have to violate federal laws because they have been…

[Russian TV news]

A pretty interesting evening news issue on NTV. A Russian scientist who worked with Kelly on a weapons mission in Iraq says his British colleague did not seem a kind of person likely to commit suicide. He is also convinced…

On envying Monica

Governor Ayatskov of Russia’s Saratov oblast’ (region) said this after meeting with President Clinton during his 1998 visit to Russia: What a great guy! I envy Monica. The governor tried to erase and rewind later, but, according to a Russian…

“Banks calls for an inquiry”

Former UK sports minister Banks calls for an inquiry into whether Abramovich is worthy of owning an English Premier League club. I love it. I’d understand if an anti-laundering or anti-corruption unit were involved, but, hey, is it a free…

“Chelsea Set for Takeover”

Chelsea Set for Takeover: a Russian billionaire buys a leading English soccer club. Roman Abramovich, an influential Russian magnate controlling, among others, the oil company Sibneft (and about to become a major shareholder in a combined Yukos/Sibneft group), pays about…

Paging Sancta Hypocrisis

I went to a birthday dinner party at an upscale Moscow restaurant last night. Most guests were rich by Russian standards; some were rich by any measure. A few seats from me, there sat one bearded gentleman in his late…